AMALIA
THE SHIELD OF SAFRIN
i think it's beautiful how a star's light
He doubts, he doubts, he doubts. Amalia cannot understand it, his endless doubt in himself of all things. How can he question the devotion of a mountain, the stalwart nature of a glacier, the inherent goodness of a lighthouse in the storm?travels the universe long after it dies
She will sing his truth until he hears it, until he sings it back. You are good, you are good, you are good.
Her hand stays flush against his cheek as he leans into her fingers, a gentle caress, a reassurance, a guard for his unraveling. She keeps it there as he shakes his head, trying to steady him, to bring him back to her. Black eyes bore into his blue, a flaring memory of that day, the day he denied something else she told him on the banks of another body of water, beneath another sun. Then, too, she had held him, had touched him, had forced him to see the light he carried, the things she knew and saw and loved. I think I love you, she told him then, honestly for honesty is all she has to give him.
You are so much more than that, she says today, and gods if he hasn't proven as much time and time again. Their hands are entwined, their fingers locked, his cheek abandoned for his palms, but Amalia does not look away. She watches with attentive eyes each smile that threatens upon his face, the trembling lines, the heavy sigh, the things he leaves unsaid. "They will answer," she says simply, confident in her faith (confident in him, and now she has two things to believe in- the beings for whom she is a shield, and the man who is a sword for her). "I will go with you, if you like. If... if it is something you want."
For he has to want it, has to ask, has to be committed to this thing, to flying at her side. She tries to hide her own intentions, her investment in the idea- but oh, she cannot subdue her trembling, the way her fingers squeeze on his, the eagerness on her angular face. To hold and be held, to rise by his side, to dance through clouds far from the blight, while the burdens they bear are left far behind.
It is all she wants, and she wants it with him, and she wants him to want it with her.
That's what I want to be in this world —
someone whose light lingers after I'm gone
