I remember when I said to you,

Even should the star that guides me on

Through the bitterest nights

Across lands scarred with evil,

Where the ground I trust to hold me

Is corrupt and treacherous

As a traitor’s heart–

Even should this star itself fail me,

If it blackens in death

And leave me lost and forsaken,

Separated from you by a universe of shadow—

Still would my love reach you.

My love, that star has shattered

And the sky sours black.

The wind whips upon me

As I ride on towards hell.

***

I remember when I said to you,

Even should my strength at last fail me

On the day of Doom,

When sword and valor and hope all crumble

And defeat comes to claim me,

Silent and cold

As winter’s first dusk—

Even should my strength at last fail me

On the slopes of Doom,

And should the star you gave me

Have no gleam of light remaining—

Still would my love reach you.

My love, we stand before Doom.

Its almighty flames growl

As they devour hope and light

And reach out for us.

***

I remember when I said to you,

Even should the kiss I gave you

To keep our hearts bound

Closer than this Shadow binds the earth—

To hold together our dreaming and waking

More tightly than Doom’s hands hold us now—

Even should the strength of hope fail me

And my breaths grow cold,

And the kiss I gave you

Become a winter star

Waning fast beneath the storm—

Still would my love reach you.

My love, Death has its kiss

And the world its bitter end.

And as I stand before the shock of dawn

I wonder if we are meeting it.

***

But if so, let the end of all things come.

I will meet it:

My love of you, and of all that is good,

Is too sacred to relinquish to despair.

And now, my love, I say to you:

Even should death come to us,

Severing the strand of our mortal lives

Beyond the circles of the world,

And I do not see again your face of light,

This much I know:

The power that bound our souls in love

Will not be undone by Shadow and void;

The power that fills cannot be defeated

By that which renders empty.

And even should all stars die,

Valor crumble,

And breath grow cold,

Though the star you gave me fade

And our kiss is made as nothing,

The power that bound our souls assures this much:

Still my love will reach you.