THE FIFTH REALM: TURQUOISE — Now she could listen

The next day she went out very early. She greeted the cherry tree, sent her love to Ernesto, asked for her parents’ blessing, and made her way to a nearby stream. There were little waterfalls, and undines played among the stones.

She stayed in the water for a while.

For the first time, she noticed that silence didn’t depend on everything being still. The stream murmured, the birds sang, the wind moved through the leaves; what had diminished was the conversation she used to lay over it all.

Now she could listen.

She returned to the cherry tree and shared some of her food with the Mother, with her host, and, through him, with Ernesto. Then she set out, ready to continue the exercise.

She began with the places she had neglected. She didn’t pour out beautiful words in the hope of quickly erasing what had happened. She watched. She saw what needed attention, what she could support, and what she had to stop feeding. She learned to stay with an action long enough to understand something of its consequences.

Over the days that followed, she traced the path of each word. Sometimes a shape disappeared close by while its energy continued far beyond. At other times, the energy came back to her changed by all it had encountered along the way. The silfis helped her notice movements her senses couldn’t yet clearly distinguish.

Skyblue paid attention to what she said and how she said it. She listened, too, to the inner voice her words came from. The same sentence could spring from a wish to help or a need to feel important; in the Turquoise Realm, the difference became visible.