Page 103 of Beyond the Shadowed Earth
My life.
Waiting and waiting. The loneliness threatening, always, to swallow her whole.
But she didn’t let it. Planning, waiting. Bribes and promises. Searing jealousy.
Lonely, lonely.
A vial of poison, cold against her breast.
Dark drops poured between papery lips.
His last rattling breath.
A crown, heavy on her brow.
The people kneeling before her.
Still so lonely.
Niren—there and yet not there. A shadow. A fear.
Dark eyes and dark skin shining in the moonlight. Lips pressed warm against hers. Fingers tangled in her hair.
Happiness.
The bite of a knife under her jaw.
He never wanted her.
It is too much for her. The sorrow has swallowed the Starlight.
There is a little left. Enough, I think, to save her.
Do not fear the sorrow.
It may yet save you.
It may yet save you.
In the dark before the mirrors, Eda lifted her head. Starlight pulsed still inside of her, a faint, tremulous spark. She reached for it, reached and reached, and when she had caught it, she held it tight, an ember burning. Hope.
Sorrow is powerful,Tuer had said.It can extinguish love and life, death and time.
And perhaps, perhaps—
It could free her.
She stretched her hands out toward the mirrors, holding on to the Starlight inside of her. She reached for the sorrow, calling it into her, into the Starlight.
The sorrow came and came. The Starlight ate it, swelling until it blazed out of her with the fury of the summer sun.
Still it ate, and still the sorrow came. The chains fell off, link by link. The mirrors shattered outward, shards of glass piercing her heart.
And then the Starlight could eat no more, but the sorrow wasn’t finished.
On it came, swelling inside of her, more and more and more, fusing together with the Starlight in her soul. She burned with pain and grief, with a strength her body could not contain.
Her bones stretched and cracked. Thorns pierced her knuckles.
