Love Beyond Death

Long ago, when dragons used to sing, there was one who sought out Malgrave to escape the image his kind had in his own realm. A place where he could help those in need, rather than treated as a tyrant for his lineage. This young dragon was known as Acris. As a black dragon, he was feared for the cruelty his kind normally reveled in and wished to find a place where he needn’t live under such a shadow.
On his travels, he met another seeking refuge from the sins of her ancestors. The green dragon told him her name was Miasimyth. Her cheerful and playful disposition was a welcome change to what he was used to and the two became very close as they traveled the Astral Sea together, looking for Malgrave.
The two eventually found it and were greeted by untouched landscapes and sparkling oceans. They flew together in joy, so thrilled to be in a new place that had no history of their kind. They fell in love as they circled this new world, free of their pasts. It turned out they were not the only ones on Malgrave though, and it wasn’t long before they saw the people that had been inhabiting the realm. They were struggling, suffering after some horrific events and looked to the two dragons with caution.
With their hearts in the right place, the two separated, promising to meet each other again in a few centuries when they had helped the people of Malgrave and earned their place in this new world. And so, Acris took off, lending aid to everyone he could. It became apparent that something had happened not that long before and the people were wary of him. It gave him some relief to see that it was the same suspicion that went to metallic dragons as well. Only towards the end did he learn about a great power struggle that nearly destroyed the entire plane and it had been powerful beings that had caused the problem.
The time had passed and while the concerns the people had never left, he was granted enough trust that the people accepted his help by the end. His goals accomplished, Acris went to the southern continent that Miasimyth had promised to meet him. When he got there, the green dragoness was nowhere to be seen. Searching the world over, there was no sight of her by anyone, until Acris came across a family of halfling in the east.
They told the black dragon that a beautiful, young green dragon had rescued their child from the clutches of an evil archfey. Though she had rescued them, she herself had become trapped because of the archfey’s anger. Acris begged them to show him where his love had gone missing, rewarding them with his entire hoard of treasure he had been gifted over the centuries. Guiding him to a Rift to the Feywild, Acris told the halflings where his treasure was located, thanking them profusely as he dove in without hesitation.
Knowing who he was looking for, Acris flew straight to the lair of the archfey, and there in a cage of silver tree roots was Miasimyth. Knowing he would not be able to escape with her as she lay feeble and weak, Acris called out to the archfey, challenging her to release Miasimyth. The hag, Moirai, answered his call, but not to test him as many would have expected. She attacked the young dragon, trying to subdue him in the same way as she had Miasimyth.
On and on they fought, young Acris being no match for Moirai’s magic pushed through as much as he could, drawing strength from knowing he was there to rescue his love. With all his might, he breathed his acid in a mist rather than a stream of liquid. The air clouded in acid, Moirai could no longer see as she was burned both inside and out, allowing Acris to break the cage that held Miasimyth and flee back to Malgrave together.
When they returned, they were inseparable, so glad to be with each other again that they dared not leave each others’ side. In time, it became clear that Miasimyth had changed. She was still fun loving and kind, but she did not seem to age as Acris did. Over the years they both still grew, but her scales looked as leaves, her horns became antlers that would get covered in moss and flowers. This did not change their feelings for each other, but Acris began to worry. As time continued to weather him, it seemed to stop having the same effect on Miasimyth.
She stayed young and vibrant, her age no longer decayed by the passing of time. Not wanting to leave her alone again, Acris searched for something, anything to stop his own aging so that time no longer mattered to either of them. No mortal, nor god could give him the answer he sought, until one day Acris found a tome that contained the Ceremony of Endless Night. Miasimyth was worried it would kill him, but knowing that if he succeeded the two of them could spend eternity with each other, she decided to assist him in completing the ritual. He became the first Dracolich of Malgrave.
The two were happy again, free of the constraints of time in an everlasting love. Even as Acris grew gaunt and his flesh slowly dried and fell away from his new, undead form, Miasimyth still showered him in her unfiltered adoration. Her time in the Feywild had changed her as well, and Acris knew that as she was now more Fey than dragon she was incapable of lying. Centuries passed and the two had never been so at peace.
But their peace would not last, for word had traveled of the two chromatic dragons practicing necromancy. Knights, heroes and adventurers came to slay the pair in their home in the Vagrant Marshes. Acris was unaffected by the weapons of the mortals and tried to reason with them, pleading to know why they would attack them. Why after everything he and Miasimyth had done for them would they betray that bond?
They only kept coming, thinking his pleas an act to make them feel pity for the dracolich. Ballista were fired and though Acris moved to save Miasimyth, the bolt passed through his empty ribcage and struck her in the heart. Acris released death from his dragon breath, an acrid fog lingering and killing all in their home as he carried his love away. Had he still the ability to shed tears, he would have for the mortals, for he only killed them for the protection of Miasimyth.
The two did not get far before Miasimyth fell from the sky. Acris caught her and gently laid her down. They had thought she would be okay if given the chance to flee and recover, but it soon became clear that the bolt had been tipped with cold iron and it was a lethal poison to her Fey body. She begged him not to leave her, scared and hurt by the betrayal of the mortals. Acris laid next to her, holding her claws in his own. He promised he would never leave her, his heart unwilling to give up hope that she would recover.
Miasimyth slowly faded, her life seeping into the ground around her. From her body grew trees and plants as the two continued to lay there, holding each other. It is said that the Miasma Tropics is the rainforest that grew from her body, while Acris went dormant, time and land covering his form until his body became the Sulfur Wellsprings. Even now, he holds the hand of his love, several millennia later, for he would not ever let her be alone again.