Alt chapter 4

Salem came back to himself in front of Ruby's grave.

He was kneeling in front of her freshly dug grave, weeping with an aged Alina.

"In the end....She never regretted being with you." Alina sobbed. "She was happy with you to the end."

Salem had not aged, due to his race being a Void, so he looked like a twenty-year-old, while he had lived upwards of seven hundred years.

"Happy birthday, Ruby." Salem said sadly, creating a bouquet of pitch-black flowers and laying them across her grave. "I hope to see you again in your next life."

Alina's frail body continued to shake as she was wracked with sobs from the loss of her friend.

Gently picking her up, Salem carried her to the little cottage they had created in their paradise world.

Only now it didn't feel like a paradise.

Laying a numb Alina on their bed, Salem traced his fingers across the wrinkles that had formed on her face over so many years.

"I could resurrect her as a Spirit Companion, but I don't think she would appreciate that." Salem said quietly. "I think she'd begin to compare me to the slavers we saved her from."

Alina's sobbing gradually grew quiet.

"I think so." She agreed, taking a long, shaky breath. "But I still want her to come back."

Salem embraced her.

"As much as it saddens me, you will join her eventually." Salem said.

"I know." Alina said, taking solace in his touch. "I just hope you will be able to handle my death."

"I hope so too." Salem agreed, knowing full well that he might give in to temptation and resurrect them both to keep them by his side.

Alina began weeping once more as she slowly drifted into a fitful sleep.

Salem was unable to enjoy the embrace of the blackness that was sleep. He couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had successfully stolen that cultivation manual for them.

This left a bitter taste in his mouth that was as fresh as the day of his failure.