It didn't happen with thunder.
No dramatic scream.
No flash of annihilation.
It started with a flicker.
Like someone gently lowered the brightness of Ardent's existence.
Aiden noticed first.
He turned from Liora, relief still shaking in his hands, and froze.
"…Ardent?"
The fae blinked.
He looked down at his own fingers as they turned faintly translucent at the edges.
Ah.
There it was.
He exhaled like a man who'd just remembered a calendar appointment he'd really hoped would cancel itself.
"Ah. Blast."
Seris stepped forward instantly.
"What is that?"
He laughed softly.
"Administrative consequences."
She did not find that reassuring.
Reality tugged on him.
Not violently.
Firmly.
Like a bureaucrat with infinite patience and iron documentation.
Gold light threaded around his shoulders.
Not magic.
Not faith.
Obligation.
Contract.
He straightened out of instinctive dignity, even as existence quietly informed him he no longer had permission to remain.
"Well," he sighed wearily. "It appears I have exceeded my… professional scope."
Aiden's heart dropped.
"Wait— wait, no. No. What does that mean?"
Ardent softened.
He looked at Aiden the way teachers look at the students they hate leaving behind.
"It means, little wish-granter… I interfered more than my agreement explicitly allowed. I bent… and then I leaned… and somewhere in there the universe looked up from its paperwork and said, 'Absolutely not.'"
The gold tightened.
He flickered again.
Slower this time.
Fading from the edges inward.
Liora stirred weakly, eyes hazy but aware enough.
"…no…" she whispered. "No. Not like this…"
He knelt beside her again.
His hand hovered just above her cheek.
He didn't touch.
Couldn't.
He smiled anyway.
"You did beautifully," he said gently. "You reminded me I still prefer being decent."
Her eyes watered.
"You don't… get to vanish right after saying that…"
"I know," he whispered softly. "I dislike it as well."
The world behind him shifted.
Not visually.
But atmospherically.
Something old.
Wild.
Political.
The weight of courts that never elected to be fair.
The Fae Court had noticed their wandering noble.
And they were not asking him to return.
They were taking him.
A ripple of music without sound slid along the plaza.
He grimaced.
"They are… displeased," he admitted lightly. "Apparently I demonstrated poor restraint. Again."
Seris clenched her jaw.
"Can they punish you?"
He smiled thinly.
"Oh yes. I am extraordinarily high-ranking. Which means they will punish me very politely."
That somehow sounded much worse.
Aiden stepped forward.
"No. You can't just— you can't just leave. We still need— I still—"
He couldn't finish the sentence.
Ardent's expression gentled.
"Yes. You do need me. Which is precisely why they're removing me."
The gold now threaded across his chest.
His outline blurried.
He still held shape through sheer stubborn arrogance.
He leaned closer to Aiden.
"I will tell you something terribly irresponsible I should not say."
Aiden swallowed.
"Yes?"
Ardent's eyes warmed.
"I'm proud of you."
Aiden broke.
Just a little.
"…That's not fair."
"No," Ardent agreed quietly. "It never is."
He forced himself upright again.
Formal now.
Fae Dignity engaged.
If they would drag him back to the Court, they would not drag him like prey.
He inclined his head to them.
"To my student," he said clearly. "Listen carefully."
Aiden snapped his gaze up.
Seris listened too.
Even the broken clergy and ruined officials dared to breathe quieter.
"You are still very new," Ardent said. "You will stumble. You will hurt people by mistake. You will discover the beautiful and horrifying elasticity of what you are capable of. And the world will ask you to become colder to survive."
A pause.
"Do not."
His voice tightened softly at the end.
"Do not."
Gold climbed his throat.
He continued anyway.
"I cannot guide you further. But someone can."
Aiden blinked.
"Who—?"
Ardent actually chuckled.
"Oh, you'll love him. Or loathe him. Both are common."
He winked.
"A demon. Older than me in… attitude, if not in grace. Walks the path of Contracts. Ruthless. Fair. Infuriatingly literal. Exactly the sort of creature who can teach you restraint while discouraging moral laziness."
Seris paled.
"You want us to work with a demon?"
Ardent smiled sweetly.
"Dear girl, I am Fae. Our version of 'responsible mentor figure' is already profoundly questionable."
His edges thinned.
The gold tightened.
The Court tugged.
His tone softened.
"You'll find him beneath the city where laws pretend not to look. He hates inefficiency and enjoys dramatic entrances. He owes me… greatly."
Aiden swallowed.
"What's his name?"
Ardent's eyes gleamed mischievously.
"Oh, that would be telling."
"Ardent—!"
He laughed softly.
"Ask for the one who never breaks a signed word."
The pull grew stronger.
He stiffened.
The mask of politeness snapped into place.
Noble.
Beautiful.
Doomed to obligations.
He looked at them one last time.
At Liora breathing.
At Seris standing.
At Aiden refusing to break.
Something proud and lonely crossed his face.
"I will not promise I'll return," he said gently. "That wouldn't be fair."
Aiden bit his lip.
"But…?"
Ardent smiled.
"But I didn't promise I wouldn't."
The world pulled.
He shimmered.
He vanished.
Not like magic.
Like an appointment kept.
The plaza felt colder.
The sky quieter.
And somewhere distant, the Fae Court closed its doors.