ONE.
“The Rosethorne family’s a pretty famous and well-respected one. Relatively speaking, at least. They’re politicians and businesspeople. They came to Skyluria not long after it rose from the Earth, leaving their homeland of Zealandia in search of greatness. Back then, in Zealandia, there was a very small group of beloved, respected, storied families, and then there was everyone else. Try as they might, the Rosethornes couldn’t break into the upper echelon of families, so they came here, thinking that by being one of the first Skylurians, they could also become one of the first great Skylurians.
“And you know what? They’ve actually done a pretty good job. Ask any stranger off the street, and they’ll probably know the Rosethornes, probably like them too. Maybe they’re not as high of stature as, say, the Winters of Arteija, or the Acharyas of Dwarka, or the Iluens next door. But one day they may be. And that’s what they’re supposed to hope for, all of them. That ambition’s expected of a Rosethorne. It’s taught when they’re young, reinforced as they age. It becomes the pursuit that defines their lives — the pursuit of becoming ‘the best’.
“What every Rosethorne dreams of is the day they can call one of their own the Councilor of Skyluria. Or perhaps the day they finally top the market charts. A Rosethorne-branded product in every household — isn’t that what they want? Don’t they all long for the day that they can’t walk out of their house without being applauded by total strangers for all they’ve done? ‘What fantastic people they are,’ the people will say, ‘Praise every last one!’ That’s what every Rosethorne wants to hear.
“At least, that’s what Mother and Father tell us. Isn’t that right, Heather?” Cinder Rosethorne, fifteen years of age, asked, leaning over the chair she was sitting on backwards. She looked towards her smaller sister Heather, who was sitting in her bed, knees folded up to her chest. Across from Heather, Selene Rosethorne, a year younger than Cinder, sat cross-legged, watching with measured but visible apprehension.
Heather, six years younger than Selene and showing it in every way, frowned exaggeratedly, thinking aloud. “Well, yeah. We do want to be the best. Don’t we?”
“And what makes the best?” Cinder cut back — leisurely, but with the absolute certainty that one only gets from thinking about something over, and over, and over. “Scratch that. What does our family think is best?”
“When everyone loves us. When … when we do something that makes it so they’ll never forget the name Rosethorne,” Heather replied, with innocent confusion.
“Like Mother says,” Selene reminded, glaring at Cinder with a hint of menace.
The two shared one of those looks they so often did, a glance that spoke volumes. They’d always been able to read each other’s expressions well, so Cinder easily understood Selene’s look of, If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, sister, this is not going to end well.
Cinder’s glare back was an adamant reply: You two need to hear this.
“Like Mother says!” Heather chimed in, oblivious.
“What a nice thought,” Cinder mused. “‘Make it so that they never forget the name Rosethorne…’ You really think we can do that? You think it’s even possible?”
“Of course it’s possible,” Selene chuckled. “Look, there are plenty of names we’re never going to forget. Like you were saying earlier: the Iluens, the Xoltrases… hell, think of the Valeskis! All it takes is one person to do something truly great, and the rest of the family’s going to be thanking them for eons.”
“Oh, I was talking to Heather,” Cinder responded cooly, rolling her head back towards her youngest sister. “You think it can be done, sis?”
After a moment, Heather answered, “Yeah, I don’t see why not.”
“You don’t see why not,” Cinder repeated, clasping her hands together as her sister looked on attentively. “How about I put it this way? Political success or commercial success or fame or prestige or whatever it is that we want so badly… those are targets the family has been trying to hit for hundreds and hundreds of years. Thousands of Rosethornes must have taken a crack at it.” She put a finger on her chin with faux contemplation. “Now, how many times has one of them actually hit the bullseye?”
“That’s what we’re here for, Cinder,” Selene stated, as if she was talking to her other sister. “We’re going to be the ones that finally hit the target, that finally get this family to the very top, like we’ve always wanted. After all, that’s what we work so hard for.”
“And how many Rosethornes thought that before?” Cinder retorted.
“Cinder…” Selene sighed, though neither of her sisters were sure if she’d actually said that or if that was just a clear implication of her breath.
“Look, no matter how bad our family is at everything we’re trying to be good at, it’s been centuries since we came to this City-State. That’s generations upon generations of Rosethornes,” Cinder argued, pointing at Heather. “Eventually we should have hit our targets, even if it’s out of pure luck. Right?
“I guess so,” Heather shrugged.
“So then if we were going to become… ‘the best,’ whatever that means, we would have done it by now. Even if by mistake, even if by accident,” implored Cinder. “And if we haven’t by now, if we haven’t hit our targets-”
“Then we haven’t taken enough shots!” Selene shouted.
“Then we aren’t going to hit them.” Cinder stared at Heather dead-on. “There have been so many members of our families that chased those targets all their lives, that wasted all their shots at all these lofty, loosely defined goals.” She shook her head, voice growing unsteady. “I wonder how that worked out for them.”
“Cinder, calm down,” Selene urged, before glancing over at her younger sister. “Heather-”
“I wonder what it was like,” Cinder exploded, jabbing her finger angrily, “spending all their days and months and years trying to bring their family pride and fortune and respect, only to have their descendants sit here centuries later, still working for the same damn s***!”
“Cinder! That’s enough!” Selene snapped, her expression turning stone-cold serious. “Can’t you see you’re scaring Heather?”
But instead of being intimidated or afraid by her sister’s display, Cinder only had one thought as she calmed herself: Selene did so look like their mother when she was angry.
“Oh, I don’t think she’s scared at all.” Getting up, Cinder stepped towards the youngest Rosethorne, looking her in the eye. “You’re not, are you, Heather?”
Truthfully, Heather Rosethorne was a little bit afraid — afraid that everything she’d been told to accomplish, everything she’d been striving towards for all her life, was out of reach. But that had been a fear of hers for a while, anyways. Clearly, she hadn’t questioned it all as much as her sister, but she’d done it enough to get her in trouble with her tutors more than a couple of times. And while she thought herself still loyal to the Rosethorne tradition, well, she did want some clarification on the matter.
So Heather swallowed her unease. “No,” she answered, and then, after a moment, “Are you done?”
“Am I-? What? No,” Cinder denied, and Heather nodded, looking on attentively. “Now, listen to what I’m telling you, sister. Our family, they can do what they like. They have a goal that they’ve failed to hit each and every time they’ve tried, and even after all that they’re still trying. That’s their choice. I hope they’re happy with it. But you and me, we only get one shot in this life. We’ve got to make it count, don’t we?”
“Yeah,” Heather shrugged. “I guess so.”
“So it would be foolish to throw it away at a target we’re not going to hit,” Cinder continued, even as Selene flashed her a look of, You’re foolish to not even try. “Hell, it would be foolish to throw it away at a target we don’t even want!”
“What do you mean? Of course we want to be the best!” But even as Heather said that, she recalled a couple times when she’d thought perhaps nothing was worth sitting through dull lessons or dealing with idiot people. A couple times that were becoming a little more frequent, she thought.
Cinder scoffed. “I don’t think so. Maybe that’s what Mother and Father want. And maybe that’s what all the Rosethornes before us wanted.” She got up, pacing around purposefully. “But you? Heather, why do you want to be the best?”
Shrugging, Heather responded, “Well, because Mother-”
“No. Not her. You,” Cinder interrupted. “Why do you want to be… to be loved by people who don’t know you? To be praised by people who’ll never meet you? Why do you want to do things you have no talent in?”
“Hey, hey,” Selene defended, stepping up and brushing Cinder back. “Heather’s actually really good at negotiating. Better than you and I were at her age. If she keeps studying politics, she’s pretty much a lock for Sector Commissioner before she’s twenty-five, strong chance for Senator before she’s thirty. From there, who knows? So don’t say she’s got no talent in these things.”
“Alright, fair, let me rephrase.” Cinder pivoted quickly from one sister to the other. “Why do you want to do things you have no interest in?” Though Heather took a moment to ponder this, Cinder continued anyway. “Remember the other day, when Councilor Ryiman came by, and Father made you talk with him?”
“Ugh. Not that guy,” Heather groaned. “Everything he was talking about sounded so boring. I get that he represents all of Skyluria and he has all this power, but… I don’t know, his job just doesn’t sound very interesting to me.”
While Selene scoffed, Cinder cracked a slight smile. “And that’s where Mother and Father would want you to be, if everything went right, Heather. How sad would that be.”
“How sad? Councilor Ryiman is a good man. He does a lot for the people of this City-State,” Selene defended, pointing at Heather. “If you ever got his job, you should be proud. You’d be the biggest Rosethorne of all time. And surely you’d pave the way for future Rosethornes. Just look at how many Councilor Raimans there have been.”
“I guess. But you have better chances than me anyways, Selene,” Heather conceded, rocking back and forth. “I don’t know. I want to be someone that has that much influence, but—”
“But why?” Cinder repeated. “What would you do with it?”
This gave Heather Rosethorne more than a moment of pause. Now that she thought about it… well, she’d never really thought about it too much. So she defaulted to the answer she’d been given. “I guess I can help people, like Mother and Father want me to. Do good deeds, make their lives better, stuff like that.”
“See, Heather gets it,” Selene agreed, even though Heather wasn’t 100% sure she got it in the first place. “The whole idea is that we can improve people’s lives. And not just other people’s, but ours. If we reach those heights, our family will be greater for it. Forever. Wouldn’t that be an honor? To be the ones that raise the Rosethorne family up to where they should be?”
Cinder scoffed. At which part, her sisters could not tell. “Hell, if that’s what you want, I’m not gonna get in your way. But I’m just saying: why are we wasting our time, trying to please people who don’t give a damn about us?”
“We’ve been over this, Cinder,” sighed Selene. “To help our fellow Skylurians in what way we can, even if they’re total strangers to us. It’s a noble cause.”
“I wasn’t talking,” Cinder retorted, her eyes narrowing, “about them.”
The other two Rosethornes stared at their sister as she crossed her arms, back turned to them. Finally, Selene’s eyes went wide with realization. “You can’t possibly mean Mother and Father.”
“Why not?” Cinder spat back, barely glancing over her shoulder before looking back out the window at the ascendent crescent moon illuminating the night sky. Even in that glance, though, Selene could see nearly pure bitterness. “They believe so much that their path to being… best is the only one there is. They say it’s by talking about s*** or by selling s***… neither of those things are for me. And you both know it.”
The other Rosethorne sisters did. For once, neither of them could respond.
“But they keep pushing us towards these things, these meaningless, meaningless things that we’ll never get. Trying to make us into the people they think we are, that they want us to be. Maybe that’s fine with you, Selene, but I…” Cinder chuckled darkly. “I won’t stand for it. I can’t live like that. And I don’t think you can either, Heather.”
She turned back around, staring right at her youngest sister, and for a moment Cinder knew her sister was connecting to her words, even if it was for that fleeting second.
“Cinder, I…” Selene began, close to forming a similar connection. And then it broke. “What are you talking about? Heather’s a Rosethorne, you’re a Rosethorne, like the rest of us. That’s who you are. That’s who you’ve always been. And—”
And then Cinder burst out laughing, keeling over and clutching her sides. But it wasn’t jovial. It was a spiteful, anguished guffaw, and exposed in full what the rest of her cutting words that night had been hinting at — a side of her that her sisters had never seen before in full. But now that they saw it and heard it, this despair crushing their eldest sister, they wondered how Cinder had been able to hide it for so long.
“A Rosethorne. Ha,” Cinder repeated, spitting the word as if it was poison on her tongue. “If that’s what you think I am, then you know me as well as Mother and Father.” She gestured to her youngest sister emphatically. “F***, Heather, they don’t even know who you are. Not the whole truth, anyways. You haven’t told them, have you?”
“…no,” Heather replied, voice meek. She was still uncertain that what she had told her sisters a few weeks ago was true, still sure there was time to discover her initial impression of herself was wrong. But she’d never regretted her decision to keep it from her parents.
“I wonder why.” Yet Cinder’s voice was devoid of all questioning. “Makes you wonder why we’re going to all these lengths to get these things done to make Mother and Father happy.”
“Sister, you know as well as I we’re not simply working to please them,” Selene argued back. “It’s for all the generations of Rosethornes before us, and all the generations to come.”
“So what, we’re working to succeed where our ancestors couldn’t, to make up for their failures? The f***? I missed the part where that’s my problem.” Cinder turned away, shaking her head. “And these future generations you’re talking about… I’m going to be dead before I know any of those losers. So why should I give a s*** about them?”
She took a deep breath, raising a clenched fist to her jaw. “We all end, sisters. We all become ashes in the end. That’s what I’ve realized. So working for anyone else in this world — being anyone else than who we really are — is utterly pointless. I’m going to do what I like, I’m going to better myself, and I’m going to do something to have a true impact on the world. Why the f*** would I let anyone else get in the way of that?”
Even without looking into Cinder’s eyes, Selene knew at once there was nothing that could convince her sister out of the disloyalty she’d just declared to their family. And while Heather was still processing everything, even if her young mind had caught up to her sister’s words, there was nothing she could add. So the two stood there on one side of the room, stunned, as Cinder stood still on the other.
At last, Cinder turned around, pushing Selene aside as she made her way to Heather, who was still sitting in her bed. “Heather, look, you probably don’t understand some of this right now.” Cinder briefly cursed herself, thinking perhaps it was a little too late to add that. “But one day you will. One day, you’ll realize Mother and Father are trying to force you into being someone you’re not. And when that day comes, remember what I’ve told you.”
“No, Heather. Mother and Father aren’t trying to force you into anything. They just want the best for you,” Selene argued, but she knew as well as her older sister that the effort was becoming futile.
“And there it is again. What they think is best is total bulls***. It’s illogical. It’s nonsensical. It’s not for me. And it’s not for you, either.” Cinder patted her sister’s shoulder softly, just a hint of apology in her voice. “Someday it’ll all make sense to you.”
She sat back down by the base of her sister’s bed, closing her eyes. Selene, staring at her older sister, still in shock, questioned tenuously, “So, if you’re so sure that you’re not going to work for the family company like you’re supposed to, if you’re going to turn your back on everything this family has ever strove for, if you’re not going to even try to be the best… what are you trying to become, Cinder?”
“Me.”
That one syllable seemed to release Cinder from all she felt so trapped by. She opened her eyes and leaned back a little more, relaxing. “In less cryptic terms… well, there’s lots of monsters in the world. We could do with a few less of those.” She chuckled. The edge in her laugh was mostly gone. “It’s kind of weird. I think I want the same thing as you. A better world. But the way this family goes about it is f***ing insane. I’m going to be better.”
Selene Rosethorne was inclined to push further, to question just what her sister meant by that. In fact, it took everything she had not to tear into her sister’s words. But, seeing Cinder exhale, at peace after that long rant, Selene decided, Best not to reopen that wound right now. Maybe another time. That was a political move as much as a merciful one.
Behind Cinder, Heather was thinking — what did she really want? What did she really want to be? She wasn’t entirely sure yet, but the more she thought about it, the more she was sure it wasn’t anything her parents planned for her. The more she thought about it, Heather wasn’t exactly inclined to represent or lead large groups of people where she couldn’t get to know everyone personally, couldn’t get to form close bonds, couldn’t get to optimize their strengths. She made a note to herself to look into smaller-scale opportunities, just in case.
Cinder, looking over her shoulder at her, cracked a slight grin. She briefly considered leading Heather on with a few well-chosen questions, those that she’d laid awake thinking about for many nights herself. Then she decided against it. Heather would figure those questions out on her own soon enough. That self-discovery would be a stronger teacher than Cinder could ever be.
“You realize that Mother and Father have no clue this is how you feel, right, Cinder?” Selene asked at last, conveniently leaving out a third name so the tension between them could continue slowly melting away.
“Yeah, I know,” Cinder responded, her blank expression adding, Do I look like I care? “Are you going to rat me out or something? You mad on their behalf?”
“Well… not no. I mean, to the second one. Mother and Father would practically kill you if they heard a word of what you just said,” Selene exhaled, sitting down beside Cinder. Briefly she weighed her love for her sister and her loyalty to her parents, decided the latter would not be too harmed by a little deference to the former, and finished, “Which is why I’m not going to tell them.”
Cinder nodded. “I appreciate that, Selene. I really do.”
Then Heather flopped down on her bed, poking her head between her two sisters and gently hugging both their necks. The elder Rosethornes laughed back, perhaps remembering when they were so young and innocent. The storm seemed to have passed. The sisters were together again.
“You know, I’ll say this,” Cinder added after a brief moment, “I may be a s*** fit for the Rosethorne family, and Heather, I honestly think you’re the same, whether you know it now or not. But Selene, on the other hand! Sister, you could talk circles around any idiot in the Capitol. You’re sharp-witted, persuasive, you know when to shout and when to shut up. Mother is going to be really happy with where you end up in ten or twenty years. If that matters to you.”
“Ha. Uh, thank you,” Selene accepted, not entirely sure that Cinder wasn’t going to use it against her in any way. “I’m, uh, glad to hear that, at least.”
“Well, It’s true. You know, it’s kind of amazing. Mother and Father got lucky with you, Selene. You’re exactly who they think you are. Who they want you to be.” Cinder shrugged. “I kind of envy you in that way.”
“You… what? Really?” Selene exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting up to the stars Cinder was admiring.
“You’ve always been Mother’s favorite,” Heather mumbled, beginning to fiddle with her sisters’ hair. “Must be nice.”
“But.. but her?” Selene cried, gesturing to Cinder.
“What can I say? It must be nice not to be constantly told you’re not who you are,” Cinder drawled, her gaze drifting higher up.
“You know who you are, Cinder. You’re… strong-willed and fierce and determined,” Selene reassured, gripping her older sister’s wrist and bringing her attention back down to earth. “I just don’t want you to turn your back on us. You’re a Rosethorne. You always will be. Maybe you feel like Mother and Father don’t show it, but trust me, they believe in you. Heather and I believe in you. You can still do so much for this family.”
Cinder chuckled once more, quietly and bitterly again. Then she turned to Heather. “You might end up being the best out of us, sister. You’re still figuring out who you are, I know that. And from what I can tell you’re headed down neither of the paths of this family. But when you decide where you’re heading, your drive, your thoroughness, hell, the fact that you actually plan s***… you’re going to be great, sister. You’re going to be great.”
Heather smiled. She wanted to make that true, of course. She just wasn’t totally sure what it meant anymore. And there was something else that was bothering her.
“Cinder,” she asked, her voice small, “no matter what happens… you’ll always be our sister. Right?”
Cinder nodded. “Always, Heather.” She looked at Selene. “Always. I’m always going to be there for you. You’re the only people on this planet I trust. Even when our paths diverge, that’s not going to change. Not now. Not ever. Love you two.”
She got up and patted her sisters one more time on the back before stepping towards the door, and young Heather Rosethorne watched her go. Those three simple words, words she’d never heard from her older sister, rang over and over in her head. She should have been happy to hear them at long last, but instead… she didn’t know why, but she got the feeling her sister was about to do something that she’d regret.
