CROWNED BY BLOOD
What else can I offer to the son who still stands beside me, to the memory of the woman I once was, to the possibility that something good might still grow from the soil so thoroughly poisoned by my choices?
The wolves may no longer answer my call, the villages may have closed their doors against me, and the nights may be full of fire and regret. But my hands still work, my back still bends, and somewhere in the rhythm of labor and sweat and gradual progress, I find something that might, one day, resemble hope.
Even if I stand alone in that hope. Even if I am the only one who believes that broken things can sometimes be mended. Even if the kingdom I am trying to rebuild exists only in my own