The sigil that chose

Aure didn't answer.

He did not need to.

His hands cupped Lian's face. Softly. Reverently.

Tears welled.

Not because he regretted the god's touch

but because Lian still hurt more.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, forehead resting on his. "I had to remember what I once was."

Lian closed his eyes.

"And now that you remember what is it to you and what about us?"

His sigil pulsed once red and gold

then split down the center with a flash of blinding white.

And then it changed.

The colors bled together crimson, gold, silver and reformed into something new. Something born not from divine claiming, but mortal love reignited.

Aure collapsed into Lian's arms with a soft sob, the kind that shatters chains.

"Now I remember what we are and I know what I want. It's you, us."

( The Bond Reforged)

They didn't kiss.

Not at first.

They just held each other, gripping tight like the world might try again to tear them apart. Lian's hands wrapped around Aure's waist, breath ragged. Aure's fingers curled into Lian's shirt, over his chest where the old mark still glowed.

And then...

The fire came.

From inside.

From them.

The sigil on Aure's chest shot light into the sky like a flare.

Lian's mark answered, not in red, but purest white a sign of sacred rebinding.

They kissed in the beam of that light hungrily, reverently, fully .

And somewhere beneath the trees…

A shadow watched.

In the Shadows: Xarion

He didn't move.

Didn't breathe.

Didn't speak.

Xarion stood still as a statue, cloaked in darkness, bathed in moonlight.

His eyes didn't rage.

They… smiled.

"So," he murmured to no one, "that's how you choose."

A faint crack formed across the center of his chest—a shimmer of golden light leaking out.

He touched it.

"Good," he whispered. "Now we're even."

And then he vanished. Not in fury. Not in defeat.

But in something far more dangerous. stillness.