Forever has seasons now.
Not of weather, but of mood.
Sometimes the beach is wild with storms of pure emotion (lightning that tastes like laughter, rain that falls upward into new stars).
Sometimes it is perfectly still, the moons frozen, the waves silent, so Kael and Liora can lie in the sand and count each other's heartbeats without distraction.
Today is a season of song.
The children have decided the universe is too quiet.
They gather on the infinite beach (millions strong, wings of every shade between shadow and void).
The eldest daughter raises her hand.
A single note rings out (pure, perfect, born from the first time Kael ever said "I love you" to Liora in this eternity).
The note spreads.
Every child adds their voice.
A chorus that shakes reality gently, like a lullaby for gods.
Kael and Liora sit on their obsidian cliff, hand in hand, watching.
The song is about them.
About the war that ended all wars.
About the cage that broke.
About the beach that became home.
About love that refused to lose.
Liora's eyes shimmer with unshed tears (not sadness, just the weight of too much beauty).
Kael squeezes her hand.
"They're getting better," he says, voice rough with pride.
She leans her head on his shoulder.
"They have the best teachers."
The song builds.
Galaxies dance in rhythm.
Black holes hum harmony.
When it reaches the final verse (the moment Kael and Liora kissed on the throne of creation), the children's voices blend into one perfect chord.
The chord becomes light.
The light becomes a gift.
A single perfect star descends and hovers before Kael and Liora.
Inside the star: every memory they have ever shared, woven into a living tapestry.
Every kiss.
Every fight.
Every quiet morning.
Every time they chose each other again.
Liora reaches out and touches it.
The star dissolves into her palm, becomes a new ring (this one silver threaded with crimson-gold, matching Kael's black one perfectly).
She slips it onto his finger beside the old one.
Kael takes her hand, kisses the place where her matching ring now lives.
The children cheer.
The beach shakes with applause from waves and wind and flowers.
Later, when the children have scattered to their own corners of forever, Kael and Liora walk the shore alone.
The new ring warms between their joined hands.
Liora stops beneath a forest of cereus that opens only for her sighs.
She turns to him.
"I have a confession," she says, voice soft.
Kael waits.
"I never stopped being afraid," she admits.
"Even after we won.
Afraid that one day forever would feel… enough."
She looks up at him, eyes ancient and vulnerable.
"But it never has.
Every day with you feels like the first day we were whole."
Kael pulls her close, wings wrapping around them both.
"That's because we never stopped falling in love," he says against her lips.
"We just learned how to fly while doing it."
They kiss.
Slow.
Eternal.
The new ring glows between their hands.
When they part, a sixth moon begins to form on the horizon (small, white, born from this confession).
Liora laughs.
"You're impossible."
"You're everything."
They walk back to the pavilion.
The children have left gifts: constellations shaped like intertwined wings, dragons curled asleep around the cliff, flowers that sing their parents' names in Liora's voice.
Inside the pavilion, they make love like the universe is still learning how to breathe.
Every touch a promise renewed.
Every whisper a law rewritten.
When they finish, they lie tangled in black silk, watching through open walls as their children play under six perfect moons.
Liora traces both rings on his finger.
"Promise me one last thing," she whispers.
"Anything."
"Promise me we'll never stop surprising each other."
Kael smiles, kisses her slow and deep.
"I promise."
Outside, their youngest child rides a dragon that now sings in both their voices.
Inside, the Eternal Night Sovereign and the Void Empress hold each other.
And forever stretches out like the beach (endless, warm, alive with possibility).
Because love is not the end of the story.
Love is the reason there are stories at all.
Love is the song that never finishes.
Love is them.
Ten billion and one years.
And every single day still feels like the beginning.
**The Absolute, Eternal, Unending End**