The moment that fragile thread, the unseen, unspoken bond that tied Aveline’s memories to him, was severed, something within Theron gave way.

It did not break with violence.

It simply... vanished.

And with it, the light began to die.

What had once raged around him like a storm... those luminous ribbons that had answered his grief, his fury, his desperate need to protect, now faltered. Their brilliance dimmed, not abruptly, but with a quiet, aching reluctance, as though they, too, felt the loss. They flickered, hesitated, circling him one last time like abandoned sentinels searching for purpose... for a reason to remain.

But there was nothing left to answer them.

No call. No need.

No her.

And so they faded, slowly unraveling into nothingness, like the final glow of a candle surrendering to darkness.

Theron stood at the center of that silence as the last traces of light dissolved from his skin. The radiance drained from him, leaving behind only pale stillness. His hair darkened strand by strand, falling back into its natural shade. His eyes, once consumed by that blinding white, returned to their deep, familiar darkness. But now... they held nothing.

Not anger. Not defiance. Not even pain.

Just... absence.

His legs gave out beneath him without warning, as though whatever had been holding him upright had quietly slipped away. The King caught him before he could collapse entirely, pulling him close, almost instinctively, as if trying to anchor something that was already gone.

"My dearest son..."

The words trembled as they left him, softer than anything the chamber had heard from him before.

For a moment, the King forgot the throne. Forgot the power, the control, the necessity that had driven his hand. All that remained was the weight in his arms—the son he had once held for mere minutes just as he entered the world, before duty had taken precedence over everything else...

The child he had never touched again. The distance he had maintained for years, believing it necessary.

And now... Now this was how he held him again.

After tearing something irreplaceable from him.

A single tear slipped free, tracing a slow path down the King’s face before falling against Theron’s hair.

He knew this pain.

Too well.

"I don’t want to die..." he murmured, the words barely more than a breath, pressed into the silence between them.

Whether he spoke of himself... or of what he had just done... even he did not seem to know.

He held Theron tighter, as though warmth alone could return what had been lost, as though closeness could reignite the spark that had vanished from his son’s eyes.

But Theron did not respond.

Not a muscle stirred. Not a breath shifted with intent.

He lay in his father’s arms like something hollowed out, like a body that had forgotten what it meant to live.

Only his eyes betrayed the truth.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, his eyelids lowered, as though the weight of something unseen had become too much to bear. And from the corners of those closed eyes, tears slipped free—silent, unbidden.

A grief his mind no longer remembered... But his soul refused to forget.

And then... He went completely still.

-----

In the corridor of the Arcanum, Aveline staggered as something inside her mind cracked open.

Her hand flew to her head as memories surged—not gently, not in fragments she could sort through, but in a violent rush that threatened to drown her where she stood. Faces blurred into one another. Voices overlapped, sharp and cruel.

Monster... Monster...

Children’s voices. High, frightened, merciless.

She saw the small hands clutching stones, trembling not with kindness but with fear twisted into hatred. She felt again the sting of those stones striking her skin, heard the laughter that followed, the whispers that never stopped. Eyes that never saw her, only what they believed she was.

Hated.

Feared.

Mocked.

That had been her world.

Her breath hitched as the weight of it pressed down on her chest, squeezing tighter, threatening to drag her to that place.

Who am I... really?

The question trembled within her, fragile and terrifying.

And just as the past threatened to swallow her whole, a sound cut through it, soft and small.

A chirp.

It was so faint, so insignificant against the storm inside her mind, and yet it reached her in a way nothing else could. It slipped through the cracks of those memories and wrapped itself gently around her, tugging her back.

Back to now.

Back to something real.

Aveline blinked, her vision clearing just enough to see the end of the corridor... And then she froze.

A tiny, frantic figure was racing toward her.

"Hamilton—!"

The name burst from her before she even realized she had spoken it.

He came barreling toward her with everything he had, his small, chubby body wobbling with the effort, his little wings fluttering uselessly as though they alone could carry him faster. He stumbled, righted himself, and kept going, utterly determined.

Something inside her broke again—but this time, it was not pain.

Aveline pushed herself up, ignoring the lingering dizziness, and rushed forward. She dropped to her knees and scooped him up the moment he reached her, gathering him close like something precious she had almost lost.

"Hamilton..."

Her voice softened, trembling as she pressed her face against him, breathing him in like he was the only real thing left in the world.

Behind her, Aelion remained where he stood, watching in silence. His sharp gaze fell upon the creature in her arms, and in a single glance, he understood what others might not.

That was no ordinary animal.

"What is that...?" he murmured under his breath, but she did not hear him.

Aveline had already forgotten he existed. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

All that mattered was the small, warm weight in her hands.

She pulled Hamilton back slightly, holding him up with a bright, almost childlike smile that hadn’t existed moments ago. "Guess what?" she said, her voice bubbling with sudden excitement. "The one who killed your mother is gone. I killed him."

Hamilton stared at her with wide amber eyes, as though absorbing every word with grave importance...

And then, after a pause, he stuck out his tongue.

Aveline blinked... and then huffed. "You didn’t understand a single word, did you?"

Still, she couldn’t stop the soft laugh that escaped her.

Her fingers moved over him gently as she inspected him, turning him this way and that. "Did you grow?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

He had.

He was no longer the size of a garden lizard. Now, he fit more like a small kitten in her hands—still tiny, still fragile, but unmistakably bigger.

And that... wasn’t normal.

He hadn’t eaten.

He hadn’t been seen. He was not supposed to be seen by others. Theron told her he’d stay the same size, and yet, he had grown.

A faint unease stirred beneath her warmth, but she pushed it aside for now, drawing him closer protectively.

"That’s a big lizard," Aelion said from behind her.

The words snapped something fragile inside her.

Aveline stilled.

Were they caught?

Slowly, she turned to look at him.