The City of Elarion was burning.
Her people were screaming. Light fractured across the sky like broken glass.
She stood in the Temple of Mirrors, her hands stained with the glow of ancient magic, her heart aching with love she was not allowed to have.
And standing at the altar was he.
Not her beloved.
The Cursed One.
A half-human, half-demon outcast. Twisted by both bloodlines and denied by his father's clan, shunned by his mother's people. He once begged Yuhi to love him.
But she didn't. She was waiting for someone.
So he cursed her.
"If I cannot have you," he whispered, "then no one will truly have you."
His spell was not of fire or death - but of control.
A curse layered through lifetimes, through soul-threads, through the very marrow of her existence.
"You will either obey me willingly... Or I will bend your will without mercy. You will lead every fight between moral and immoral. You will cause damage. Try to figure out a way to save your people. Ha Ha Ha..m"
"In every lifetime, you will serve someone - if not by choice, then by chains buried in your mind."
And then the final line burned across her skin:
"You may love. But never freely. If you resist, your body will betray you."
She had collapsed, screaming, the curse settling into her bones.
.
.
.
So.. She decided. Differ to sacrifice herself. She will do what she was ordered. But with her right mind. For less damage. But she has to sacrifice everything for this hateful curse.
In the dark forest, when she was fighting with monsters to save another monster, she was so weak. She was about to collapse.
Then.. He came..too late..But .. Thanks to Heaven. If it exists.
He held her body as she thrashed. As her own hands turned against her will. As her lips whispered spells meant to destroy everything she loved.
When she awoke - trembling, broken - she looked into Demon's eyes and said:
"I'll do it willingly."
He blinked. "What?"
"The curse is designed to control me when I disobey. So I'll obey it. On the surface. But not for him. Not for the cursed one. For you. For the people I can protect. If I choose it... I can at least aim the damage."
She is rambling. And she did it. And he knew it.
Lifetime after lifetime, Yuhi obeyed when she had to - not out of weakness, but out of defiance.
Because her soul was hers, even if her body wasn't.
And that is how she survived.
Now
Yuhi shot upright in bed, gasping.
The memory left heat on her wrists - faint burn marks where the runes had once glowed.
She looked at her reflection.
And for the first time, she whispered the truth aloud:
"I chose to obey... Because I refused to become a weapon."
And outside her door, Demon stood.
He'd felt it.
The return of the curse's memory.
He closed his eyes.
His voice, barely a whisper on the night wind:
"You never had to protect everyone like that."
But she always did.
.
.
.
The door creaked.
Just a little.
Enough for her to know who it was.
Yuhi didn't turn.
She stood facing the window, moonlight stretching across her shoulders like faded armour. Her wrists still tingled with the memory of ancient fire.
"You were listening," she said, voice low.
The demon stepped inside.
Silent at first.
Then-his voice, rough like stone scraped by rain:
"I wasn't listening. I felt it. The memory. The burn."
She closed her eyes.
"I never told anyone the full truth. Not even you."
"I know," he said. "But I always suspected. No one walks into battle willingly unless they've been forced into it. After all, this wasn't your first life after the curse."
She turned then. Slowly. She also knows that. Her eyes were soft but tired - so tired.
And he looked at her like a man seeing a crack in a statue he once worshipped.
"You chose to obey," he said. "To keep your mind... even if you lost your freedom."
"I thought I could control the damage," she whispered. "At least then, when I hurt people... it was by my choice. Not his."
"You shouldn't have had to make that choice," he growled.
His hand gripped the windowsill, knuckles white with barely held fury. Not at her. Never at her.
"I should've found him. Ripped his curse out with my own hands."
"He's sealed," Yuhi said. "But not gone. His power lingers like mould in stone."
"Then I'll shatter the stone."
She stepped forward. Laid a hand gently over his - the same hand that once tried to kill him under that curse... and the same one that always reached for him after.
"You don't understand, Demon. I didn't just obey to stop him. I obeyed to protect my loved ones. Every living being if I can. And.. you. Because if I ever hurt you... without knowing it... I would never forgive myself."
He didn't speak.
Not at first.
Just pulled her closer, forehead to forehead, as if the fire between them might finally ease.
"You didn't have to protect me like that," he said, brokenly. "But you always did."
"That is the only thing I can do to say I care," she said.
He believed it.
Because even curses couldn't mask what her soul always carried. This is not their first life.
Their foreheads remained pressed together.
Neither spoke.
Because sometimes words were too small for the weight they carried.
Outside, the night wind whispered through the trees - soft now, no longer wild. As if even the stars were holding their breath for them.
Yuhi's hand slid from his, but she didn't pull away.
"He'll try again," she said. "In another form. Another vessel. That curse... was never meant to fade."
Demon's jaw clenched. He could feel the pulse of magic still humming beneath her skin - like a second heartbeat, quiet and cruel.
"Then this time," he said, "I'll take it instead."
Her eyes widened. "No-"
"Yes," he interrupted. "I've lived through every life you broke yourself to survive. Let me carry it now. Just once."
She shook her head. Tears shimmered in her lashes.
"You would lose yourself. That curse feeds on memory. On guilt. It would twist you."
"Then let it," he said. "So long as you're free. You live. I can't see you dying in front of my eyes that miserably
Her heart cracked.
Because he meant it. He always meant it.
But Yuhi-Yuhi had already made her choice lifetimes ago.
"We'll fight it together," she whispered. "Or not at all."
He exhaled.
A sound like ash falling from an old flame.
Then he nodded, slowly. The rage slipped from his shoulders. And in its place - resolve.
"Together, then. Even if it burns."
They didn't kiss.
Not yet.
But something passed between them that was older than touch - the kind of vow that outlives lifetimes.
Outside, the moon climbed higher.
And in the distance - in a realm between worlds - the sealed one stirred.
That is Their Unspoken Love