[open] this fire inside me; anyone

[Kamaria]

S he stands bathed in the gentle blue light that has been present with her since the eclipse. She is not alone — a host of tiny stars float in the salt-tinged air around her, the ocean’s song whispers against her ears, and a four-pronged stag crafted of stardust grazes alongside her. The darkness of the night laps against the edges of her glow, but it makes the night peaceful rather than frightening. She cannot think of a time she has been truly afraid. Kamaria had felt no fear when her mother’s haunted eyes had caught the way the shadows lurked during the eclipse and they had raced home. When she began to explore beyond her parents’ reach, she felt bravery and curiosity. She had not worried when Loess’s red clay drowned and the familiar trails of her home became the ocean’s floor. She has always had something to surround her, always some way to protect herself from the dangers of this world. The wind blows off the sea toward her, pushing navy-streaked tendrils of her forelock against the dumortierite freckles on her cheeks before they caress the curve of her neck. The stag’s head lifts from among the yellowing, dried grass and turns toward the darkness. One navy-dipped ear twisting is the only indication that there’s someone (or something) lingering just outside the cool blue of her glow.

credit to nat of adoxography.