Post by luinae on Jul 1, 2011 13:32:47 GMT 10
Title: Fairytale
Rating: PG
Character: Winnamine Balitang
Event: Donkey Discus
Words: 394
Summary: Winna gives Sarai a way out of the life that would trap her.
“I love him,” Sarai says. She’s leaned back on the stone wall, smiling up at the sun. It’s the first time since Mequen’s death that Winna has seen Sarai look alive with joy, not anger.
“I know,” Winna says quietly. She almost moves to take Sarai’s hand, but thinks better of it.
“Is it just a fairytale?” Sarai whispers. “The twice royal queen? Is it?”
She’s speaking like a child again and the sound of it nearly breaks Winna’s heart, because she knows that Sarai wants her to say that it will be all right, that everything will be fine. But Winna can’t make her lips form the words. Everything is not going to be all right. Some people aren’t going to get a happy ending.
“Do you think so?” Winna replies. Sarai’s shoulders slump.
She’ll do her duty, and Winna knows it. She’ll do her duty because she loves those people with every drop of blood in her veins, and she’ll hate every second of it. She’ll do it with all her fire and passion and love.
And it will be completely wasted.
“I should tell Ulasim,” Sarai says, half rising, her shoulders still slumped. “And I- I should tell Zaimid.”
“Wait,” Winna says, putting a hand on her arm to stop her step-daughter. “Dove would make a brilliant queen.”
“Can I?” Sarai’s face lights up with pure, unadulterated hope. “Can she win?”
“Do you think she can be queen?”
Sarai nods slowly, once, twice. “Better than me. But is it right?”
Winna fights off the memory of Sarugani asking her the same question- should I marry a man I don’t truly love and give the people their twice royal queen? Is it right? Sarugani had. Impulsively, she grips Sarai’s hand. “Your mother sacrificed everything for her people,” whispers Winna. “She sacrificed her spirit and her time and her love and even her life. Sarugani gave everything she had to her people. She had to. You don’t have to. Don’t make the same mistake.”
They sit like that for a long time, leaning on each other, taking turns crying into each other’s shoulders, until, finally, Sarai says, in a soft, very quiet voice, “Dove will be a wonderful queen.”
She looks very firmly into her step-mother’s eyes and squeezes Winna’s hands so tightly they hurt. “If it’s a boy, I’ll name him Mequen.”
Rating: PG
Character: Winnamine Balitang
Event: Donkey Discus
Words: 394
Summary: Winna gives Sarai a way out of the life that would trap her.
“I love him,” Sarai says. She’s leaned back on the stone wall, smiling up at the sun. It’s the first time since Mequen’s death that Winna has seen Sarai look alive with joy, not anger.
“I know,” Winna says quietly. She almost moves to take Sarai’s hand, but thinks better of it.
“Is it just a fairytale?” Sarai whispers. “The twice royal queen? Is it?”
She’s speaking like a child again and the sound of it nearly breaks Winna’s heart, because she knows that Sarai wants her to say that it will be all right, that everything will be fine. But Winna can’t make her lips form the words. Everything is not going to be all right. Some people aren’t going to get a happy ending.
“Do you think so?” Winna replies. Sarai’s shoulders slump.
She’ll do her duty, and Winna knows it. She’ll do her duty because she loves those people with every drop of blood in her veins, and she’ll hate every second of it. She’ll do it with all her fire and passion and love.
And it will be completely wasted.
“I should tell Ulasim,” Sarai says, half rising, her shoulders still slumped. “And I- I should tell Zaimid.”
“Wait,” Winna says, putting a hand on her arm to stop her step-daughter. “Dove would make a brilliant queen.”
“Can I?” Sarai’s face lights up with pure, unadulterated hope. “Can she win?”
“Do you think she can be queen?”
Sarai nods slowly, once, twice. “Better than me. But is it right?”
Winna fights off the memory of Sarugani asking her the same question- should I marry a man I don’t truly love and give the people their twice royal queen? Is it right? Sarugani had. Impulsively, she grips Sarai’s hand. “Your mother sacrificed everything for her people,” whispers Winna. “She sacrificed her spirit and her time and her love and even her life. Sarugani gave everything she had to her people. She had to. You don’t have to. Don’t make the same mistake.”
They sit like that for a long time, leaning on each other, taking turns crying into each other’s shoulders, until, finally, Sarai says, in a soft, very quiet voice, “Dove will be a wonderful queen.”
She looks very firmly into her step-mother’s eyes and squeezes Winna’s hands so tightly they hurt. “If it’s a boy, I’ll name him Mequen.”