Expiation

She felt a dark thread leave her body and it traveled high towards the stars above her on a path marked by a prayer that had descended upon her soul in the night. Please cleanse me of the sins that have been committed against me-- against my life and body and soul, she had asked. She had never asked such a deed be done, but immediately there was a newness, a lightness, a joy that overcame-- and she understood a new definition of an old word, a new forgiveness and liberty.