Legends LXXXII – Death in Love

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  • Michael Wischniewski's avatar Artist
    Michael Wi...
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More about Legends LXXXII – Death in Love

It is said that on nights when the moon hangs so large in the sky that it watches over the world like an eye, Death himself walks the woods. Not as fear, not as a shadow, not as a cold breath—but as a silent wanderer with a violin of dark wood, its strings forged from the last breath of each year. The trees bow as he passes, not in reverence, but in sorrow. For Death knows everything but the warmth of love. That changed when he met her. Her name was Elmareth, a woman with copper-red hair that glowed in the moonlight like molten gold. Her skin was as pale as the first light after night, and her eyes sparkled like the rubies she wore around her neck—gems that seemed to hold more heart than any living being. She wandered through the woods as if searching for something she had never named. Or someone. When she encountered Death, she should have fled. Should have screamed. Should have fallen to her knees. But she did none of that. Instead, she stepped closer. “You play beautifully,” she said. Death slowly raised his eyes. His bones were as old as silence itself, his robes as deep as a bottomless well. No one had ever spoken to him before without fear in their voice. He didn't answer, but his fingers—pale, dry, delicate—trembled slightly over the violin bow. Elmareth smiled. And that smile was the first spark that ever glowed in Death's breast. She placed her hand on his, without hesitation, without asking, and the world held its breath. Death felt a warmth he didn't know—a feeling that seemed never meant for him. “Why do you play so sadly?” she asked. He couldn't speak, but the melody answered for him. A soft sound that spoke of centuries, of loneliness, of roads no one had walked with him. A song no one had ever heard all the way through before. Elmareth closed her eyes and rested her forehead against his skull. “Then play for me,” she whispered, “and let me share your grief.” And so the unthinkable happened: Death fell in love. Not with her breath, not with her heart—those were things he knew. But with her boldness, her gentleness, her incomprehensible need to bring light even to the darkest depths. She stayed with him, night after night. And when Death played, the rubies on her skin shone like beating hearts, as if to prove that love can flicker even in decay. But love has its price. And no one escapes it—not even Death. For whoever loves changes. And whoever changes loses a part of who they were. So the evening came when Death, for the first time in his existence, hesitated to take someone with him. As Elmareth's time drew to a close, she sat before him, her head resting on his chest as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I'm not afraid," she said gently. He raised the violin, but this time his hands trembled.

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