âYou canât hide from me,â She said. âIâm not trying to hide from You, Selene,â I repliedâŚknowing it would irk her to hear me call her that. She did not rise to the bait. Stoic as usual. âFor a female You show so little passion, Luna,â I prodded her. If Youâve never felt the equivalent of an impossibly powerful DeityâŚflicking You in the forehead, then I canât explain what that statement got meâŚbut I just laughed. Donât get me wrongâŚit hurt, but I deserved it, and delighted in provoking a response so out of character for Her. âSilly to test me. You are but a simple mortal in spite of Your perceptions and gifts.â She paused and I could feel her Soul conquering gaze. âWhy are You smiling like a fool?â I had no answer, soâŚI simply didnât answer. If a Deity could roll her eyesâŚshe did. I smiled even bigger. I donât think I had been able to provoke such a response from her in years, maybe ever. Harmless fun. âIf You arenât trying to hide from me, then what would You call it, mortal?â she said. I wasnât sure I wanted to go there, but reallyâŚI owed her an explanation. âIâm not hiding from You, IâmâŚignoring You.â She did not like that. I needed to expound anyway. âWell, not YOU exactly, but ITâŚIâm ignoring it all.â It was deathly silent on every possible level You can imagine or canât even imagine. Painfully silent. A silence that breaks puny mass. Like me. But I would not allow it. She did not understand what the Silence could really do anymore than she understood why Iâd try to ignore the Call upon my Ancient Soul by an even more Ancient birthright. Even as I knew I could not explain it well, nor could she understand it wellâŚI knew I should try to explain it. âNo more than I can understand Your ways, Your sorrows, Your joys, Your path, dear LunaâŚthere are things You cannot understand about being mortal.â More SilenceâŚbut less oppressive. âYouâve never walked in a body, feared death, ached in Love, despaired in loss.â I grasped for words, âOkay, so You know of passion and passion lostâŚYou have âfeelingsâ on a level I donât comprehend. You have need, and wantâŚ.but You are given more Time to work out Your existence, to let things go, to accept the inevitable in this reality.â My explanation was crap. I couldnât find the words. âIt hurts, dear Luna. It hurtsâŚto feel the possibility, but know I will never touch it. It hurts to have the dust of forever sprinkled upon me, but know it is not mine. It hurts to behold such beauty, but be denied it. It is unbearable to know of such perfection, but be denied its taste, its scent filling my being and making me whole. It hurts.â The Silence was lessâŚmostly just quiet now. She was trying to understand. Odd, but I should keep trying. âYou said it Yourself, Goddess. I am but a silly mortal. There is no room for silliness, or mortality, in the place You dwell. Things have... progressed without me. The cycle has continued. Iâm not really neededâŚnot really.â There it was. Iâd said itâŚmy biggest fear. I wasnât really important, wasnât really needed. It just made for a good storyâŚGods slumming it to include the very tiny, but actually needed Human. But it wasnât true, was it? âYouâre right,â she said. âNot about most of that, but about You not knowing our ways, My waysâŚor understanding them. You are caught in Your humanityâŚin a place we canât understand. That is why You ARE needed. But I canât convince You of that. You are too stubborn. Perhaps in time You will accept it.â I laughed wryly at her reference to TimeâŚsomething I had so little of, and she had no concept ofâŚnot really. She ignored my doubt, but instead moved past it. âFor now, I can tell You this and I hope You will accept it as Truth.â She paused a very long time before destroying my Soul. âNeed or not, I want You. I desire You. I ask for You and wish for Your presence as much as You can. I do not want to hurt You, but I love YouâŚand I want You hereâŚwith me.â I⌠I could not⌠I had nothing to say. I ⌠what could I say to that? Why would she lie? I had to accept it, even though accepting it meant more than I could actually process or understand. A long time went by. As my Soul burnt and swayed in a wind of Truth that I was powerless to resist, control, or break free ofâŚI just had to embrace it and hope to survive. I gasped out, âOkay...okay. It hurts even more now, but if I can, when I canâŚas I canâŚI will. Iâll try to quit ignoring it, and YouâŚand give what my mortal self canâŚbecause I love You too.â âŚand so She travelled across the sky, Full and bursting with the secrets She keptâŚand happier than I had seen Her in all our years. I did my partâŚas much as I could, so when Mabon came, I would be ready, and I could embrace my roleâŚas small or large as it may be. It was mine. And I was Hers.
