That night, she lies in his arms. The witchlight in the room glows dimly, illuminating part of their faces. Jem's face is partly visible, half-lit and half-dark. She has never seen something so beautiful as this. His fingers slowly trace her side, she feels the tips, all ten of them searing through her thin nightdress. It is almost tempting lying next to him like that, and she knows it is taking him every single ounce of self-control not to take more liberties than he should, as a Victorian gentleman. But this night, she asks him to tell her stories, stories from where he grew up. The storytelling distracts them from all other thoughts, although she still finds her fingers wandering along his body, trailing down his jaw to his chest.
"This was my mother's favourite story. It is an ancient Chinese folk tale about a fairy who fell in love with a human. She was a celestial weaver and he, a cowherd. They were married and lived together for a while happily, before she was found out and was forcibly separated from him, she in the heavens and him on earth." He pauses to look at her, smiling slightly.
"What happens next? Do they reunite somehow?" she asks.
He continues, "On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year, out of compassion for them, flocks of magpies fly to form a bridge with their bodies over the Milky Way, allowing them to meet each other for one day."
Tessa moves closer to Jem as he says in a quiet voice, "I would like to think that we'll be like them. Remember I told you before, when two souls are as one, they stay together on the Wheel."
She takes a deep breath, wanting to tell him what she had been thinking when he first said those words to her. "Jem..."
"I know what you're trying to say, Tessa, that you're immortal and you won't be reincarnated like everyone else. But, what I am trying to say is that like the Cowherd and Weaving Girl, we will find a way back to each other, no matter how long or how short our time together will be. I will find a way back to you, in the next life, the life after that and so on."
She feels tears welling up in her eyes and fights them back. He senses the slight stiffening of her body and moves his hands to hers. "I do not know how much time I have left, but I would rather spend it without counting the days that have passed. I may be selfish to think that you would want to spend your time with me the same way, but all I ask is Tessa, do not let time limit what we can have and will have."
Nodding her head mutely, a single tear escaping from her eyes, she hastily wipes it away with her sleeve before he sees it.
"Good night, Tessa. Sweet dreams. I will still be here." He presses his lips to her temple as he holds her tightly against him, never letting her go.