Aether's Obsession
The specific quality of a man standing at a window with his forehead pressed against the glass, breathing slowly, in the aftermath of something he hadn't planned, couldn't have predicted, and was not sorry about.
Lirian turned onto his side.
Through the connection, faint now, the feedback loop resolved into a lower frequency—he could feel it: not desire, not need, but the particular texture of the space after. Vaelor's space. The weight of it. Something in there that felt, very carefully, like relief.
He closed his eyes.
Sleep arrived faster than it had any right to, and when the dreams came, they arrived as the bond delivered them complete, fully rendered, without filters.