A M A L I A
Safrin calls her darling one, and the lonely baker blooms beneath this affirmation that resembles something like praise. Happily she smiles, for a moment content to believe in the impossible - that she is special, that she matters, that it is her piety which has earned this attention, her inherent goodness that brings about the goddess' grace. Oh, most of her knows this is unlikely, untrue, but the girl cannot help but succumb to hope: to have her prayers answered is more than she could have asked, and Amalia is content, for now, to bask in the unlikely success, denying the insecurity which often plagues her thoughts. It will still be there tomorrow, after all.
The promise of answers is greater than any gift Safrin could offer: knowledge is something the young loreseeker values, even if she does not have a great deal of it yet. "I have so many questions" the girl confesses, bashful and earnest, eager and shy. "And you have answered so many already. I want to know everything, all about the world, both here and outside, and the Old Ones, and- and you-" She stops suddenly, catching herself and drawing short before her tongue can continue to run away. A blush spreads across her cheeks and she turns her eyes back to the floor. Her mother would say she needs to slow down. Her grandmother would tell her to keep learning all she can.
"Safrin," Amalia repeats, the name a quiet caress on her heavy tongue. It feels like a secret, an allowance of closeness scarcely earned. To be familiar with a goddess - an avatar of her god! - ah, but it is both exhilarating and terrifying, and the baker wonders not for the first time if this is actually real. Her promises are drops in the cup of Amalia's happiness, filling the girl's heart more than she thought anything could. The soft caress of Safrin's fingers glitters like starlight upon her cheek, and Amalia can hear her own breath quicken as the goddess makes an invitation Amalia cannot refuse. "I- I do!" she answers quickly. "Want to be closer. I want to serve, to be better, I..."
Dark eyes close with a shuddering sigh, her voice a whispered confession, a plea. "I want to be better," the girl repeats, laying bare the deepest wish of her heart. "To be good enough to earn their love. To be... better."
