The bold imprint looks very fair to me, and backing away from the cross, I allow myself one last look before I order Andres to take her down.
***
We lay in the starlight, what streams through the window, and the glow of a tiny crescent moon. The soothsayers in the South say that it is auspicious to seal agreements under such a moon. Just as the full moon means chaos, this moon is the rising sun of something steadfast. My left side aches to lie against the very tender brand, and the marred skin is strange to touch.
I remember almost nothing of the hour that followed my punishment and branding—I can’t call it purification since I don’t feel purified at all. I only feel more reckless and quick to mock this world in my heart. I’d so hoped to feel myself succumb to a mystery that those
