25 ~ February. Second half

The sun rose on that morning quite normally.

Rose woke up by herself, which was less usual since she had grown accustomed to Isha’s routine. She would knock on the door gently and then come in to open the curtains.

Rose looked around but couldn’t find her. Once set up and dressed, she looked further around, without hearing her.

She then began looking for Blue with a growing concern.

Rose found the weird traces of footsteps on the floor in the corridor parting from the kitchen. They were traces of dirt that she wasn’t used to see at this hour nor place. It grew her concern a little, and she followed that trail to the salon.

There she found them both sleeping as morning rays came in.

That actually was a nice sight and picture in a way. And for Blue to act unpredictably was a common given.

Rose was surprised however to find Isha in the same posture. For the prim girl to act in such fashion was far more surprising. Something unusual probably had occurred for her too. It was rare for Isha to let herself be seen in such ways.

Rose had the rare chance to see both of them asleep at the same time and during morning time. She wished she could have taken a picture, but owned no camera unfortunately.

Blue was clearly deep asleep, and Rose could tell she had a poor night.

Isha wasn’t looking much more dignified. Now that she had fallen asleep on duty, her hair and clothes were ruffled. She was snoring softly a little. Rose could surmise that she had been taken by the mood brought by Blue here.

Rose could see the young woman twitching in her sleep, even muttering a few words. Rose could guess that the dream was flirty. This amused her, and she went to tease Blue right after. Now it was only fair that she made fun of them both.

Rose touched Blue’s face and pinched her cheeks a little. She had found a new game in inducing funny reactions to witness. She was giggling by herself from their misery, not caring anymore about what could have happened that night.

Nothing really bad could have happened anyway. Most likely Blue had had a bad night, played around and eventually fell asleep by the fire here. And Isha left herself being seduced instead of doing her job exceptionally.

Rose kissed Blue’s forehead and rearranged her hair gently. Her beloved Blue was going through a hard time still lately, because of her relation with Esther...

Her forever beloved Blue, at least she was here with her now. Hopefully for ever and ever.

She was the true heir of their family and Rose feeling a little unworthy at times. She was closer to Isha as an adopted child into the family, only she had been at a much younger age.

The document of transmigration had a few things about adopted people, children and even adults. It held no specific message or matter in these folktales apparently.

It was something Rose’s parents and their friends had been valuing though, clearly.

To help unlucky ones already there had at least as much moral value as reproduction, and treating them equally like their own children, it was the greatest gift to life and civilisation.

Rose had been made one of their own, a Herson, while she was still infant.

She had noticed how her parents and afterward their relations valued the principles of family slightly differently than the usual way society did. In a discreet way, they tried to make the world a little of a better place, reaching out for some who didn’t share the same blood or fate as them.

But for them, blood ties had been of less importance than the historical culture maybe?

Rose now wished she had had more chances to discuss the topic with her parents when they were still alive.

How and why had they come to save her...

Rose had not been herself picked up from the county orphanage when it had still been functional.

She had come from elsewhere, which no leftover document or letter had explained.

All she had left now, was Blue, whose skin she pinched gently as she slept. Rosemary was feeling melancholic.

The document held no specific virtue about adoption, but some tales were indeed about daiûas adopting a young human sometimes. Although it was generally to fulfil some nefarious design.

Humans were most often deceived in the conclusions, one way or another. She didn’t recall however any moment were humans were adopting these beings however, thinking back about Blue and her doll.

They could play the part, but they always turned the table on their naïve owners, dominating them instead in the end.

And now that she thought about it, Rose pondered whether it was Blue who had invited Esther around, or something different. Whom had initiated this tale was of little importance on this day, since Esther had already dropped her mask and her goals were clear.

She had loved Blue probably sincerely for a while, and wanted to live more than that.

Now she was unreasonable and refused to understand that winning at all cost was not the only thing to consider. There was a proper way to behave too, even in victory.

Otherwise, despite your eventual glory, new enemies will rise in coalition against you.

Esther could not accept that by working in a way that injured Blue, she had been gradually turning her best allies she would ever have had into her fiercest enemies.

She wasn’t hearing it, and wasn’t backing off either unfortunately. Since she was stuck in that hubris, now peace would never become reachable for them.

Even if she was one of these fearsome daiûas, she behaved like a wild child or a stray dog, lacking restraint and education. That made her dangerous.

Now that she was trying to live at Blue’s expense, she was a dangerous being that needed to be stopped.

Rose had not learnt yet what Blue had painfully experienced on that night.

The dread of being paralysed and prevented from escaping the netherworld. The cold grasp of something that was not truly alive but already with enough power to challenge that, and bring harm to a living being she previously claimed to love.

Rose would learn everything just moments later, but she already was thinking that it was due time to change their course of action.

They had waited long enough for Esther to change her own course of action.
She had not.

This had to end. They would figure out what to do, but no longer to help their lost friend.

Soon after, Blue would wake up and smile to Rose being there.

And soon after, Isha would as well.

Together, they would begin to act in order to free Blue from the passion of Esther.

~

Blue had woken up with a smile, but mostly a fatigue keeping her weak.

With her sister and Isha’s help, she went to eat something before being helped back to her room.

She told them along what had happened this time. Blue told them how Esther had attempted to keep her prisoner down there, and almost succeeded. She somehow almost made it.

Rose was now helping her walk back to her bed, looking stern.

B - I’m sorry... For what Esther did. Sorry for putting myself in such danger, when the most important thing is just there...

Rose didn’t reply but comforted Blue and sat by her bedside until she fell asleep again. Blue’s strength had ran out again. She would sleep for another day, somehow completely exhausted.

This time she would stay in that dreamless slumber, looking as if she was in a coma for a while.

Rose was letting her rest, leaving the room silently.

Her smile had left her and some resolve had grown now. As she was closing the door quietly behind her, she found Isha waiting in the corridor, with a serious look as well.

She needed to talk to her, anxious but decided.

They moved to the dining room, where Isha nervously began to explain herself, clearly uneasy.

She had a story to tell, with some confessions to make.

~

At the turn of the century, a Finnish couple was travelling from the Grand Duchy toward the mainland. It was sometime in 1906. They were part of a group crossing Karelian countryside mostly void of life, on their way to the capitals.

Some of the men died from disease along the way, somewhere in the wilderness.

They were all a little sickly and weak at the time. The travelling group buried mostly men, and carried sickly women trying to survive. Fever and bad dreams were taking them in the area and putting them down.

At least one couple managed to make it. They eventually were found by local Komis, and managed to make their way afterward to Petrograd.

A year later, their daughter was born, with her mother’s bright eyes and shining hair. They were poor and still sick unfortunately.

One year later, just finding work in a good house, they both passed away in Winter.

The child however, was taken by the family living there. They saw she would grow bright, and decided to adopt her, even though they knew too little about her origins and parents.

They lived together for a few more years, the new parents educating her as should be. She learned English, and everything else she would need to head into the occidental partnerships someday.

Because they were already old, the parents knew they wouldn’t have another heir and that their lives wouldn’t last much longer either.

In the beginning of 1917, the city was in great turmoil, and they left for Finland in haste.

From there as civil war pursued them the following year, they left then for Scotland. The countries behind them were transforming in great changes, and they lost everything along the way.

The old couple were terrified and in too much of a haste, ready to abandon everything.

It took them another painful year to reach the shores of Scotland, where the couple passed away.

The little girl was now alone, without much money left nor family, more than two countries away from her roots.

All that was left of her past after the burial was an old letter, and what she had learnt growing up in order to live.

On that letter her foster father had given her along the crossing of the sea, there wasn’t much more but an address, with the name of old friends in the heartland of England.

Some people they probably had trust, to whom they were ready in despair to send their daughter toward, now that times had become too harsh for them.

Isha had been left with an address and a few names. So she desperately clung to that hope, and began marching south toward them.

For over two years, she lived on from working menial tasks where she could, and grabbing what was left by others.

She slowly made her way to that British town.

Following the railroads for days in the countryside sometimes frozen by winter, she reached on an afternoon the town she had remembered the letter had been for.

She asked some people for direction, looking for that particular household. It was late, night was falling and there was some odd tension in the air.

Someone gave her the direction quickly before leaving hastily. She heard of fires starting elsewhere.

The lights of the sky were strangely shaded that evening. She left the road she had to follow and headed toward her destination. The earth was trembling a little below her, and her worries grew in that strange light, prevailing over the night sky.

She followed a forest path, and the thing she reached was a monster looking dark and warm. The dim light she thought she noticed inside, she thought meant people were still awake at this time.

The face of the dying house in front of her was a wider nightmare that had caught her at the time. She didn’t realise and proceeded forward, lured in.

She had knocked and then opened the door to a strong stream of fumes and gaz. She couldn’t think about what she should do when finding herself suddenly caught by the dread.

A stream of air blew little things toward her petrified self, and her hand caught something, while she was stepping back slightly.

Hot fragments were flowing against her to rush outside, and also pushing down the door to the kitchen on her right. Things were falling apart and throwing crumbling elements everywhere.

Isha now recognised how that shape lying on the ground a little further had been someone about to die, and the fright took her away.

She made another step back, letting go of the piece of close that had caught her hand. She looked at it and fearing it was burning her, let it go in a sudden frightened reflex as well.

Something fell along the door on the right, and a strong gust of wind carried everything within.

She thought she saw the person lying dead on the ground raising a hand toward her, and it scared her more than she could withstand now.

Too terrified, she turned around and ran away in panic.

At that point of the story, Rose had a severe look and frown on her face.

Isha was sweating, marking a pause, holding her hands uneasily. She was feeling shame, and her voice less steady managed to continue since Rose wasn’t commenting anything.

For a week or so after, Isha had returned to the house every morning, but no one was there. No one was showing up. Unfortunately she had missed Rose on the first day.

On the following ones, a few people had come to bury the bodies on Rose’s request while she was already gone. Isha had found herself quite hopeless and desperate, but clung to the slight chance that it was not all over, not yet.

She went from farm to farm in the area, to help while the people were going in town to help with the heavier situation. She hardly found a place to settle herself, but managed to stay in the surrounding area for a month, and then another...

She kept orbiting around this place like a lost dog, and finally some hope returned when she heard of the reconstruction site.

Isha had been working as a maid in another house at that time, accepting that her old name would never matter. She needed to conclude things properly with this employer before trying her luck again with the Herson manor.

Isha had also found herself suddenly caught back by her trauma. When she was deciding it was time to go there and explain herself, now she felt her feet and heart turning to lead.

What she had witnessed without being able to react was more severe than her own past and flimsy story.

She had learnt how the masters of the household were gone, so the heirs would likely never have heard of her at all.

With all the parents gone, she was nobody anymore, and she had a guilt clutching onto her.

She couldn’t go to them, now that she was a complete stranger and guilty of something awful furthermore.

Isha had felt awful for a long time, and yet despite her resignation that she couldn’t go, she still clung to that letter her father had meant for another sir. The few scribbled words telling her where to go and whom to seek help from...

The man who had been the best of them all he said. The only other one who according to Isha’s late father, would have been able to welcome someone like her into his family without any second thought.

These people were all gone, no matter how good they had been. The remaining family was in shambles apparently, and they had clearly better things to do than welcoming a girl who had lost all sensible connection with them.

However Isha still wished there was a way to go, for her to find something more, if only to fulfil her father’s last wish for her.

She still wished heartily to go and meet them, only it had turn oddly hard to go. Gathering her courage, going over her guilt, and then eventually going to try fulfilling a modest or immodest dream...

For the months of construction work, she kept an ear and an eye over their whereabouts, but couldn’t manage to decide to go herself there. Her antagonistic thoughts remained that way, until an unexpected opportunity gave her a chance to make a step forward.

For her work, she was following the news and brought newspapers along with other post to her household regularly.

And on that one day of summer, she found the little push that would help her jump. The add saying they were looking for someone to help them around the house.

She ended her contract on a reasonable basis on that day of August, gathering up her courage and cutting the ease that kept her behind. Isha went there.

She would try to meet them without having to bring the old family stories, only through her own merit instead. She would also include in that past to forget what she had witnessed on the fateful day.

Maybe the past could be forgotten, and would never matter any longer. She wished to truly start anew.

But their stories were intertwined in deeper ways than she had expected and hoped for.

And now, against her selfish intuitions, she had decided to do the moral thing and tell everything.

She had lived blissful for years now, with these shades almost forgotten. But it was not done yet. Skeletons improperly buried eventually returned to haunt them.

Rosemary had listen to everything with some visible pain.

She was about to say something when Isha spoke again.

This time, she was bringing out something she was holding in her left hand. Something she put back on the table with an apologetic look on her face once more.

She had been taken short and surprised. She had been to childish and shy to admit to Blue the truth at the time.

What her hand had put on the table was the old piece of ribbon Rose could see.

Old and stained, but nonetheless something she looked at with a mixture of sad surprise.

Isha continued to talk, repeating how sorry she was and how much her mistakes felt awful for her.

Rose wasn’t really listening anymore. Her mind had gone somewhat hollow and blank as she tried to put all these new pieces into the puzzle in her head.

Isha noticed how Rose looked absent after a while, and stopped talking while her lady was thinking.

She left the piece of cloth on the table. They stood there in silence for a minute.

Rose suddenly giggled, startling Isha in her worry.

R - It’s amusing. You were the key all along...

Rose took the ribbon with her, and as she was about to stand up, Isha asked in a pained tone what she should do. She was worried about her incoming fate.

Rose thought about it and went to hug her against all odds. Isha stopped breathing for a moment in surprise.

R - Don’t you try to leave us now. We would pursue you to the end of the world to bring you home with us... Furthermore, I think it’s because of you, that we will now have everything we need, in order to put an end to every bad dream...

~

There was a softer darkness. It was in the last moments of sleep.

Blue was waking up slowly.

She was at home, safe and comfortable. Her skin was on good linen and not cold dust.

By her side, Rose was in a lull, trying to read a book sitting there. Rose’s ever so kind smile made that emotion swell again for Blue. This kind of smile Rose sometimes gave was the truest of things she could ever enjoy. The heart of Rose, and the one thing that expressed most how she loved her.

R - Of course I love you.

B - I said it aloud? Ah...

The mood was peaceful, everything seemingly kind and quiet on a peaceful day.

It reminded Blue for a moment of the time they had slept camping in the house being rebuilt, already some years back. Blue was feeling better and managed to rearrange herself as she stood up.

Rose seemed so relieved she could cry.

B - Why are you... Rose, did something happen?

Rose was leaning on her chair, holding her hands closed on something. She seemed to think deeply about something, or to pretend that she was hesitating over something.

R - It’s about... truth. And faith. Say, Blue, do you love me?

B - Of course I love you.

R - Then, do you trust me?

B - Absolutely.

Rose seemed to think about something distant again, gazing for a moment at the nice weather outside.

R - Do you remember that time... When I thought you would die? You must remember the feeling, when we left that past.

B - ... Yes. Nearly every day. It’s fading, but never gone.

R - With that in mind, what do you wish to do now? Where would you like to see your life go onward?

Blue closed her eyes to think about it, understanding how Rose was more serious than ever.

She chose carefully her words. She understood well what Rose was really asking her to decide.

She had to choose what should become of them, and Esther, once and for all.

It was whether she should choose the dream, or reality.

Blue severed something, and reopened her eyes to the sight of her room.

B - I want to live with you.

That was the only thing that truly mattered. It always had been.

Esther was unfortunately but a dream that ought to end.

Her real angel had always been at her side.

Blue felt a pinch but thought too, how it was time to free herself from Mary-Esther and her dream.

~

Isha had gone in town to cover for Blue’s absence this day, leaving her the time to get back on her feet now.

Now things were seemingly back to normal, but Rose had taken some things into her own hands.

She organised the next discussion between them with a goal in mind.

They were setting themselves according to Rose’s plan.

She had figured out the end of the puzzle apparently, although she kept some details close until that moment.

Isha and Rose shared the former’s revelations with Blue. Isha was shameful but again, Blue was quick to forgive and welcome her friend into the family.

For now Rose’s plan didn’t mean much outside of the ordinary.

Isha and Blue nevertheless obeyed her with renewed devotion, confident in the decisions she would make.

On that evening of discussions, Rose had requested a rather heavy and rich meal from Isha. This, followed by a warm bath for both of them had been apparently playing a part in the plan.

Rose herself brought each of them a warm glass of milk infused with honey, and then herbal infusions.

Their rooms were set, warm and cosy. Only this time, the doors would stay open.

While they were dressed for the night, they reunited in Blue’s room, who was sitting in her bed.

Rose was sitting on her chair in front of her, and began to speak with a softer and slower voice, in that now dim lit room.

She told Blue that she was relaxed and that there was nothing to fear. Keeping their gaze into each other’s eyes, Blue was letting the softer words sip into her body. Rose was repeating kind and simple reassuring or peaceful words, telling her to relax kindly.

This strange exercise lasted for a few long minutes where Isha herself was dozing off on her chair. She was getting sleepy while Blue seemed to be hypnotised.

When she heard the following words from Rose, Isha realised that it was truly it.

Blue’s following replies were more monotonous and she was barely moving anymore, as if lost in prayer, only looking at Rose in front of her. The setting was done apparently. Blue only whispered her simpler answers to every following question that Rose had prepared for her.

R - Do you trust me? ... Does she trust you? ... Tonight, you will see her again. She won’t harm you. She won’t be able to harm you.... You will hear her out if she wants to speak... You will truly speak your remaining affection for her... You will ask her, if her only link toward reality is you... You will ask her if she will always love you... If she says yes to these two questions, then you will say goodbye... Will you remember? If you are her only link to reality and she promises to love you forever, then you bid her farewell to her, forever... Are you okay with this?

Rose heard the last whispered affirmation and returned to speaking plain and relaxing words, slowly suggesting to Blue that she should go to sleep.

Blue obeyed seemingly mindlessly.

Before they left, Rose pulled the ribbon out of her pocket, and left it by Blue’s nightstand with Isha as a witness.

The both of them left Blue to sleep and went to Isha’s room directly.

I - Will you... hypnotise me as well?

R - That shouldn’t be necessary. You’re feeling sleepy already I think?

I - Hm...

Since she was already dozing off, there was little worry on that side, even if it had looked weird to her.

Rose did give her a hug instead, which flustered and embarrassed Isha at first, but reassured her a little in the end. It was forgiveness and trust. Rose had forgiven her all of her past mistakes...

Rose believed in her to do right, and Blue liked her just as much.

These two thoughts were enough to make her emotional, but also reassured enough to fall asleep fairly easily.

She was happy... She was trusted.

Rose was a great woman too, at least as much as her father had been said to be Isha thought. Her father would probably have been proud.

Isha fell asleep lost in her thoughts and Rose left the room quietly.

Tonight she was the one leading the course of the events. And she had set everything to do so even as they slept, toward the other shores they would drift toward.

The first of the three parts of her plan was set in motion. Rose was fairly confident that it would succeed, no matter how queerly the overall picture would continue to be. She had found the pillars of logic, and the key to cross over the boundary.

If she was right, Blue would meet Esther that night, and bid her farewell for good.

The next stage would be for another night probably. Until then, she hoped it would work in a prayer to no god in particular. She was quite confident in her resolve and theory. Her ideas would prove to be true retrospectively.

Without as much worries as she would have only a few days prior, Rose went to sleep herself.

A quiet night for her.

On morning they would learn if this part had worked out as she planned.

~

Isha knocked on the door as morning came. She entered the room to proceed as usual with the daily rituals, opening the curtains.

While she was opening the last one, she stood for a moment longer, quietly.

She seemed surprised of something there or missing outside. It wasn’t outside. She turned to her lady with a bewildered look on her face.

I - Rose... It worked.

The morning shade was gone.

~

Blue was looking outside.

It was raining, and the scenery was lost in clear greys. The sun could be guessed above the endless grey horizon. Blue was lost in thoughts and mindlessly looking outside.

There was a feeling coming to her that she had forgotten for a long time. It was the same as when she woke up in the hospital many years ago, with Rose at her side.

It felt like that previous time, where she felt as if it she was awakening for the first real time of her life. As if a hundred years of slumber had just passed.

Tired but finally awaken from too long a dream. Reality felt colder, harsher on the body; but the light, even from a rainy day, was so much sweeter and richer. It was entirely different, but that could only be realised once it was over. Before that, it had been a forced leap of faith.

The ambient light was a little gloomy on this day, but still banished all darkness that had remained.

Blue felt sad, but also relieved. She was leaving the hospital and its awful memories anew...

But once again, she had abandoned Esther, leaving her to suffer behind in the other world. That was painful.

For a last moment she felt conflicted whether that had been the right thing. But this doubt quickly faded as Rose would be there. Once properly awake, this faded like any other dream memory.

Things could have turned out differently, but she wanted no other end.

Not long after, Blue was sitting in the dining room for breakfast. Rose came closer and sat by the side of the table next to her. They both knew what happened. Neither of them felt especially proud or happy about abandoning Esther to her fate, feeling sympathy for her, no matter what she truly was.

But they were beginning to breath relief again...

As if the curse had been lifted, or Blue’s disease had been finally cured. A shade had been removed from her and it was clear for Blue herself.

It was over, or so she thought.

R - It’s not entirely done yet. We’re close to it, but a few things are left to do.

Blue looked at her, pondering about what she could mean.

Isha came in and sat with them, also looking a little moved, without a word to say.

She presented the ribbon back to Blue.

Isha and Rose told her what had happened.

Blue listened without replying to the story, looking at the old ribbon now falling apart and stained red somehow. It looked so oddly red to her.

Blue did not mind what Isha had done or not done. She was now more concerned about Esther’s becoming, with ambivalent feelings. What was the point of the ribbon again? She had forgotten and wondered.

R - It was Esther’s promise to become sentient and alive someday. Or rather it was the promise made to her when she was Gülnihal.

It was a memento to keep faith vivid. One which made supposedly dreams and promises come true.

R - For us, you could say it was at the root or seed of the blue rose we’ve come to know. The engagement followed.

And as Blue was thinking about it, Rose continued to explain it.

R - This is the only thing that held true meaning for her.

Somehow Gülnihal’s origins were nothing more but this old fragment of cloth. For decades they had been sheltered inside of it, passed from one caring person to another. Even though it was hidden inside a doll, it kept holding the meaning and purpose that someday, some dream should come true.

The item overall was to be a proof of love, and something the owner cared for, to make what generally love would make possible or imply. The cycle as it passed from owners over time repeated the vow, that love and new lives went together.

Somewhere along the lines, some folkloric legends and tales from East and West stuck to it, making its meaning flourish. As an artefact that was always meaning a loving vow and a dream of future life, the two significations were earned altogether. Until someday, a collection of events brought it to evolve a different one.

This happened with the tale saying that something loved for a hundred years would gain a life on its own, as another promise intertwined between its two original parental vows. A promise to the doll itself, unlike its previous purpose.

As a blue rose fulfilling the role of any sincere ring and prayer, the reflection of it all also became real. That promise after the blue rose had worked, and had done so over more than a century.

It was now only yet to realise the dream for itself in reverse.

And surprisingly, one day...

Rose marked a pause. One day, something happened.

Blue tried to guess, thinking about her history with Esther, trying to connect all the stories with her own experience of reality.

B - And one day, Esther saved me?

R - No... One day, Isha appeared before Esther.

~

That fateful night.

When three persons were dying in the house, and Blue escaped in a confused daze. Another event had occurred at the same time.

The ribbon heavy with promises and charged with memories, it had yet to make its last seed of a blue rose blossom.

And unfortunately its body was to die while its owner was fading away...

But some light shifted the balance between the impossible and reality.

Isha had been there, and she had held the ribbon for a brief moment.

And suddenly on that day, Mary-Esther’s consciousness appeared in the void below.

Somewhere in a plane where at the time no one could go, but where soon after only Blue would fall.

Where they would meet. And from that day, Mary-Esther began to act as a conscious being and person, in order to fulfil the first meaning of her existence.

As their blue rose, in order to make Rose’s promise and prayer come true...

Somehow, Isha had been the key, giving a new life and reality to Gülnihal’s history, albeit unwillingly.

She had carried the power to open a queer invisible and unexpected door far below, allowing for Esther and Blue to meet, midway...

And amidst every memories from the doll’s past, and the ribbon’s meaning, Esther began to exist in that new place in between, mixing old and new memories, somewhere uncertain between nil and reality.

Rose believed that Isha had unlocked the invisible doorway between them, allowing things that did not or should not exist, somehow to take their chances toward that.

Isha carried with her the spirits that allowed the blue rose to shine and exist, in unexpected ways.

R - Unknowingly, Blue, you’ve given Esther’s ownership to Isha. And Isha, unknowingly, you carried or rather you are the key, that made the older promise able to come true.

Esther fulfilled her main and only goal as a blue rose, in granting Rose’s real wish, by saving Blue’s mind and life from death. The two were reunited like lovers and the rose had served its purpose.

As Blue and Esther were separated, the doll fell back into that place in limbo. She had no meaning anymore as a blue rose for others. But Esther didn’t disappear. Because of the promise made to her by the legend beneath the doll. The promise as a blue rose for her.

That she could become alive.

So then, she began contemplating her own introspective dream for herself.

And though she shared the previous blue rose memories, it was almost as if a new persona had arisen. The one who wanted to live, no matter what. The one who heard a promise made, and repeated over and over, to her. The promise then handled in the end by Isha, that she could become alive, despite the impossible.

Her own blue rose had yet to blossom.

And though the doors to the other side had closed, she was still not annihilated. She was remaining there.

And she began to climb.

Because she was the same one who had a strong link with Blue as her personal blue rose, a thread or a root remained, keeping her above nil, and giving her a good chance to climb up toward this earth. Her relation with Blue was her main ladder and upside down substrate to grow over.

But they never saw each other again. And Esther remained in a world of darkness.

Until at some other point, Isha reappeared to reopen the doors to her.

Isha came back and with her presence, the locks began to soften again. Unwillingly, clumsily...

And finally, at night, Isha opened them again, leaving Blue to unexpectedly fall once more toward Esther; and for Esther to start climbing up onward.

B - For Esther, my visits always meant...

R - That the sun would shine through and beyond the heaven’s gates. Isha is the sun illuminating the other world, making it appear gradually, and making everything slide slowly toward reality.

Isha was the key, and now was a little shy.

When her dreams would close, Blue was pulled back toward the world where she belonged; and Esther was always left behind. Left to dream, left to mull, left to hope.

She was left to dream that one day, she could fly up in the sky, and reach that sun shining from the other side...

And meanwhile, Isha was unknowingly letting slowly the impossible surpassing the possible reality.

Esther was the dreamer. Blue was the traveller.

And Isha, was the key; allowing unrealistic things to get closer to the normal world and otherwise.

It was quite an unexpected theory, which put quite heavy responsibilities on Isha’s shoulders.

But whilst Blue was puzzled, Isha could unfortunately not deny a thing.

It seemed sadly plausible to her, if not quite proven already. She was the heir of peculiar dreams and prayers, and somehow possibly, some of the means to turn them true.

Blue was still somewhat uncertain, but Rose was looking clear and convinced. She now was explaining the end of her plan, with the choices left to make as it unfolded.

Esther still existed somewhere, driven to reach reality eventually, even at the cost of reality itself. Her obsession unchecked was dangerous to everyone.

Blue was still linked to her probably, even if she felt lighter for now. Rose didn’t expect the tie to be cut yet entirely.

And Isha on her side couldn’t control that abstract ability or responsibility that was a part of her, unlocking possibilities between reality and other things.

Sadly she didn’t understand it yet. The story clicked with her experiences, but she missed this awareness of her own influence or power over these things.

So they understood better their shared situation with Rose’s theory connecting all the dots and events. Their shared history to all four of them was making settling sense, but the choices for the future were left to make.

They discussed about it with Rose’s lead, to consider carefully the options and implications. They took their time to reflect on it.

They had to choose what would be the future of all three of them, and Esther as well.

As they discussed, Esther’s ribbon was lying on the table, reddened by age and powerless.

It was then kept in a small box on a shelf, while they kept considering what would be their decisions.

Rose already had her mind quite set on the way forward.

Her migraines had been sharp, but she had understood the way forward to solve everything. Now however she needed some time to convince her sister and her maid to follow her.

Some time passed uncertain, life returning a little to what it used to be prior to Esther’s change of behaviour. It had been nice until Blue was strongly affected by that, and they had a new peaceful time now.

They were happy.

Rose had written everything she had learnt and considered over time.

Next to her, Blue was smiling.

On a peaceful day, they reached the consensual conclusion to the plan. It was like a draft of a play to rehearse. Each of them had a part to play, so that everything in this fateful tale would unfold properly.

Their games to play wouldn’t be so easy, but they had resolve and they trusted each other clearly.

Rosemary’s resolve was carrying them.

So the preparations began, which took less time to execute than it had to be discussed and planned.

Rose wrote a stack of letters to post. She was still handwriting everything, even though typewritters could easily be found and borrowed in town.

Handwriting was like painting for her, and Blue nodded merrily.

Isha was setting other things in order with Blue.

Until the day not far when everything was ready.

Rose’s plan for the future that would affect them all began. It was on a sunny Sunday, with a colourful scenery outside.

They were around the table, and the old ribbon was revealed like an historical artefact once more.

It was a deeper red than before and crumbling. It was decaying at a peculiarly fast rate. It aged in an odd way making them all slightly uneasy. Esther was somewhere behind...

Rose smiled softly.

It was her time to make a spell.

~

Blue was holding the ribbon that she had owned unknowingly in the past. It was now the last leftover of a doll that once was hers. She owned it, and repeated it. The ownership was hers.

And perhaps with it, came along the right to visit Esther. Isha opened doors, but no one would see them or go through them without the proper guiding spirits or mementos.

The blue rose existed through promises and wishes made from one to another, and something could appear from these interactions. It was sealing these emotions and binding the beings behind them across it. Hopefully, it was keeping the promise alive and turning the wish eventually into reality.

Maybe Esther was now a being beyond that set of rules and bonds, already independent and free.

But perhaps not yet entirely.

And the ritual they were about to make was based on that eventuality, that something was left between Blue and Esther even to this day.

All the magic of the world they had managed to gather was there and left at that in the end.

Isha’s presence by their side, and this improvised ritual holding an old shred of cloth.

Blue held the ribbon dear for the last time of her life, saying goodbye.

They stood up, gazing at the beautiful weather outside.

The windows were open to a gentle breeze.

Blue lifted her hand toward Rose’s open palm. She was smiling gently, perhaps blushing a little from embarrassment as they proceeded. They couldn’t remember whose idea it had been to proceed as they would.

Blue tied the ribbon softly around Rose’s little finger. She was offering it to her like a solemn regalia, and with it Blue made her prayer. To it, Rose made her vow.

They made their wish, with Isha as their witness.

Under the sunset and Isha’s blessing, with this transfer they prayed to live together, happily ever after.

~