Lunetta Starwick's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

Lunetta held the teacup as the fairy across from her took a trembling sip. The blend was supposed to ease joint pain, but she'd harvested the herbs during a waning moon instead of full. The fairy's face twisted and she set the cup down hard. "It burns," she whispered, then stood and left without another word. Lunetta stared at the remaining tea, watching it darken to an ugly brown. She'd followed the recipe exactly except for the timing. One mistake had turned a healing blend into something that hurt instead of helped. Her hands shook as she poured the rest down the drain. Maybe she wasn't ready to cure everyone after all. She walked outside to the silver box where fairies left their messages. Three new notes sat inside from the week before, but now they felt like lies. What if those cures had been accidents and this failure was the truth? She looked at the granite planter nearby where broken herb sprigs stood frozen in the soil. They had died because she'd forgotten to water them for five days. The plants had needed her and she'd been too focused on studying recipes to notice them wilting. Now a fairy had trusted her and left in pain. Near the planter stood a mirror with cracks spreading across its surface. Each crack reflected a different phase of the moon. She stared at her face broken into fragments, scattered between crescents and full circles. The moon phases she'd been so careful to track had failed her today. Or maybe she had failed them. She touched the cold glass and felt the sharp edges of the breaks beneath her fingertips. The mirror showed her exactly what she was—someone still learning who had already caused harm. She carried the failed tea outside to the compost bin marked with moon accents. The lid creaked as she lifted it and poured the dark liquid over spoiled ingredients from other mistakes. Wilted leaves and burned petals filled the bottom. This bin held every experiment that hadn't worked, every blend that had gone wrong. She had been so proud of the few successes that she'd forgotten about all these failures. The fairy's face flashed in her mind again, twisted with pain instead of relief. Lunetta closed the lid and walked back to her workshop. She had a long way to go before she could cure anyone who sought her help.