This Love
Written for Zara.
There was only one creature Captain Nemo held dear.
He had made her with his own hands. Perhaps he did it with help, but nevertheless he was the one who chose to bring her to life. It was he who chose to make her his, who gave her a name and made light for her so that she wasn't in darkness, who brought colour and pretty things to her so that she could feel beautiful, who gave her servants so that she should want nothing, who offered to take her travelling so that she might see many wonderful places. It was he who lived with her so that she would not be alone, some empty creature living uselessly and soullessly.
He had even offered to love her. She, silent and complacent, never turned him away.
He lived with her, hidden, hiding them both. All the things he had promised her he fulfilled, and she was never lacking. Because of his pains, she was not alone; and she had seen the world with him--there was always someone to aid her when she was in need of aid, and she was decorated with the most beautiful ornaments and coloured as charmingly as the flowered fields of the world, the real world, the up-above world of men--she always had light, that lit up her best features and gave her golden paths to walk by--and she was not nameless.
Unlike her lover, she was not nameless.
She was called Nautilus.
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