Just as Orpheus always looks back, Eurydice will always follow.
Ryland, for once, will no longer follow behind her, no longer remain by her side. Now, Eva will have no choice but to look forward, ahead into uncertainty.
Ironic, for a historian, to no longer search the past, into her memories of him, dissecting and digesting every piece she had of him, but now to look ahead, awaiting his answer, his response to her call.
To know the past is to know the future, and the world has ended thousands of times before, which is why she believes in him, in his ability to save them.
Humanity, after all, continued to persist. Despite the centuries of war, famine, disease, destruction and cruelty, violence and death. Life continued then and will continue now, because Orpheus loves Eurydice, and it is love that makes the world go round.
To love is to trust. To love is turn.
To love is to remember. To love is to let go.
Eurydice trusted Orpheus to lead her out of the underworld, but she also trusted him to love her.
Eva trusted Ryland to find an answer, salvation for her and all the world.
Orpheus and Eurydice, one doomed to wander the Earth alone, the other in total darkness.
They couldn't make it out, not in this life.
But their love remains, and Eva sees it, in the rising and setting of the sun, in the song of the cicadas returning after years of cold summers, in the melody of an infant's laughter—life persisting in spite of winter, life renewing because of her love.
Their love remains, and Ryland knows it. He sees it in every memory of her; the first time he recalls his name, it is her lips that shape his identity. In his fox charm he sees her hair, the redness of the fur so similar to her, her smile toothy, bearing her canines, an image only he could draw out. In his traveler's pendant, he remembers her faith, her trust in their salvation, and ultimately, in him.
To love is to be known, and Eva knows Ryland, knows of his cowardice, and beyond that, his fears, his lack of belief in himself. But she also knows his mind, the depths of his intelligence, the brilliance he could not see in himself.
In the end, it was love that saved the world.
theartofmadeline
stormborns
jimmyeatworldofficial
