Harsh Reality: A Calm within the Storm (Part 4)

Things were indeed changing.

Nymaya paced slowly through her daughter's room, into the living
space and then back, her steps silent and fluid. Delabriel,
meanwhile, slept peacefully within her arms, cradled against her
chest.

Her features remained distant as she moved, her gaze clouded as she
heeded the nearly dormant presence of her song, all the while her thoughts
strayed along the paths of past and present.

There was a palpable peace now, as if she had found the eye of the
hurricane. The low lying heartache was still there, the hollow
sensation left in the wake of the divorce, but whatever understanding
she had come to leant a needed measure of comfort. The loss of her
husband and the injury to her heart that that loss had created would
always be there, it was a part of her and would continue to shape the
way she lived and made decisions, but she had a balancing force now.

Lowering her gaze, she looked upon Delabriel, resting so quietly
within the embrace of her arms.

'..I have a daughter to look after now. It is more than I could have
asked for.'

She had spoken those words to Da'shal, not with the intention of
explaining herself, but to remind herself that she had reason enough
not to fall into lingering despair.

' I will not spend my days and nights pining for what was lost. It is
not within me to do so.'

She paused in her pacing, only briefly, and focused upon Delabriel.

She had enough reason, here in her arms, to keep her soul from that
dark descent and even as her own words faded, a remembered moment
within the company of her friend, Linot resurfaced.

'..what have I brought her unto, Linot?'

'It is not paradise, but it is a world in which she will make her own
choices.'

'Love her, for that is the joy of the world.'

'And accept her choices, that she may find a better way.'

Linot had been right, and more than right.

Reflecting upon that, she found herself amazed at the depth Linot
could manage, but was not overly surprised. She was the most
insightful person Nymaya had ever met.

Curving a wisp of a smile, Nymaya stopped her pacing and shifted one
of her arms from beneath Delabriel to run her hand over her
daughter's hair. The touch prompted Delabriel to open her eyes,
blinking sleepily, and just as soon close them.

"We'll see how things turn out." Nymaya whispered softly and fell
back into a detached silence, her pacing resuming its slow cycle
through the house.