The dreams returned to her. She remembered the lapses of moments between clutching Beauty and the Beast in her bed, and her quivering body held by the Lord of Darkness, asking him to please her, abandoning herself to his touch, and holding herself close to him. She remembered his pointed fangs hovering fondly over her neck as he breathed passionate warmth into her and she anticipated his kiss. This is what Jack had lacked. This is what she never felt between the forest boy and herself. This is the way she never felt about anyone, except Darkness. Not love—she had felt love for many friends—but the purest, most fondly unifying form of lust.

She didn't understand it without the memories. Before, it seemed these feelings bore no explanation, and she had not associated them with anything or anyone. As she had reached out to touch the unicorn, the jewels, the dress, this too felt absolutely right.

…

Lili followed the little bobbing sparkle in the corners of her eyes. It led her to the great tree, where the bog glorbled and sputtered with putrid green murk. Over the branches of fallen trees, and across the rocks, and down, down, down... she followed the light into that foul cavern where in newly colored memories she felt herself waking with a cold tremble of fright.

Darkness sat with downcast eyes, stroking the alicorn. He did not see the princess as she entered the ancient passage. He did not expect her. The light made a small noise, as quiet as the pop of a soap bubble, and vanished into the fireplace. It was just loud enough to cause the forlorn demon to shift his dreary gaze in the direction of the sound.

At first he thought the sight of Princess Lili was some cruel trick of his mind. He peered at her in the dancing firelight, but she did not vanish. "Have you come, gentle vision, on behalf of the unicorn?" He asked quietly. She stepped closer, looking now at the horn in his hands. It was real. It was all real. It had always been real.

"I had thought at first that the fair princess might remember the suffering of that pure creature, if not my own, and return to me one last time to ask for the stallion's horn. Answer me, now. Are you a torment of my guilt, or have you another errand here?"

"I am neither a torment nor a vision from the unicorns, my lord," she stood in the doorway, half-sheathed in shadow, "But your lady, here of my own will, to seek what I once left here in these halls."

The shards of the Ruined Master's broken mirror still shone against the dirty ground. They had never been picked up. "The princess comes, as lovely after one year as she is ever," he held out his hand to her, and she came to him, kneeling, pressing her face into his knees, hugging his calves with her thin, pale arms.

"I am sorry to have hurt you, lord. I should have realized then that what I felt was all for you. I meant you no torment."

He placed his hands under her arms, and lifted her up onto his lap, stroking her hair with his sleek black claws. There was no past. The pain was smoke, not flame somewhere far away. The year had been so empty, perhaps it had never even happened.

"I was foolish to abandon you," she said, attempting to remain dignified and not to cry, "I came because the dreams I now remember feel more true than all the days I've spent this year awake. Were they my own conception, or from you?"

"Ours," he said, nuzzling the top of her head as she leaned it on his shoulder, letting her mouth hang open, breathing her short, hot breaths against his skin. "It was through the magic of the alicorn that I crafted them, using thoughts already germinated... deep within your mind."

There was so much to ask... so much to say... yet she did not find herself saying anything. She only found herself giving in to the passion she so longed to savor with the Lord of Darkness.

…

Every part of Lili felt calm and happy, like some warming winter wine flowed through her veins instead of blood. She and Darkness, Princess and Lord, were lying across the chair together, united. She saw the same triumphant look he had worn when she awoke in his arms a year ago, but she felt like she understood it better now, and felt much the same. She was proud too, and she was amorous, and she had exactly what she wanted, just like he did.

Darkness extended the unicorn's horn toward the table like a wand, summoning the wine goblet to his hand. He offered Lili a sip, which she took without thinking. It was a sort of salty, metallic tasting liquid, but it was rich and pleasant. Everything was pleasant. He drank it as she looked down at the horn.

"What did happen to the unicorn?" Princess Lili asked as Darkness stroked her. She held out her hand to take the alicorn, and he handed it to her.

"The power in this horn has greatly dimmed," Darkness sighed, "I dreaded its wane, since it would no longer compose the dreams we loved so well. My final chance to reach you in a dream faded away not two weeks ago. This diminishing can only mean that the unicorn has lost all magic now. It lives on, merely as a white horse; a fate that can never be undone. The horn will still retain a paltry charge—a mere shadow of its former power."

Lili kissed Darkness on the forehead, on the nose, and on the chin. He placed the goblet down and held her back with one hand and lower down with the other hand, playing with his lips on hers.

"Merely a horse..." Lili whispered, an inch from his face, "And if it weren't for you, and the choice you made to use the horn for my sake, perhaps I'd be merely a horse instead."

Darkness gave her a puzzled look.

"Going about a life without magic, I mean. Never knowing what I might have missed without you."

He laughed, "My long, miserable life, dearest Lili, could hardly have been called enchanting until the day we met. It is delightful and disarming that you would think me so selfless as to do all of this for you... no. I have done this for myself; yet it seems what I have done for myself is something that you would also have me do for you."

"Why leave your wish up to these dreams, my lord?" Lili asked, "Why not visit me at my castle yourself and speak with me?"

"... Because," whispered the demon, holding the princess like a precious treasure, "I could not have borne the rejection I thought inevitable."

She held him tightly. She pressed the side of her face into his neck, and he sighed happily, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"And my cruel world, you said you'd never be a part of..."

"The whole world is cruel. I've learned that now. It's not made for innocents. No matter what, there will be choices—difficult choices that have some negative outcome no matter what you decide to do. You can't go through life without losing something, so you have to be very careful when picking and choosing what to lose. My judgment of you was premature. I shuddered to think of how spoiled, greedy, and corrupt I knew I would be, had I been raised as you were raised."

"My father," Darkness spoke as his muscles tensed, "Was a seething, bitter master. He let the difficulties of the cosmos ruin him, and he was spurned by the sun and his fellow angels. His wish was only for ruin, and it ruined only him. My mother Lilith, matriarch of the demons, was an elegant and proud creature. At the zenith of her beauty, she had a face quite like yours. My gifts to you were her treasures once."

Lili thought of the corpse robed in jewels behind the mirror, the one that had grabbed her and pulled her into its coffin. She thought it had been trying to attack her. Perhaps it had been trying to warn her instead.

"My father's ruin decayed all in his once noble realm, including my mother," Darkness continued, "And there is not much left of either of them now." He looked at the shards of the mirror on the floor. Lili consoled him with a firm squeeze around the chest.

"But this is all too tiresome. Talk to me," Darkness asked the princess, "about innocence. What is it like?"

"Innocence," Lili said to him thoughtfully, "is not having to be afraid of something new, because you have never been scarred. It's always wishing for adventures to happen, and letting them. It's taking a leap without thinking that anything bad will happen. It's letting the wonder inside of you run wild and free, and enjoying what's in front of you without having to worry about things that hurt you. It doesn't mean you've never, ever made the wrong decision. It doesn't even mean you're a good person. It just means that you don't have to think in terms of choices, because everything you do feels right."

"An unchecked curiosity," he mouthed, "Can be both a blessing and a curse, princess."

"Yes," she said plainly. "In order to keep innocence through certain choices in life, something else must be lost. Pragmatism, safety, desire, or something else. It's not some paragon of virtues like everyone says. Sometimes it is simply foolishness."

Darkness laughed at how serious she looked when she spoke about it, like she was scolding someone. The regal authority of Lili was showing. Her face softened into a smile as she felt his chest move with laughter and saw his lips brim with delight. They were together now, and they were the happy rulers of a new and more just era in the underground kingdom for many years—quite a few more than mortals are apt to live. They went adventuring often and very seldom kept in commune with the kingdoms of men, except for a few visits to old Nell and her descendents now and then. For generations, flush red lilies grew beside the cottage where the missing princess once fell asleep.

From time to time, Lord Darkness and Lady Lili found innocence very useful. Curiosity killed every gloom that ever crept its ugly form through the pieces of the mirror. Their adventures are another story, perhaps one that is lost to legend.

Stay tuned for the epilogue (Main story is done, but there is something still unresolved that we will address. Warning: there may be some disappointment ahead.)