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"Ivar..." She spoke quietly, so quietly that her words were barely there at all. "What are we doing here?"
The fierce Viking King softened, smiling gently at her as he cupped her cheek in his hand. "You are the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me." He told her. "And I can't let you die for me again. I understand that now, everything that I should've understood years ago."
"I'm not going back." Ailbe protested. "I'm not leaving you! I won't just let you die!"
"I love you." He smiled, stepping closer. She could see the pain in his eyes and her heart raced, pounding in her chest.
Slowly, he leaned in and kissed her, their eyes closing as they felt that one final goodbye. That farewell. That ending. After a brief moment, all that Ivar could feel was the wind against his skin, and his eyes opened to a silent lonely cliff. There was no light anymore, even in the middle of the day. There was nothing but the memory of what once was.
But did he regret a second of it? No. She was safe now. She was finally safe. And if he died, then he could die knowing that he protected her as he always promised to do. Briefly in the distance, he could see her exactly as she'd been on that first night in her home village. That melodic laugh as she fell over, trying to curtsey. Her vacant eyes bright with hope. The woman that would become the love of his life. His soulmate.
"I love you." He whispered into the wind again.
As Ailbe opened her eyes, she was alone. In the vast distance, she could see the town - but not the town that she had left. Cars buzzed around, lights flickered on. She was in the 20th century again, here in Kattegat.
"I love you too." She whispered, a tear running down her cheek. And then another, and another. She fell down onto the ground, her body aching with grief and her eyes streaming with tears.
He was gone. It was all gone. Everything.
"Ailbe?" A voice made her freeze for a moment, her heart pounding in her chest. Was she hearing things? Was she going insane?
As she looked up, she saw him again, the man that she'd left behind. "Ivar?" She whispered.
Whether or not he was the same man that she left a thousand years in the past, he was comforting. She wasn't sure what to say, what to tell him. Did she still love him? Could she still love him after everything?
But when she saw him smile, a smile that couldn't be replicated by anyone else in the world, her heart almost stopped. She jumped up, hugging him tightly as her tears streamed into his shoulder. And as he embraced her, making her feel safe again, all she could think about was everything she'd lost.
What had happened to them all, those that she'd left behind? What lives did they live after her? Were they happy? Were they safe? Did they live well?
For just a moment, she felt as though she'd lived a thousand lives in just one. A thousand loves, a thousand losses.
But hadn't she? Wasn't this just the beginning?
Because the truth of soulmates is, they last forever.
