Don't paint wonderful lies on me that wash away
It felt like everything was coming apart around her. Images kept flashing before her, of the things they had done. Things they said they would do. Train together. Explore the ocean. Wander the Halo tundra and watch the stars, and come home together to a house by the sea. Laughing together around a table filled with their friends. There was an amphora waiting for him in a potter's store, filled to the brim with summer. It had ocean waves painted around it, surging and swaying, like the ocean in his eyes.
It was such a beautiful vision. A future, bright and full of color... and she kept stumbling over the way he said sorry, because it sounded too much like never. Would any of it happen now? Was this a forever goodbye? Was he leaving to never come back?
Would there ever be a someday for them?
She could have cried forever. Until exhaustion took her and unconsciousness set in. Until darkness fell and the moon rose to paint the end in the same silver hues as the beginning. Why was it that they met and parted under the same lighthouse? Was there some meaning in that? Some poetic reasoning, a prophetic foretelling?
But in the midst of her pain and surging emotions, she was touched by some other vision. Of a black nose and shimmering magpie wings reaching into a dark hollow, lit up by a blue glow that was not sunlight. Something petulant, sulky and selfish came with the image... like a child whining to take the monster away so the game of hide and seek could continue.
And somehow, that small contact with her mind broke through Maea's grief. Reached her, somehow, gave her something to focus on beyond the pain. Beyond Sunjata's arms around her and how damp his chest had become, stained with her tears. He held her so gently, seemed so calm, even though she could feel how his pulse raced under her hands.
She hiccuped softly, breath shuddering... but this time she could bite back the next swell of crying.
It was such a beautiful vision. A future, bright and full of color... and she kept stumbling over the way he said sorry, because it sounded too much like never. Would any of it happen now? Was this a forever goodbye? Was he leaving to never come back?
Would there ever be a someday for them?
She could have cried forever. Until exhaustion took her and unconsciousness set in. Until darkness fell and the moon rose to paint the end in the same silver hues as the beginning. Why was it that they met and parted under the same lighthouse? Was there some meaning in that? Some poetic reasoning, a prophetic foretelling?
But in the midst of her pain and surging emotions, she was touched by some other vision. Of a black nose and shimmering magpie wings reaching into a dark hollow, lit up by a blue glow that was not sunlight. Something petulant, sulky and selfish came with the image... like a child whining to take the monster away so the game of hide and seek could continue.
And somehow, that small contact with her mind broke through Maea's grief. Reached her, somehow, gave her something to focus on beyond the pain. Beyond Sunjata's arms around her and how damp his chest had become, stained with her tears. He held her so gently, seemed so calm, even though she could feel how his pulse raced under her hands.
She hiccuped softly, breath shuddering... but this time she could bite back the next swell of crying.
