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Prologue - Stars

Prologue - Stars

You! What have you done?! It's all rui-!

...Oh. I didn't - didn't think you would really -

...Hah. What a waste. Just like this, it's all...

...We were stars, once. You remember, don't you? Distant but brilliant. Perhaps that was cruel of us, to exist as we did. Never once involving ourselves, only watching. Silent witnesses to endless suffering. Living testaments to generations of misery. Do you think that was why they turned on us?

Ah, what good are gods when they do not do anything. It's like having no gods at all, isn't it? I've thought a lot on this matter, over the years. Looking for a why. It took a while, but I think I've got it now. It doesn't change anything though, does it? We're still...

What a pair we were. You, the wind beneath my wings. I, the shadow at your back. Weren't we everything to each other, dear Elanor? Didn't all else pale in comparison? Wasn't it enough for us, to have each other? Let the world die if you and I still remained.

We had eternity, and eternity wasn't enough, because the Sundering -

- my apologies. I got a bit worked up again. You know I would never hurt you, dear Elanor. It would be like hurting myself, and I have never been one for that. Though clearly -

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...well. Who can say, anymore, with what we are now. I'm sorry, my dear. Where was I? Ah, yes. Eternity. Eternity wasn't enough.

Ha, look at me, lamenting things I can't change. Leave regrets for the past and embrace the future, right? That's your philosophy. But you're missing something important. I could have changed it. I could have fixed it. Fixed us. These miserable things that we are now.

Why wouldn't you let me finish it? Did they grow so dear to you, Elanor? Dearer than me? I can't say I'm not hurt by that thought. You know you mean the world to me, still. To think that you would hold their lives over mine...!

Haha, it's not surprising at all. Yes, of course you would. I can't blame you for falling into the same trap I did. Maybe it's just the way things should be, if we both feel the same. But I can't forgive them.

Oh, don't look at me like that. It's not their fault, I know that.

Nothing changes. We weren't meant to survive, Elanor. Do you understand? We are diminished now, yes. Twisted into something unrecognizable. Mutilated beyond any hope of restoration to what we should be. That's alright. Where there's life, there's a way. But they would have denied us even this! Torn us apart without a care, for their own selfish desires! Us, consigned to nonexistence, reduced to a ghost of a fleeting possibility never to be, as an afterthought.

The gall. The indignity.

They died for a reason, a good one, and I regret nothing. Save, perhaps, that you disagree so strongly with me. We've drifted apart, it seems. A pity.

So now, is this how it ends, Elanor? You and I, together once more? It's fitting. There are worse ways to go.

Alas, I'm not willing to give up yet.

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