The night sky broke.
It wasn't lightning. It wasn't a starfall. It was memory itself, uncoiling across the heavens in streaks of gold and crimson.
Lian raced across the ridgeline, the sword on his back humming louder with each step. Fen watched from behind a fallen tree, a slow grin spreading.
"He is calling you. Don't make him wait."
Aure stood in the clearing by the old starmap, hair whipping in the wind, vial in hand. He had drunk it.
He remembered everything.
The battle. The bond. The betrayal that shattered the realm.
And the way Lian had broken himself to shield them.
As the wind howled, Aure turned—and there he was.
Lian. Bruised, breathless, and burning with everything unsaid.
They didn't speak.
They ran to each other.
When their hands touched, the soul sigil on Aure's ring and the mark on Lian's chest blazed bright, casting shadows across the trees.
The ground itself shivered.
"I remember," Aure whispered.
Lian exhaled, a sound caught between a sob and a vow.
"I never forgot."
They stood there, fire in their veins, starlight in their eyes.
The untamed bond had returned.
And nothing would break it never ever again.