Family Affair

I was orphaned during my eigth summer, and my sister...well, she died months later, and for the first time since that day, I do not recall..how. It used to haunt my nightmares, yet now...I barely remember her. My parents, too..distant, vague, like trying to recall a dream. So long was I alone, until Treasure...took me into her family, and yet I never truly stepped into what she offered, I kept myself from it, and oddly, I do not recall why. It all seems so trivial, and unimportant now.

There is another now. Mentor, Patron, Leader. He called me beautiful, and for the first time in my life, I truly felt so. With the weightless grace of serpent, I slither to my feet and oh how alive the world suddenly seems to me. How disconnected from it had I been my whole life, dwelling in my own pain, keeping it close to me like a shield. But in this moment, to feel the pulse of the city in my viens, to not just linger in the shadows, but become them, it was breathtaking, and humbling. He took my hand, and set his cold appraising gaze upon me...and he approved. Remade, in Her image.

He had been true, all this time I lingered in doubt, in fear, in unending, tormenting pain. But he had not lied, he had not been decieving, no, it was true. Once I had accepted the gift, without trying to control it, trying to bend it to MY will, did the pain cease. That was the key, accept it, absorb it, become it. And oh how incredible my transformation, how easily the pain slipped from me the moment I fell into blackness, unafraid.

I knew, from the beginning, that doubt would by my downfall, that it would push me from the path, and be my undoing. But I did not allow that to happen, he did not allow that to happen. I finally, threw myself into the abyss, fearless and without regret and finally, after this long, grinding soul wearying road, am I truly free. But it was his faith in me, never faultering, he guided me and did not give in, unlike the priest, who so quickly turned his back on me. No, he stayed with me though it all, being harsh when he had to be, gentle when I needed it. He saw me through the pain, and brought me to Her. For all this I am truly, deeply grateful. Thank you father.