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“He will not succeed,” Valentine informed the sea

“Love is powerful,” Lavinia of Lunhispered in return

“Indeed, love is everything but hate is the other side to that coin and it holds equal power”

“Mm,” Lavinia murmured then asked softly, “But the distance around that coin is not far, is it, Valentine?”

This was true The coin of love and hate flipped and it did so regularly

Still

Valentine stared at the sea and, again uncharacteristically, she felt unease therefore she shared quietly, “Ilsa is broken”

“As is our Apollo,” Lavinia replied and that was the truth

“But he does not love the Ilsa of my world He loves a dead Ilsa,” Valentine reminded her friend

Valentine knew Lavinia turned her head to look at her when she spoke again “Three times, Valentine, three, love has spanned universes You’ve seen it happen once and you know of the other two times He loves a dead woman, he mourns her, unabated But that does not ain, a different love with a different woman who is yet the same He has known beauty but his full story is untold And she has not known beauty Who is to say that he cannot guide her to beauty? A man such as him is capable of many feats, even those that seeic, Valentine, you know that too”

Valentine looked to the other witch “You don’t kno bad it is I don’t see good things He pines for a dead wo her fro but terror and flight, and forcing her to live with a h he is not, abut his dead wife back, not her She is not the Ilsa he loves and that is all he will see, until he comes to understand she is not the woman he so desperately wants returned and then what? Disappointer, if she is not”

“There are other possible outcomes,” Lavinia returned

“Indeed, but there are also those two”

Lavinia held her eyes

Then she smiled and whispered, “We shall see”

That was the truth too

Valentine sighed and wondered why she cared

She came to no conclusions; it was simply that, unfortunately, she did

Then she looked back to the sea