"Under the Rose---Under the Stars" by Katie R Hinton

I see the fog roll past my window
I hear your voice calling my name
I cannot see you, for to me you are lost
Yet always I hear you, calling my name

Oh, that I had listened!
(I think this often, when I think of you)
Perhaps if I had, you could have stayed.
I look out at the thickening fog past my window,
I hear your voice, and I wish you had stayed.

Do you miss me, wherever you are?
I wonder, I ask your voice in the fog
For I do miss you so myself
Or has another, some fey immortal beauty
Taught you to forget me?

Though as long as I live, I will never forget you.

Perhaps it is best.
(I think this with tears as I walk in the fog-filled garden,
The one where you planted our rose)
That one of your own, an elf-maid immortal
Should take my place in your heart

For the future holds naught but death, for me

The fog calls me again, as I stand by our rose
Remember? The white one, the sign of your love?
The one you said would bloom always,
Until the day you came back for me

I hear your voice call again
Feel the fog thicken, caress me
And I see the last petals as they fall from our rose
I whisper back, say your name
Though I know it cannot be.

I am mortal, and never a beauty
(Though long years have taken what little I had)
And my love, you were elfin
Forever to be young and handsome as you were the day we met

“I’ve come for you,” your voice whispers in the fog.
“The quest is ended, I’ve returned for you.”
A breeze that should not be strokes my hair
As once you used to do

I cannot stop the tears now
They roll down my cheeks freely,
As I fall to my knees beside our rose
“After so long…” I say, and my heart aches that needs I must ask:

“Can you forgive me?”

I know now how I hurt you,
That it was because of me you left
I know you see me aged
(If it is you, that is, and I have not simply lost my mind)

Surely you have met someone fairer, younger
Who has not hurt you as have I?

Your voice does not answer,
Yet I now know you are here,
For your arms are now around me,
As I cry beneath our rose

“I forgave you long ago,” you say at last,
(Indeed? It was twenty years past that I did what I did… that you left)
“I’ve come as I promised,
To take you back with me”

My heart is aching joy,
Joy because you are here once more;
Pain that I am not quite as I was
(For barely twenty was I when you left)
Pain that ever you had to leave to begin with

The tears continue to flow as I lean into your arms
(Twenty years of held-back tears, for both of us and for what I did to you)
I feel you kiss my forehead,
In such a way as you always would when comforting me

At once (and to my surprise)
All is light, is warmth, is love
For a moment I feel your immortal soul touch mine
But all too quickly it is over.

I find myself standing in a starlit forest,
With you beside me, with both your hands holding mine
I begin to speak, but you stop me.
“Shh…” you say, placing a soft-skinned finger to my lips.

I see the silver glow around you,
The mark of a true-elf, for indeed such you are
(Which mortals rarely see unless they are second-sighted as am I)
“Look,” you say, and your hand guides my eyes
To the mirror-still waters of the pool beside us.

I look, and squeeze your hand tighter,
For I see the glow around myself
(This, as you know, was never there before)
And I see the new, softly pointing tips upon my ears.

You forestall my question one more,
Smiling as I thought I would never see you smile again
“The quest succeeded,” you say,
And you tell me of the elfin queen you helped to rescue
That she offered you all a single wish as her gift

“I chose this---I chose you---as my reward.”

We stand beneath the stars together,
Though we will join your people when the sun rises anew
Looking almost as we did the day we met
(Such is the strength of what the magic has changed in me)

And after twenty years of waiting,
Of never forgiving myself for what I did to you,
You draw me close and whisper three words;
Words that complete my transformation
Words that free me from my own imprisonment

“I love you,” you say,
And under the stars, I kiss you back.