"What's so extraordinary about Nene?"
"One day worlds will shake at her command."
Priss began to laugh. "Yeah, right."
"One day she will be one of the rulers of Jurai. More importantly, she has a keen mind and will have a very long time to put it to work. Most importantly, she has a pure and loving heart, and that in itself can contain more power than anything can withstand." Sasami smiled, a childlike smile that transformed her as for a moment, the child who had become a woman shone through her older self.
Priss laughed bitterly. "Feh. Nene's out of touch with reality."
"No, reality is out of touch with her. That's its problem, not hers."
And so the cycle began anew. It was an ending and a beginning, for any ending we chose to a story is arbitrary. Every ending begins new stories, and every beginning ends an old one. History never repeats itself, but it rarely produces something very new, either. The old stories happen over and over, with new actors, or with old ones in new roles, for we hunger for stories to guide us in our lives, to teach us the steps we must walk.
Through eternity, we dance, changing partners and returning to old ones, learning, loving, and living forevermore. Yet, while the dance never ends, this story must end somewhere, for tale-telling is but one beat of the dance. Dance then, wherever you may be, and may the Lord of the Dance lead you home, for Love without end awaits you at journey's end. Shiva's dance is over, but yours is just beginning.
