Aisling, beloved of the royal huntress Kaisa.
What a game fate had played with her. And him.

Fate: that unseen force that ruled lives, moulded destinies and changed perceptions. That opened some doorways while closing others forever.
That could show you what love truly was.

He looked in on her some times. Occasionally, when the desire passed through him to see how she was getting on. He could never tell when it would come. Once, he'd checked twice in the same day. Another time, he took a glimpse and realised years had passed.

After all, time passes differently in different places, and beings passed time differently too.

Yet even when he was in the liveliest of gatherings, with the most entertaining of his kind, he thought of the mockery they made of human festivities. Fairies couldn't replicate perfectly what humans had, no matter how hard they tried.

Except…except maybe love. Yes, love was one thing that all beings felt the same, regardless of how different they were.
He'd known love once, after all. He knew how strong it could burn, how much it could make you ache. He knew that when you had love, you lived the most. Life became more vivid if it was infused with love. So in its own way, love was the curse that showed you true happiness.

He had love no longer, of course. No, that curse had been broken, hadn't it. That one night, that infinite night, had snipped the bonds as cleanly as could be.

So love was not why he visited the grave under the hawthorn tree even now. Love was not why he stood there, under the swaying canopy, and remembered the feeling of wholeness he's had for all of one night.

He still remembered her sometimes.