I was well into my second life before I remembered my first. My first life was set in a time before the advancements of the modern era, in a simpler but far more complicated time. I was the weak Crown Prince of the country I lived in, my father the emperor of a vast land. Throughout my first life many attempts were made at my life, but even so, I found the love of my life. She was the light of my life, my own goddess and I never felt I deserved her.

I thought I would never find her, and it’s not like I could even make her mine again, for I was now a weak girl in this life. So, I lived with my boyfriend for some time. Yet, some things touched my heart.

His gaze was the same as hers. His words carried the same tone hers did. His care made my heart tremble in pure joy.

Yet, my heart was confused. I couldn’t tell… Was he her?

Yet, he kept secrets and one of these secrets I dove head first into. A small group of his friends, meeting in unused library room. The shelves barely lit by sunlight, none of them favoring the lights but rather flickering candlelight. The dust was thin, as though the room hadn’t been used in a mere few months.

When I arrived, the door slowly closing behind him, I stopped it softly with my foot and strained my ears to listen. I felt terrible, but my curiosity refused to be sated by so little. The silence was palpable. Then, a calm deep voice of another sounded through the room.

“You never did tell me, nor the others why you reincarnated,” the voice inquired calmly. As if in anticipation, my heart beat grew louder in my ears, though the voice pierced through I easily. My boyfriend sighed quietly.

“It’s far more selfish than you might think, my lord,” his exhausted voice answered.

“I don’t think any of our reasons are selfless,” the voice retorted in a lazy tone.

“True, but… You remember the Crown Prince, yes?” My boyfriend asked and my body jerked in shock, causing the door to shift slightly. He knew the first me, but who was he?

The room stayed silent and I could feel piercing gazes, their eyes sweltering as if burning my very soul. I stifled my breath, praying they would not find me.

“Hmmm,” the voice mused, before seemingly shifting from me. “Yes, I remember, how could I not?”

“I knew him, far better than I’ve given you reason to suspect I did,” my boyfriend’s voice continued, the shuffling of clothes giving away his old habit. I knew, without looking, that he now had his hands on the back of his head. His sigh was deep and full of emotions I couldn’t key in on. “I asked the dragon, when he offered us these lives, what would happen to the prince.”

“And?”

He hesitated; I knew that sound far too well. Another heart-wrenching sigh. “His second life would be just like his first. Weak, vulnerable, attacked at every turn. Betrayed.”

The other voice, which I could not recognize in the slightest, mused quietly as he spoke. “I would apologize, but I’m not sure I can be blamed for that.”

“Not at all,” my boyfriend quickly answered, “But I didn’t like it. I couldn’t tolerate it at all. I love him far too much for that.”

“Who was he to you?” the voice asked, the tone laced with curiosity and confusion.

“Surely you could have guessed by now, father-in-law?” he answered, his voice taking a tone I so dearly remembered from that other life. It was one filled with amusement, teasing, and mischief. I knew that tone far too well, it was a tone I couldn’t be hearing now. It meant far too much.

“Oh? How curious, though I wonder how…” the deeper voice answered.

“I asked the dragon,” he answered. “I asked it for one request, in exchange for anything.”

“And?”

“It granted my request. My only request. The prince was a weak and vulnerable man, so I asked for the only thing that struck my mind. The only thing that would abate his suffering. It doesn’t matter if I can’t give him my love, I already gave him what I knew he deserved.”

“That would be?”

“A life with less suffering, a life less dangerous and destructive. A life he could happily live, even without me. I asked the dragon to swap our next lives. My husband would be a girl, less demeaned and far more supported, and I would be a man. My only goal in this life is to be sure hers goes the best it can.” I felt it in the tone of his voice, the utter truth and love… for me. For me of all people, someone definitely not deserving of it, and someone he was unaware was…. Me.

But, how could she have? There’s…

“That’s… You truly cared for him, didn’t you? You would have given your life for his, wouldn’t you?” the voice asked in awe.

“With every breath, with every beat of my heart, and with my entire soul. His happiness means more to me than my worthless self could ever,” that heart-breaking voice answered and I covered my mouth, a sob struggling to break free of my mouth. This body was far more emotional than my first.

“I must admit, you have my respect more than any of the others now. But, has there been a price?” the voice asked, hesitantly.

“This life and body feel wrong, life my soul stuffed in a puppet. It feels as though I’m controlling another’s body. But that doesn’t matter,” his voice, her words carved into the depths of my heart and threatened to crush it. She was… “All I wish for is his happiness.”

The crushing weight collapsed; my heart torn asunder by my own guilt. I had condemned my light through my own flaws. Destroyed its life and soul just for my own. I felt the tears stream down my face as the memories of us laughing beneath a hilltop tree, of our first child laughed under the light of dawn, of each moment we had spent in the last life flashed through my head.

My pathetic life and ways were her undoing. A lowly man such as I had crushed my goddess beneath it. As my emotions swirled, a voice I had heard at the end of my last life silenced my doubts and fears. The dragon spoke, for the last time I knew I would ever hear it. It’s voice of the other worlds washing through my soul. This is your second chance, live it truly and live it for love.

With all the strength my dainty arms could muster, less than my male self could have managed, I flung the door open. Fresh tears streamed down my face.

“Z-“ my light started, before sputtering, “This isn’t… I-“

“This moon can only prosper by the light of it’s sun,” I answered, the tears no longer racing down my face, “Don’t you know that?” I asked, my voice breaking as I spoke. “I don’t need second life without you.”

His face froze, the shock evident on his face for moments before he spoke, the voice was soft, but louder than anything in the room to me. “My… prince?”

I nodded. It was no longer my turn to cry, as tears streamed down his face. Before I realized it, the smaller body of this life was caught in his arms. “You really are him… I hoped but…”

“You couldn’t lose me if you tried, I teased through my own teary eyes.

Though I didn’t know it, far off somewhere I could never reached, a majestic old dragon with shimmering black scales ad vibrant golden eyes smiled as it laid back down upon the gold before it to stare into the crystal orb that laid at the edge of the pile.

The dragon had many names, and it represented many things. Chiefly, Death.

Death’s golden eyes shimmered. This dragon, was said to grant wishes, for a price. A mythical beast of legend and perhaps the smartest of them all. The dragon, however, was truly a benevolent being, for you see…

The price is never taken, it is used to test the worth of the wish and the weight of it on one’s heart.

Genies are mischievous. Demons are malicious. Dragons?

Perhaps not every dragon, no, but this dragon?

This dragon was the one who granted the deepest wish in your heart.