Hands Off the Realm

Search to the highest heavens and down to the Yellow Springs, yet find no trace of each other in either place. She gave all she had to love him fiercely, but in the end could not spend her life with the man she loved most. He possessed a kingdom as beautiful as a painting and loved her with wild abandon, yet could only sit in lonely company with his throne. All the splendor of the world, all the music and revelry, will eventually turn to a handful of yellow earth. Though they knew their love would end in tragedy, neither regretted having loved the other. Year after year, they waited a thousand years by the River of Forgetfulness. Even if they truly could never meet again in either realm, their love would never change. Through a thousand lifetimes, even if he could no longer glimpse the face of his beloved in her next life, he would still find her and tell her once more how deeply he loved her.