Falling became floating.
Floating became sinking.
Sinking became drifting sideways through nothing.
Aurelianth held Lioren tight as the void wrapped around them like wet cloth.
Her breath trembled against his shoulder.
"Are we… slowing down?"
Aurelianth nodded.
He could feel it gravity thinning into a kind of dream-weight.
Below them a faint flicker.
Not light.
Memory of light.
Solance.
The closer they drifted, the more the flicker took shape a small, curled figure glowing so faintly Aurelianth felt his chest ache.
Lioren gasped through her tears:
"That's him...that's HIM...
Aurelianth, look...!"
Aurelianth had already seen.
Solance was curled into a fetal position, arms around his knees, forehead pressed to the void-floor.
His glow was thread-thin, barely clinging to his outline.
Aurelianth could see the floor through him.
Half-transparent.
Half-here.
Half-gone.
Lioren's voice cracked:
"Oh stars he's fading...Aurelianth...he's disappearing...!"
Aurelianth landed hard beside Solance and reached for him. His hand passed straight through.
Lioren froze.
"…Did you… see that?"
Aurelianth tried again fingers trembling.
He couldn't touch Solance.
Solance wasn't solid anymore.
He was dissolving.
Aurelianth's voice broke:
"Solance...!!
Solance, open your eyes...!!
Please...!!"
The flickering figure didn't respond.
Lioren knelt beside Aurelianth, hands over her mouth.
"Aurelianth...
what do we do...
what do we DO...?!"
Aurelianth pressed his forehead against Solance's intangible shoulder, voice cracking open:
"Solance...
I'm here...
I'm RIGHT HERE...
please...
PLEASE hear me..."
The faint glow trembled.
Barely.
Aurelianth sucked in a breath.
"He heard that."
Lioren leaned closer.
"Say his name again...do it together...
call him...call him HOME..."
Aurelianth grabbed her hand.
They both cried out:
"S O L A N C E...!!!"
For a moment nothing.
Then...
The faintest whisper:
"…A…u…r…e…l…i…a…n…t…h…?"
Aurelianth sobbed, laughing through tears.
"Yes...!!
YES...!!
SOLANCE...!!
IT'S ME...!!"
Lioren cried out:
"And me...Solance...
I'm here...we're here...we found you..."
Solance's glow flickered like a candle trying to rise against the wind.
He whispered again voice thin, cracked, fading:
"…I...can't...feel...me…"
Aurelianth pressed both hands to the void-floor.
His voice roared:
"You don't NEED to feel yourself...
FEEL US...!!"
Lioren nodded fiercely.
"We're your anchor...your center...your HOME...please...please come back..."
Solance shook weakly, light sputtering.
"…I...don't...know...how…"
Aurelianth's voice dropped to a desperate whisper.
"Then let me show you."
He placed his hand on the void just beside Solance's dissolving ribs where Solance should have been solid enough to feel the pressure.
Lioren mirrored him on the other side.
Aurelianth closed his eyes.
Lioren closed hers.
And they pushed the bond.
Hard.
A burst of tri-light shot down their arms gold from Aurelianth, amber from Lioren, twisting into the faint silver threads still clinging to Solance's flickering body.
Solance gasped in pain...
"Ah...!!
Aah...
I...
I...
it hurts..."
Aurelianth sobbed:
"I KNOW...
BUT FOLLOW IT...
FOLLOW US...
FOLLOW THE LIGHT..."
Lioren cried:
"Come to us...
COME TO US...
Please...!!"
Solance's form convulsed twisting as if something inside him were pulling in two directions...
"…I...want...to...come...back…"
Aurelianth shouted:
"THEN COME BACK...!!!"
The void trembled.
A shockwave blasted outward.
Aurelianth's and Lioren's bond-thread burned bright searing through the darkness searching for Solance's missing third thread.
And...
There...
A connection.
Weak.
Fractured.
But real.
Aurelianth grabbed the thread with all his will.
Lioren grabbed the same thread.
Together, they pulled.
Solance screamed light fracturing like glass...
"A A U U R R E E L L I I A A N N T T H H—!!"
Aurelianth roared back:
"SOLANCE...
HOLD ON...!!!"
And suddenly...Solance's body snapped into solidity.
Not fully human.
Not fully light.
But present.
Here.
Real enough to touch.
Lioren burst into tears.
"Aurelianth...Aurelianth...
you did it...you DID IT...!!"
Aurelianth grabbed Solance's shoulders, crying openly.
"I've GOT YOU...!!
I'VE GOT YOU...!!
DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN...!!"
Solance shook violently, glow sputtering, voice trembling.
"…A…u…r…e…l…i…a…n…t…h…"
Aurelianth pulled him into a fierce embrace.
Lioren wrapped her arms around both of them, crying.
"You're here...you're HERE...
we found you...we FOUND you...
Solance, you're not gone...you're NOT..."
Solance pressed his forehead to Aurelianth's shoulder.
"…I...I tried to stay...but the darkness...took pieces...of me…"
Aurelianth kissed the side of his face, trembling.
"We'll put you back together."
He meant it.
Every word.
Lioren rubbed Solance's back through sobs.
"We'll heal you.
We'll anchor you.
You're ours."
Solance's breath hitched.
"…I...want...to go home…"
Aurelianth held him tighter.
"We're taking you home."
The Tri-Bond Mutates
The moment they were gathered in one embrace the bond surged.
Not faintly.
Not gently.
Violently...
As if the universe itself was stitching Solance back into their existence.
Gold.
Silver.
Amber.
Light flared around them in a circle that cracked the void beneath their feet.
Lioren gasped:
"Aurelianth the bond...it's...it's CHANGING!!"
Aurelianth held tighter.
"Let it...
let it do what it needs to..."
Solance cried out as light tore through his ribs.
"It hurts...hurts...hurts...!!"
Lioren pressed her forehead to his.
"I know...I know...but you're coming back..."
Aurelianth shouted:
"FOLLOW US...!"
Solance sobbed:
"…I...I am...trying…"
The light reached a blinding peak.And the tri-bond snapped...Not apart...INTO PLACE.
Aurelianth felt it.
Lioren felt it.
Solance felt it.
A new configuration.
A deeper level of connection.
A shift in the bond's core.
Not three threads woven loosely....
But three threads braided into ONE.
Solance gasped as his glow steadied.
Aurelianth's rune pulsed smoothly.
Lioren's heartbeat synced with both.
The bond had evolved.
Not weaker.
Stronger.
Aurelianth whispered in awe:
"We're… closer."
Lioren smiled through tears.
"We're… one."
Solance trembled.
"…I...I feel you both...inside my light…"
Aurelianth held him tighter.
"We almost lost you."
Solance pressed his face to Aurelianth's chest.
"…Then we do not separate again.
Not ever."
Lioren nodded fiercely.
"Never."
The void trembled beneath their feet...
A warning that the Trial of Loss was not finished.
But Aurelianth stood, lifting Solance in his arms, Lioren holding onto his shoulder.
"We found him."
Lioren nodded.
"We held him."
Solance whispered:
"…Take me home…."
Aurelianth stepped forward.
"We're leaving this realm."
The void cracked open.
Light poured through.
They surged toward it together a single braided soul....
Back toward the world.
Back toward the Arbiter.
Back toward the next trial.