Stronger Than Desire

It is said that nowadays Desire rarely takes a human lover. For Desire, who is male and female, fair and dark, old and young, anything and everything you have ever wished for, or coveted, or needed, is irresistible. And so what would be the point, after all? Love is not a game to Desire, as it is to so many mortals, or if it is, it is a game with a foregone conclusion: Desire always wins. And Desire hates more than anything to be bored.

"Who are you?" Raimon said.
"I am not what you think."
"No. No, that is quite clear. You are no mortal, I see that now. Who are you?"
Desire laughed. "I am the most powerful being, man or woman, that you will ever meet. I am the most important thing in the world."
"You are no God," Raimon said. "And God is the most important thing in the world."
"I am even stronger than your God. I am one of the Endless. I am Desire."

"I have won the wager," Raimon said. "Love is stronger than desire."
But Desire shook her head. "They are the same thing," she said.

Forty years after he met Desire in the forest Raimon lay dying. His vassals gathered around the bed he once shared with Desire, "He should have married and had children," one of them said softly. "They say now that the castle and lands will go to a son of Count Bertran."
"No," Raimon said weakly.
His men looked at him in surprise; they had not thought that he could hear them, or that he was alert enough to speak. "What is it, my lord?"
"I could not have married. I stayed faithful to her all my life, even if she was not faithful to me.

Love is the strongest thing in the world. You see," he said, closing his eye, "I won the wager."

Excerpts from A Story by John M Ford