The door to the maids' quarters shut with a dull thud.
Lena didn't look back.
Velvet, ever bubbly, hovered uncertainly behind her. "Lena? You—uh—you look really tired. Do you want some tea? Or maybe I can—"
"Not now," Lena snapped.
The sharpness in her voice surprised them both.
Velvet froze, eyes widening slightly. "Oh… okay. I'll—um—I'll be quiet then."
Lena dropped onto the narrow bed without another word, turning her back to the room. The mattress creaked beneath her weight, exhaustion pulling her under like deep water. Her body still ached from Kairos's power, her bones remembering pressure even after it had vanished.
Ashikai sat silently near the foot of the bed, watching her breathing slowly even out.
She slept like someone who had fought the world and lost nothing but energy.
Velvet lingered a moment longer, then quietly left, closing the door with care.
The room fell still.
Ashikai waited.
Minutes passed. Then more.
When Lena's breathing deepened fully, he moved.
Soundlessly, he slipped from the bed, his paws barely brushing the floor. He glanced once at Lena—at the faint crease between her brows, even in sleep.
"I'll come back," he whispered. "I promise."
The window creaked softly as he pushed it open.
Night swallowed him whole.
The Shadow Grove lay beyond the rose garden, past where lantern light dared not reach.
It was not merely dark.
It was absence.
No moonlight touched it. No stars reflected within. The trees there did not sway with the wind—they stood still, twisted silhouettes etched against nothingness.
Ashikai felt it before he saw it.
A pull.
A calling.
Low and resonant, vibrating through his very essence.
Ashikai.
His steps slowed.
He knew that voice.
His fur bristled.
"…No," he murmured. "It can't be."
Yet his paws carried him forward, across the invisible threshold.
The darkness swallowed him instantly.
There was no ground. No sky.
Only weightlessness—and memory.
Golden light bloomed before him, gentle but overwhelming, pushing the darkness aside like mist at dawn. A vast presence took form, not as a body, but as something greater.
A voice wrapped in warmth and authority spoke his name again.
Ashikai.
His breath hitched.
"Father," he said softly.
The light pulsed.
You remember.
"How could I forget?" Ashikai replied bitterly. "You took everything from me."
Silence fell—not cold, but heavy.
You were banished, the voice said. Not destroyed. That mercy was my doing.
Ashikai laughed hollowly. "Mercy?" His tail lashed. "You stripped me of my body. My wings. My place in the Nine Heavens. You bound my soul to fur and bone and threw me into the lower realms!"
You defied divine order.
"I chose compassion!"
The golden light flared brighter.
You chose a mortal.
Ashikai stiffened.
"I chose her," he corrected. "And I'd do it again."
The light softened—just slightly.
You have always been stubborn, his father said. Even before your fall.
Ashikai's voice trembled despite himself. "Why now? Why call me after all these years?"
The darkness rippled.
Because the thread you guard trembles, the voice replied. Because fate stirs where it should not.
Ashikai swallowed. "Lena."
Yes.
The light shifted, revealing glimpses of Lena—defiant, bloodied, standing beneath Kairos's crushing power and refusing to kneel.
She is a fracture, his father said. A wound in the weave.
Ashikai stepped forward protectively. "She's not a mistake."
She is dangerous.
"So was I," Ashikai shot back.
The golden presence grew quiet.
I can restore you, the voice finally said. Your true form. Your wings of fire and starlight. Your place beside me.
Ashikai's breath caught.
Images flooded his mind.
The Nine Heavens—endless skies, radiant halls, celestial harmony. His body restored. Power coursing through him as it once had.
Come home, his father urged. Leave the mortal realm. Leave the girl.
Ashikai clenched his paws.
"I won't," he said.
The light flickered.
You would choose her over eternity?
"Yes."
Over your own father?
Ashikai's voice broke—but he did not waver. "I already did."
Silence.
Then—
Anger.
The golden light sharpened, burning hotter, harsher.
You defy me again.
Ashikai lifted his head. "If loving her is defiance, then I accept it."
The grove trembled.
Then hear my judgment, the voice thundered.
The light collapsed inward, chains of divine sigils erupting around Ashikai, searing and cold all at once.
"No—wait!" Ashikai cried. "Father—!"
You are hereby cast out of heaven forever.
The chains wrapped tighter.
Your body shall remain sealed.
Ashikai screamed as something deep within him shattered—something vast and luminous, torn away and locked beyond reach.
Your wings will never return.
The darkness surged back, swallowing the light.
Ashikai collapsed to the ground, gasping, pain unlike any he had known ripping through his soul.
The voice faded, distant now.
Choose the mortal… and remain mortal.
The grove spat him out like a discarded thought.
Ashikai lay trembling at the edge of the Shadow Grove, fur damp with sweat that should not have existed.
The calling was gone.
So was the light.
Something inside him felt… smaller.
Permanent.
He stared at the sky, blinking rapidly.
"…Worth it," he whispered hoarsely.
Slowly, painfully, he rose and limped back toward the palace.
Lena stirred in her sleep.
Her brow furrowed.
She reached out instinctively—and felt empty air.
"Ashikai…?" she murmured.
Somewhere beyond the walls, a fox limped through the night, carrying a loss he would never tell her about.
Yet.