Book X: Sunlight
Sunlight is not a living being, yet it is an absolute source of life. Without Sunlight, the planet would be nothing more than frozen debris floating in the darkness. Sunlight has no eyes, no hands, no legs, no mouth. And still it peeks through windows, reaches out to caress cloth and muscle with warm fingers, dances with the shadows of billowing curtains and moving limbs, and delights in it all with silent musical laughter.
It has no voice or heart, but it glistens across the sweat of skin with a loving whisper. It glows with a playful passion, urging the lives under its gaze to break free and surrender to the chaos of peace. To melt and struggle within the serene tempest of life until boundaries no longer exist. Until there is only the thought of that moment, stretching out and engulfing all of the past, present and future.
Sunlight is a life-force. It should be no surprise, then, to know that this life-force created the force of life called Fate. While Sunlight can reach far, it cannot reach deep nor determine which lives it will nurture and shape. It was never meant to do so, because it must be unconditional with its tenderness and relentless with its cruelty toward all life, be it hated or loved by those around it.
Fate, on the other hand, seeks the strings of hearts where Sunlight cannot interfere or reach. It is a common misconception that Fate creates these threads which she plucks and weaves with such meticulous care. They are, in fact, born of the hearts which they are bound to. Fate does nothing more than strengthen the ties that bind, spreading cloistered webs and cinching knots tight in constantly changing patterns.
She is not always gentle, she is not always kind, and she is not always infallible. Fate is not the one who created the threads, after all, and it is not for her to decide if the hearts of those she weaves together will see or accept the tapestry of truth she has made. Sunlight, for all its objectivity, adores the artistry of Fate. Threads previously unseen glimmer and sing beneath its warm touch, becoming slack in the heat so that Fate can weave the strings with an ever more intricate and delicate hand.
At the end of the day one would think Sunlight was gone, but that's far from true. Moonlight is just a reflection of Sunlight through the darkness of night. Brightly curious peeking becomes a mysterious sidelong glance, warm nimble fingers become cool and languid, swift dancing eases to a sensual rhythm, and silent tinkling laughter becomes the sweet sad humming of a lullaby.
The threads of the heart are drawn out again with dreams, shimmering in the pale light. Moonlight watches with a soft gaze as Fate continues weaving her tapestries with the strings those lives may not even know exist within their own minds. Colors are lost and blended as gold turns silver, tangled limbs have no end or beginning, heartbeats and slow breathing echo at the same pace.
All is right with the world in that sublime moment, and Sunlight continues to watch through the lazy eye of the moon as Fate smiles with satisfaction at her work.
[ Just to be clear: I was neither drunk nor high when I wrote this. Yeah, I know it's totally existential and DEEP, dude. But, seriously, that's kind of how the underlying current of chapter 10 in the main fic was. I warned you it would be romanticized with flowery metaphysical prose, didn't I?!
Actually...that's kind of how the whole story is...
I love you all. XD ]