Aries backed up without deciding to, boots scraping stone, heat already gathering in his palm.

The man was wrong. Not just the horns and the blood soaking through what remained of his clothes, something underneath all of it sat too quiet for someone damaged that badly.

"You’re not human," Aries said, keeping his voice steady. The flame in his palm burned brighter. "Who are you?"

The man coughed once into his hand, shoulders shaking with the effort.

When he looked up, what Aries found in his eyes was relief, like something which was holding their breath for a very long time.

He looked at Aries like he was confirming something he’d already been told.

"Truly magnificent," he murmured, mostly to himself. "My lady... just as you said. A boy really did come." A faint shake of his head. "Even after all this time."

’What in the world is this person talking about.’

Aries raised his hand higher. "Stop talking like I’m supposed to understand any of that. Who are you, what happened to you, and what do you mean someone said I’d come here?" The flame steadied. "Start with a name."

The man looked at the fire in Aries’s palm for a moment. Coughed again — blood at the corner of his mouth — and then through sheer stubborn effort pushed himself upright. Long exhale.

Then he smiled.

"Pardon my rudeness, and..." His voice was tired but carried. "It’s really nice to finally meet you, kid. My name’s Zenith."

The words left his mouth.

Zenith disappeared.

Aries had no time to process the empty space before the air directly in front of him changed.

Zenith was there, close enough that Aries could see the cracks in his lips and shock hit him for exactly half a second before instinct took over.

He fired the fireball from his left palm.

It crossed the distance, and Zenith raised one hand and slapped it casually.

The fire simply ceased to exist. No impact or explosion, it was just gone, like it had never been anything at all.

Aries stood there with his palm still raised.

’What.’

Then Zenith shoved him.

The cave floor arrived hard. The breath left him on impact, and before he could get it back, dark black arcs that looked almost like fire but weren’t twisted around his wrists, and drove themselves into the stone on either side of him like anchors.

He yanked against them. They pulled back harder.

"What the hell are these!" He twisted sideways. The arcs held without effort. "Let go — right now—"

Zenith wasn’t listening. He was already moving toward the far corner of the chamber, one hand pressed to his ribs. Against the wall sat a stone box wrapped in his robe. He opened it.

Purple light came out.

Aries stopped pulling.

Inside, resting against dark stone, was a crystal no bigger than a finger. It glowed with its own light.

Something in Aries’s chest tightened at the sight of it, physical and instinctive, before any thought arrived.

’No.’ The certainty hit all at once. ’Whatever this is, I need to not be here right now.’

He forced mana into his palm. Flame began to form. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The black arcs cracked sharp and immediate, and the forming spell collapsed before it could take shape. ’They’re not just restraints. They’re suppressors.’

He was still calculating options when Zenith appeared above him and looked down with bloodied calm.

Rough fingers closed around his jaw and forced it open.

"What the hell are you—"

The crystal went in.

The pain was immediate. Rough edges scraping down his throat, burning and freezing at the same time.

He choked, couldn’t stop the bleeding at the corner of his mouth, his whole body trying to reject what was happening while Zenith held him still with a grip.

He couldn’t get leverage. Couldn’t get air.

So, was over when he swallowed.

Somewhere inside him, the crystal settled into his chest with the feeling of something finding its place.

For a few seconds, purple bled from the edges of him — his fingers, his throat, the lines of his arms — something like veins spread vast moving through his chest that wasn’t his mana. Then it pulled back inward and went still.

Zenith’s hand moved to his jaw. But different this time.

Green light spread from his palm in thin lines.

The pain in his throat pulled back. The bleeding stopped. The black arcs dissolved into smoke.

Aries scrambled backward across the cave floor and put as much distance between them as the chamber walls allowed.

He wiped his mouth. His hands were shaking and he didn’t try to stop it.

"What did you just force me to swallow." The fury was too large for volume. "Answer me. Right now."

"The Xarveth Stone." Zenith said it plainly, like the name should be enough. He was breathing harder now, whatever he’d been running on wearing thin. "It’s not something I can explain in a few words. You’ll understand when the time comes." A pause. "I’m sorry about the method."

Aries looked at him. "You’re sorry about the—"

"Shh!" Zenith silenced him and turned his head.

His eyes went to the far end of the chamber and stayed there. His jaw set.

"No," he said quietly.

Aries went still.

"I can feel him." Zenith’s voice dropped low. "Magnorus’s already here. I didn’t buy enough time."

"Feel who?" Aries got to his feet. "Who are you talking about?"

"I don’t have enough time." Zenith was already moving toward him, each step costing something he didn’t have left.

Green symbols spread beneath Aries’s feet, lighting the floor in an expanding circle. "I can’t run anymore. But I can still get you out."

Aries looked at the circle closing around him, then back up. "What are you doing?!"

Zenith met his eyes. For a moment, his expression went completely direct.

"What’s coming for you won’t be gentle," he said. "Don’t break when it tries. Stay alive. Master the Xarveth Stone — it matters more than you understand yet, and the day will come when you’ll know exactly what I mean." The symbols burned brighter, nearly complete. "Don’t waste what you’ve been given. Not even a little of it."

"Wait—" The light was building fast. "What happens to you—"

Green light swallowed everything.

The chamber went quiet.

Zenith’s knee hit the stone the moment the circle went dark. He pressed one hand against the floor and let his breathing go ragged, because there was no reason to hold it anymore.

Blood moved freely. His shoulders dropped.

A tired sound came out of him that was almost a laugh.

"My lady," he said quietly to the empty room. "Your final wish is fulfilled." His head lowered slightly. "The Aetherstone is with the boy at last. The rest is for him to learn."

The air in the chamber changed.

Cold pressure settled over the cave like something heavy being placed down.

A voice came from behind him.

"Zenith." A silence. "Return the Aetherstone. Now."

Zenith didn’t turn immediately. Blood dripped onto the rock beneath him. His body had stopped being a reliable system some time ago, and they both knew it.

He pushed himself upright. Slowly. Completely. Until he was standing.

Then he turned.

"I’ll die before I return it," he said.

____

Aries came down face-first into wet earth.

Cold water soaked through his clothes immediately, mud in his mouth, the indignity of landing badly after an already terrible sequence of events.

He pushed himself up on both arms, coughing, spitting, blinking at surroundings that had nothing to do with the cave he’d just been in.

Trees in every direction.

He sat up. Wiped his face. Sat with the quiet of someone who needs exactly one moment before they can deal with anything else.

"...Where the hell am I now."