lydia_eternity [Echoes]

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======Lydia Beaufort======

Lydia can’t help but glance back at the sunken town as its surviving inhabitants trudge into the night. 

They can’t turn far, as they are supporting their grandfather up the steep and slippy hill. But between the flashes of lightning, they can see the water rushing over the ruins of the place they had so recently called home. 

It is an aching, cutting loss. It means the end of the stability and the community that Lydia has come to expect and rely on. But there is something else as well –  a sense of freedom. 

It’s hard not to feel guilty about it, but it //is// true. In Little Avoning, Lydia’s future was clear before her, with no real chance for deviation or for chasing dreams. Now, anything could happen, good or bad. 

Bartholomew gets their attention, and asks what they’re thinking. It’s late and they’re tired, so they admit the truth. They expect recriminations, but Bartholemew smiles sadly. “You should never have been held back to begin with. You’d be a damn good historian”

It’s kind, and unexpected. Lydia can’t fault Bartholemew for the path he chose for them: they would not want the future that’s coming for Susannah, who has no profession except history to fall back on. They’re glad that they should be able to find a post teaching, at least until they and their grandfather are settled. 

But after that… their grandfather has his own plans for his future. Once he’s settled, well, it’s still a risk. Teaching is a much more stable, respectable profession, and switching jobs isn’t an easy thing to do. But maybe it will be time to make a little bit of good come out of this calamity. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll have a chance to be more than they could have been in Little Avoning. 

It’s not a chance that most people have. Lydia resolves to make the most of it, if not for their own sake, then in the name of those whose dreams were destroyed.