when the forest clears
the road less traveled
When you have been lost in the forest for so many years—the forest of responsibilities, duties, servitude and loyalty—the wide open sky can feel blinding.
Suddenly she finds herself standing in the middle of cleared fields, asking, "Now that the illusions have burned away, who am I?"
She fought many battles to get here, to reach this point of clarity and peace, and now the silence rings so loud, forcing her to go within and really ask:
I've arrived. Where do I go next?
Multiple paths unfold before her eyes, some clearer than moonlight on water.
One is the familiar road—comfortable, safe and predictable—but she already has walked that path and found herself unfulfilled, like a flower trying to bloom in borrowed soil.
She sees more people walking this familiar path, and she's tempted to follow them, because just like her and her, she likes safe. She likes the illusion of control. She wants to know exactly where she's going and with whom.
As she stands there in the mist, another road quietly unfolds. It's no red carpet, not even a worn rug. The road is jagged and unpaved, carved by wild boars and harsh rain—she can tell it's the road less traveled.
She can't see ahead at all—it's shrouded in fog thick as memory, and what awaits her could be anything. A swallowing waterfall, a sharp cliff that cuts the sky, a dark ocean that forces her to swim deep waters despite her irrational fear of drowning that followed her from a previous lifetime.
She can't see more than a step forward. Fear of the unknown winds around her like old vines. But her soul—it calls louder than ever, like a faint melody only she can hear, ancient and familiar as her own heartbeat.
The Empress knows her domain.
She wants to take the safe road, but she already knows where she has to go next.
Quietly and solemnly, she takes her first step— to reclaim her kingdom.