Time with the Lovers moved slowly, like cold molasses. They played all day and made love every night. The Fool would sometimes not talk to them for days. Rarely the time would come when the Fool would spend any time with either of the Lovers one-on-one.
I was the queen of a far off land, the woman said one day. I had a son. I loved that son with all my heart.
One day, the woman went on, the boy got sick, and I stayed up for three days watching over him as he fought a terrible fever.
After the third day, I fell asleep, just for a second, but when I woke up I saw the Nameless One carry my son out the window and off into the night.
I asked the darkness where my boy and the Nameless One went. Darkness said it could tell me if I could sing a lullaby.
After I sang the lullaby, I no longer had a voice, but the Darkness told me that the Nameless One and my son went into the woods.
I ran into the woods and tried to track the Nameless One, but I lost the scent. I asked the Roses where they went. The Roses said they would tell me after I held them like I held my son. I started bleeding profusely and couldn’t bend my arms without being in agony. They told me they went across the lake.
I found myself at the shore of the lake and asked if I could cross to get my son. The lake said to cry for the lake like I cried for my son, so I cried till I was blind. The lake let me cross.
I found myself blindly at a greenhouse where the Nameless One turned the dead into flowers. I felt my way around the flowers till I found a sickly flower. I knew it was my son by the heartbeat.
I heard the Nameless One stand over me. It asked me if I wanted my son back. I, of course, said yes.
The Nameless One gave me my eyes back and I was holding my son in my arms, but he was still dead. I followed the Nameless One with my son in my arms to a boat to cross back over the lake.
As we crossed the lake, the Nameless One told me to look into the lake. I saw two sons. One grew up healthy and happy while the other grew up in pain and suffered every day. I couldn’t bear to watch the excruciating pain the one son suffered.
One of these sons is yours and one is a son to be. Either you are bringing a son back to live a life of joy and happiness or you are bringing a son back to live a life of complete suffering. This is your final choice: do you let your son die, or do you let him live a long life?
The Fool sat at the edge of a log, waiting to hear which choice the woman made, when the satyr came into the clearing. The woman jumped up and into the satyr’s arms and they were in their own little world. The Fool knew that he wasn’t going to get the end of that story anytime soon. He went back to walking around the garden of paradise the Lovers resided in.