The Deepest Night

Epilogue

Who would hold a dragon in his hand?

Who would hold back love?

I, it seems, cannot do either. It’s just as well.

My love is a tether, but I never wanted it to be a bridle. She lives on borrowed time, and because I love her, because I did not lie when I told her forever and always, my sorrow is tempered by her joy. I want her still for my own, but he can give her now what I cannot, so I wish them both well.

I’m trying to.

I slide along the indigo vault of the ether. I sing with my brothers and sisters, peering into universes unseen. I descend into dreams, but I’m pale to them now, a memory, yet one that will never fully fade.

When I can, I tie knots in her path. I mean them to strengthen her, to better knit the thread of her destiny into something thicker and more sound than what has come before.

Because in the end, she’s still a girl. My dragon-girl. And soon another dragon will step across the open threshold of her life, and Lora-of-the-moon will have to look upon the face of her past without flinching.

It won’t be easy. Not for any of them.

I am the shooting star that lights their way.

I am the answer to the questions they have not yet asked.

I am patient.

I blaze above them, ready to be needed.