This is mostly an introspective chapter for Bella, and more of Jane who will always be my favourite of the Volturi guard.

The theme of this story is recovery and getting better after trauma for the first while, so Bella won't be taking pills for long at all (I feel like this bothers some people, even though I haven't set it at the forefront like I was originally planning to, so I just wanted to say something to ease the possibly imaginary tension I feel ;0;)

I dropped my bag down on my new bed, eyeing the rest of the room.

It was spacious, by far larger than the house I had shared with Charlie up until recently in my life. The ceiling was high, although nowhere near as high as the beautiful library I had come from. The walls were a deep, forest green, with a very subtle raised pattern running along them. In the corners of the far wall, there were high wooden bookshelves that were built into the walls, much like at the library, that were still empty upon arrival.

Empty, I had thought in disappointment, I will have to buy some if I ever see the city on foot.

Between them, with couches and chairs trained toward it as some sort of living space, was a fireplace, currently unlit, and a neat stack of wood beside it.

"Will you be needing any help?" A meek voice asked from behind me.

I turned to see Jane leaning awkwardly against the door-frame. Over her shoulder I could see Aro dusting absentmindedly, picking up books and knick knacks, moving the duster to clean the invisible dust.

"I'm just going to put my stuff away, but you're welcome to stay, and talk?" I mumbled the last part out like a question almost, but she nodded eagerly, and gracefully dropped herself onto my bed.

"I have yet to see my brother since we got back," Jane mused, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Do you all leave often?" I asked, shoving clothes into a drawer. If only I knew a place to put the pills away, out of sight...

Jane broke my train of thought, "sometimes we do, but not too often if it isn't on official business. We shop, occasionally, and sometimes a few of us will go a few cities over, to hunt," she moved a hand up to rub her jaw, although I knew the gesture wasn't needed, "Aro never said he went out."

"He did, Jane dear," Aro's melodic voice called from the adjacent room, "there was an issue in France, but they are all on their way back. Don't fret."

I walked over to the closet, a beautiful walk in one I would probably never fill, and placed my duffel back down inside, pills rattling slightly.

Right back to old habits, hiding your pills in a closet, my mind taunted at me. I shook my head as I closed the door behind me.

In the center of the room, which was still an almost empty space despite all the furniture already inside, there sat a lone, ivory piano with gold woven in spirals around it's legs. I closed the lid over the keys, and latched the lock over the ends, knowing for certain I would probably not ever be playing it, so as not to think too much of him.

Jane was looking at me curiously from her spot on the bed, and I realized that my breath had hitched it my throat. Her brow was etched in worry as she scrutinized me.

"Okay?" She said the word like a question, and I worked to smooth my breathing back out. As I began to breath again her face relaxed, and she nodded at me almost encouragingly. Giving a meek smile towards her, I sat down at the piano, resting my head in my hands.

Under my eyelids danced all the worries I had for my time being in the castle.

Within my first few hours, I knew that trying to learn the layout of the castle was fruitless. With so many hallways, and so many different wings on different floors, I had mostly given up on the idea and accepted that I would need someone to help me out a bit.

My other, possibly more pressing worry, was their diet.

Everyone that I had met within the castle walls, barring the very few human staff, shared the same, unmistakable ruby red eyes. I had not been indifferent to the comment earlier on about Marcus being out feeding, but it wasn't like I could protest the idea of them feeding off of humans - they were vampires after all, and I had known what I was getting myself into when I told Jane I'd live it out for a bit.

I longed, in an odd sense, to instead be where Carlisle was. Not even particular for Edward, but because if I was doomed to live out my human life with vampires, it seemed better to be with my vampires.

I wondered briefly, if that would even be an option if I ever saw them again, but resigned myself mostly against the idea. Originally, I had come out here with the intention to search for them after I was changed, but I was no longer sure if I ever wanted to be reunited with them again.

Alice's soft, pixie-like face danced behind my eyelids, and recognition flared inside me as I realized why I had taken so easily to Jane - they were strikingly similar, even in appearance. Jane seemed like a young, blonde Alice, although I knew Jane was far older than Alice was by a long shot.

"Jane?"

"Mm?"

"How old are you?"

There was a pause before she spoke again.

"I was born year eight hundred and fourteen, so that would make both Alec and I twelve hundred and four?" The end came out like a question.

I lifted my head to look at her, and she was sitting up too, staring back with her crimson eyes.

"Do you not know exactly?"

"Calendars weren't exactly a thing back then, and we were a village that had only been around for a few hundred star cycles, and we didn't follow the same time as the rest of the world. We don't even know what month we were born in, or even what sign we were," she looked distraught, and I wondered what she meant by 'star cycles,' perplexed at what kind of village she had grown up in.

"Star cycles?"

She blinked, seeming confused at first that I didn't understand, before her face lit up.

"My people believed that we were all the descendants of stars, and instead of birthdays, you celebrated at a giant feast held for your zodiac sign. We believed that the stars were all gods, that they would protect us, keep us warm, bring us good crops, and that they decided all," she looked wistful, far away, "I always wondered what it would be like to walk off into the stars, to have them all wave to me as I leave off on a journey through the cosmos,"

"What sign were you?" I asked - surely, her answer could solve her age for her.

"I don't remember, and neither does Alec. Sometimes, we like to say we were probably Gemini. It would be so fitting - twins born under the sign of the twins."

I began to compare her again, to Alice. Neither of them could remember the important bits of their lives enough to piece it together. I wondered, briefly, if in another life they would have gotten along as family, as their personalities were so similar in their ba-

Jane interrupted my thoughts again, by coming into view and pressing a smooth, cool object into my palm. I looked down and inspected the object, perplexed, before realizing it was a rock that had been chiseled into the shape of a star and put on a necklace. On the front of the star, her name was engraved in small, neat letters.

jane

"Alec has one just like this with his name, they were made for us by an elder lady in the village. I remember that I loved her dearly, like family almost, but I can't remember her name either," she looked sad, distant, "I remember that we were sacred to our village; they believed that twins were a gift from the stars, but that wasn't enough to save us when we were accused of witchcraft from our projecting gifts. The Gods in the stars condemned witchcraft and all sorts of magic, according to our legends. I wish I could have gotten to read them after I was turned but..."

"They were written down?" I asked her, and she smiled down at me sadly.

"They were, but Aro and Caius destroyed the village when they turned us, as they'd been seen by the humans there - they bit us to turn us in front of them. They burned it all down. Alec and I went back not long after to find what survived, and only stones and metals remained."

I looked off at the windows, seeing that the sun would be going down soon, imagining this strange, fairy tail sounding village that worshiped the stars.

"Alec and I visited the neighboring village a few times, and we had met our extended family there. They spoke the same language as we had in our lives, but it was slightly different, a different dialect. They obviously knew we were-" she trailed off, trying to find the right word, testing them in her head, "-something else, but they didn't ask questions at all, and assumed that since we had survived the destruction of the village, we must be blessed like they assumed so, with special powers. This village was much more accepting of gifts, encouraged them even - that's why my mother's sister ran away to it, to be with my Uncle somewhere she would be accepted."

She looked off into the window too now, watching it turn to a soft orange as she talked. I shivered slightly, as I thought of the fires destroying her home.

"We met our aunts, uncles, and our cousins, they told us amazing stories. We tried to soak up as much of the lore that they knew as we could, but we knew it was flawed, somehow. They didn't have the sacred books that our village had kept," I heard her stop breathing before she spoke again, "They died off ten years after the last village did, and the people no longer had that same spark that they did when we had first contacted them. They no longer believed. They had gone through two harvests with almost nothing, and people starved to death. The older ones were still holding on, believing that the stars would save them, do what's best for them. We had visited again far too late, and left before making ourselves known. We couldn't do it." She spat the last bit out, venom in her voice.

A throat was cleared behind her, and we turned, me horribly slowly compared to her, to see a thin, blonde boy, just as doll-like as Jane, standing in the doorway.

"But," he began, picking up the story where she left off, "we wrote down the versions that our aunt and uncle had told us, and they had to have been close, even if we can't remember anything. And we have everything from the neighboring village that was left after they passed on."

He then nodded his head to me to acknowledge me, "Bella, Jane, I was told to come get you two. We are going to be going to the throne room, where they've arranged for everyone to be so Aro can introduce you. Would you be ready now?"

I nodded my head at Alec, wordlessly taking his hand to shake it before we left.