Disclaimer: Not mine, not affiliated with the people who own her. Don't sue me, please.
Written for the fandomarcana Queen of Swords challenge.
Queen of Swords:
Great sorrow
leads to both difficulty dealing with things and to great spiritual
depth. This card can also help you recognize the inner reasons
someone may be overly structured, focused, or rigid.
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Elektra remembers so clearly being five years old and being lead to bed by her mother, she remembers. Her mother's perfume clings even after a shower, and smells like tea roses and soap. She remembers the the blue fabric of her mother's bathroom, the pale pink of her own nightgown. She remembers soft carpet, then chilly wood, then soft carpet under her bare feet. She remembers being lifted up to kiss her father goodnight, she remembers that she never really wanted to.
Now I lay me down to sleep
She remembers being at her bed, her bear arranged beside her, paws in a prayerful position. She remembers the stippled patterns her bedroom rug left on her knees, she remembers clasping her hands carefully, each finger perfectly aligned. She remembers the tiny nightlight blinking the corner of her eye, the plastic cup with dinosaurs on it, half full of water with one ice cube, that was always on her bedside table. She remembers her mother's cold, soft hand against her cheek.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
She remembers the tiny rip in her pink-and-blue quilt, just at eye level when she knelt.
If I should die before I wake
A world of order, of
colors and sunsets like a macaw's wings, rolls through her
If I should die before I wake
Thirty words. Thirty-one syllables.
If
Elektra can't remember ever believing in God.
I should die
She believes in the finality of death, in human cruelty and, sometimes, in a person's capacity for compassion or forgiveness. And vengeance.
before I wake
She believes in a mother's love.
I pray
Elektra isn't sure what God is.
the Lord my soul
Or even if God is, but if God is, she thinks he is in the details.
to take
Repetition of movement, carefully counted steps, numbers in threes and fives and elevens.
If I should die before I wake