a pebble, a precious gift | Glowfic Constellation

singer-and-song

"...m'okay," she says after a while. "More okay than I've been in years. Just - a lot."

to better see the light

"Yeah, I can tell. It's all right, I don't mind.

Just north of mist,
along the border,
half a color
from the water,

under the kiss
of shadow’s daughter,
(two breaths backward,
one word upward),

past the rumpled
terra cotta,
down the salve
of templed sorrow,

up the scales
of Bach, and Buddha,
down the moon
of broken solder,

through the eyes
of someone’s father,
in the grass
beside the water;

one part liar,
one part seer,
one part lyric,
one part scholar,

this is the walk
we come to wander,
one part illness,
one part healer."

[source]

singer-and-song

Oh. That - okay.

"Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s- it's- I don't remember how it goes from here."

(Her memory isn't perfect, but she read that poem over and over. She does. Poetry is easier than finding her own words, but not easy.)

to better see the light

She thinks for a moment, and then -

"—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like - write it - like disaster.

Yeah."

[source]

singer-and-song

"Yeah," she echoes.

Slowly, she leans into Pradnakt, and then freezes, waiting for her to react.

to better see the light

She leans back. "It really is okay. Not great, but. Okay."

singer-and-song

Permission granted, she lets herself curl up against Pradnakt. "She's alive, isn't she? So yeah. Okay."

(Daira allowed herself to check, once a year. Alive, not taken by the Sith, not victim to a thousand of the small accidents that could befall someone, alive.)

to better see the light

"Yeah. And we'll find her. Even if she's not where you left her, that's quite the connection you have." She pets her hair.

singer-and-song

She leans in Pradnakt's hand and tries to pretend she isn't crying again.

"Can I show you? How she - felt, I mean."

to better see the light

She nods. "Go ahead."

singer-and-song

Clumsily, she pushes goldgoldgold, light and notes like chimes and below them the rushing depth of a waterfall and the pounding of blood in her ears and everything bent towards that light and noise like flowers opened to the sun.

to better see the light

"Lovely."

singer-and-song

"She was," sighs Daira. "- is. She glowed with it."

to better see the light

"Yeah."

singer-and-song

"Only when I was there - that doesn't make sense, when I think about it. She had this Force-energy, so much of it, and when I touched her she lit up like a beacon, and it was so obvious..."

to better see the light

"That's - you're - twins, probably? Force connections are stronger between family; what you're describing would be rare, even for twins, but not impossible."

singer-and-song