prayed to keep my soul
E
lliana is no lamb. That role belongs solely to her mother.
But neither has she ever been a wolf or a snake, she is a ghost of them, all of them, flittering in and out and around all that is in existence. “You had to be, once,” she says, not believing everyone is or was a child. She knows in the forests of Dawn things are are not born but made. She knows out in the oceans that things are made there too. All the most beautiful, wild, captivating things are made and not born. This is why she keeps picking up a paintbrush, pushing it over canvas, thinking she can make things too, because Elliana was born and not made. Born of love, born of hunger. Of sunlight and shadows.
She knows better than most that children are not gentle. She has seen them gnash their teeth at death as it drags them under, has seen them fight hard, so hard to stay alive. And then in death they fight harder still. There are still those who are quiet in death, who watch the living pass by with wide, expectant, curious eyes, but they are not gentle. Thoughtful, inquisitive: yes, but far from gentle.
There is a chill that Avesta casts down Elli’s spine, like a wave washing over shore. It tells her everything she needs to know, as her hair stands straight, and a familiar warmth creeps up her legs. She knows, oh the little bridge knows. You should know too Avesta, about that bridge. You walked across it once, even if it was flooded, you walked across all the same.
There are so devastatingly close, and she should be fearful, but fear is really just a shield to protect you from death. Elli was born from the dead, they put air into her lungs and opened her eyelids. They stirred her limbs and beat against her heart. Everyone is scared of death, but Elli has never had a reason to be. Not when it encompasses everything she knows.
Speak with certainty.
“You are dead.”
The world devours uncertain things.
“At least, I think you are supposed to be.”
Her neck lifts away and where she should feel cool without her skin against her own, Elliana feels only a rush of warmth, as if her very touched had chilled her blood. “If you are the world,” she says and turns her blue eyes back to the mirror. “Then show me how it devours.”
@Avesta elliana speaks
elliana
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