Junia hadn’t wanted to go to the temple. “Please? Go for mommy? You’ll have fun, I promise.” Her mother had insisted. Junia just wanted to play with her friends, and her mom had been acting funny since going to service for the first time. Junia was a good kid. She was a good girl, and there had never been much reason to punish her. But her mom had been so strict since she started going to church. Junia got in trouble every day after that. If she ate too quickly, and if she ate too slowly. If she couldn’t calm Millie quickly enough, and if she played outside for too long. Junia felt like maybe her mom didn’t like her so much anymore. But she still liked her mom, and she knew she couldn’t really say no. So she agreed.

  She didn’t like the man at the pulpit, and the cave under the temple was scary. There were only a couple of them, but a couple of the grown-ups in the pews looked frozen, as if an entire person were a candle. It made her shiver looking at them. The man was talking about how bad and selfish kids like Junia were, and it didn’t seem fair. Junia loved her mom, and she loved her little sister, and she always tried her best to be nice to them. Even if she got frustrated sometimes, and didn’t always understand why her mom said no to everything, she didn’t complain all that much. She was a good kid.

  She didn’t want to be baptised. All those people who went before her looked funny afterward. Like they had boards nailed to all their limbs, and they had to walk funny to stop them from bending. “Please? Mommy would really like it if you got baptised. Don’t you trust me?” Junia did trust her mom. She trusted her mom more than anything. She didn’t want to go near the mean man in the robe. But her mom usually didn’t make her go near anyone she was scared of, which meant it must have been really important. She didn’t understand why, but she knew her mom understood things she didn’t. That’s why she tried not to complain too much… usually. So she agreed, and she let the man baptise him.

  Junia was really scared. She didn’t understand what had happened. Her mom had told her to go. Her mom had told her it was safe. But she couldn’t move her own body, and it moved anyway. She was really, really scared. She didn’t like to complain. Her mom was so nice, and she always took care of her, so she really didn’t like to throw a fit. But she was really scared. Really, really scared. She couldn’t do anything but watch. She needed to cry. Her mom always said that was okay. She said crying wasn’t complaining, and it wasn’t ungrateful. She always said she should cry if she needed to, and some people might not like it, but that it was bad to hold it back. Sometimes she needed to cry. But this time she couldn’t.

  Junia wanted to run away. “Stay with mommy. No matter what happens. Stay by my side. Be a good girl and stay by my side.” Her mom really wanted her there. Junia didn’t trust her anymore. She didn’t know what was wrong with the man in the cave. She didn’t know what had happened, but her mom wasn’t nice anymore. Her voice still was. She still said nice things. But she promised Junia would have fun. She promised Junia would be safe. She asked Junia to trust her, and after that, Junia couldn’t cry. She couldn’t scream, and she couldn’t run away. “Stay by my side,” her mother ordered every day. And Junia did.

  Her mom had stopped talking. She was like one of those candle people. Junia thought she might be dead. She knew about dead people. Her mom had explained it to her when her dad went away. She knew it meant they weren’t there anymore, even if their body were. Her mom was kind of like that. She was sitting next to her, but she wasn’t there anymore. She was still holding Millie, and Millie wasn’t crying. Not since she’d been asked to stop. Junia thought her sister probably wanted to cry, like she did. But neither of them could. She wanted to pick her sister up and run away. But her mom had told her to stay with her, and she couldn’t leave. She could move again. Ever since her mom stopped telling her what to do, she could move. But she couldn’t leave her mother’s side, and she couldn’t pick up her sister. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t feed Millie. And she couldn’t cry. She was so, so scared.

  Junia had been stuck for days when the angel came. “You’re trapped in there, aren’t you?” the angel asked. Junia couldn’t respond.

  “I’m alright, I’m with my mom!” she insisted. The angel’s eyes softened.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were conscious of what was happening. I thought… I thought you didn’t know anything was wrong. I understand now. I am going to help you, and I’m not going anywhere until I find something that works. Here, I brought you something to eat. I know you can’t get up to serve yourself. But you won’t go hungry again. Not while I’m here. I know you’re scared. I even know how scared. I’m going to help.”

  She didn’t know if she could believe the angel. The words were filled with hope and heartbreak, like the eulogy once spoken for her dad. The man who had baptised her had said she could trust Aethon. He said she’d become his servant. She didn’t like being his servant much, if it meant she couldn’t also be Junia. So she didn’t know if she could trust his angel either. But she seemed so nice. Pretty like her mother was pretty. Not like an actress in a play, but like a grown-up who cared when she was hurt. Some grown-ups pretended to care, but they just wanted her to stop crying. But the pretty ones cared. The pretty ones wanted the pain to stop, not the sound.

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  She decided the angel wasn't from Aethon. If the man from the temple was Aethon’s, then the angel must be Luna’s. She was told Luna was bad. That Luna was why her dad went away, and why her mom wouldn’t move anymore. But Junia didn’t think her mom would want to keep moving if she couldn’t decide how. She thought maybe Luna took her to be nice. And maybe Luna sent an Angel to save her, too.

  She felt a little better as she ate. At least her body let her do that, if the food was brought to her. She felt best as she fed Millie. She knew Millie must be even more scared than she was. She hoped the angel saved Millie first.

  The angel tried a lot of things with lots of blue lights. A lot of times, Junia couldn’t remember what the angel tried. She would just look more tired after a moment. More disappointed. And she’d apologize, because whatever she tried didn’t work. Junia was scared nothing would. But she was glad the angel was trying. She started praying to Luna. She was supposed to pray to Aethon, but Aethon wasn’t pretty. It seemed like Luna’s angel was.

  The angel tried all day. She made the world all funky and slow. She made it fast. She once gave Junia a whole bunch of food and said she was gonna be alone for a while, and then only the angel got really slow for a really long time. She got scared the angel wouldn’t move again, since she was barely moving for so long. But by the time almost four meals had been eaten, the angel finally started moving again. Whatever she was trying for so long didn’t work.

  Aethon eventually went to bed for the night, and Luna’s light shone on her angel. It was in the moonlight that the string showed up. Like sewing threads, frayed and damaged all around the angel. It was almost like a spider’s web, blowing in a gentle breeze. It was so pretty. Each thread was teal and glowed like fireflies. Junia wanted to jump up and touch them, but she couldn’t. Her mother had told her to stay.

  Except… she felt like maybe she could. Just a little at a time. The threads touched her. They wove themselves into a knot inside her, and the larger the knot became, the more Junia could move. First, she could wiggle just her toes. Then she could curl her fingers. Sweat poured down the angel’s face, drenching her clothes as she directed the beautiful thread. The feeling of freedom felt like climbing a ladder. Junia’s feet touched the ground. Her hands gripped the seat. She heard a choked cry, and looked over to find Millie. Her little sister was at the center of her own threads.

  Luna had heard Junia, and she was going to help. It felt like the whole world was expanding as more and more teal light filled the room. After only a few minutes, it was brighter inside than it was during the day. It was a softer light, but a brighter one, and it exploded through the home.

  When it all settled down, Millie was screaming. The sound was so beautiful. It was so haunting. Knowing that Millie had wanted to cry for so long simply broke Junia. But hearing her finally let her panic out was soothing, in a strange way. Junia rushed for her before doing anything. She pulled her sister from her dead mother's arms and held her close. She squeezed her tight, whispering promises that everything was alright. Everything would be alright. Luna’s angel had saved them.

  She finally turned to the woman who had freed her, exhausted arms clinging to her baby sister. She wanted to thank the angel. She wanted to praise her. She wanted to explain that she understood Luna wasn’t bad, and that she’d prayed and prayed and prayed. She had so much to say, now that she actually had the ability to say it.

  But not a word came out. No matter how hard she tried, she choked on the words she wanted to say. Instead, she fell back on the seat she’d been trying to escape for so many days. The cry she’d needed finally escaped in long sobs that deprived her of breath. It was a cry that felt like bleeding, even louder than her sister’s wails. She was embarrassed to cry in front of the angel, but she couldn’t help it. She’d held far too much fear in far too small a body. She needed to cry, whether the angel was there or not.

  But the angel did something strange. Junia was so used to being quieted by grown-ups. She was so used to being calmed. Only her mother encouraged her to cry, and even her mom simply tried to offer comfort as she did. But one look at the angel’s face and Junia knew that wasn’t going to happen. Junia had been trapped by Aethon’s grace. Trapped in an obedience so perfect that the tears wouldn’t come.

  The angel must have been trapped somehow too, because she fell to her knees and wrapped Junia and Millie in a tight hug. She did what no grown-up had ever done when Junia was crying. She joined her, and she sobbed just as hard.

  It felt good to cry. It felt like water after days without it. It felt like a perfect panacea for wounds too deep to understand. All three of them understood that, and all three of them understood each other as they huddled together and wept.