Their Garden

"Where were you off to this time?" The smooth voice rang behind Eunchae.

She spun in her garden, right hand dropping the rusty old trowel and right hand clutching the snow globe tighter to her.

"Oh, hi Adilar." She relaxed a little, wiping the sweat off her brow with her left arm. She gestured to the flowers. You couldn't call them vibrant purple, not with their wispy opaque petals fading into twinkling light that rose like fairies, but they were beautiful, nonetheless.

Adilar's face lit up. "Purple Milanaise's!" He crouched down low, and even in his excitement, he reached a soft finger out, touching a petal with care. "You went all the way to Milanaria?"

Eunchae nodded, crouching down low beside Adilar.

"Tell me about it."

"It was beautiful," she said, and she'd said it dozens of times before about a dozen different places, but that twinkle in her eye shined just the same.

"Did you—"

"I did," Eunchae smiled. She placed the snow globe softly on the dirt of the flowerbed, not minding if it got dirty. She was happiest in the garden anyway.

Eunchae pulled out a little Arisite figure out of her pocket. The stone seemed to suck in the light around it, shrouding it in darkness - but in that darkness, it highlighted the figure more. Accentuated the stone carvings.

"It's a replica." She handed the stone gargoyle to Adilar.

"You got this for me?"

Eunchae smiled. "For watching the garden. While I'm away." She picked the snow globe back up, wiping the dirt off the bottom.

Adilar sat back, peering at the rest of the garden, admiring the plants, even fruit planted from lands far off. "It's a lovely garden. It's like— like you're bringing the world here."

That wasn't exactly it.

"Hey," Adliar's voice rang out—it was different now. Nervous. "Askar's rising tomorrow night. I just thought, you know, it's not always you can see the third moon clearly. The village is getting together on the old hill to see it. Old Jocki is lighting one of his eternal fires— or you know, he's not that practiced as a fireward, but— do you want to come with me?"

Eunchae's heart tightened, but so did her grip on the snow globe. "I'm off again tomorrow."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, Adilar," she said, and she really meant it.

"Where to?" He asked, trying to mask his disappointment. "That's right, wherever you end up. Doesn't it ever get lonely out there? All by yourself?"

Eunchae held the snow globe tighter.

"You and your globe, I mean. What is it?"

Eunchae hesitated, but this was Adilar. She slowly handed him the artifact. He reached out, same careful hands.

"Wow! It's beautiful," he exclaimed. In the globe sat a woman sitting on an old Oak log, surrounded by flowers. Two new one's, a pair of purple Milanaise's. "This girl, her hair is so fiery it could put that old Jocki's fires to shame! Where did you get it?"

"I made it," Eunchae said proudly, reaching back for the globe.

She spent the rest of the day chatting with Adilar about her adventure, and honestly, she didn't want it to end. But the Sun set, giving way to night, to the soft green light peaking over the Horizon. Askar's light. It's not like she didn't want to see it, and even as her carriage left the next morning, taking her wherever she may go, she thought: 'maybe this is getting lonely'.

7 tri-moon cycles later, when Eunchae arrived back in the village, this time with no new flowers, Adilar was already in the garden, lighting fires under the infraroses.

She stepped out of the cart shakily. Something had changed on that trip. Even so, the grip on her globe never loosened

"What's wrong?" Adilar asked when he noticed her.

She sucked up her emotions. She promised herself she'd be strong. "Do you want to meet my sister?"

"You have a sister? I'd love to!"

She walked quickly— walking too slow would drag things on, make things more painful. Adilar followed until they reach a spot in the garden, right in the middle of it all. That way she'd be surrounded by beauty.

"Your sister is in the garden?"

Eunchae placed a soft hand on Adilar's shoulder, and he silenced. She held the snow globe in front of her.

"Hi, Yunjin," She paused, trying to find the right words to say. "I'm sorry," she finally said. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I could only keep you here, trapped. I know your not really there, not fully— I-I know that but— I wanted you to see the world.

"They said— they asked for you to rest in peace - fuck - and I know you. I know that's not your thing. You were too young to rest. You should've been running and laughing like you always did, you should've been exploring— exploring the world like you always wanted to. But that was taken from you, and I couldn't accept that, and I'm so sorry!

"I'm sorry for every time I would sleep and leave you lonely in your globe, I'm sorry for those damn flowers— I should've never planted them.

"I just didn't want to let you rest. I wanted you to run and jump and fly. I wanted you to see the garden come to life. I— I didn't want to let you go.

"But I have to. I can't keep you here." Adilar placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. "You have to move on. I have to move on."

Eunchae tossed the snow globe into the garden, shattering it. Wispy smoke rose out of it as the plants inside shriveled.

"Goodbye Yunjin."

Adilar crouched low to the ground, fixing the flower bed around the broken globe with those same careful hands. "Goodbye, Yunjin," he repeated.

Years later, Eunchae and Adilar would visit this exact spot, where a large Oak had sprouted from the remnants of the glass shards of the globe.

But for now, Eunchae wept.