“It tears holes in people in different ways. Holes you can’t fill. That’s not what you’re trying to do. You’re not trying to fill it. You’re trying to help them live with it.”
“Star, you need to grieve.”
“I have.”
Solaris shook her head, the earrings on her ears tinkling as the symbols on them making the soft noise, “You haven’t, Star, you really haven’t.”
Star says nothing; the black of her suit doesn’t sparkle the way it used to, the way it’s supposed to as a representation of the night sky.
“Star-“
The young-seeming woman turns and for the first time since Solaris has been crowned the Solar Monarch walks away without so much as a gesture to the woman she’s sworn to protect and obey until the day the Solar Monarch is laid to rest in the ground.
Solaris watches with sorrow-filled eyes as her oldest friend walks away from her.
“Oh, my dear friend, just because she is lost doesn’t mean that your sister won’t ever be found.”
Star doesn’t hear her, she’s too far away, lost in the grief that she won’t let herself feel.
Breathing In 