Prologue

Every rose has its thorn, and the most beautiful ones are blood tinted. It is no different with love.

She felt herself endlessly falling from the heights of the heavens through the void below, into the youngest of all the realms. In her fall, her eyes steadily gazed upwards into the eyes of her Beloved. She was clinging desperately to this last memory and etching it into her inner most being. It was the most precious memory - his eyes that always gazed upon her with unbreakable love. His face was resolute, and strong, usually glowing with his soothing smile. But this day there was no trace of that smile.

Instead, he wept the tears of separation as she wept too. He desired to reach out and hold her tight in his embrace, but he was compelled to let this be as part of what was now unfolding irreversibly in the heavens, just as they had agreed. All he could do was whisper, ‘I will be with you to the end of the ages, and the furthest parts to which you will go. I will never let you stay lost my love! I will find you and bring you back no matter the cost.’

When her vision of the heavenly realms was taken from her and he slowly faded from her sight, she wiped her tears dry. Then, with great fury she turned to face the realm into which she was descending along with the armies cast out of the heavens. Her eyes caught the one who had dared to constrain her with his deadly, magical ropes thinking he would bind her to himself, making her his own even if it meant the loss of her freedom. Fiery and unbridled rage filled her, and in a moment the ropes restraining her burnt into nothing. She flew straight up against the one who dared lay hands on her. For a moment, he stumbled in his own descent and feared for his life as she grabbed him by his neck and stared straight with fiery blue fury into his eyes. He knew he was not her match in battle.

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‘Do not ever dare constrain me again!’ she said steadily but sternly. Then her voice softened as she released her grip, ‘If I must follow you, it will be of my own free will.’

As he recovered, he suddenly realized that she had indeed chosen to enter the young realm unrestrained by him. What greater proof was needed? Was this not a victory in itself? She was finally his to love and possess though anger blinded her for the moment. He will lead her down his path of love and away from the King to whom she had pledged herself in marriage. All loves can be forgotten eventually, is it not?

He turned to the heavens against whose rule he had rebelled and with a mocking laughter, he made a fist and yelled back to the King and all the mighty ones still in heaven, ‘Behold your bride! She is mine now. She has chosen me for herself. She has chosen to follow me and share in ruling the realm granted to my rulership. I will make her love me. I will possess her and the kingdom with all its twenty-four realms! Watch from the heavens! She will love me as I love her, she will choose me and then become fully mine!’

The King clenched his fist, and it took all his power to restrain himself. He had to hold back for it was not yet time to execute judgments. He will wait. He will find her even if she was lost in the uttermost ends of the young realm. He will forgive her even if she strayed into a path contrary to the ways of heaven. He will woo her again and remind her of their love story. He will restore her to her true identity and to himself. He will bring her back to the heavens in grand victory just as they had planned before the stirrings of evil.

Theirs was after all an eternal love. Every other love story is a shadow of their own.