THE SEVENTH REALM: AMETHYST — Meanwhile, we live
Near the borders of the realm, she met creatures of many kinds. Some were familiar; others had forms she had never seen. They all greeted one another with a warmth she liked from the start.
Some lived in the area, and others, like her, were waiting to enter the Amethyst Realm.
“Where do we have to report?” she asked.
A young unicorn stopped drinking from the stream and looked at her kindly.
“There isn’t anywhere you have to report.”
“How do they know we’ve arrived, then?”
“They know.”
Skyblue smiled. She had traveled through six realms, and some answers still tested her patience.
A winged mermaid resting near the water explained that the way opened by invitation. It didn’t depend on how many great feats one performed or on staying a certain number of days. Each creature recognized the moment through their inner self.
They called it divine grace.
“What about in the meantime?” the dragon asked.
“We live,” the unicorn replied. “We practice what we’ve learned. It isn’t always as simple as it sounds.”
“The waiting lets us see what has taken root in us,” the mermaid added. “Experiencing something once is one thing. Bringing it into every day is another.”
Not everyone came from the Blue Planet. Skyblue heard the names of other planets and systems she had never known of. Every traveler had a different story. Some had grown up trying to be like everyone in their community; others had rebelled until they were cast out; still others had learned to say they didn’t care about anything so they wouldn’t have to feel how much it hurt.
The dragon recognized something of her old loneliness in their stories.
They had all answered a call for help from the enchanted lands. Skyblue listened to their stories for days. Sometimes she recognized herself in one and was about to interrupt with her own story; then the tale took a turn she could never have imagined.
She slept in the orange tree, walked, talked, and helped when she was needed. Some mornings she longed for the call to come. On others she was so content that she forgot to wait for it. Gradually she stopped measuring each day by the chance of crossing the border.