[Requiem] Seeing the light.

[akonken.livejournal.com]

Her first thought upon awakening was that someone was wasting a candle. She remembered quickly as she sat up from where she was lying on the cool, stone-covered floor that no, this was of course a "light bulb" and there was no fire inside.

Aethelfrith lifted the lampshade and touched the bulb, as she did every evening, knowing it was hot. She waited until right before she knew it would start to hurt, snatching her hand away quickly. She could feel the dark part of her shifting uneasily inside her soul, but pressed against it, squinting at the bulb until her eyes swam. Then she replaced the shade.

The light...the light she didn't know what to do about. It was so comforting a glow, and so miraculous a concept that she felt a desire to marvel at it for hours.

Instead she turned herself away and picked up the three bibles laid on the bed, opening them to the same passage. And she began to learn.