The Writ's pulse faded behind them, but its effects lingered.
Ethan and Aelira walked in silence through a tunnel of fading starlight, their hands clasped, fingers gently brushing like constellations orbiting each other. The walls around them responded to memory and intent, forming impressions of places long gone—Aelira's childhood home, a fragment of Ethan's Earth bedroom, Kaelen's once-lost study.
"This space reflects the soul," Aelira whispered, pausing before a memory-door showing her father's forge.
Ethan stared. "That's… your memory."
"It's yours now too," she said, eyes locking with his. "If you want it."
They stepped through together.
Inside, they weren't warriors or fugitives—just two people wrapped in shared warmth and flickering firelight. Aelira took his hand and placed it over her heart. "I don't want you to carry Kaelen's pain alone. If it hurts you, it hurts me."
He leaned in, forehead resting against hers.
"You're not a dream anymore," he murmured. "You're my choice."
They didn't need to speak more. That night, they lay together in the memory-forge, holding one another like armor against the cosmos.
[STATUS UPDATE: Emotional Nexus Formed – Shared Dreamspace Unlocked | Romance Milestone: Affirmed Union]