Amalia
A deeper conversation is all I want from you-
"I'm fine." It's a lie, of course. When did she become a liar? Somewhere between the barrier falling and Zariah's self-proclaimed queenship, perhaps- or maybe it was even earlier than that. Maybe she was born with a little bit of a liar in her, and it is that quality that allows her to always try, to fool the world into believing she's worth something.To fool herself into believing that one day it will be true.
Rory sits beside her, and Amalia reaches up instinctively, wrapping her arm around his shoulders, placing her head on his. When did they become a family? Long Night? The Spire?
Or maybe that, too, happened earlier. Maybe everyone born in this place is family, in a way. Sometimes distant, often dysfunctional, but family nonetheless. Their world has always been too small for the people inside not to be a family, because if they turned on each other there was no escape, no recourse or room for wars and turmoil when the world is a snowglobe with murderous walls.
Now, though? Now the snowglobe is shattered open, and the liquid is gone, and they don't know how to breathe. Now the family is turning in on itself, eating from the inside out, poisoned by outside hatred and conflict until nobody knows who they can trust.
(Amalia trusts him.)
"Do you think it will be okay, Rory?"
- I want the words you're afraid to say:
the lonely ones you keep hidden
between the folds of your heart
