FLORENTINE
always one decision away from a totally different life
None have passed by them. Though they stand together in the atrium of the Dusk Court citadel, surrounded by doors and windows and intricately carved stone, no one has dared pass by the sovereign and her visitor.
Though they pull away, the air stretches between them. They are bound – hearts and minds and souls. That day Bexley and Florentine met in the summer grasses, they became so complexly intertwined.
Hurt was their bedfellow, it pulled them apart and now pushes them back together. Closer, closer it urges and obediently the girls had listened. But now they stand, older, wiser, but no less broken than they had made each other that one terrible day.
Thank you. It is spoken in a whisper, it is a kiss upon the shell of Florentine’s ear. Her head tilts and her lips lift up, welcoming, adoring. “Always.” She says simply, softly, for of course it was simple. Florentine would always help her sister of gold and wild love.
Oh but then Bexley turns the lamp upon Florentine. The Dusk girl turns her face away, to better drink in this court of hers with its healers, its stone and its art. “I am-“ And she pauses, wondering just what she is, ‘well.” Such a tentative response, though she smiles to warm such a word, to make it more believable.
But then she laughs, free and bright and earnest. “How have I not changed?” Florentine murmurs still laughing like bells, still drinking in this court of hers. Then she turns to look at Bexley. “I have learned so many things. I have been hurt so many times and loved so many more. I am a queen, with all the responsibilities that come with that. I have upset people, tended to the dying…” A small, sad laugh is all she has left, then. “So many things, Bexley Briar. But I am glad you are here, so that I might see what has become of you, and you of me.”
A wing reaches out, a golden feather sweeping back the wave of Bexley’s fringe to reveal her scar. “You will always have love here. I did not lie to you that day I said I loved you.”
@
★ She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future ★
