The tribulation clouds slowly thinned, violet lightning fading into distant echoes as the heavens calmed. In the silence that followed, one figure remained suspended in the air above the shattered pavilion.
Emery.
Residual arcs of celestial lightning still crawled across his body, sinking into his flesh like dying serpents. Every nerve screamed, every bone felt splintered, and the aftershocks of forced ascension rippled through his meridians in waves of agony. Yet none of it mattered.
His eyes found her.
Klea lay in Jinkan's arms, pale, trembling, her lips faintly moving as though caught between consciousness and a dream.
"…Emery…"
The sound reach his ears.
Something inside his chest twisted so hard it stole his breath more effectively than the tribulation ever had.
In that moment, the battlefield, the enemies, the politics — all of it vanished. There was only her.
