Aeron's words hung in the air, each one carrying a warning, a weight that seemed to press against Lira's heart. The shadows around him seemed to deepen, as if the world was recoiling from his presence. Yet she couldn't turn away;she was bound to him, drawn to him like a moth to flames.
"You don't understand, " She said, her voice trembling. "I don't belong here either, not without you. I can't go back to the life I had. I feel like I am fading, like a part of me is trapped here with you. "
Aeron's face softened with sorrow, his had reaching out - but once again he passed through her, a reminder that they were from seperate worlds, bound yet divided by the thinnest of veils. "I am only a shadow, Lira. A fragment left by the life I lived. To be together, you would have to give up everything. "
She nodded already knowing the answer in her heart. The void that Aeron had left could never be filled by returning to a mundane, empty existence she had once known. Every day since the severance had felt like a echo of her former life, each moment a pale imitation of what she had experienced in his memory.
Lira took a deep breath, the weight of her decision settling over her, " Then take me with you, Aeron. I want be where you are, to cross that veil, even if it means never coming back. "
Aeron's expressions darkened, his form flickering, as if some unseen force were trying to pull him back, " This path..... It's not life Lira. It's a shadow, an endless existence between worlds, haunted by fragments of what was. "
"Then let it be that, " She whispered fiercely, " I'd rather be a shadow with you than a whole person alone. "
For a moment, silence filled the air, thick with sorrow, longing, and a touch of something almost scared. Aeron's face softened, a flicker of something like hope appearing in his haunted eyes, " Very well. But know that if you come with me, there is no return. "
Lira nodded, and as she did, a strange warmth filled her chest, a sensation of completeness
that had eluded her for so long. She felt a shiver as Aeron reached out, his hands finally, impossibly, brushing against hers, the touch was cold, yet it sent a jolt through her, a confirmation that this was real, that he was there.
"Close your eyes, " He murmured, his voice a gentle command.
Lira obeyed, her heart racing, her mind flooded with images of him, of the life they had shared in glimpses and memories. She felt herself drifting, weightless, as if she were slipping away from her own body, drawn deeper and deeper into the darkness, where Aeron's voice guided her.
When she opened her eyes, they were no longer in the library. They stood in the place of shadows and echoes, a world that felt both timeless and forgotten. The landscape around them was dimly lit, shaped by whispers of memories, places that had been long lost to time. And there, in the dim twilight, Aeron stood before her, solid and real, his eyes filled with the same sorrowful longing she felt.
"This is our world now, Lira, " He said softly, his voice laced with both sadness and acceptance. " We are neither fully alive nor fully dead. We are echoes, "
Lira looked at him, her heart full of an inexplicable peace, " Then I'll be an echo with you, Aeron. "
He reached out, this time taking her hand in his. She felt his touch, real and solid, and she realized that she had crossed the boundary she'd once feared. She had left the world of the living, stepping into the shadows, where she and Aeron could exist together - neither bound by time nor seperated by death.