A puzzled frown replaced the smile, and flustered green eyes turned to the celestial bodies, as though turning to them for an answer. Her heart seemed to skip a beat, and a worry, like an anxiety, festered in her mind. Like a bad thought that refused to go away, a nightmare that refused to end, a lie...
...now revealed to be the truth.
I knew the pain had faded, the more I accepted it, but I'd placed it to be simply to be because I'd had little time to dwell in sorrow. Because I was busy. Because I wasn't focusing on it. Because I had other things on my mind. Because I was trying to make the pain less bearable. Because... Because...
But the pain was there! I know it was. I never thought it had actually receded, just the sensation of it. And never... ever... gone...
Yet it was. Try and search as she did, Ishtar could find no trace of the emotion that had stung like an unhealed wound. No trace. No clue. Not even a shadow. As though all the 'stab' was, was a papercut.
A queer, calm emptiness took its place.
As though she'd finally waken, after sleeping in dreams for a long time. As though her eyes were finally open. As though everything before that moment had happened to someone else. As though... she'd been born again, but right this time.
Born in the light this time, instead of the darkness. Born seeing this time, instead of blind.
Could it be? Could things really have changed so quickly? Could my... heart have... turned, so quickly?
Maybe... Maybe it was there all a long, and I've simply been searching for reasons to ignore that feeling. Searching for distractions so that the space, now there... So that I wouldn't have to admit... That my feelings have changed...
I still love him. Darres. I can feel it in the way he makes me feel warm inside, even if I have to escape first in order to induce it. But, I guess, that love has... changed.
Softened.
Is that because... I...
As a princess, I thought I needed a knight. I thought I wanted a knight. But perhaps, just perhaps...
Ishtar turned to look at the sleeping ball of fur on her bed. On the first person - if I can call Duzie that - that she had been able to freely show affection for. Affection that ran... how deep...
A knight is for a princess.
But a queen... needs a king.
The End.
- Again, on the list to be revise (though whether I get to it or not is another thing). Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! Thanks! -