Time.

It was time, wasn't it?

Time. Time, time, time. People put so much trust into the concept, yet wished they could bend it against its will. They argued for its rigidity, then turned around and wished it wasn't so. They said it moved forward, but let it move in a circle around their lives. It dictated what they did, day in and day out, but denied ever being out of control of themselves.

Time was a bitch.

But she sure loved the grieving. The broken. The haunted.

She could never get enough from their submission.

Faye found herself as one of her servants years ago. Many, many, years ago. She had been so young, so full of hope and life and love. She had been a healer in love with a warrior, and couldn't have been happier. They had gone on dozens of adventures together, exploring lands both far away and right at home, saving people of all kinds. So many friends, so many promises, so many plans.

And then it all ended in a blink of an eye. A tick off of Time's table.

She could still remember it with precise clarity. It clawed at the happiness in her dreams every night.

~ - ~

The healer twirled in her robes, head tipped back to the sky with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. Bare feet danced over pebbles within the shallow pond, water lapping at her ankles with every move. Laughing. She was laughing---happy, so... so happy.

"Faye!" She spun to the voice calling her name, eyes stopping on the breathless armored warrior stumbling her way. Her warrior. Her wonderful warrior, as beautiful and youthful as ever. "Faye! You need to stop running away from me so much. You worry me." And yet, despite the chastising, the words were laced with a loving smile.

The healer giggled and twirled in place again, arms spread wide to the heavens. "Isn't it beautiful?" she cried. The sun tickled her palms and caressed her face. A suppressed laugh drew her attention to the warrior again. "Come on, what harm can come from a break?"

Her warrior stared at her, head shaking slightly, before sighing and stepping towards her. "Fine, fine. Five more minutes, then we have to go."

Five minutes, huh?

They never got that.

They never got even a minute.

She could still hear her own screams ringing in her ears as the arrow sliced through her warrior's breastplate from behind. Could still smell the rancid poison dripping from the razor's tip.

Dead.

In just a second.

Her warrior. Her warrior. Her warrior.

No. No. No.

A blood-curdling scream tore through Faye's throat, and she was running. Running out of the pond. Running to the body just a foot away from the calm water.

Calm. So calm.

The gods mocked her.

Tears streamed down her face, choking her cries. She fell to her knees, practically on top of the body, and ripped out the arrow. Caution be damned.

Every potion. Every spell. Her palms burned from the overload of magic tearing through her as sobs rattled her bones and shredded her insides. Nothing worked. Nothing brought back her warrior. But she kept going. Spell after spell after potion after potion. She exhausted every trick and skill she had.

Again.

Again. 

Again. 

But nothing.

But she didn't give up.

Not until she burned every last drop of magic she had to bring her warrior back to her.

Not until her agonized cries were permanently etched into the land.

~ - ~

Faye sucked in a breath and stepped through the threshold of her door for the first time in ages. Barefooted, even after all this time, she wished she could still hear the sing of life from the earth beneath her. But she had lost that ability that day. 

Lost everything.

Here, around her cottage, stood a great forest of thick trees, flourishing flora, and vibrant veins of life. It felt ancient. Magical. Other. Where there had once been nothing but fields of grass...

Trees thicker than she was tall towered over her, their canopies protecting her from the sunlight she had once loved. Not a single rock or branch sought to harm her. Colors of all spectrums, natural and unnatural, wrapped around her. Even the very air seemed to touch her cheek in a gentle greeting as she walked over the thick moss floor, comforting her lifelong pain.

Love.

She had wanted that, once. That day.

But now it wasn't enough.

Finally, she reached the thickest part of the forest. Here, she had to duck beneath branches as big as houses and sift through blades of grass as wide as she. Right in the center, next to a still and sparkling pond, lay a body.

Her warrior.

As beautiful and full of youth as that day. Not a single blemish, not a strand of hair out of place.

Faye kneeled before the body and carefully undid each piece of armor, revealing a perfectly preserved tunic beneath. She had sewed that tunic, once. Beer had been spilled on it during a 'peaceful talk' gone wrong inside a bar. She had warned the warrior that nothing good would come out of it---and she had been wrong. Though they didn't get what they wanted, they got a memory to laugh about over a fire. 

A sad smile stretched over her lips.

She pressed on.

Piece by piece, she laid the armor in a chest she had brought, then locked it all inside with a special key and tossed it into the thicket around them. Once done, she breathed a calming sigh and settled next to the body.

Winkled skin over bony and trembling fingers contrasted heavily against the porcelain-like skin of the warrior's cheek. Faye brought their foreheads together, her torso leaning over the warrior, and her white hair spilled around them.

"May the stories they tell of us remain eternal," she whispered, voice trembling. "May our deeds ring throughout the land through the lives we weaved together. May our songs be sung until the end of time. May our touch find the hearts of plenty." 

Tears slipped down her weathered face. "May our lives be made legend." She pressed a kiss to the warrior's still lips. "I'll see you soon, my love."

She pulled away and settled herself into her warrior's side, arms fitting themselves around her waist and head on her shoulder.

Years spent traveling together. Years spent falling in love with her, the warrior with a true heart and a fighter's spirit. No man could measure up to me, she'd say, head tossed back with laughter, I am myself and no other. I make myself.

Yaneve. Her dear Yaneve.

Faye closed her eyes, pressed herself into her lover's side, and took her last breath.

I'm coming home.