Valley of Shadows and Roses | ONC 2024

Chapter 24

The Shadow Lord was watching Queen Luna. He disappeared from her life, but he was never far.

When her birthday came, he didn't come. He knew she was somewhere out there, waiting for him. He felt her disappointment as she fell and died. But he never came again, and she always waited for him. And every time her birthday came and he wasn't there, the small crack in her heart caused by his absence grew larger. Sometimes he would sit on the edge of the Dark forest and watch her body fall from the highest tower in the castle. He watched her die. Again and again, over and over.

Once, when Luna died, he came to her lifeless body lying among her favorite roses. Her eyes were open, looking at the starry sky. The moonlight reflected in her royal blood.

"Why are you so stubborn?" the Shadow Lord said to Luna, even though he knew she wouldn't answer. He hated her for making him hate himself for cursing her. She made him feel.

Among the shadows, there was a rule, emotions are weakness, and he is strong. He must be. But with her, he felt incredibly weak.

He sat there by her side until the early morning when the first rays of the sun of the day came out from behind the distant horizon. Then, just as the day came to life again, so did she. And he disappeared into the shadows, before her eyes met his.

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"Do you realize that you are torturing both of you by doing this?" Elijah, one of the Shadow Lord's closest shadows, asked him a question.

"Why do you think that?" the Shadow Lord asked him back.

"You think you're inconspicuous, but everyone knows where you disappear to every day and night," said Elijah. "You're sneaking up on her, following her everywhere she goes. You never let her out of your sight. I guess her birthday is the only day you really avoid her. And I can see how you suffer when you can't see her for that one single day of the year. Or rather, you don't want to."

"That's not true," the Shadow Lord objected. "I'm just watching to see if she finally gives in."

"Of course." laughed Elijah. "Do you still enjoy lying?"

"And you want to lose your life?" he smirked.

"Why don't you just end it and tell her she won? Maybe then she will consider your request for her hand in marriage." Elijah knew the Shadow Lord well and was not deterred by his threats. "This game of yours is getting a little annoying after all these years."

"I won't come to her until she calls me," replied the Shadow Lord; he definitely had no plans to lose. "Except she is so stubborn." he was angry.

"Just the same as you. It seems that you have found an equal opponent," said Elijah. "I don't understand it, you can have any girl in the world, but you want only this one. The one you can't have."

"She's different."

"I noticed that."

"I won't lose." words that Luna repeated to herself every day.

The Shadow Lord didn't have to explain to anyone why Luna. He simply chose her and was not going to give her up. And certainly not after what they had been through together. She was the one. He knew it.

⸸

Years passed, and Luna tried to leave. She tried to run away so many times. Always in vain. She was too proud to admit defeat, so she vowed to herself to find a way to escape. The Shadow Lord accompanied her unnoticed on her journey into the unknown. He accompanied her until his curse pulled her back. And then it started again. She woke up in the morning and set off again on her journey to freedom.

Luna didn't give up. The Shadow Lord admired her for that in some way. No one before had resisted him as she had. He was crazy about her. He was forgetting himself with her.

One day, after all, he saw Luna break.

She went far, but not far enough. Night fell. It was getting close to midnight. Luna stopped in the middle of a snowy field. The snow glistened in the moonlight. Her dress was wet and frozen. Snowflakes decorated her hair like pearls. Her cheeks were pink from the cold. She was beautiful, he thought to himself. Luna fell to her knees. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

"O almighty Death, guardian of all lost souls, why don't you take me forever? Why do you keep letting me dying but never die? Tell me what to do?" she cried to the void.

Luna would never have said those words if she knew the Shadow Lord was listening, but she thought she was alone there. And they were weighing too much on her heart. Maybe she wasn't as strong as she thought after all.

Her words broke the Shadow Lord's heart. He wanted her to give in to him, not to break her. However, it seems that's exactly what he managed to do. What he didn't know was that it wasn't the curse she lived with that hurt Luna but him. He was the only one she had, and he left. She was left alone with the ghosts of the past.

In return, he gave Luna a gift. All the flowers in the kingdom will bloom only for her. Whether the sun shines or the ground is covered with ice and snow, they will bloom. She adored her roses, which was the least comfort he could give her.

Ever since they met, they couldn't live withouteach other. They tormented each other's soul at the same time. They were morealike than they were willing to admit.