AMALIA
THE SHIELD OF SAFRIN
i think it's beautiful how a star's light
This is her third time descending these stairs, her third time falling into oblivion, her third time chasing gas and ghosts and plummeting down into the dark. And though she is stronger, better equipped, though she knows her purpose and her companions and her goals- though Amalia is brave and ardent and enthralled, she is also terrified, woefully afraid, for herself, for her friends, for her goddess, for her world.travels the universe long after it dies
Sending a mental pulse to Remi (and a smaller one to Ashetta, who she does not know well but who her friends trust, a spitfire in a pint-sized shell), Amalia nods to Ronin and Deimos, staring out from inside the confines of the earthy, claustrophobic mask.
One by one they fall into line: Deimos first, her beacon, her sword, the stalwart guide through the inky darkness, and she wishes he could feel her mind, the tumultuous waves of admiration and adoration. Remi, the lion, her gentle friend, sunny despite all storm and shadow, open and honest and close without words, suddenly dear, suddenly kin. Ashetta, the assassin, who until scarcely over a week ago Amalia had though to be an enemy, her threats against Rory infuriating and frightening (the first time, the first time, and oh how things have changed since then-), now an unlikely ally, another lost soul.
And then there is Ronin. Ronin, the dying. Ronin, the king. Ronin, whose love of Safrin rivals her own, who Amalia somehow understands, who she feels safer being herself around than any of them, because in some strange way they are cut from the same fabric, made from the same flaws and mistakes. "After you, your majesty," Amalia murmurs, wry and dry behind her mask, gesturing for him to lead the way. "If you fall down again Remi will kill me."
Amalia falls in behind the starboy, the last in a silent line of doomed souls.
That's what I want to be in this world —
someone whose light lingers after I'm gone
