The primroses were beginning to bloom. Their heads appearing from where they had been hidden by the soil for the greater part of the year. Decorating the small hill in a waterfall of colours.

Morrigan wouldn't be waiting at their regular spot, nor would she ever again.

She was waiting at the other side of the veil, in Elysium.

Well that was what Rhiannon hoped as she watched her daughter run around her kingdom, trailing the butterflies to far away lands. She hoped, against her better judgement, her Love was waiting for her somewhere she could reach.

The veil had threatened to separate them during Morrigan's life and now that it had succeeded in that first task it had set steps to separate their worlds for good. Already midsummer became a time of sadness and despair. The usual visits, that during her own youth had been full of happiness for both sides, were now a time for cruel pranks. The fae of her court had taken it upon themselves to haunt the humans on the other side for the short duration of those few days.

Midsummer was no longer a time of safety, only a cruel prank of faith for her court.

Rhiannon was walking in the gardens of her palace, her daughter Ethel was following the butterflies she created. Her hands twisting the folds of her dress, following the silver wire she had braided on all her clothes. Magic was trailing through the skies above following the clouds in their wake.

Her daughter was still young, too young if someone asked her, but she too would travel beyond the veil to the human realm. It was as inevitable as the passing of time for humans. Her daughter wouldn't be spared, she too would follow the other fae while Rhiannon would stay behind.

No longer would the veil allow her to pass through.

She cursed the day it had become a sentient being, capable of forming wishes and powerful enough to make them come true. And maybe those were founded on truth, fae and humans didn't mix. Her kind's first and foremost task had always been to create chaos amongst the nine realms. That she had ignored that order and had led her people along the same path was inconsequential.

The sky brightened above Rhiannon, a flutter of golden butterflies sailed homewards away from her daughter's outstretched hands.

It was time.

-

That first year was a living hell, to watch the other fae pass through the veil en masse, Ethel not far behind. The reminder of her own confinement and the knowledge that her daughter and Love had missed each other by only a summer, was enough pain to keep her inside her rooms for those few midsummer days.

Ethel's return didn't make her feel any better, the pungent smell of a human child clinging to her clothes. Rhiannon could only hope for her daughter not to make the same mistakes as she had, but knew those thoughts to be futile.

The only way for a human's smell to stay with a fae was after prolonged close contact, playing pranks on them wouldn't make it happen.

It was not as if she could do anything about it, apart from warning her child to be wary of humans. A warning she feared would stay ignored.

-

Rhiannon's heart was filled to the brim, had been for as long as she could remember. But now the love that had once filled every hollow was replaced by anger and hurt.

Hadn't her orders been easy enough?

Hadn't she tried enough?

But no, her daughter needed to defy her again and again despite her warnings. The whispered words late at night, telling tales of a long forgotten suitor left behind. Ethel hadn't remembered the lesson they had held.

Consequences were in place.

The veil would stay closed for her daughter as it had been for herself.

No more visits to see their hearts desire.

-

What is a love story when half its participants are no longer there?

Does it cease to be a love story when the couple can no longer be together; separated by time and space?

Rhiannon knew the truth to those questions; had known them for quite some time. It didn't make reality any easier.

Her own choices in love would and had haunted her for ages, seeing her daughter face the same treatment wasn't something she ever wanted. Regardless of her initial intentions it was her own fault her Ethel was facing those, though.

She knew it was time for change. True change, not the kind the veil had forced on them.

It was time for her to let go of past mistakes. Though caution would still be important, something Rhiannon feared her daughter was long past.

-

It was evening of the following day that Rhiannon wandered around her realm. Visiting the places that had once brought her so much joy, experiencing them together with a loved one. Loneliness had become her only companion after her Morrigan's passing, her daughter drifting away on the tides of human pleasure.

The voices in the dark did little to divert her from her decision.

The veil separating her realm from the human's had been disturbed, Ethel being the first one on the scene and leaving with another lifeform. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

'Sometimes I forget she is just as much your daughter as she was mine.'

The veil had returned to its original state, the intruder back to her own realm.

Rhiannon stretched out her fingers, reverently touching the veil separating her from a world she had once known so well. The tranquillity of the veil was disturbed, a ripple travelling through it taking everything on its path with it.

The other side wasn't any different than the last time Rhiannon had seen it, still cold and empty without Morrigan. It was a gift nonetheless to see it once more, though unwelcome it might be.

Once more Rhiannon wandered the fields of gold and wonder she had seen during her youth and later in the winter of Morrigan's life. She visited the many places still filled with happiness, where she had spent the best parts of her long immortal life, but eventually she still ended up at that last place.

Its companion stood in her own realm, hidden among the other flowers and hills.

A burial mound.

It was there that Ethel would find what was left, a splintered peg and a twisted length of wire. But not yet, she would later when her mother didn't return home come looking for her everywhere. Only to end up in this very place to read the name and remember.

Rhiannon had seen the grave one time before, it had been moments before the veil had locked her inside her realm. She had wanted to scream and cry, she had known it would happen eventually.

But how could she have ever been ready to be left behind.

She sank to her knees, her fingers brushing over the flowers adorning the grave. The only sign there had once been a person laid to rest here.

The breeze played with her ice blond hair. Twisting, turning it every which way. Taking it farther and farther away.

Fading away in the wind, carried by the breeze to unseen realms where no living being can come.

A whisper in the wind came by, leaping over the hills and only momentarily stopping at the grave to gently touch it. In a single powerful leap it reached the woods. Closely followed by the clear laughter of the queen; and together they slipped away, running through the woods.

Behind them the grave was left empty, the flowers adorning it withering away in a silent heartbeat. The primroses were over.

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Author's note:

So this story didn't like me, the feeling was mutual but it is finished.

The parts in cursive are opening and ending lines from the book Watershipdown by Richard Adams.

The song I had apparently already put into the chapter, because I thought it fitted the vibes of the story.