#its next to to the Donna and Guardian's rooms so when exploring Viper made the not unreasonable assumption

[in-asterism]

all the details in this didn't translate so well into a drawing, so I wound up just writing

you can probably figure it out, but this is set immediately after Luce's death

They steal into the Giglio Nero headquarters like a ghost, slipping through half-open doors and winding hallways. Giglio Nero is old, and each new Donna has built on the bones of the last, turning a once-modest estate into a sprawling compound. 

Viper knows every hallway, had spent their time in I Prescelti Sette mapping every secret path in their Sky’s house. 

They let their feet settle on the ground, choosing to walk the last stretch. With an infant’s body, every step only takes them an increment further, but today is significant, and they need the grounding. 

The heart of Giglio Nero was once the inner sanctum of the Arcobaleno- but embittered Elements tend not to stay long after being chained to the world. It was called the Nursery, which, in hindsight, was deeply morbid. 

They slip into the chambers of the Sky Arcobaleno, and settle on the dais where Luce lies. The indigo pacifier stays dim.

 Her neck is bare, her skin is cold, her eyes are empty. Viper doesn’t know how long they stare into those hollow eyes, but eventually they manage to reach out and close them. Luce deserved to turn her gaze away, even if only in death.

They can’t look away.

Her white dress, the uniform of the Sky Arcobaleno has become her funeral shroud. Cold impersonal white, a monument to the purity of her flame, to the duty of her death. Her blank face, orange marking garishly bright against death-pallor. 

It’s so, so wrong.

Luce is warm, and she smiles, and she is always moving, even just a little.

She hated to be still. She made a point to smile, always, even when she cried because there were things that the world could not take from her, and her reactions were one of those things.

For it to end this way-

It was always going to happen, really. The lot of them had lived their lives, exceptional but still sensical, and then somehow found their way into a fairytale. Even the Strongest Sky could not subvert the laws of her narrative.

But it hurts that she wouldn’t even try. That she laid down and waited for Him to come. That she walked up that mountain with the poise she brought to every other tragedy.

 The people they hate most are liars, and Luce was always a liar. All that sight, blessed gift of a dead goddess, and she could never even admit the truth to herself. Pathetic…

They twirl a strand of bluish hair around chubby fingers, but they can’t stay. Within Giglio Nero’s halls, there are always eyes on the ‘precious’ Arcobaleno- already the pacifier has been passed to little Aria, and soon her predecessor’s body will be discovered. 

Best to just go. Time is money after all, and Viper is wasting it here.