Kyria smiled and nodded.

They descended the mountain soon after.

Kyria and Jinon landed in a small open plain. The roaring waterfalls in the distance added to the lush breathtaking scenery of the place. With the field of sunflowers that waved in the winds, the butterflies who flew in joy, and the icy backdrop of their mountains in the distance.

He sat down by the black zither with white strings and began.It was the soliloquy of soliloquies without a word. The saga of the Butterfly Lovers came to life underneath his fingertips.

Her dance matched his notes as if they were one, the perfect harmony of sound and sight, a love letter answered.

It was the story of two people who never should have met and yet, doing so, fell deeply in love. They promised each other their love, and parting the first time, mistakenly thought they have had all the time in the world.

From then on they chased after each other, never really meeting at the right time. The music expressed their longing, their love, their struggle at trying to hold onto each other. It was the crescendo of youth and young love, naivety and innocence.

It was the long sigh of lovers who were kept away too long, and yet, lived in each other's hearts every day.

It was the joy of meeting again and the frustration of the meeting being too brief.

Finally it was the violent and abrupt parting of two lovers, as they were forced apart.

Kyria danced through it all, it was their story and it was the story of every love that never found happiness.

She danced in defiance of fate.

When the final note sounded, Jinon's head fell to his chest. His heart was slowly, painfully tellingly him that he didn't have much time left.

Kyria came to him like a red streak of light. He smiled at her, "Let's go home."

She carried him up the mountain, as he had all those years ago, kissing his face and murmuring assurances. When they came back, she laid him in the crystal sarcophagus that had been her resting place for the last thousand years.

His eyes followed her as she laid him down.

Kyria walked to the entrance of the cave. With a smile and a shake of her head, "Where you go, I go."

With that her fist struck the side of the cave. Rocks from above creaked and cracked and tumbled down. The entrance of the cave blocked by thousands of tons of ice and snow.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his body was dying but his eyes remained clear. With one hand, glowing red magic began to form as she quickly drew three symbols on the fresh rocks that blocked the door. They gleamed in the dim cave. She smiled, took out a knife, and slashed her wrist. The blood flowed out but didn't flow down. It flew like a thousand little darts into all the carvings that Jinon had made.

"All these years that you spent, carving tiny pieces of your soul from your body. All these years of agony for me. Did you really think I would let you suffer in this world alone?" She asked, "We couldn't be together in this life. And if you are so determined to not have another one, then you leave me no choice. I hope this can save you."

Jinon smiled, he couldn't be mad at this infuriating and stunning creature, "Must you always go against me, woman?"

"Only when you are not doing what I want." Her face was stark white but she walked over and laid down beside him and kissed his face. "If you think I'm ever leaving you again, then I guess I have to prove to you that I never will."

He stared at her as she continued, "The Dark Queen told me of a spell, one that if I tried hard enough I can use my soul to heal yours. My shattered soul would follow yours and heal you. What's another thousand years to us?" She did not tell him that this spell would cause her soul to disintegrate. He did not know this and would never know.

Jinon smiled into her kiss, "I've learned my lesson. From now on, where you go, I go."

Kyria smiled and traced the contours of his face, "The shards of our soul will be with each other forever. Perhaps we will fly like the butterfly lovers in the stories, fly towards a land where we can never be parted"

Jinon nodded, "We can go to the highest mountains and explore the deepest rivers. See the stars...."

There was a fulfilled smile on his lips as he fell into the darkness that was full of her warmth.

Kyria watched quietly as took his last breath. Tears fell from her tired eyes as she rested her head on his chest. The blood flowed faster and faster, she knew that her soul would bind to his. She didn't know what would happen to their soul shards, and couldn't think what the consequences would be. She too fell into the same darkness, enveloped in the scent of sky pines.

They died quietly in each others arms. No one in the world knew what had happened to the mighty General Jinon or the Goddess of Light Kyria.

Songs would be sung of Jinon's bravery. They would last throughout history as they lauded him as the hero.

They would forget about the man who carried away his love in his arms, never to be seen again.

People would curse Kyria's ambition and use her as an example of power gone wrong. They would teach their children to hate her and spit at the mention of her name.

They would never know that she sacrificed her life for the man she had vowed to hate until the end of her days.

As they took their last breaths, the spells in the cave began to glow.

Their bodies lifted into air, into a circle of light, spinning faster and faster around the two.

---------

Far away in the heavens, a beautiful woman was walking with her husband when she felt the magical disturbance.

Cybelline looked at her youngest child who was hanging off of the tree of life and called to her, "Hera, try not to break your neck, we have to go for a bit. Your sister will come get you." Killian gave his youngest daughter a wink as the two of them flew off.

A few young advisors looked at Cybelline worriedly as they crowded over a mirror that showed the mountains which were shaking violently,

"Dominion Goddess...Surely we need to go down to that earth to see what is causing such powerful magics?"

Cybelline walked over to the mirror. She smiled sadly as she looked at the image it showed from within. "So the time has come, my old friend. So this is how you end."

"Majesty, the world has not experienced such magic in a long time, what if this is a threat? We must go down there and stop whatever is happening. This could mean chaos and war again." The young adviser tried again.

"No, it's not." Cybelline looked at the small jewel in her hand, "I've know for about a thousand years."

One of the younger officers of the court bowed, "My lady, I thought that such great magic was forbidden on earth. As the Dominion's vanguard, we need to go and attend."

Cybelline shook her head, "How can you attend to something when the earth itself wills it?"

The young man looked shocked, "Forgive me, Majesty, but I don't understand."

Cybelline walked back to her dais, "I am the ruler of all things living, but the Gaia, she has decided to judge the lovers herself."

"What does she want?" The young advisor ventured.

Cybelline waved her sleeve, and a great picture appeared before them. In it, two people, one male in black and one female in red lay in a bed of shining light.

"The Earth saw his devotion and her sacrifice, she wants to grant their dying wish." Cybelline said, "Kyria has completed her task. What's more, she has walked the earth and held those in need. She has become a protector instead of a killer, and because of her sacrifice, the earth has decided to give them a chance."

Cybelline closed her eyes and muttered a few words into a tiny diamond sphere in her hand. It began to glow gold. "A thousand years ago, when I was new, he helped me to grow into the person I became. She has seen the error of her ways and paid the price. Perhaps in her newest form, she will continue to guide the lost back to their homes."

Cybelline opened her eyes, "Now that the world is stable, now that Earth herself has willed it...How can I refuse?"

The now gold glowing orb dropped from her hands and sank into the floor.

------------------------------------

From the heavens came a grand and shinning comet. It soared over the night sky like a lightning bolt and crashed into the mountain where Jinon and Kyria had lived and died.

Earth shook as the mountains rumbled, avalanche after avalanche roared throughout the region for three days and three nights. People fell on their knees in fear and prayed the Gods would have mercy.

When it was all over, the villagers in the region were stunned. The tallest mountain peak and a circle of mountains that surrounded it was gone.

The last traces of the two legendary warriors disappeared. The crystals and spells had all turned to dust.

Yet, in the midst of the destruction was beauty. A giant tree, its giant trunks and roots growing right in the middle of the rubble, its greenery stretching across the ruined land. Thousands of butterflies surrounded the grand tree, their wings like jewels in the sun as they danced around the grandiose and gnarled trunks.

Two tiny chrysalis pods hung at the heart of the tree, gently swaying in the wind, like silent wind chimes. From the pods, two creatures emerged, whole and complete, unfurling their large wings at the moment of their birth.

One butterfly was red as blood, gold marking shining in the light. The other was gold and silver, with the same, strange markings in blue on his wings.

They circled each other in joy and flew into the green protection of the tree. In that instant, the tree was gone and the two butterflies disappeared with it.

They would never be apart again.