Althea hit her knees at the edge so fast she nearly went over herself. Both hands drove into loose dirt, catching her weight. For one horrible second there was nothing below but darkness.

Then she found him.

Roughly a meter down, fingers locked around a jagged piece of rock jutting from the cliffside.

And below his feet, still clinging to both ankles was the Dranox. Dead weight.

The rock under his fingers was already shedding fragments into the dark below.

"Aries!" She dropped flat against the edge, trembling hands stretching over even though she already knew she couldn’t reach. "Hold on — please, just hold on a little longer—"

Drelan hit the dirt beside her, arm driving over the edge immediately.

His shoulder was still bleeding but he didn’t acknowledge it, fingers clawing at empty air, leaning as far as he could manage.

"Damn it." He leaned further. Still nothing. "I can’t reach him!"

"I’m here—"

Mirielle was already on her stomach before she finished saying it.

One arm anchored hard into the ground.

Her free hand reached down, shaking, fingers brushing the very tips of his.

"Take my hand!" She pushed until the ground was the only thing keeping her on the cliff. "You’re almost there — just a little more—"

Aries tried. His arm moved upward maybe two inches before the dead weight on his ankles stopped it cold. He looked down at the Dranox and hissed through his teeth.

"Seriously? What a damn nightmare. I don’t even have enough mana left to blast this thing off, make another platform, or even kick the ugly bastard away—"

Crack!

The rock under his fingers shifted. A fragment broke off and fell into nothing.

Althea’s face went pale. "Aries... Please don’t let go. Please, my boy — stay with us, please—"

Aries looked up.

He saw Althea’s face. Saw Drelan beside her, jaw locked, expression of a man who has run out of ways to fix something for the first time in his life. Saw Mirielle half hanging over the edge, whole body shaking, still reaching.

Still not giving up.

Something settled in him.

’I guess I should say it’

"Mother." His voice stayed steady even though his arms were burning down to nothing. "Father."

Another fragment fell into the dark below.

"It’s alright."

"No!" Althea’s voice cracked open. "Don’t say that — please don’t—"

"You both gave me more than I ever deserved." His grip slipped a fraction and he tightened it hard. "I know I wasn’t easy to believe in. I gave you more reasons to doubt than to hope." Another crack from the rock. "I’m sorry for worrying you. But thank you — genuinely — for everything."

Something warm landed on his cheek.

Then another.

He blinked. Looked up. From Mirielle’s face over the edge.

He found her eyes.

"Sist—"

"Shh!" Mirielle’s face was completely gone. No composure. Just her eyes streaming while her whole arm shook with the strain of holding herself over the edge.

"Shut up — don’t talk right now, just take my hand. Please, Aries. Please—"

The Dranox shifted its weight downward. The gap between their fingers stayed exactly what it was.

"...Sorry, sister." Very quiet. The smile at the corners of his mouth went soft. "Guess I couldn’t live up to your expec—"

The rock gave way.

His fingers closed on nothing. The fall took him. The darkness below the cliff swallowed everything.

Mirielle’s hand was still out. Fingers closing on empty air in the exact shape of too late.

"ARIESSSS—!!"

She lurched so hard over the edge that Drelan caught her arm and held. Both of them frozen at the rim, the forest suddenly very quiet around them.

Beside them, Althea’s fists hit the dirt. Then again. Her body shook with something past the point of caring who saw it.

"No — no — my son — my Aries—!"

Mirielle sank to her knees.

And the memories came without asking.

____

Aries at four years old, running after her just because he liked hearing her answer when he called her name. His grin that always started in his eyes before his mouth. Sitting beside his bed in the dark after nightmares until his small fingers stopped gripping hers and sleep finally came back. She’d never told him she minded sitting there. She hadn’t.

Carrying him home on her back after he scraped both knees, listening to him insist he was completely fine the entire way while crying continuously.

He had always been behind her. Always following. Always trying in his own aggravating, completely specific way.

Then the one memory she’d been avoiding.

"Hey, sister!"

"What is it now, Aries."

His grin. Starting in his eyes first. That she had spent years telling herself was annoying.

"I love you! You’re the best sister ever!"

_____

Something inside her came completely apart.

"ARGH—" Her fist hit the dirt and she didn’t pull it back. "All I ever did was insult you. Made you feel small. And all you ever wanted was for me to believe in you."

"You were my little brother." The words came in pieces, breaking between each one. "And instead of helping you stand I kept pushing you down because I was angry and frustrated and too stupid to just say what I actually felt."

She pressed her fist into the ground one more time.

"I was proud of you." Her voice fractured. "I was always proud of you. From the very beginning. Through every single bit of it."

Her voice gave out entirely. Came back in pieces.

"And I never once told you."

*****

Darkness stretched without edges in any direction.

Aries floated in it and didn’t feel much of anything, which was honestly an improvement over the last few hours.

His arms didn’t hurt. Couldn’t feel the Dranox on his ankles anymore. Couldn’t feel anything at all.

’Did I die?’

The thought drifted through.

’I guess so. Couldn’t make it back to Earth either. Guess this really is the end—’

"Would you WATCH where you’re stepping, Valea?! You nearly trampled me!"

Aries’s entire train of thought fell off a cliff of its own. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Oh please," a second voice answered immediately, sharp and completely unapologetic. "You were lying there like a dead branch."

"What did you just say—?!"

’Wait. Voices?’

Feeling came back in pieces. Light pushed against his eyelids. He forced them open.

A face directly above his. A boy — blue hair, yellow eyes — blinking down at him with the calm curiosity of someone who had absolutely no idea what was about to happen.

They stared at each other.

Aries processed it all at once — he was alive, hadn’t died, had landed somewhere with actual people in it, and a complete stranger was currently inches from his face staring at him like he was mildly interesting.

He took a breath.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH—!!"