Chapter Text
Her room was warm and cosy, and quiet in a way that was not familiar but not uncomfortable. Life in the rural parts of the country was much better, she kept telling herself, though without the roar of passing cars or the thump of neighbours walking about, there stood little between her and her imagination.
And just as her mind began to craft monsters out of the shadows of her toys and books and cupboards, the door creaked open and the light of the hallway came rushing in.
"Hey sweetie."
"Hey dad."
"Came to check in on you. Can't sleep?"
"It's weird."
"I know. It's weird sleeping alone isn't it? Wanna come sleep with us?"
"I gotta try. Otherwise my friends will laugh at me."
"Hmm. Want me to tell you a story?"
"Yes. The one about the Prince."
Her father's laughter filled the room and chased away the fear in her heart. She pulled the sheets up to her chest as he rummaged through her books, fishing out the hefty volume from the same place he'd shelved it in the afternoon. He settled in by her pillow and the bed creaked from his weight.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Conflict," he began ominously, his voice noticeably tired despite his best efforts, "the opposite of love, like the dark side of our moon, or the tail of a coin. It was a concept so old that even the gods of old didn't know where it came from. But one thing was for certain: It was out of conflict that soulmates were born."
"Was it a time before we were born?" she chimed in, trying her best to remember the opening of the book and prove the lady at the bookstore wrong. The book was not too advanced for her. She could memorise it.
"Yes, sweetie," her father continued and ruffled her hair, his smile perceptible in the warmth of his voice, "A very long time before we were born. A war broke out in the heavens where souls resided; a long war that was started by the stars who were jealous of the souls who could come and go as they pleased. They battled fiercely for centuries until finally, the goddess Dana Méadbh put an end to it all.
"It was too late for a small group of souls however, who were so grievously injured in the fight that they split into halves, never to be whole again. And these souls would spend all of eternity longing for that which they do not know and of why they could not feel whole. They are what we know today as soulmates."