"The Choices of Murkha: Epilogue" by Henrik Lerdahl

            There is a mansion in which two people live. It is a huge and old mansion that has seen better days, for some areas of the roof have caved in, and the garden is wild and untamed. Few of the rooms are in use, and permanent dust settled there long ago. But the inhabited rooms are filled with laughter, discussions and talking, and when the sky grows dark lights shine out of those windows like stars in the night. Some of the rooms are spotless and smell slightly of soap. New paintings have been hung up, tapestries have been mended and broken furniture has been replaced.

            The two people who live there talk of many things, but the one thing they do not talk about is the one thing both of them are always contemplating. To bind themselves together with the wows so they can be together until death and beyond. But neither of them has the nerve to even mention it. Life seems so wonderful as it is. And yet in the jungle of a garden something is about to break through. In the deep places of the forest gates are about to open again. In the bottom of ponds and in the attics of old buildings something is about to return. For nothing lasts forever, and it is only peaceful before the storm.