WHERE THE TULIPS GROW.
A STORY OF a girl, a boy and falling (not just in love).

Yet each man kills the thing he loves.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword.

OSCAR WILDE

THE SADDEST THING ABOUT BETRAYAL is that it never comes from your enemies.

     There hasn't been a moment in Tara's life without Ben in it. Her earliest memories at the Temple are of him: three years older than her and taller by some inches. He had stared at her with curiosity when she arrived, had trailed after her like a shadow as she went to practise with their Master, to the training areas, to the surrounding tulip fields. He is her greatest friend. He will be her greatest sorrow.

     Thirteen years after they first set eyes on each other, the singularity that is Ben Solo shreds the galaxy, and sets Tara's world spiraling into darkness. He, whose thoughts belong to her, whose emotions are her own, whose heartbeat matches hers, throws her down into recesses of grief.

When, after many years, they meet again, something breaks. Indefinitely this time. Because choices have consequences, they say, and trust, once broken, can never be mended. Every poor decision he's ever made had a horrid consequence and it's too late to question them, too late to turn back. His choices have led them here, but they are no longer Ben and Tara. The boy Ben Solo has long ago given up on himself, finding refuge in the man that is Kylo Ren. And Tara has given up her lightsaber for a crown and her family's legacy. But they cannot cheat their fates and so, Val — not Tara anymore and never again — must learn what truly lies beyond the curtains of the destructive First Order that rules the galaxy.

     Val tells herself that she no longer is Tara of the Temple, that she rid herself of that name like a snake sheds her skin. And it is not about deceit. A snake sheds her skin because she has grown too big for it. A snake sheds her skin because she is moving on.

     But him and her, her and him — they are one heart, one mind, one soul. He's her poison, and her antidote, the best part of her, and the worst. Her rise, and her downfall.

     He is.

     But that's a sadder story.