Epilogue

Aurora bit her bottom lip down and she tried to be mindful of the fact that her fingers were on either side of the nail. She hit the nail roughly with the hammer, somehow blessedly hitting only the nail and missing her fingers completely. She gave the nail several more violent taps and stepped down off of the stool that she'd placed next to the wall.
She reached down to grab the canvas and stepped back onto the stool before gingerly placing the picture up on the wall, tilting it left and right until it was sitting evenly. She let go slowly, just in case the nail by some means fell out of the wall once it had taken the weight of the canvas. Once she was certain it wouldn't fall, she stepped back off the stool and took a few steps back, admiring the painting from there.
It seemed odd to love a painting of herself so much, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't like it was her own face that was the thing that had charmed her about it. It was the style of the painting; the way it had seemed to have been painted in a way that was careful and somehow also cursory and raw.
In some places it seemed as if she'd been dreaming while she dragged the brush across, in some places the lines were thin and purposeful. It was perfectly Mulan. It was perfectly Jia.
It was at once messy and composed, it was beautiful.

And most of all, it seemed to radiate with love.

That was the thing that had captivated Aurora. She could look at this painting and she would feel so loved and so cared about.

She heard the front door open and her head snapped around. She knew by the walk who it was, but she couldn't tell which of her loves it was; Mulan or Jia.
As the girl approached her, Aurora held her breath, not missing the fact that she was holding Mulan's sword in her hand, and that the flower on the hilt of the weapon had been completed. But had the charm on the sword worked? Had the curse been broken?

Aurora couldn't tell.

"Hello, Princess," her love said to her with a shy smile.

Aurora grinned and rushed to her, Mulan pulled her into a kiss.
In truth, Aurora still couldn't tell who it was, but it didn't matter.
It didn't matter to Aurora whose arms she was in, because whoever it was was a person who she loved more than her whole world.
No matter what happened next, Aurora felt safe in the knowledge that she was with someone who she wanted to be with forever.
Theirs was a love that transcended worlds and lives.