Disclaimer: Aly isn't mine, I am merely borrowing her.
Aly - Freedom Isn't Just A Word: Freedom. It's a word that I've always liked. The connotations always seemed to match me perfectly. I was the wild child, the free-spirited one of my family. I was the one who was always playing pranks, always laughing, never taking anything seriously. I thought I was free, but I wasn't. I was simply drifting, without a meaning or purpose.
Then I decided to go for a sail to Port Legann. That was when the pirates got me, but somehow I think they would never have been there if it hadn't been for Kyprioth. He's my patron god, and my Da's too, once. He wagered me that I couldn't keep four noble children alive for a summer. Of course, it was the older two he cared about... and besides that, he wanted to draw me into his 'great trick.'
That trick was revolution. The raka of the Copper Isles were sick of being downtrodden by the white, or luarin, invaders. Kyprioth, their god, wanted his Isles back from Mithros and the Goddess. So they plotted and planned, waiting for the promised queen, the girl who would be royal through both the luarin and raka lines. They needed her, and they needed the four attendants in the prophecy; the strong one, the warrior, the wise one, and the cunning one. That last was me. The daughter of one of Tortall's spymasters and its' king's Champion, I got myself caught up in the raka and their fight for freedom.
Sarai. Dove. Sarai was the one everyone thought was to be queen, but it could never work out like that. She was too hot-headed, too fiery. She ran away, for love and her own type of freedom, and it was up to Dove to prove she had what was needed. And she did. There was war in the streets of Rajmuat. We lost many that we would mourn, but we won. And that was when I began to learn what freedom meant.
But only now do I truly see, staring up at the ceiling in a darkened bedroom. Nawat is lying next to me; he is as human as I am, yet once he was a crow. I love him and he loves me, and that is freedom in its entirety. To be with someone and to be able to truly be yourself, no strings attached. Love and freedom are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. And so now I see that freedom, with all its connotations, is far more than a word. It's an all encompassing feeling, a burning desire. People are willing to die to achieve it; love can bring it in ways you would never see. The dream of it, the ideal it seems to be, fills our minds and our hearts. The need of it runs in our blood. It is what makes live and breathe, it is why we continue to exist. We are made to be free, to fly in our hearts if not in reality, and there is simply no other way to say it.
A/N: Whoa. I'm not exactly sure where this went. I think I like it, but I certainly wasn't planning it.