Despite Talvi’s preference for all things chilling, lifeless and dark, the return of colour to the world filled her with an unparalleled excitement. The slightest warmth, the lengthening of the sun’s shift in the sky, the impending arrival of animal babes - all signs of Spring’s arrival.

With Spring came Wiosna, the witch of the season. With Spring, came the end of Talvi’s reign over the land and the beginning of her respite. It would be a lie to claim she was not weary, that maintaining the balance of life and death throughout her season had not fatigued her. As the witch of Winter, it was her responsibility to preserve the natural order within the ecosystems. A constant cycle, always changing, and yet, from her elevated perspective, one many thousands of years old, all remained as it always had been.

With slow, purposeful steps, Talvi took her last patrol of the land. A silent farewell in the brush of her fingers against cold bark and trembling, naked bushes. Her guardianship was over for another year. The time had come, she could feel it warming her bones, the onset of Spring ringing in her ears like a lullaby.

She entered her home quietly. Wiosna, her love and fellow seasonal witch, had been in her own hibernation still when Talvi had left at the end of Autumn. Nothing had changed since she had shed herself from their shared blankets to take up her duties. Not that she had expected it to. In the entirety of Winter, her love had not shifted even an eyelash. They lay flat against her cheeks, rose-coloured and fluffy, as she slept. Talvi hated the thought of disturbing her and forcing them to lift. It was time, though.

“Wiosna, my love,” she whispered tenderly.

No movement. Talvi should know better after the centuries they have spent together, but in the heavy silence of the room it felt impolite to raise one’s voice too loudly, too quickly. There was an order to things, a steady rise in volume that she felt compelled to follow.

“Wiosna!” Talvi sang, although her voice was rough and harsh as an icy night.

Wiosna’s expression curled ever-so-slightly into a mild pout. Her delicate ears apparently didn’t appreciate Talvi’s grating tone, accustomed as they were to the chirpy songs of colourful birds.

Talvi spoke loudly in her third attempt. “It is time to awaken, my love.” She tapped at Wiosna’s forehead with the tip of her index finger twice and pulled back when she finally received the reaction she had been waiting for.

Wiosna groaned, although to a human ear it would resemble the soft sound of a warming breeze. Her brow creased and she pressed one palm to the bed beneath her to lift her upper body a few inches. The slow movement caused the white sheets to fall away from her skin silkily, revealing the multitude of pink and coral shades that made up her form beneath her nightgown.

Still, she did not open her eyes. Talvi huffed a quiet laugh and blew a sharp burst of icy air at her love’s face. Wiosna’s eyes fluttered open with a truly disgruntled expression that only served to amuse Talvi further. If she could ever replicate Wiosna’s precious charm of appearing utterly darling at all times, regardless of the circumstance, the world would fall beneath her. But Talvi existed to be the contrast to Wiosna’s Spring purity, to be the dark and the cold that was necessary. She would never be pretty or sweet like Wiosna. She had long since accepted this, grateful to be granted the opportunity simply to love such a being.

Round, doe-like, brown eyes blinked themselves into focus. “Talvi!” Wiosna greeted her warmly.

Talvi felt her cheeks pulling into a child-like grin as she draped herself across the bed beside her. She slid her bony fingers through Wiosna’s downy hair and the smaller witch yawned into her dainty palm. “How did you sleep, my love?” Talvi asked, tracing her rounded ears and jaw with the tips of her fingers.

Wiosna laughed heartily at the redundant question and pulled herself free of the remaining blankets weighing upon her. Her powers were returning swiftly, filling her with vitality.

“Well, as always, my dear,” she cooed. She patted at her puffy cheeks, encouraging her natural blush colouring to deepen, and curled into Talvi’s side.

Talvi pulled her in closer, desperate for as much contact as she could get before she began to drift away. She pulled Wiosna into her lap and squeezed her with inhuman strength, her last ebbs of it before her body became a sleeping shell. Wiosna reciprocated enthusiastically, just as aware of the short time they held between them. She looped her hands behind Talvi’s neck and Talvi slammed their lips together hurriedly, drinking in as much of her love as was physically possible. It was not feasible to showcase an immortal lifetime of love and devotion in one kiss, but they certainly tried.

They broke apart when Talvi began to feel light-headed, whether from the intense kiss or her powers seeping out of her, she was unsure. Wiosna gazed up at her with half-lidded eyes.

“How do you look so beautiful when you have only just arisen?” Talvi sighed with mock exasperation.

“How do you look so beautiful when you have been working tirelessly for an entire season?” Wiosna countered with her honey-sweet smile.

Talvi felt a warmth in her face that was not the influence of Spring in the air. She could not imagine comparing her sharp, angular features to Wiosna’s rounded, plump and perfect ones. She could not imagine being viewed as ‘beautiful’.

Wiosna cocked her head with a curious expression but Talvi gave her no explanation. How could she explain that she was flushed due to the internal battle she fought regularly in order to not to feel inferior to Wiosna’s perfection? Her love simply smiled again and slid her bare feet to the ground. She stood, warily, upon the wood. The colours in the few decorations and trinkets they owned seemed to brighten considerably as she stretched her arms above her head, rolled her shoulders, warming her body and environment easily as she welcomed back her magic.

“How is the world faring?” she asked as she slipped out of her night dress and began to layer her light garments upon her lithe frame.

Talvi dropped to the bed, hit with a sudden wave of exhaustion as Wiosna settled into her consciousness, draining the power from one season into another like sand through an hourglass. Her hour was ending, Wiosna’s about to begin. “It continues to turn, my love,” she said wearily.

Wiosna hummed and adjusted one of her many skirts, arranged to resemble a blooming flower. Once she was satisfied, she gave Talvi her pure, uninterrupted attention. She began with her scuffed leather boots, untying them with the most gentle movements Talvi had ever witnessed. She pulled both free and put them aside. Next, she set about removing the thick woollen socks and leggings beneath, then dragging the heavy, black velvet dress over her head. It swallowed Wiosna’s entire body as she dragged it away but Talvi had become too fatigued to spare a laugh at her poor soul mate’s expense. Every breath had become forcibly deep, and she knew she could not fight her body’s natural instinct much longer. Wiosna returned with a white cotton night gown that matched her own and manoeuvred Talvi into it gently, her touch light as petals sweeping across Talvi’s cool, milky skin.

“Lay back, conserve your energy, my love,” Wiosna whispered, touching Talvi’s shoulders in encouragement.

Talvi obeyed, laying back in their bed and allowing her love to cover her in blankets first and then perch beside her. She took her hand and squeezed.

“I wish…” she mumbled, but halted herself when she realised how ridiculous she would sound.

“I know,” Wiosna answered softly. She leant forward to peck a spattering of kisses across Talvi’s face, this time Talvi found the energy to laugh, albeit weakly.

“I miss you every moment of every day that we are not together.”

“I do not know how, but I am certain I miss you even more than that.”

“Impossible.”

Wiosna laughed and Talvi was reminded, as always, of small bells tinkling.

“The cycle never breaks, though,” offered Wiosna with a melancholic smile.

“The world never stops turning,” Talvi agreed sluggishly.

“And when Summer arrives, I will be back at your side.”

“It is not the same in the land of dreams.”

“It is not, but I am grateful all the same.” She took Talvi’s marble cheeks between her hands, soft as peach skin, and kissed her again on the lips. This was not the feverish kiss they shared when Wiosna first awoke, this was the goodbye kiss that she almost hated. Talvi wished to kiss her back fiercely, to show her love in some tangible, physical way and defy the cycle. But her power was siphoning so swiftly from her body to Wiosna’s, she had not the capability to do so. She was being pulled into sleep unmercifully. Wiosna pulled back and stroked at her face as she was taken into slumber, her expression bitter-sweet. Eyes full of undeserved adoration and a trembling mouth revealing the distress she was attempting to keep inside, at least until Talvi’s consciousness was gone.

Wiosna remained in her sight, dressed in swathes of silk and radiating the refreshing glow of life and new beginnings, until her eyes slid shut. They both insisted on their last sight before falling into the deep sleep being each other. It made the bite of separation sting just a little less…

~

March twentieth was simultaneously the happiest and most painful day of the year for Wiosna. For perhaps fifteen minutes a year, on that one day, she was able to enjoy her love’s company. For fifteen minutes they were real, living beings together. Their love was composed of thousands of fifteen-minute fleeting meetings.

Talvi was correct, the land of dreams was not the same, it was a confusing place and it could often take them far too long to locate each other in the smoke. It did not feel as euphoric as those fifteen minutes of genuine contact.

Once Talvi’s eyelids had been still for a few minutes, Wiosna managed to find the willpower to peel her hand out from where it was curled into her soul mate’s palm. She did not have time to weep or sulk, the world was waking around her, flowers would need to bloom, animals were due to be born and colour would need to be spread. Wiosna had much work to do. It did hurt, though. A prickle in her chest as she fussed with the blankets once more before accepting that she really must leave.

The words she had attempted to comfort Talvi with came back to her mind as she pulled their cottage door closed behind her. Summer would roll in with waves of heat and blistering light soon enough. And once Suvi awoke to accept the baton in the relay they called the seasons, Wiosna could crawl in beside her love. Two seasons of slumber, side-by-side. It filled her with guilt to think of asking for more, when she considered herself so blessed to have the time that they did together. And yet, that craving for one more moment in Talvi’s company had never subsided. Perhaps, in a few more centuries, it would not hurt as much.