Julie walked slowly toward the campsite, the sunlight flickered faintly through the leaves above, casting speckled shadows on the ground.
Her eyes drifted to the utensils and books stacked neatly off to the side, her calligraphy brushes, the half-wrinkled dance charts, the thick manuals on etiquette and noble comportment she'd painstakingly lugged around for years.
She stared at them for a long moment, her fingers brushing the worn leather of a book's cover.
'Maybe it's time I let all this go.'
After everything Cassius had said, after everything she had poured out of her heart, it felt like she finally understood.
'There really was no need for this anymore, was there? No need to continue this charade, no need to struggle with things she clearly wasn't made for.'
Her mother had been proud of her all along. She didn't need to become anything else to earn that pride.
'And besides...I'll never make it. No matter what I do, I'll never be like her.'
