Author's notes: Looks like I had another chapter coming after all, but this is almost certainly the last one. Big spoilers for end of the Ludmoore arch. Don't read unless you know what's coming. And please leave a little review for me, just so I know my stories are reaching someone.
Eternity III
Cedric isn't sure if he has ever experienced true love. His feelings for Prince Phobos was a powerful current of pain and desire, strong enough to leave him weak and trembling, strong enough to bind him in servitude despite failure and punishment. They didn't go away, those feelings, not even when the regent was torn from him by something worse than death, and while bound to humanity, he often found that the memories of that time made him cry.
Orube was another thing entirely. She brought sunshine into a soul cursed with bitter darkness. She made him laugh, look forward to the morning and even see beauty where he had once been blind. He changed for her, willingly, said things for no reason other than to see her smile. Such a fierce warrior, to come all the way into his heart.
Does he regret his life? No. Even the most deceitful of his actions are of some value now, in this instant as he contemplates himself before the sleep he knows is coming. He can learn from them now. And he knows that a lot of them were done for love. He can see Phobos face clearly, with one of those genuine smiles that only Cedric was allowed to see, but Orube's face is tearful.
"Don't be sad, Orube. This is the destiny I have been given and the path I have chosen. No tyrant in the world can take it from me, and neither can you."
It's easy to let go. Light surrounds him, lifts him up, and something inside him lets go, so that he can't help but smile even as he fades away. The freedom he craved has finally come. His edges blur to black, staining the rocks beneath him. For a moment he can feel everything around him, each page of the book, the malice and the confusion, but Orube's love for him shines through it all. Perhaps he has known true love after all. Then all is light, and he knows no more.
Orube takes the feather pen from Hai Lin and runs it through the ink on the ground. On heavy, unsteady legs she gets up and walks over to the cards, bending forward to write a single word on the card picturing the heart of Kandrakar.
Goodbye