The night refused to end.
Even when dawn should have risen, the sky remained bruised and dim gold veins still pulsing faintly through the clouds like the world itself was bleeding.
I woke with my head resting against Aster's shoulder. His cloak was wrapped around me, his sword within arm's reach, as if even sleep couldn't loosen his vigilance.
He stirred when I moved. "You didn't dream again?"
"No," I said. "But I think I'm still remembering."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
I reached for the mark on my chest it glowed faintly, pulsing in rhythm with something beyond me. "Every time I close my eyes, I see places I've never been. A palace carved from light. A war that never ended. And you. Always you."
Aster's breath hitched. "Stop."
"I can't." My voice broke. "It's like the past is forcing its way in like the boundary between then and now doesn't exist anymore."
He turned away, his jaw tight. "That's how it starts. The Black Sun feeds on memory it binds your soul to the echoes of what came before until you can't tell which life is real."
I stood. "So what am I supposed to do? Pretend it's not happening? Pretend I don't remember dying in your arms?"
His eyes flashed grief, anger, love all tangled and raw. "You did die in my arms. That's why I begged the gods to send me back. To find you again. And I did."
The room trembled.
Not from his words from me.
Light burst from beneath my skin, golden threads unfurling across the floor. The world around us flickered, splitting half our reality, half the echo of another time.
Through the veil, I saw them.
Another me.
Another him.
The god and his sentinel.
Standing in the ruins of a world already burning.
Their voices overlapped ours past and present, in perfect synchrony.
"You can't fight fate."
"Then I'll fight the gods themselves."
I gasped. "Aster it's merging"
He reached for me, pulling me close, even as the light consumed us both.
And suddenly, we were there.
Not in the Academy.
Not in this time.
But on the battlefield of the old world the one from my visions.
The sky was a sea of fire. The air reeked of ash and magic. And the other me Cael stood at the heart of it, his wings shattered but burning still.
The ancient Aster knelt before him, armor cracked, blood soaking the ground.
"I told you to run," Cael said my voice, but not my voice.
"I swore I wouldn't," Aster answered. "You fall, I fall."
Cael smiled tragic and divine. "Then remember me."
And then the explosion light devouring everything.
When the world snapped back, I was on my knees, trembling.
Aster was beside me, his hand clutching mine, blood trickling from his nose.
The barrier between worlds was gone.
And I realized, horrified, that both of us had bled through time.
He met my eyes. "Now you see why the Council feared you."
I could barely speak. "That wasn't just memory. It was"
"Reality, once." His voice was hoarse. "And now, again."
The walls flickered between centuries half the room ancient marble, half modern stone.
If the merging continued, there would be no future left. Only the past, endlessly repeating.
Aster gripped my shoulders. "Erian, listen to me. You have to stop remembering."
"I can't it's me!"
"Then remember something else."
His hand cupped my cheek, forcing me to meet his eyes. "Remember this. Not the war. Not the god you were. Just this us, here, now."
The light faltered.
His touch anchored me fragile but real.
The mark dimmed to a soft glow, the shifting between worlds slowing until only flickers remained.
When it was over, we were both shaking.
I whispered, "What happens if I remember again?"
Aster's gaze was steady but full of fear. "Then next time, I might not be able to bring you back."
He turned away, hiding his trembling hands.
But I saw the blood on his palm golden, not red.
And I knew then whatever bound us across lifetimes was beginning to consume him too.
That night, I dreamt again.
But this time, the god didn't speak.
He only smiled sorrowful, almost tender before dissolving into light.
And when I woke, Aster's side of the bed was empty.