Light swallowed the world.
Not just brightness — overwriting.
Aeryn felt the sensation of being peeled apart, layer by layer, his memories scattering like feathers in a storm as something enormous reached through him, searching for purchase.
He tried to shout Eira's name, but his voice dissolved before leaving his throat.
He tried to move, but his limbs weren't limbs — they were concepts being rewritten.
He tried to hold on—
But the light wanted everything.
And then—
A hand.
Warm. Familiar.
Gripping his wrist.
Dragging him back from the edge.
"Aeryn—!"
Eira's voice tore through the void, raw and desperate.
His vision snapped back into focus. A field. The sigil. The starry sky split like cracked glass. Eira was kneeling before him, her glow flickering as if she were fighting something inside her.
Her left eye swirled with glyphs, spiraling like a miniature galaxy.
Her right eye — soft, silver-blue — held nothing but fear.
"Aeryn, listen to me." She squeezed his wrist harder. "Don't let go, okay? No matter what you see."
"I'm not letting go," he rasped.
The world trembled around them.
Stars flickered out like dying embers.
The ground liquefied into light.
And the sigil beneath them roared to life.
"THE MERGE SEQUENCE RESUMES."
Eira screamed.
Aeryn felt something latch onto his chest — an invisible hook pulling him toward her. He could see threads of light emerging from Eira's body, weaving themselves into the fabric of the world, stitching across dimensions.
She was becoming a conduit.
He was being forcibly bound to her.
Her power surged again — a tidal wave of pure luminous force that slammed into him with impossible weight.
Aeryn's consciousness flickered.
---
THE INSIDE OF THE MERGE
Suddenly, he was standing in a white hall made of nothing but light and memories.
Eira stood across from him.
But not just one Eira.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Fragments of her at different ages — crying, laughing, fighting, hiding. A sea of selves.
"You shouldn't be here…" she whispered, holding her head as the illusions flickered. "The Engine is showing me everything I've ever forgotten."
Aeryn stepped toward her, steady and slow. "Then let me help you sort it."
She shook her head, her voice trembling. "No. That's not how it works. The Merge… it doesn't let us choose. It forces two souls to rewrite each other."
Aeryn froze. "Rewrite?"
Her soft laugh cracked painfully. "Yes… rewriting. Your memories, mine… they're blending."
For a moment, he couldn't breathe.
"What happens if we resist?"
"We lose ourselves," she whispered. "Both of us."
A hollow realization dawned.
He wasn't here to pull her out.
He was here to survive with her.
---
A sudden rush of memories hit him.
Not his.
Hers.
A small Eira clutching a wooden doll.
A teenage Eira hiding in the ruins during a storm.
Eira crying quietly under moonlight after her friend was taken by Riftlings.
Eira whispering to herself: "I just want someone to stay."
Aeryn staggered.
His knees buckled.
"Aeryn?!" Eira's voice echoed, as if from underwater.
But he raised his hand. "I'm fine."
He wasn't.
But he wasn't letting her bear this alone.
---
THE FIRST VOICE
The hall vibrated.
A colossal presence stirred behind the walls.
A voice rolled through like thunder wrapped in silk:
"IDENTITY BLENDING: 17%."
Eira gasped. "Stop—stop talking—stop counting—just stop—!"
The presence ignored her.
"FOCUS: ALIGNMENT OF CORE MEMORIES INITIATED."
A wave of light shot from the floor.
Eira disappeared.
Aeryn spun, panic surging. "Eira!"
The hall collapsed into another memory.
---
THE MEMORY OF FALLING SNOW
Aeryn blinked.
He was standing in a snowy village.
A small Eira was kneeling in the snow, crying over her mother's broken locket. Wind howled through ruined houses. Smoke curled from collapsed rooftops.
A familiar ache tightened Aeryn's chest — but it wasn't his emotion.
It was hers.
Footsteps behind him.
He turned.
Eira — the real one — stumbled into the scene, her eyes wide with dread. "Not this one. Please not this one…"
"What happened here?" Aeryn asked gently.
"My home," she whispered. "This is the night the Riftlings came."
A gust of shadow ripped across the village roofs. Houses shattered. A monstrous shape loomed in the distance.
Eira's younger self screamed.
Aeryn moved instinctively to guard her, but Eira grabbed his wrist.
"No — don't interfere," she pleaded. "If you change the memory, it'll overwrite who I am."
He stopped.
But it felt like swallowing glass.
Eira walked forward, trembling, and knelt beside her younger self, though the child couldn't see her.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered shakily. "I'm so sorry…"
Aeryn approached slowly.
And then another memory hit him.
He blinked.
He saw himself — young, furious, fighting in the ruins of a forgotten battlefield. His first kill. The moment he realized survival required cruelty. The moment he stopped trusting anyone.
Eira gasped as if stabbed.
"Aeryn—this is yours—!"
The memories were crossing.
Blurring.
Bleeding.
Her childhood pain.
His early bloodshed.
Her loneliness.
His bitterness.
And yet—
Despite the chaos…
Their emotions aligned.
Both of them had grown in broken places.
Both of them had been abandoned by the world long before meeting each other.
Both of them had survived alone because no one else would stand beside them.
Eira's voice trembled. "This is why the Engine chose us. We're the same kind of damaged."
Aeryn tightened his fists. "No."
She flinched as if expecting rejection.
"We're not the same kind of damaged," he said, stepping closer, "we're the same kind of strong."
Eira's breath caught.
The memory shattered into light.
---
THE ENGINE'S WARNING
Reality twisted again.
They were back in the white hall.
But now the walls pulsed red.
The voice returned — louder, deeper:
"IDENTITY BLENDING: 51%."
Aeryn staggered. Past the halfway point.
He was starting to feel different.
Some of his memories had gone foggy — his first sword instructor's name, the color of the house he grew up in, the smell of the river near his home.
Vanishing.
Replacing.
Being overwritten with Eira's.
Eira clutched her chest. "We're running out of time."
"What happens at 100%?" he asked.
She swallowed hard.
"We become one. Not as lovers. Not as friends. Literally one consciousness. One mind. One body. One being."
Aeryn felt ice crawl up his spine.
"And our original selves?"
"Gone," she whispered.
Silence.
Aeryn breathed slowly. "Then we stop it."
Eira shook her head desperately. "We can't. The only way to stop the Merge is if one of us lets our core be erased."
Aeryn froze.
Erase one.
Save the other.
A perfect sacrifice.
Eira's eyes shimmered with tears. "I won't let that happen."
"You don't get to choose alone," he growled softly.
The hall shook again.
"CORE ALIGNMENT: 64%."
The walls began collapsing outward, turning into swirling fractals of memories mixing together.
Aeryn saw flashes:
Eira's smile during the festival.
His own nightmares.
Her fear of thunderstorms.
His hatred of gods.
Her hope.
His stubbornness.
Layer after layer.
He met her eyes.
Her voice wavered. "Aeryn… I'm scared."
He stepped closer and cupped her cheek gently — something he had never done before.
"Good," he whispered. "It means you're still you."
She closed her eyes, a tear slipping down.
---
THE FINAL CORRIDOR
The hall dissolved.
A straight path appeared — made of shifting memories, each step unstable and glowing.
At the end of it stood a massive sphere of light.
Eira exhaled shakily. "The Core of the Merge."
"And behind it?" Aeryn asked.
She looked up, eyes glowing.
"Our choice."
Aeryn nodded once.
He grabbed her hand tightly.
She gripped back like someone terrified of drowning.
They stepped forward.
Light surged.
Memories twisted.
Their identities pulsed.
"ALIGNMENT REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS."
The voice thundered through the corridor.
Aeryn pulled Eira closer. "Stay with me."
She nodded, tears scattering like shards of glass.
Together, they reached the Core.
It erupted.
The world vanished.
---
THE CHOICE
Everything was silent.
Aeryn opened his eyes.
He was standing on a small floating platform in infinite white. No stars. No sky. No sound.
Just Eira.
And between them:
A pillar of blinding light.
Two options hovered on its surface:
SACRIFICE ONE SOUL — HALT THE MERGE
ACCEPT UNION — BECOME ONE
Eira's breath shook. "Aeryn… what do we do?"
The pillar pulsed.
The voice whispered once more:
"FINAL DECISION REQUIRED."
Aeryn stared at Eira.
At her fear.
At her strength.
At the girl who had changed him without ever meaning to.
He took one step toward her.
And took her hand firmly.
"Eira," he said quietly, "listen closely."
Her eyes lifted to his.
"We aren't dying today."
She blinked. "Then…?"
Aeryn smirked — stubborn, fierce, absolutely refusing fate.
"We force a third option."
Eira's breath hitched. "That's—Aeryn, that's impossible. The Engine doesn't allow—"
"It doesn't matter." He squeezed her hand tighter. "We survived worse than a god's script."
She stared at him.
Then she laughed weakly — broken but real.
"Aeryn… you're insane."
"Probably," he said. "But you're stuck with me."
The pillar flickered.
The voice trembled.
"UNDEFINED CHOICE. ERROR."
The world cracked.
Eira's grip tightened.
Aeryn pulled her into his arms.
And together—
They jumped into the light.