We stood frozen at the fountain as Luna's form dissolved from a shimmer into little more than a heat haze, a faint distortion in the morning air. Her voice was a distant echo. "Thank you… for remembering me."
The connection, the constant, silent hum of her presence in the back of my mind that I had grown so used to, simply… vanished. It wasn't a sound, but a silence where sound had been. A void.
The first rays of the sun broke over the mountains, painting the plaza in gold and pink. It was beautiful, and it was the most empty sight I had ever seen. Leo put a hand on my shoulder, his own eyes red-rimmed. Ms. Liza bowed her head. We had won. We had achieved the impossible. And it felt like a profound and devastating loss.