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The morning sun spilled through the silken curtains, warm and golden. A pot rumbled as the water inside boiled in excitement. Liz stared at the edges of the eggs, her thoughts somewhere else entirely.
"You're going to burn it."
Liz looked up from the firepit, wooden spoon in hand. "I am not."
"You've been staring at the eggs for five minutes." Nerissa was leaning against the doorway, still dressed in her nightclothes, her eyes gleaming in amusement.
"I was thinking."
"As you always do."
Liz rolled her eyes and with a huff and a smile, she replies, "Sit down, will you?"
Nerissa giggles as she grabs a stool to sit behind her. "So bossy today."
"You married me."
"I know." Nerissa snaked her arms around her waist to a hug, closing her eyes as she leaned her head on the nape of Liz's neck. "Best decision I ever made."
The words struck Liz strangely, as if hearing them for the first time. Outside, the birds sang. A dog barking somewhere down the road. The song of a wind chime by their window.
The world felt... quiet. Peaceful. There was no corruption, no more kingdoms, no gods, no wars.
But a little house with its creaking floorboards and open windows and the smell of breakfast. Alone by a shimmering lake in the middle of nowhere. No one to disturb them.
"What were you thinking about?" Nerissa asked, opening her eyes.
Liz looked at every nook in the house before landing on the window. She may not see the outside clearly from where she sat, but she can feel the flowers blooming, swaying in the breeze, touched by morning dew.
She didn't recognize this place, and yet somehow it felt like home. A place she felt... just right.
"...Nothing."
"Liar."
Nerissa squeezed her gently, her nose against her shoulder, lips grazing her skin. Liz dropped the plate of cooked eggs on a table and covered the hands around her waist.
"I was thinking..." She hesitated. "I wish we had more time together."
"We have all the time in the world. Don't we?"
Do we? The thought came unbidden. As if a part of Liz understood what she herself couldn't accept.
Nerissa stood up and took Liz's hand, gently tugging her to stand up. "Come on."
"What about breakfast?"
"That can wait, right?" Nerissa laughed. The sound filled the room like sunlight. She was always like sunlight. Glowing, radiant and beautiful. Yet somehow, hearing that laugh, Liz's chest hurt. She stood up from her seat, as if in a trance. Nerissa always seemed to know how to keep her that way.
They spent the day together, walking by the lake. Lying on the grass, watching the clouds drift by. They sat beneath a tree, spoke nothing important as Nerissa lied her head on Liz's lap. Years seemed to drift past in a single afternoon. Children laughed somewhere nearby, whether theirs or somebody else's. Flowers seemed to grow where they walked. Wrinkles by the corner of their eyes, hair touched with silver, hands grown older together.
A whole life in one afternoon.
As the sun began to set, they sat by the water's edge, holding each other's hand. The sky burning in orange and pink.
"It's beautiful." Nerissa whispered.
"Just like you." Liz kissed the top of her head, Nerissa giggling.
"I wish we could stay here." There was a hint of sadness in her voice as she rubbed Liz's finger with her thumb. Liz swallowed, her heart dropped.
The wind stopped, the birds stopped, as if the world gone still and dimmer.
Nerissa raised her head to look at her. Her lip quivered as she tried to keep her smile. "We can't, can we?" she asked softly.
Liz couldn't answer. They both knew the truth. This place and everything in it. Liz could only grit her teeth.
Seeing her despair, Nerissa leaned forward and rested her forehead against hers. "When you wake up..." she whispered. "...leave me here."
"I can't---"
"Please." Her voice trembled. "You still have somewhere to go. People still need you."
Tears stung Liz's eyes. "I don't know how to be without you."
"You do. You just forgot."
"Nerissa..."
As the sun slipped beneath the horizon, darkness slowly surrounding them. Nerissa smiled anyway, the same smile she had worn in the garden the day they first met.
"I love you."
Like spilled ink, darkness crept across the lake and swallowed the world whole.
One last moment, Liz gave her last goodbye. "I love you too."
Liz opened her eyes, sun peering through her window, glaring down her eyes. The candle had long since died. Her little wooden house, smaller, emptier, lonelier than in her dream. Beyond the doorway, lay the quiet lake and the endless woods. No birds sang, no smell of breakfast, no one by the firepit.
She rose and sat on her bed. Her fingers grazing on her wooden bed covered in hay and forgotten cape. Reminding her of why she was here in the middle of nowhere. Slowly she lied back down her bed, facing the wall as if ashamed to let anybody see her vulnerable.
For the first time in months... she cried.