Work Text:
The symbol of her mother’s company is a unicorn and a lantern. A mythical creature bravely bearing a solitary flame against the night. Marissa Fittes is a pioneer, a hero, a leader, and she burns brightly. She does not heed the shadows left in her wake - but Margaret does.
Margaret lives on the edges of her mother’s light. She has no Talent, no ambition, and she cannot remember a time when her mother was not disappointed by her. But on the fringes, overlooked, she notices what no one else seems to.
Whispers in the night when her mother should be alone; meetings at their home that are not on the official agenda; documents swept quickly out of her sight stamped with the symbol of a lyre. There is something discordant in her mother’s speech and actions, but there is nothing she can prove.
Margaret grows and finds love and for a time she lives safely ignored. Then Penelope is born.
Her mother’s light enfolds Margaret as her mother dotes on her precocious granddaughter. It is warm and bright enough to make Margaret doubt her own memories, but there is something in her mother’s smile as she watches Penelope that unnerves Margaret. After all, light can blind and flames can consume and destroy.
It is not the surprise that it should be when her mother has her removed from the equation. The surprise is only that it took so long for her mother to notice Margaret watching and listening and subtly shielding Penelope.
There is sorrow as Margaret leaves for the other side, of course, but there is still hope. Her mother’s lantern may illuminate the dark, but the night cannot last forever. Eventually, dawn will break, and the light of the sun will expose all that her mother has done.