Aether's Obsession
He feels, in the last seconds, the shape of Lirian receiving it, the warmth of it in the link, the specific quality of being heard, and then something else, something he has no language for, something that feels like an apology and a promise compressed into a single pulse of frequency, and then —
Silence.
Not the silence of absence. Worse than that. The silence of a voice that has stopped speaking in a room it still occupies — the particular, gutting quality of a bond that has not broken, that is still open, still running, still carrying the shape of a connection that was very much alive six seconds ago and is now —
Quiet.
Like a light left on in a room he is no longer allowed to enter.
Vael