Burn the Sky

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Would Calico have wanted this? Of course not. But he would have loved her regardless. That was just the kind of man he was. Even at her worst, he was in love with her. Even when she yelled, even when she got angry, even when she was horribly depressed. Nothing changed. He was constant. He was love.

"He ain't here. Don't matter much what he would have wanted."

She closed her eyes again as she felt a hand on her back. Something in that gesture almost brought tears to her eyes.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

"Zandra, if he loved you, and you loved him, then you should know what he would want most: your happiness."

She ran her hand over her sisters back, and then she did something she knew her predecessor was likely to never do. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around the other woman in a hug. Zandra didn't have to accept it. It was given anyway. This path that her sister was choosing for herself was not one that she wanted to see continue. She could be so much better.

"You still have reason to live. I still love you. You're my sister, and I need you to be around. I don't want to see you hurt like this. I know I don't show emotion the way that most do, but it does hurt me to see you hurting. I don't want that for you. I want better for you."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The echani laughed. She really laughed. This woman, who'd been absent from her life for- what? Almost twenty years now? Was now trying to tell her that she cared? That was the biggest joke she'd heard... well, ever.

"Please. You don' even know me, sis."

She raised her head again, grabbed the new glass that had been set in front of her and downed it.

"Besides, ain't tryin' ta kill myself. I know I got people to live fer. My son, my daughter, the little grandson I got on the way..."

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

"Why do you think I'm here?"

The whole reason she'd come was to find her sister. There was more to that than just finding the woman she shared most of her DNA with. A lot more. She was trying to atone for tthe mistakes of her originator. That and she genuinely did want to know her family because without them she had nothing.

"I'm her but I'm not her, Zandra. I haven't been alive that long and I have no one and nothing. I thought that at least I could get a sister back."

She withdrew and turned her eyes away down the bar before downing another drink. Selfish. Both of them had been before. Would they still be.

"The spice is going to get you killed someday if you don't quit. I don't care what you say. It's true."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

She put her head down again. All this talking. It was doing nothing for her headache.

"You know.... you're right," she said with a shrug, "You ain't her. Janira. My sister. She wouldn't have thought twice about lettin' me kill myself like this."

Janira, the old her, would have called her an idiot and moved ahead. The old Janira... was clearly not this one.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Kamon Vondiranach]

She didn't comment on what her originator would have done. The woman had lamented not contacting her sister, but she'd still let her sister go over the years. That wasn't good enough as far as she was concerned, but the past couldn't be rewritten. She, however, had the chance to make things right.

"No, I'm not."

But what was she? Who was she? This was all very confusing. She was Janira but she wasn't Janira. Confusing.

"I'm me. I have her DNA. I share most of it with you. And I want to be your sister. I don't want you dead in a gutter on this cesspool of a world."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]