The white canopy bed with sheer pink drapes and orchid silk bedding. The full-length mirror surrounded by twinkling white fairy lights that made her feel like a princess every time she checked her reflection--like she did now. The mural she and her mom had started the winter before she turned ten. It was the one thing she could not take with her and the one thing she would miss the most. "You're being silly," Stella told her reflection. "Oxford is months away. Besides,"--she smoothed an errant strand of honey-blonde hair--"you can always autoport home whenever you want." Her gaze shifted to the reflected view of the unfinished forest scene on her wall. A happy composition of deep green pine trees, rainbow colored songbirds, smiling woodland creatures, and the glow of tree faeries among the branches. That winter they had spent hour after hour painting, while Daddy worked tirelessly on his new curriculum for the Academy. Hours of laughing and sweating and painting each other on the nose.
