"What does eternity mean, when you have none to spend it with?" - ???

Inner District

Tohrmutgent

Central Ptolodecca

4th day, 4th week, 8th month, year 148 VA.

"You know… when I was young, I had fears of dying alone," said Artair solemnly. He had grown old, very old for his kind at eighty-two, an age few amongst his kind reached. Much of his once glossy black fur and mane were dominated by patches of gray now, the black strands that remained mostly swallowed by a sea of gray. "When mother fell to the plague and we couldn't even be in the same room to send her off, that had been a terrifying experience for me…"

"What about now?" Aideen asked gently from where she sat on his bedside. Her right hand was intertwined with his, and her healing magic poured into him at all times. It was what kept him so comfortable and lucid, in these last moments of his life.

In fact, his longevity, which was rare and nearly unheard of amongst his kind, was mostly due to her regular ministrations of magical healing. She had helped him reinforce his failing physique on a daily basis. She reversed the damage aging had brought to him as much as she could, whenever she could.

Even so, eventually age took its toll regardless. Her treatments had gotten less and less effective in the past few years. The past month, she practically sustained him nearly every hour of the day, and even then, his condition continued to deteriorate.

Right now, Aideen had overcharged her healing magic into his failing body. It was just a last gesture from her, so she could spend his final moments with him aware and lucid and exchange a few last words with her.

"You're right by my side," he said with a weak smile. His younger sister Maria had actually come to visit him the week before, after Aideen relayed the news to her in the empire. Artair had said his farewells to his family then, just as he is now spending his last moments… with her. "I couldn't ask for better. Rather, I wouldn't even want anything else."

"You always have such a way with words… you overgrown kitty…" said Aideen with a forced smile as she nuzzled her forehead to his. She was all too aware of how little time she had left. Her magic was all that sustained his body, which was on the very edge of complete failure at the moment.

"Do me a favor and promise me one thing, though," he said, his voice suddenly serious as he looked at her straight in the eyes with his own blurry, dim eyes. "After I'm gone… promise me you wouldn't hold back on finding happiness again just because you thought of me. Don't let my memories… prevent you from happiness. Please promise me that."

"Why would you ask me to promise that?" asked Aideen with some genuine confusion in her voice.

"You have always kept those who passed on in your heart all this time, I am familiar with that. I know you regularly think of your family who had left this world before you," said Artair with a melancholic smile on his face. "I know you will think of me in the same way. I just don't want you to be held back by being reminded of me. Go out, find your happiness. Love again, should you meet the right person someday. I wish that you find happiness again… in your life after I'm gone."

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"Why do you have to think of me so much, right now, even?" she asked back with an equally saddened voice. Her head rested lightly on his chest, close enough to feel his warmth, but not weighing down on his already weak muscles.

"I know you have been happier since we stopped caring for the inhibitions of our youth," said Artair with a smirk that made Aideen blush. "I have to admit that I find it liberating myself, so you are not alone in that. You've been happier in our last few decades than in our first few together, were you not?"

"I guess… I am," admitted Aideen as her blush went deeper. The couple had been far more… experimentative in their older days. Far more open to ideas their younger selves would likely have balked at. It was especially the case where it pertained to physical intimacy. "Maybe I'm just a lewd woman at my core…"

As both of them were barren, much of the traditional meanings behind acts of physical intimacy were meaningless to them. They would never have borne offspring, so such acts became ones they pursued simply for pleasure and enjoyment instead.

They had been creative with it - at times even enlisting others to join them - in their last few decades, at least until Artair grew too old and infirm, unable to participate anymore.

"It's that lewd woman I fell in love with. I definitely have no complaints about it," he replied with a chuckle that devolved to a fit of coughing. She carefully rubbed his chest as he caught his breath. Already, through her magic, she could feel his life force waning. Like a candle flame about to go out. "Promise me, please."

"I promise," she said as she kissed his forehead gently. Aideen's tears ran down her cheeks as she looked at the man she had spent the past five decades with. "I promise that I will find my own happiness, even after you've passed on. Happy now?"

"Thanks," said Artair with a sigh as he looked at her tear-stained face with obvious affection. "I guess I have no regrets left now… other than my family's lineage ending with me. That's one I've long come to accept, though." he added with a slight chuckle.

"No, it wouldn't," said Aideen as she looked him right in the eye. "Your name would not disappear from history with your passing."

"What do you mean?" he asked with genuine curiosity at her words.

"It's not a custom here, or in the empire. Not even in the continent as a whole as far as I can tell," said Aideen as she explained. "But apparently in some nations in Alcidea to the north, the tradition was for married couples to assume the same family name. Either the husband's, or the wife's."

"Then you intend to…"

"From this day forth, I am Aideen deVreys," she stated as she looked him in the eye. "I claim to be part of your family by rites of matrimony, and as long as I exist… so shall your name."

"I… I don't know what to say…" he said with obvious emotion in his voice, and tears welling in his own eyes. "I… Thank you. I love you."

"I know," she replied, as she kissed his lips for the last time. Even as their lips parted, she felt him exhale, and his fingers grew slack in her grip.

Her magical healing had done all it could. He had breathed his last in her embrace, without pain, and every last regret laid down. She had done all she could, and tenderly, carefully laid his hand atop his still chest, which began to cool to the touch.

Only after Aideen arranged Artair's body properly, and made the arrangements necessary, did she sit down by his body, and waited. She had clung into the thin veneer of hope that he might rise as one like her, and kept watch beside his body for the whole three weeks of mourning before the funeral, her magic keeping his body in perfect shape.

No such miracle happened.

Artair deVreys had a simple, modest burial, in Tohrmutgent's sparsely used cemetary. The funeral was mostly attended by the researchers who had worked with him… and Aideen.

It was when she went home after the funeral, and saw the empty bed they used to share, that the reality struck Aideen in full force. The wall that had held strong for the past three weeks crumbled. She broke down, curled on the bed, and sobbed silently into her hands.

Aideen had no idea how long she cried for, nor how long she fell unconscious after her tears had dried. When she rose from the tear-stained bed, she happened to walk past the mirror in their bedroom. It was there she noticed.

Her once flame-like red hair was gone, silvery-gray strands in its place instead.