Before the night of the great battle had even begun, Mr. Silver walked alone through the forest in search of his long-lost love. Her wavy red hair and lovely figure weaved in and out of the trees and he followed, until they passed under an archway of vines and roots, where blue fireflies glittered around their feet. This magical path led to no physical place. Silver closed his eyes. He felt himself ascending.
He appeared in an empty room with no doors and no windows. A lantern sat upon a table, behind which was Elizabeth, and she hummed a tune as she poured some tea for Silver and herself.
“Do you remember the first day that we came to this place?” she asked.
“Not particularly,” Silver replied. “I don’t remember much from before. I still remembered you, though – your hair was shorter.”
Elizabeth inclined her head. “Did I? I must have looked very peculiar.”
“You were very cute,” Silver smiled.
“Well I remember your eyes before they turned to a winter storm,” Elizabeth replied. “I remember how they used to look at me before they became all-knowing eyes. We used to dream together about eternity, about owning the world and everything in it.”
“And now, here we are, on the doorstep of our ascension to greatness. For almost a millennium we have toiled against the forces of existence.”
“Only to come out on top.”
Mr. Silver cast his grey eyes at her and in them showed a colour that had long-since been hidden. They both sipped at their tea, enjoying each other’s mortal company.
Silver broke the silence: “What do you want most?”
Elizabeth sighed, and then smiled. “I want... Well, for a long time I thought I wanted to kill you, but I have come to terms with how I truly feel. I want to gaze through the depths of time and space with you by my side. I want everything, but more than anything I wish that we were together again.”
“Then you have figured out the answer to the riddle, just as I have?”
“I was bound to this world by you,” Elizabeth agreed. “Just as you were bound here by me.”
“But if we go now together and leave nothing behind, then The Truth will be ours at last.”
Together they finished their tea and sat in silence, knowing exactly what they had to do but stopping for a moment longer to consider it carefully. Then Silver leaned forwards. “Well, no time like the present.”
Elizabeth produced a bottle of clear liquid and added a few drops to their tea pot, before refilling their cups. “Before you can build you must destroy. Before you can live you must die.”
“I propose a toast,” Silver announced, and raised his cup. “To The Truth!”
They both drank, the warm liquid flowed through them, until Silver felt his own heartbeat slow, and then cease all together.
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