Rose-kissed Cheeks

    It was in the ides of January that I was purchased by the empress in the marketplace.  This is where my memories began; not of my past life, but of my new life.  It was a life of servitude and struggle, but also a life with love.  My mind is quickly fading, yet it tortures me with these bitter-sweet memories.
    It is said by the priests of Hades that when a man dies, he will see his life laid out before him.  Yet, why am I punished to relive just these memories; painful and unbearable as they are, judging by our current situation.  Not even the priests of Ceres had prepared me for this moment, just as I was unprepared to meet Risita.
    Perhaps it was doomed to tragedy to begin with.  I was a newly bought slave to the empress of the mightiest empire in the known world.  As such, I hardly had garnered the trust that the noble's put in Risita.  While I was a lowly stable boy, she was a kitchen hand!  Our two worlds were so far apart, that it was only by Ceres' grace that we met.

    You see, a trusted slave, is still but a slave, and as such, Risita would eat with us.  This is how I came to fall in love with her beauty, for she was more beautiful than there were stars in the skies.  She had wavy auburn hair and blue exotic eyes, that when I looked into them, made my heart flutter weakly.  Her skin was fair, and even had a hint of rose to her face.
    She was a beauty indeed, but I would learn that her beauty paled when she let you see her heart.  But I did not get that privilege for some time.  Soon, the frosted grounds of winter thawed away, giving way to the birth of spring.  The dates came into season and the empress demanded a grand feast to include the newest addition to the season.
    Many nobles had to buy fresh goods from the marketplace, but not the empress. She owned many acres of land outside the imperial city; there were orchards about with ripe date, ready to be taken by a slave hand.  The feast would only have the best dates though, and so Risita was chosen to pick dates according to their merit, and I, chosen by her to carry the buckets to be filled.
    I had not been outside the walls of the estate for some time, and already I felt the longing of being free once again burning in my chest.  The smell of orchids, the songs of the meadowlark, and the warm sun against my face told me to escape, but the days' trip would find us in the company of the empress' son, Dominus, and surely as I longed escape, he would ensure my servitude.

    It was about midday when we reached the orchards.  Already, a bucket had been handed to me, and Risita quickly pulled me away so that we could pick dates together.  I had believed her choosing me had been purely coincidental, as she had chosen other bucket carriers, but I had no doubt by her zest, that I had come here for her, personally.
    She chose a secluded area for us to pick dates.  The slave masters had dogs, so there was no need for them to fear us fleeing.  Risita began telling me how she had come under the Empire's clutches as a slave.  Like me, she had been orphaned in the empress' conquest, and quickly enslaved.
    We had been busy for awhile and were about finished picking the ripened dates from another tree.  She couldn't reach one, even with me boosting her high up into the tree, so I climbed it for her, and retrieved the prize.  Of course, the prize wasn't the date, but the act of doing something good for the woman I loved, and the tender kiss that followed it.
    She was tentative at first, unsure of how to begin, but as our lips met, an electric trill ran up and down my spine.  And when it ended, we looked into each other's eyes, linking our two souls together as we bared our souls to each other.  There was a rustling behind the tree and Dominus and a slave master came into view to check our progress.  He didn't say anything about seeing the two of us, which was good, I thought at the time.  Kitchen hands were not to have relations with lower slaves, it was the Empress' command.
    We quickly finished our job for the day, each of us feeling our first kiss, and each of us waiting for the next chance that Ceres would present us with the opportunity of another.  As the goddess would have it though, it was to be but a single parting kiss.  After the feast was over, I looked for Risita.  The slave masters were befuddled on wine and wouldn't miss a lowly slave.  But she was nowhere to be found!  I chanced the kitchen to be stopped by a kitchen hand.  She was delivering glazed dates, made by Dominus himself.

    I planned on lurking outside the Empress' chambers, cleaning the dust from the many portrait and pieces of fine art, but the chamber guards were not at their post, and the door was cracked slightly.  The hair on the back of my neck bristled as I realized something was horribly wrong.  I peeked into the chamber and my heart stopped.  The empress and Risita were both laying on the floor, wraithing in pain.
    I ran to Risitia's side.  She apologized for doing what she did.  She knew the dates were poisoned, but Dominus had threatened to kill me if Risita did not follow through with his evil plot.  My head was spinning from shock.  The woman I loved was dying, and there was nothing I could do.  Except to go with her.
    The date didn't taste of vile intent, and after a moment of holding Risita, I began to think it didn't work; then the pain blossomed in my gut.  New tears poured fresh from Risita's beautiful and exotic eyes, and onto her rose-kissed cheeks.  The poison had flushed her cheeks to bring fully out her beauty.  She only cried harder, knowing that she had been unable to save me.  If only she knew that I was saved.  I kissed away her tears as I worked my way to her lips in a final, tear salted kiss.  Having no other way to comfort our passing, I began to sing my feelings to her

I thought I loved you when we first met
I thought that you were much too good
But we've moved at such a pace
That I know we're so much more
Now, I lay you down to sleep,
just this last time for now
and as I see your face,
I'll let the tears come pour

I don't cry because I'll miss you,
I don't cry because you hurt
I cry because I love you
as you are dying on the floor
 
And swiftly comes the darkness,
a never ceasing foe
I won't have time to miss you
because I'm coming with you too

The Empress had passed, yet Risita lived.  I began to cry as I realized she was holding on for me.  She fought hard against her body to pull herself to me, and I fought hard to wrap my arms around her.  I didn't have the strength to sing anymore, but together we would pass into the underworld, where we would be free from servitude.  Free to pursuit our forbidden love, away from this wretched land of betrayal and deceit.