Zharina continued. "I protested his decision. Told him to reconsider what he was doing. Asked him if there was any other way out of this. Begged him to just run. Leave this place. Live somewhere else where they couldn't find him."
Her voice hardened. "But no. There was no such option. Not for him. And not for me."
She looked at her gauntlets.
"I still remember his face. The pain hiding behind that smile he put on just to give me confidence. He told me that Celestials never truly die. That their souls are sent back to the primordial gods. And if the gods showed mercy, he would be reincarnated."
A pause.
"But I don't think that mercy ever came. It's been seven years now. And if he had been reincarnated, the power fused into these gauntlets would have been called back to him."
Jax was still processing her story when she charged again. Already closing the distance between them.
"Let me tell you why I chose to become a professor instead of taking the luxuries I was offered."
