CHAPTER 143 — WHAT WAS TAKEN
The stone did not dissolve in Leylin's grasp, and when he tried to draw it in the way Séraphine had done before, nothing entered him, as if the exchange itself had been refused, and the chains around the golden sun tightened in response as the chamber dimmed slightly.
Séraphine stepped closer, her eyes fixed on his hand as she said, "Leylin, stop. That isn't how it works," but he didn't answer, his attention already shifting as thin tendrils of flame slipped from his fingers and curled around the stone, tracing it, testing it, searching for something deeper.
The tendrils withdrew after a moment, slipping back into his palm as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, glancing at the stone, then at her, then back again as if recalibrating his thoughts in real time.
Then he tried again.
This time the tendrils did not touch the stone directly but spread around it, pressing into the space surrounding it, threading through something unseen, something structural, and the moment they aligned with it, the stone split cleanly.
Not cracked.
Separated.
One became two.
Then two became three.
Three identical purple stones hovered in front of him, perfectly asymmetrical yet stable, their faint glow steady as though they had always existed in that number.
Leylin stared at them for a second, then looked at Séraphine and scratched the back of his head again, a crooked expression forming on his face. "I reflected it."
Séraphine blinked. "Reflected?"
"Yeah… kinda," he said, glancing back at the stones. "I tried to do what the chamber did earlier, and it worked. I think I have more control here than I thought."
She took a step forward, drawn by the result, but the chamber reacted before she could get closer.
The sky dimmed.
The ground trembled.
The chains around the golden sun tightened sharply, coiling around it as if restricting movement, and at the same time Leylin's form weakened as his flames burned erratically before he dropped to his knees.
Séraphine moved to him, but the energy around him surged violently and forced her back. "Leylin, what is happening ?" she called, but he couldn't answer, his form flickering in and out as a broken scream tore out of him.
The sky joined the earth in trembling, and Séraphine steadied herself by extending frost from her legs into the ground as she looked upward, her breath catching as a section of the stars flickered unevenly before one of the red stars brightened faintly..and then it was snuffed out.
Silence returned to the chamber as the trembling stopped.
silence settled over everything, heavy and wrong, broken only by the faint sound of Leylin's weakening presence below.
Séraphine felt it then.
Not saw,Felt.
Something in him broke.
His form collapsed further, his chest hitting the ground as the flame that defined him dulled into something faint, almost nothing, and only then did she move again, coating herself in frost as she forced her way through the instability and lifted his head onto her lap.
"Leylin… talk to me," she said, her voice tighter now. "Speak. What's happening to you?"
He tried.
But his breath faltered.
And that was when she noticed.
He was breathing.
He hadn't been before.
But now he was. and he was losing it.
The chamber dimmed further as the countless red stars lost a fraction of their light, as though something within them had been drained permanently, leaving the entire space quieter, heavier, touched by something that felt like grief.
But just as it seemed as if leylins form was about to be snuffed out,something in him shifted.
It began as a faint hum.
Deep.Unfamiliar.
A faint hum pressing the air as the three purple stones above them responded, trembling slightly as if drawn by something beneath the surface of him, as the chains around the sun loosened just enough for the light to pulse outward once.
Then the stones moved.
They were pulled into him.
Dragged inward by something that seemed as if it would not rest until they were ...Devoured.
And so they were as they sank into his form, melding seamlessly as the purple glow spread beneath his golden flame for a brief moment, coloring him from within before everything went still.
Silence returned to the chamber as
Séraphine looked around, her breath steadying as mist rose between them, heat and frost mixing in the air as she called his name once.
No response.
"Leylin…"
Nothing.
Then it began.
A faint glow spread across the ground.
Slowly at first,then It intensified.
The stone beneath her feet turned purple.
Then his skin
Then the sky itself.
She looked up,and what she saw sent chills down her spine
as where the red star had died, something had taken its place.
Something bright,.. purple,
A star!..she muttered,Not one.Three.
Three radiant purple stars burned brighter than the rest, larger, heavier in presence as the surrounding red stars shifted slightly, leaving space around them as if in acknowledgment.
They formed a shape,one she could not identify as something about their position felt deliberate
Reverent.
Behind her, Leylin drew in a breath.
Deep.Full.
The first since everything began.
She glanced down at him.
His form had changed.
The golden glow had deepened, stabilizing into something solid as his features sharpened into clarity, his jaw defined, his presence no longer flickering but anchored.
Then her eyes met his.
They were trembling.
"Leylin..!
His eyes opened.