*****

Let me fight, she prays in tears she does not feel rolling down her numb face,
let me make up for everything.

The grace that touches her diminishes her, turns her name into Light from Lightning. A symbol.
It’s enough for her. It’s enough for her, twenty-one and relieved and oblivious, taking her sister into her arms without realizing the destruction of one third of cocoon. It’s enough for her, she who has forced a child onto the ground instead of allowing him to pity the dead. If she can be anything other than destruction, any force to protect and serve at all, she’d fight for it.

But would you fight for a thousand years? Comes the inquiry, wordless and emotionless,
almost a reflection on water. This is dedication without reward or end. You will bruise. You could lose.
We might all inevitably perish, even if it would be at the end of days.

She nods.

I’d fight for a million.

(I’d fight for anyone and everyone that is not me.)

*****