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Pyrite wandered into her old room, one last time. It had been a long few years since she last truly lived in the Ice Kingdom, but she came back several weeks prior to gain closure. Her brother, Winter, even came back with her from sanctuary for support, despite everything he’d said and done in the past. In the end, no one was particularly hostile towards her anymore, but that still didn’t make this one last thing any easier. She’d found someone else along the way, someone who cared about her more completely than anyone else ever could and they’d lived together for the past years. Now, there was only one thing left: tie up loose ends.
She reached up to the talisman around her neck as she did most days. Her talons fumbled for a moment before the clasp came undone and the talisman fell into her hands. She looked into the mirror and smiled gently. The IceWing that stood in the reflection was barely recognisable to her anymore. Years of seeing that dragon whenever she had to take the talisman off had worn her thin, but eventually she stopped seeing it as her. She couldn’t pinpoint when exactly, but it did happen.
Carefully, she pried open the locket and pulled out the slip of ancient parchment that had let her get here in the first place. She read over it carefully again, the enchantment written on it having been modified several times by now. There was always some little thing that stuck out in her mind and ate away at her in the early days of wearing it, but nothing was left of that. She was who she was, and who didn’t have little complaints or qualms about themselves? Her serrated claw delicately dipped into the ink pot sitting on the dresser and she took a deep breath.
Minutes felt like hours as she hesitated, but this was all that was left to do. She was ready. A claw pressed against the parchment and edited the enchantment one final time. This moment was so frequently on her mind, but now she was here it was surreal. One question had plagued her mind since this inevitability became apparent: what next? Her mind had been so busy with all the minutiae of getting here and the challenges on the way that she could barely see herself ever getting to this point, but now she could and it was here.
She lifted her claw from the parchment, read over it again and placed it back in the locket one final time. The IceWing in the mirror smiled back and she said a soft goodbye. Placing the talisman around her neck, she felt the all-to-familiar process and looked back at the real her in the mirror. She wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t have to be. No-one knew her as anything else, and her history as anything else now felt like a footnote compared to what lay ahead. Reaching up again, she removed the talisman. A SkyWing still looked back at her in the mirror with a tear rolling down her face. It was finally over. She’d made her peace.
Pyrite wandered out of her old room, one last time. It had been a long few weeks since she arrived, and she finally had her closure. No past could ever define her as she flew free with a sense of freedom for the first time in what felt like forever. Despite all the initial excitement and joy being so much stronger than what she felt now, it couldn’t compare to the feeling of the weight she had lifted off of her. The winds were cold on her, even after her cousin, Queen Snowfall, had given her one of the surviving bracelets from the Gift of Diplomacy. She had someone to return to, someone who waited for her with bated breath and wanted to spend the rest of their days with her. Now, there was only one thing left: answer that burning “what next?” in her mind. But she already had the answer. She was going to live her life.