96
~Elara's POV
I shook my head wildly. "Then let me stay with him," I begged. "Do not leave him alone. Do not curse him to watch the world die again and again."
The moon goddess then came back to me in the shield.
Her gaze softened just a little, and that small change gave me hope, fragile and desperate.
"Immortality is not a gift," she said. "It is a lesson."
I laughed bitterly through my tears. "Lessons are meant to teach," I said. "This will only destroy him."
She looked past me again, toward the endless stretch of time that only she could see. "He will endure," she said. "And one day, when your soul finds its way back to him, his suffering will end."
"When?" I screamed. "After how many lifetimes? After how much pain?"
She did not answer.
The light around her began to fade again, stronger this time, pulling her away.
