The Mystic's Choice The Mystic's Choice
Schala
She stood looking out the closed window.
The stained-glass mosaic of the pane distorted her view. Even though there was hardly any light, the reds, the blues, the purples, and all the other colors served to tint her small world.
Had she always had such a colored outlook of the world?
She did not know.
What she did know was that the view was strange...
Of course, she could just easily open the window, which would remove the distortion from her vision. But she didn't want to take that route...no, not yet. For life very rarely has such easy solutions.
She wanted to mull over things first.
Perhaps she chose to look at the world in an unorthodox manner.
The question was, did that strangeness come from within, or was the world truly a strange place?
It was a combination of both...Life was strange to those who did not understand for some reason or another. But also, each person is different. People have their own experiences and feelings, which color their views of the world.
She knew the world was an uncertain place. But she alone could choose how to see it. Would she see it in the best possible light, or the worst?
Would she choose to remove the barrier between her and reality, or would she choose to forever keep the partition, strengthening it with fear and bias?
Once again she was standing at a fork in the road. She was standing at something that demanded a choice.
Jaana had said she had no choice. But the Dark Lord and the Northern Paladin had made her see that she had.
She looked out the glass at the moon. It was enclosed in a shard of red glass. A blood moon...
The moon looked fearful now simply because of the barrier that was in her way. If it were gone, the moon would return to normal again. For that was how these barriers worked. They made everything look frightful, inhospitable, and contemptible.
Who would want to live that way for the rest of their lives?...
Her hand touched the wooden pane.
Slowly, slowly...she slid the window up.