Jessica felt her entire body tremble at the sight of the pale hand, lying in a mess of golden-red blood, the rest of the body of the dead girl before her lying sprawled in the spreading puddle of blood. Her fingers were tightly clasped around the dragon necklace Jiyong had given her when they were just children, her other hand clasped tightly even in death with the dead male in front of her, her dark hair obscuring the rest of her pale face.

The male was no better.

With one hand tightly grasping the girl's hand and the other grazing the girl's face, his eyes had long lost the life in them, the only thing propping up his body being the sword skewered right through his chest and stabbed deep into the ground. The letters drawn with Taeyeon's golden red blood glowed momentarily, before finally fading from existence as Taeyeon's last breath parted from her lips.

Jessica felt her sword hand tremble, a funny feeling gathering suppressed in her chest as she stood before the two dead lovers.

There was a scream from somewhere behind her. Maybe two or more, but she couldn't care less, her eyes focused on the pale bloodless face of her sister on the cobbled floor.

“No!” Sooyoung was screaming uncontrollably, and Tiffany had collapsed to her knees, her eyes fixated on Taeyeon's broken body.

“She saved everyone.” Seohyun spoke with a tired voice. “It was the sacrifice she had to make in exchange for those she loved. I…” Her youngest, unfeeling younger sister's voice broke, and Seohyun lifted her own fingers to the hot wet feeling on her face, coming away slippery and wet, salty and warm. “I'm crying. “ Seohyun sounded dazed. “I..”

Her eyes stopped on Taeyeon's still body, and Jessica watched as the reality of what had truly happened crashed in on her youngest sister, who had only just managed to grapple back her emotions from her own destructive powers.

Sooyoung's heavy breathing panted next to her ears, mixed with hot salty tears---when had she collapsed to the floor?

Jessica felt her chest hollow as Sooyoung burst into wailing tears.

A soft breeze lifted and breezed lazily through the air, carrying the scent of blood blossoms to their noses. It lifted the few strands of hair that covered Taeyeon's face, and Jessica's heart stuttered at the sight of Taeyeon sad but warm smile imprinted on her lifeless face. It spoke of a deep satisfaction and reconciliation, and something within Jessica's chest shattered into pieces before hot and heavy tears fell endlessly down her face.

Not fair, Taeyeon.

You promised. Till the end of time.

~~~~

The war had taken its toll, both emotionally and physically on the land as well as the people that it had robbed homes and livelihood from. But they were picking up, no matter how slowly.

Tiffany had returned to her nomadic life, unable to reconcile with Taeyeon's death, while Seohyun had spent a long while in depression and isolation. It was not without help that she had managed to remove herself from that terrible space in her head and heart because of Taeyeon's sacrifice and death.

It was perhaps the most difficult for their youngest sister, her power having forcefully robbed away her emotions the more she used it with the intent to help them foretell events, then forcefully feeding those feelings back into her the moment everything ended.

At least she had her sisters to help her.

Jessica was simply comforted at that thought.

Meanwhile Sooyoung had been mellowed out by Taeyeon's death. She was still a brothel owner, but she spoke, did things with a less childish perspective and a more solemn and quiet one.

It was an unsettling change, but one that Jessica was sure she would get used to in time.

And as for Krystal. A soft look came to Jessica's face as she watched Gong Myung gently tuck a strand of hair behind her sister's scarred face. She chuckled as her sister's cheeks flushed with colour, before Gong Myung gently patted her sister's shoulder, pointing towards a further stall.

Both teens walked hand in hand towards the stalls, with Gong Myung beaming brightly as he handed Krystal a beautiful hair pin. It looked as though there was nothing much to worry about about her sister either. She was in good hands. Jessica shook her head slightly with a laugh.

If only.

Taeyeon was here. Her heart recompensated the words she didn't dare to speak or think. It still hurt like a fresh wound, Taeyeon's death, despite it having been sixteen years since both Taeyeon and Jiyong had sacrificed themselves and died.

Youngbae was currently ruling justly on the throne. A rather good choice if Jessica was to accurately say. Of course, such a choice was made much better since Youngbae had taken up the guts to propose and marry Yuri. Both of them had been secretly mooning over each other since forever, and Jessica was glad that their skirting about each other had taken a much better turn than she expected. She laughed as Yuri grinned at her from the side.

Who ever could imagine Kwon Yuri becoming Queen?

Yuri gently laid her chin on her shoulder, both of them watching the teaming crowds and lively shouts of celebration as the Lovers Festival begun. It was a Festival Youngbae had created commemorating Jiyong and Taeyeon's death day. They would have wanted everyone to be happy either way, despite their deaths. It was the best course of choice to commemorate them.

Handsome masked young lads shouted and laughed happily, grabbing randomly coloured silks and gently dancing around, the masked girls randomly grabbing the other ends of the coloured silks that hung from the shielded ends. The youths danced around, each not knowing who stood at the other end of the coloure