Tales of the Celestial Kingdom (The Celestial Kingdom, #2.5)

by Sue Lynn Tan

Eternity only meant something when you had someone to share it with, not when it would take you from all you loved.

But was there such a thing as a good death? All death brought pain, an abrupt ending to an unfinished story, for who could say in all honesty that their life was complete?

Life was not perfect; there were always hidden wounds, pain disguised beneath a smile, a price to any happiness possessed. We had to bear our burdens the best we could, for we alone knew their true weight.

“Only by the past. But it is the future now that matters.” I hesitated, forcing myself to overcome my instinctive reluctance to disagree with her. “The past is embedded in who we are, whether we choose to change or keep our course. Without our history, we are unmarked sheets of paper.” She met my gaze with a quiet calm. Few dared to look at me so, without shyness or calculation. “What about new beginnings?” “Even those are bound to the past, for they cannot be new without the old. Whatever the past, it should not be ignored—but acknowledged, embraced, accepted. Only once we understand who we were, and what we are now, can we claim our future.”

“I do not believe in another fixing our destinies. I believe we make our own, and some of us might even defy that which is written in the stars.” “I would move the stars for you,” I said quietly, as something shifted into place inside me. “I would defy them all.”

There are many types of happiness in the world. Some bring your entire self together, yet those also wield the power of breaking it apart. But there is happiness in smaller things too, that you can piece together to form a whole—no less strong or meaningful.”