- You'll Never Have To -
Disclaimer: I don't own D'ni or its characters, Cyan Worlds does.
"Don't cry," Catherine said. With difficulty, she worked her hand out from under the bedcovers and found Atrus' fingers with her own. A smile graced her face through the sickness. "This is not the end. That can never be written, you know that."
Atrus tightened his hand around Catherine's, wishing in vain that his touch could keep her in this world if he only held on long enough. His glasses lay on the nightstand, abandoned hours ago. Without them, he could barely make out Catherine's face—and he didn't want to, not now.
He couldn't let himself see her like this, old and frail, with graying hair and failing health. This wasn't his Catherine, this wasn't the woman who had rescued him from Riven so many years ago. Atrus refused to let mortal infirmity stain his last memories of the person with whom he shared an immortal love. He looked at her lying on the bed, and saw only the beautiful, strong, unbreakable woman that Catherine had always been. No sickness could mask that.
"I can't live without you," he said to her, choking back the tears that came unbidden.
"You know you'll never have to."
With those words, Atrus felt Catherine's hand slip from his own, and he knew that she was gone. Alone, in the night on Tohmana, Atrus wept.