// VERONA; THE BROKEN HEART IS MY COUNTRY.
yes, that salvation. i reached my hand out to it and brushed my knuckles against its cheek. the wind was the breath of the sky, and my heart swelled with the force of it all. "my bounty is as boundless as the sea," i murmured, against the brightly shivering body of night. to him, my salvation. "my love as deep. the more i give to thee, the more i have, for both are infinite." instead of a kiss, i received the black of his dark eyes. he fell from the balcony like a star, hands grasped tightly over nothing but the breath of the sky and the night, and i reached out— the whisper of his cheek still warm against my knuckles— and cried out to him. he disappeared into the garden and left me to my own empty confessions.
now my salvation trembles with an air of odd reality. it had a face, once— but i mustn't search for those eyes anymore. i bear the colder witness, for i must now emerge alone, and the salvation is a hungering thing. now i keep the thing alive myself without knowing why.
leaning deeper into water, the sigh skims over the surface like the wings of a little bird; or the fins of a bright fish. i dream of the loss. the surrender would be easy— to kill that salvation and to bury its spoiled bones. the quiet spills out of me.
and yet. i still! the salvation gazes up at me with bright beady eyes. it hungers. it reaches out with dirty, starving fingers. it wants— but i do not know what it searches for. i cannot kill it. it is a wondering creature, and it is wholly mine.
i crouch before it. my skirt drags in the dirt behind me, but i meet the thing's eyes. "salvation," i whisper, not daring to speak louder than the breath of the sky. "why do you not die?"
it is small and ugly. but it meets my eyes without fear. "for i am the Call," it replies. "and i call to you. listen to my voice and my deep hungers." it looks at me very carefully. "these hungers are yours."
i listen. there are voices. bright voices and jeweled ones, and they all look towards me with gladness. and when i look at the salvation again, following the sound of all that sky-breath-music, it glows with all the beauty and glory of heaven.
the gates open. the hills flower! the valleys are cavernous and flowing with milk and honey. the sky sings and the clouds sigh and burst with emerald rain. the dew is the sweat of the earth and the crystal that the flowers wear when they go to dance. it is here. i am here. i followed the call.
the salvation takes my hand. and i realize, with all the graceful power and might of a thunderstorm, that i am that strange salvation. i thought it heavy, but it was just the weight of my own heart.
so i turn to the Land. to the birds and the beasts and even the ugly dark things; who wait to be Called and claimed as well.
"my bounty is as endless as the sea!" i shout, hands splayed towards heaven. "my heart as deep!" i smile. the breath of the sky washes the gold light over my shoulders and back, outlining the distinct shape of two wings.
"the more i give to me, the more each has— for both are infinite."
i have listened. i have learned the lesson.
and now i Call.
// I REIGN.
fin.
