Spring Garden was exactly how he had left it but she… his princess was no longer singing. The summer was gone from her eyes.

To her, he was her love, Jae. To all others, he was Kingbird, hero and champion of Sykotica.

“Jae, you have come back without thinking of…”

Gently, he touched her lips and spoke with a rare tenderness, “Speak no more, love. I will always come back to you. Always come back to you.”

She pushed his hand away. “Leave! Leave and never return, I beg you.”

“Jade…”

“It’s a trap. You’ve walked right into her trap.”

He sighed, “After all these years. I must have you with me. We can defeat her together.”

She didn’t reply. She dared not.

Darkness creped in to the garden followed by a menacing laughter, a high-pitched shrill, “It is all too late, my darling Kingbird. She can no longer fight by your side.” The woman continued laughing as she descended. Cloaked with the royal robes of Sykotica, there was no mistaking her. She was Empress Jo Lin, the most ruthless tyrant the world had ever known. Her hair was pinned up in coils. Her face was heavily powdered and painted.

The horrors.

Afraid of losing Jade, he held on to her hand with so much force she flinched.

“What have you done to her?”

Jade turned to the Empress and pleaded, “Jo Lin jie, please don’t…”

“Don’t what?! Tell him that you made a deal with me? That you handed over your song and immortality in exchange for his safety? Sister, you are such a fool.”

Jade wrapped her arms tightly around the lute as Jae pulled her closer. She could hear the faint beating of her own heart in his chest. She was dying and the heart he had kept safe until now would go with her. This was the deal.

“I’m sorry… You know I'll always love you... Always…” She whispered her last words to him. The heart in him stopped.

Jo Lin watched them with disgust, “A faithless fool and a hopeless hero, what a pathetic couple. And so, the thousand lives curse continues… love without happiness…” She left in the same fashion as she had come, laughing like a madwoman.

From that day forth, Princess Jade’s lover was driven to madness, sending the whole kingdom after her. With the thousands he had killed, she would no longer be alone in the realm of the dead. Sykotica had come to ruins through the hands of one man. Empress Jo Lin had no choice but to destroy him (even though she loved him). Immortal or not, he killed no more.

Like all the weak rulers before her, Jo Lin abandoned Sykotica, a dystrophic kingdom where “I love you” and “you love me” exist without a “happily ever after.”

Ruins... complete ruins...