AMALIA
THE SHIELD OF SAFRIN
i think it's beautiful how a star's light
Has she ever seen him so fragile, so anxious, so open and exposed? Has she ever seen him afraid before, of the future, of what might be? Not like this- and as much as it hurts her to see him shudder, it makes her love him more. More than mountain, more than mettle, Deimos is a man beneath it all, a thing that can break and fall apart but doesn't, doesn't, and she is proud of him for it.travels the universe long after it dies
Her hand continues to trace his face, their breathing intermingling as their foreheads rest upon each other, eyes closed tight against the world, the rest of it left behind. The demons they carry, the mountains they wield, the crushing failures and inadequacies that settle on their shoulders - she exhales them in one shared breath, willing them to fall away like raindrops in a storm. Believe, she wants to whisper to him, to sing into his mind. You do not have to carry your ghosts alone.
Okay, he says, a single word that gives her more than she expected, fills her with a bliss she cannot name. Smiling, the baker raises her chin again, lips pressing once more into his: softly, gently, promises unsaid, faith given freely again and again. He has never let her down, never asked for anything she has not wanted to give; he has never done anything but give himself freely, and she does not understand how he does not see it, how he has managed to eclipse his own light with doubt.
Again Amalia pulls away, her forehead still on his. "I love you, Deimos," she whispers into the space between them, her fingers in his beard. "No matter what you choose."
That's what I want to be in this world —
someone whose light lingers after I'm gone
