xvii. dictated, action

[heloise]

Paradisa
For my Giovanni. If you would be so kind.


[ Lucrezia can be found at highest roof with a wooden box inlaid with pearls at her feet. It is small and finely made, but the real (belated) gift is within: a white silk shirt fit for a little prince with golden narcissus embroidered on its sleeves. She turns away after enough time, retracing her steps back to her room. ]

Ovid once wrote, est etiam placuisse sibi quaecumque voluptas: virginibus cordi grataque forma suast.

But mirrors never turned out for good.

[ Translation goes: Besides, all women take a secret pride in being fine or else they are belied; for when the conscious maid explores her mirror and finds she's handsome, she herself adores. ]

Comments

[kryptonian]

Lots of civil war, then?

[heloise]

Yes. Everyone wants more than they have.

[kryptonian]

It's sad, the way that happens.

[heloise]

What do you know of war, Kara?

[kryptonian]

More than I'd like to know, that's for sure, but I bet our kinds of war are different. Really different. When you guys go to war, it's just men hitting each other with swords and arrows and stuff. When we go to war, entire cities of people die in the blink of an eye. Sometimes even entire worlds.

[heloise]

[ She keeps her eyes on Kara, minutes longer than would be polite. It's funny, how she seems entirely human. ]

Is your homeland also in the middle of one?

[kryptonian]

[She pauses.]

I don't have a homeland anymore. It's gone. Not even the land it was on exists anymore.

[heloise]

What of your family?

[kryptonian]

[She looks away for a second.]

Only my cousin and I are left. There are a few others, but for the most part, we're the last of our kind.

[heloise]

[ She frowns, at least in this she is genuine. ]

Does it make you feel alone?

[kryptonian]

Of course. I mean, I'm surrounded by people, but nobody has the memories I do. Even my cousin doesn't –– he was only a baby, but the first fourteen years of my life weren't on Earth.

[heloise]

And you remember, long for a home that will never be again.

[kryptonian]

[Nod.]

Yup.