There are very few places untouched by miracles. That is why it is so difficult for others to see the sheer miraculousness of every day.
Rhea’s form broke through the surface of the rippling blue water with echoing laughter—but then again, everything echoed in this cave. She let herself float on her back, her hair dark tendrils dancing below the waterline as she studied the unfinished rocky ceiling above.
She wondered what her brothers would think. The fearless princes of the nation and their frolicking sister, what a family they made. They would never be able to understand just how deeply she felt or how keenly she saw the world and all its treasures.
In a land that forbade magic, Rhea could not help but see it everywhere. In all its quiet, unfathomable grace and perfection that it was.
It was not the dark, unnatural sorcery that it had become synonymous with, but rather its perfectly natural ability to exist and bring balance and order that was the true magic Rhea had come to understand.
It was the sun that warmed them just enough despite its lethal heat, the rain that brought an abundance of life with its sweet, cold relief and the smattering of stars that aligned in perfect harmony, forever ready to point her home in the darkness of night.
It was a miracle her heart even beat in her chest without her constant reminder. Her lungs even expanded without her needing to tell them. The entire world and all its workings were miracles, she supposed.
The cave was vast as she swam to the very edge of the stretch of water she had been compelled into.
It was not as cold as she had imagined it to be and, though it was deep enough for her to swim and dive to her heart’s content, it also was not too terrifying that she feared a sea monster would emerge from the depths to lace around her calves.
Another miracle, another dust of magic.
The gaping hole in the center of the cave’s ceiling filtered cool sunlight through what she knew was the deep foliage above. An endless dripping from the unrelenting rain was still disturbing what would have otherwise been the calm surface of water that filled the cavern, but Rhea didn’t think the water was particularly irritated. Rather, every droplet was met with a cadence of welcome, as if they had missed each other far too much to feel anything but excitement at their rippling reunion.
“Oh, it’s freezing,” her high-pitched voice danced across the walls and sprang back to her over and over as she curled her icy toes against the cold stone and rummaged through her travel bag for anything that might help.
There was no towel, as she hadn’t exactly planned this trip, but she was happy to find the small blanket she had packed just in case her legs got cold as she rode back home and hoped it would suffice.
She wrung out her hair, watching the water giggle as the droplets splashed and melted into its surface, before shaking her head in a way that would no doubt have made her mother snort with laughter.
Rhea wished her mother were here now, instead of back at the palace tending to all the boring duties she must do now that she was queen. What good fun they had had when it was just the two of them, free to mess around as they saw fit, skip through the alleyways as if they were the only two people in existence, and ride through rolling meadows just to sit beneath a tree and watch the sunset while snacking on fresh fruits and candy.
Now, adventures were less of a journey and more of an escape.
Journeys were rarely traveled alone, and even when they were, Rhea didn’t find it even half as much fun as the ones you went on with someone else—not that swimming in an undiscovered cavern in the middle of spring wasn’t awfully fun alone.
That was another miracle, she decided. For a soul to find such comfort in another that they would prefer their companionship over solitude.
Rhea loved solitude.
Rhea loved companionship.
It was a strange yet beautiful thing to love being alone and love being with others, and she was glad it was who she was.
She was glad to be the kind of person to see the miracles in every day, to have her life touched by a quiet magic in a world that only defined and forbade it as something completely evil and extraordinary, and to love her own company as much as she loved the company of others.
Whatever her soul was made of, she was glad of it, for it never mattered how much pain she experienced, only that the bad memories couldn’t touch her quite as deeply as the good ones could.
They couldn’t reach the crevices of her soul and rewrite her personality into that of a crude, pessimistic, nobody. The best they could ever hope to achieve was the quiet breakage of her heart as they imparted all their sharp pain into her being.
“Let it break,” she whispered, taking a deep breath and looking up at the trickling rain that finally seemed as though it may cease. “I have a soul that paints the world in the best colors, why should I need a heart that’s perfectly all right when one day it will stop?”
Rhea smiled softly, breathing in the wet, earthy scent she loved so deeply.
A broken heart could still beat, but a blackened soul had no colors to see the world. It had no way to see the stars lighting up the darkness or the miracles in everyday life. A heart would one day stop, but a soul would live forever in the rest of eternity in a space where it is untouched by the plagues of the heart.
That is the biggest miracle.
Alisha Umar has a deep thirst for knowledge and a beautiful appreciation for learning. She spends hours pondering over her recent reads, researching for her own stories and scouring every inch of the library. When she’s not engrossed in her books or posting on her social media she can be found spending quality time with her friends and family, engaging in meaningful debates with her loved ones, taking down the next food destination on her bucket list and fantasising about which places she wants to travel to next- whether fictional or real. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube @authoralishau.
Featured image by Devon Janse van Rensburg on Unsplash.
