𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐕𝐞𝐢𝐥 𝐎𝐟 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 | Short Story

𝐎𝐂: 𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀

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⁞ 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ˎˊ˗

This story is an echo of intimacy, grief. At its heart, it is about two beings bound by fate, yet torn by duty. Learning what it means to want in a world that never granted them the right. Irena, burdened with divine purpose, and the one she guided, loved, and perhaps, in the end, lost. Their story is not one of happy endings, but of necessary truths…that love is not always gentle, and purpose not always merciful.

To those who have ever loved in silence, who have buried your longing beneath loyalty, who have stood beside someone and felt galaxies shift unspoken between them…this is for you. Thank you for walking with Irena, for listening to her silence, and for honoring her final breath.

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⁞ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐕𝐄𝐈𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒

In a distant dream, fragments of another life shimmered softly at the edges of Irena’s consciousness. A life so tender, so ephemeral, it could only ever exist in memory. She traced gentle fingertips over faded sketches and torn letters, feeling each stroke of ink as if they were touches he had once laid upon her skin. How beautifully fleeting were the lives they might have shared, their love caught in paper dreams and ink-bound promises.

She saw herself there, ethereal in moonlit silk, standing in quiet anticipation as he emerged from shadows on horseback, regal as ever. Even from afar, his presence stirred a profound feeling within her, a rawness only he could evoke. There was truth laid bare beneath a veil of quiet longing. In that dream, he was hers, unburdened by destiny or duty; they were free to simply be. Their eyes would meet across impossible distances, and yet no space could diminish the intensity of their silent bond.

And how they had danced! Oh, how she still felt that final, stolen embrace! Amid candles melting into pools of wax, beneath the watchful gaze of forgotten gods…her beloved Istus. His hands, ever strong yet tender, had guided her into steps she’d never known she could take, spinning her gently, stealing her breath, her heartbeat falling into perfect rhythm with his own. But even in the beauty of that moment, a deep sorrow pooled like ink behind her eyes, for she knew it was their final dance, a graceful farewell never meant to endure.

How cruel it was, to find a love so pure yet doomed from its inception; to hold someone close enough to glimpse eternity, yet know they could never truly remain. Tears slipped silently down porcelain cheeks as she clutched his image, his name caught unspoken in her throat, for fear it would shatter the illusion that cradled her gently in its bittersweet embrace.

They had all grown up together. For centuries braided through the strands of time like ivy through stone, a tapestry of shared wars, quiet fires, and rare laughter. Irena had watched them rise and fall, watched the world change its skin a thousand times, but he…he had always remained her constant. Until now. Now, he was gone…lost not to death, but to something crueler: Oblivion. His face still walked the earth, his voice still echoed, but the soul behind it was fragmented beyond recognition. The one who once rested his head in her lap, who lit fires with calloused hands just to see her smile, was no more. In his place stood a stranger wearing the same eyes, hollowed out and weaponized by fate. And she, the last keeper, could do nothing but mourn a man who still breathed.

As moonlight softened into dawn, she felt herself drift away, carried gently upon a current of fading stars and silken dreams. This ache within her chest deepened cruelly, a beautiful fracture carved from the cruel realization that life without him was an empty tapestry, unraveling slowly into nothingness.

Her eyes fluttered closed, heartbeats slowing as if no longer wishing to continue without the rhythm he’d gifted her. There, with his memory held tight against her chest, she surrendered quietly to sleep.

In that slumber she found peace at last…gentle, final, and unbroken…as Irena’s heart softly ceased to beat, succumbing willingly to the silent heartbreak that had finally claimed her. She would never wake again, having chosen to remain forever in the one dream she could not bear to leave behind.

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