And A Time to Part

Aria moved quietly around the abandoned railway tunnel with it's worn and make-shift furniture. She had a bag slung casually over one shoulder. The undetectable expansion charm concealed the fact that it currently held all her worldly belongings. As she crossed the main area of the underground dwelling, the blonde stopped to pick up a picture frame from the coffee table.

Three faces looked back at her, when they weren't distracted with one another. Arsen and Karma sat side by side on the common room sofa, Aria standing behind them.

"It is time to part." From the photo, her own mismatched gaze met hers. Stepping back from the other two, Aria's image turned and walked out of the frame, never to return. "You won't understand," Aria murmured softly to the two remaining in the photograph. "It has nothing to do with either of you. Only me.

"I was never meant to survive. In fact, I didn't. I died, and then I came back. For you. For both of you. Now, I must live for myself. There isn't a place for me, much as I believed there was. You may blame your father," she addressed Arsen in the photo. "Djinn is not your enemy. He doesn't have anything to do this, either. And you," Aria's gaze moved to Karma, "you will think it's your fault or some inadequacy of yours. My leaving is unrelated to you."

The blonde gazed at the photo a long moment more before setting the frame back on the coffee table. "Goodbye, my loves," she murmured to the vacant tunnel. "Goodbye, Aria." She strolled out into the surrounding night, eye shutting as she paused, face turned to the sky. The blonde breathed in deeply of the cool night air. Bright crimson eyes snapped open, illuminated by the light of the waning moon. A smirk pulled at the girl's features as she moved forward again, disappearing into the darkness.

"Hello, Aphrodite."