The merging of their auras—the vivid Yellow blending into the blinding Prismatic White—cast a surreal, pulsing glow across the terracotta walls of the courtyard. For a long, suspended moment, neither of them moved.
To Libaax, it felt as though a crushing physical weight he had carried for decades had simply evaporated. The constant, deafening roar of the Seven pillars in his mind fell completely silent, replaced by the steady, warm hum of Ahia's Dapabie.
To Ahia, the terrifying "Static" that had plagued her for weeks finally made sense. Underneath the cold, righteous fury of the "King's Energy" was a profound, aching loneliness. And as her eighty-eight percent Empathite washed over him, she felt that loneliness begin to unspool.
But Libaax was still fundamentally Online in his Heartstate. The sheer vulnerability of being this exposed terrified him.
With a ragged exhale, he gently but firmly took Ahia's wrist and stepped back, breaking the connection.
The light show snapped. The courtyard plunged back into the silver of the second moon.
Ahia let out a soft gasp, her hand falling to her side. The silence didn't vanish completely—because he was still physically near her—but the absolute peace was gone, replaced by the low, familiar hum of his suppressed Ase.
"My energy is too volatile," Libaax said, his voice thick, his eyes fixed on the stone paving. "If my Heartstate fractures while we are connected like that, the Huenergy could shatter your Dapabie. I am a danger to you, Ahia."
Ahia brought her right hand up, instinctively pressing her index and middle fingers against her lips. She didn't pace; she just watched him, cutting through his fear.
"The danger isn't when you are here, Geta," she said softly. "The danger is when you leave. When you are miles away, locked in whatever Citadel you serve, and your emotions spike... that is what tears my Dapabie apart. The 'Three-Day Famine' nearly destroyed my mind. If we walk away from each other now, the leakage will return. I can't survive another wave of your grief."
Libaax looked up, the icy blue of his eyes tight with torment. "I cannot stay in Orizu. The throne... the duties I am bound to... they do not sleep."
"Then we don't meet in Orizu," Ahia replied, her mind moving with a Masani's analytical speed. "We can meet in the Cyberrealm."
Libaax blinked, caught off guard. "The digital simulacrum?"
"Yes," Ahia nodded, dropping her hand. "The Psychorealm is too raw, and the physical world is tied to your duties. But if we establish a private tether in the Cyberrealm, the Omniversal Internet can act as a buffer. When your Ase spikes, you don't suppress it. You project it to our digital tether. I can help you regulate the Huenergy without my physical Dapabie taking the direct hit."
Libaax mused. The Ministry of Media controlled the public sectors of the Cyberrealm, but as the King of Kings, he had access to encrypted, localized nodes that only the High Table could monitor.
"You use a public Cyber Jack?" he asked.
"At the Ether-Glow Cafe, in the third sector," Ahia confirmed.
Libaax reached into the folds of his cloak. He didn't have a physical token, but he extended his hand, palm up, just as he had done three days ago.
"When you log in tomorrow night," Libaax instructed, his voice dropping to a low, conspiratorial murmur, "do not search the public plazas. Enter this frequency coordinate into your psionic interface: Ase-Null-Seven-B."
Ahia repeated the sequence in her head, committing it to memory. "What is it?"
"A dead zone," Libaax said, a faint, genuine smile finally touching the corners of his mouth. "An abandoned archival node. No Ministry eyes, no static. Just a quiet room."
Ahia looked at his outstretched hand, then up to his face.
"A Vow of Connection, then," Ahia said, placing her palm against his. The faint spark of Yellow and White flared just for a microsecond.
"A Vow of Connection," Libaax echoed, his fingers curling briefly around hers before he let go. "I will see you in the digital dark, Ahia."
He turned and slipped into the shadows of the terracotta alleyways, leaving Ahia alone by the fountain. But this time, as the physical distance grew between them, the agonizing static didn't return in full force. The promise of the tether—the Vow they had just made—acted as a temporary shield over her Dapabie.
She had found the source. Now, she just had to survive the connection.