ii.
You've seen it once. You've seen it a thousand times.
You'll cast a glance on her, sitting, (cold), surrounded by smiling faces, and you'll think you know her. (With a cute little dress made out of leather and eyes like blood.) She is tortured, you will say, just like the rest of us. She's nothing special around here. She's just the same as anyone in Spira. She is Spira; breathing only when the world breathes and only happy when there's no chance of danger.
Her lips are not smiling. Her beautiful eyes are not sparkling. (The prettiest tortue he's ever seen.) So, you will think you know that she lost her love and she is pained when her eyes brush over that boy who looks just like him. You will think you know what she feels when, and it's an accident, she glances ever-so-calmly at the man she can't love. (Getting along isn't enough.) And she did. She does. But, that's not... If he could ever get the story right, you'd understand. You'd see the way her hand clenched around his sometimes when no one else was looking. And you'd know that he'll never complain if she burns him because he's hurting her too, and he doesn't know many things, but the one thing he knows the best is that she'd be better off without him.
She can handle it on her own and her eyes made from blood will hold her up and pin her to the sky.
She won't let you in, but you know this too.
And when the beast finally falls into that bottomless blue ocean and it won't ever come up again, not ever, do you think she'll even remember what peace felt like? She's the calmest woman you've ever seen, but the Calm scares her more than she'd like to admit. There is something on just the edge of her memory. (Mother. Roses. Smoke. Ebony. Orange. Safety. Safety. Safety.) That's what she needs the most these days.
Now, her eyes will still look just like blood and her skin will still be five shades too pale and her hair will still be done up in dark braids down her shoulders. But she'll see. She'll see crystal clear. Not death and the beast. (Sin was never her worst fear anyway, really.) Her memories. (Scattered and falling and wonderful.)
She'll see future.