“Jonah,” Eloise Sunday said softly. She smiled despite herself. “It’s good to see you out and about.”
Jonah huffed. “I wouldn’t have dreamt it, if my chaperone hadn’t been so insistent.” This comment was directed at The Sorrower, who stood beside him in the city center, next to the well.
“You were always allowed,” Miss Sunday said quietly. “You have punished yourself far more than I could have; that’s why I didn’t feel the need to try.”
Jonah Amber took a deep breath to steady himself. “I was… I wanted so much. I had such high hopes for this city.”
“Your dreams were far-reaching. I remember.” They clasped hands and Eloise asked, for likely the first time, “What happened to you, Jonah?”
Jonah glanced sideways at The Sorrower. “I let myself be corrupted,” he echoed. “I failed. But you didn’t. You were forced into the same circumstances as the rest of the city, but you alone chose to rise above them. To take responsibility you didn’t ask for. To lead with mercy; to not meet violence and sin with more of the same. And I have never told you this, and perhaps… perhaps I should have a long time ago. But I admire you for that. For carrying on my dream in a way that I couldn’t. For representing to this city what I always wanted to, but wasn’t able to.”
A tear rolled gently but unashamedly down Eloise Sunday’s cheek. Their hands parted; in Jonah Amber’s was a pincushion, with a single pin embedded in the crimson fabric. Eloise Sunday laughed mirthfully.
“Your Lost Innocence,” she remarked. “I always wondered what you’d done with it.”
“You had it all along,” Jonah Amber said. “I just needed to tell you. To turn the page.”
Eloise Sunday gently plucked the pin from its cushion. She admired it for a moment, then offered The Sorrower a smile, a nod of sincere thanks.
Eloise Sunday bent the pin and said “Make a wish, Jonah Amber.”
***
Eloise Sunday walked The Sorrower down the spiraled roads away from the city. “I can’t thank you enough, Sorrower.”
“I did little. You truly are what this city needs, with just a little help from Jonah Amber.”
“I always knew good intentions wouldn’t be quite enough. But… From what Jonah tells me, you were right. We were this city’s legacy. He’s given the city everything he can; without that bit of past holding us back, I believe I can now lead us forward more than ever before.”
“His part in the city’s story is indeed over,” The Sorrower said. “He’s finally finished wiping the slate clean. It’s yours, now. You should be proud of yourself, Miss Sunday.”
“Where are you off to now, Sorrower?” She asked as they neared the end of the road, where it gave out to the plains.
“Somewhere else, I suppose. Somewhere I’m needed.”
“I must ask, Sorrower… why do you take the responsibility for all the sadness in the world?”
“Someone has to,” The Sorrower said, offering Miss Sunday’s own words back to her. “Not every Valley has its own Eloise Sunday.”
Eloise Sunday sighed sadly for The Sorrower. “I really am just ordinary,” she said.
“An ordinary person with unordinary compassion is all it takes,” The Sorrower said. “But you, Eloise Sunday, possess unordinary compassion. Were I not the only one left, I would recruit you.”
“The only one left?”
“There used to be more like me,” The Sorrower said. “Not many, but enough. Over time, the human condition outgrew them. But humanity will always have its Sorrows. And until more ordinary people with unordinary compassion take responsibility for their own Valleys of Sin, not because they must but because someone must, then I will always be needed. But… not here. I leave the Valley to your capable hands, Eloise Sunday.”
The Sorrower bowed at the waist. Eloise Sunday returned it without hesitation.
For a moment, the air held still. For a moment, Eloise Sunday and The Sorrower were both truly understood for the first time.
For a moment, The Sorrower and Eloise Sunday were not alone.
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