(...continued)

Autumn did not move.

She did not blink.

She did not breathe.

She simply stared.

The wind tugged at her rain-soaked hair, the storm rumbling somewhere distant now—as if even thunder had paused to witness whatever this was.

In front of her stood the handsome young man.

Close enough that she could see the faint rise and fall of his chest.

Close enough that she could see it—That impossible resemblance.

Almost identical to the little muppet holding on, fighting for his life somewhere along with his sisters. Yet not quite the same.

He carried Kieran’s bone structure—the sharp line of the cheek, the quiet strength of the jaw.

But the eyes—The eyes were hers.

Not merely in color.In the way it summoned the storm.

Behind them flickered the same charged restraint she felt before lightning struck.

He did not speak again.

Not yet.

His hands were still on her shoulders.Not gripping too tight.Just grounding her.

Autumn’s fingers slowly rose—almost against her will—and hovered near his wrists.

It felt warm.Very real.

Not an illusion at all... Autumn had to make sure because the world around her was an illusory pandemonium.

The mine behind them pulsed.Once.Deep.

The black water below shimmered with luminous veins, brighter now—answering him. Not to her. Or to Fenric.

The glow intensified, spreading outward in faint ripples beneath the sea’s surface.

The young man’s gaze flickered briefly downward.

He felt it too. The sea recognised him, the mines did too.

Behind them, sand shifted.

Fenric rolled onto his side with a strained exhale, fingers digging into the wet shore as he forced himself upright. His cloak hung in torn strips. A smear of blood darkened his collar.

He slowly looked up, watched them carefully.Still suspended.Untouched.

The council arrived in staggered bursts—shadows cutting across the shoreline as figures gathered behind him.Their silhouettes too were silent as they watched the two of them still suspended in air.

They saw their leader kneeling.

Fenric felt the humiliation penetrate his bones.Hotter than the blood on his lip.

His jaw tightened as he straightened slowly, spine stiff, shoulders squaring with brittle pride.

"Stand down," one of the council members murmured low, uncertain.

Fenric did not answer.

His eyes never left the two figures above the sea.

Above them—Autumn and the young man remained suspended in quiet.The world seemed too distant to them.

Muted.She searched his face as though trying to remember a dream she had never had.Not quite, he was more like a reality she could not remember.

His lips parted slightly.Not to explain.To steady himself too.He swallowed once.

"Mamma..." he breathed again—this time softer. Not panicked. Nor urgent.As if reassuring her of his presence.

The word struck her differently now.

The shock was gone, the denial no longer had a place and something deeper was slowly settling in.

Her voice finally emerged—fragile.

"How...?" she whispered.

He did not answer directly.Instead, his thumb shifted faintly against her shoulder, as if reassuring himself she was still solid.

"I felt you straining," he said quietly. "Across everything.I am so sorry Mamma,it took me too long."

Inside her fractured inner world—The black filament trembled.As if listening too.

Autumn’s eyes widened faintly."You shouldn’t be here. Why are you here? How...," she murmured, concerned.

A faint smile ghosted across his mouth."I know."

On the shore—Fenric’s composure cracked.

His humiliation curdled into fury."You dare," he swore under his breath, dark energy already coiling around his hands.Like they said once you give in to the darkness, the darkness has you...

One of the council stepped forward. "Fenric..."

"Silence." The word lashed sharper than any blade.He spread his arms slowly this time.

Without any precision.No restraint.

Every ember strand of miasma tore free from his body, expanding violently outward. The sea near the shore blackened. The air distorted. Council members stepped back as the force intensified.

"If I fall," Fenric hissed, eyes blazing void once more, "you fall with me."

The sky responded in violent churn.

Autumn felt it too late.

She turned slightly—instinctively pulling the storm toward her again—But the young man had already moved.

He did not teleport.He stepped in front of her.One simple step forward.

Placing himself between her and the shore.

The miasma wave surged—vast and consuming, swallowing half the horizon as it hurtled towards them.

Autumn inhaled sharply—But the sea moved first.The black water below them recoiled.

Not from fear...from clear refusal.

It bent backward around the young man’s presence, curving like a bow pulled tight.

The miasma struck the invisible boundary around him—And did not shatter.

It dissolved.

As though it had never possessed the right to exist there.The sea surged upward in a towering arc—responding like a loyal friend.

The water wrapped around the young man’s silhouette without touching him, forming a crescent shield that shimmered with luminous veins from the mine below.

Then it snapped forward.Violently.Controlled not by Fenric at all.

Instead the tidal force lashed back towards the shore—not merely at Fenric, but at the entire council behind him.

Fenric’s eyes widened with shock, fear and something much worse..."No—"

The wave crashed into them with a roar that split sand and stone, scattering their figures like broken leaves. Dark cloaks vanished beneath churning water as the backlash drove them into rock and shoreline debris.

Fenric was thrown backward violently, boots tearing trenches through wet sand before he was slammed hard against jagged stone.Gone,forgotten,as if he was never there

And then as if he never mattered at all,the sea withdrew immediately after.

Like an obedient ,disciplined child.

Returning to its place as if nothing had happened.Silence stretched again.

Heavy.Charged.The coast was literally clear for the Blackwood and Skartheim soldiers.

Above it all—The young man and Autumn still stood unmoved.

Not even wind touched them.Frozen in time and thought. Autumn stared at his back now.

At the quiet authority in the way he stood.

Neither angry nor triumphant.

Slowly—very slowly—he turned his head just enough for her to see one dazzling blue eye glance back at her.The storm in it did not rage anymore.

Mother and son hovered in silence.The mine pulsed.Bright.Steady.Recognizing both presence.

The sea had just settled.Foam slid quietly back into itself.Broken fragments of miasma evaporated into nothing.

On the torn shoreline, a few of Autumn’s men knelt amid soaked sand and stunned confusion, questions burning behind eyes that no longer dared to rise fully.

Above them—The young man moved.He turned slightly towards Autumn, the wind catching in his light curls, and placed one steady hand on her shoulder again.

He tilted his head a fraction, eyes sharpening.The authority in his presence did not match his youth.It was not reckless.

Space bent.Subtly.Like heat warping air before a flame.

They shifted—not vanishing entirely, but gliding backward across the sky, distance folding between them and the ruined shoreline.

Autumn’s mind finally caught up with her body.She turned sharply toward him, pulling slightly from his hold—not rejecting, just demanding clarity."Who are you?Tell me honestly.Why do you look so much like my Jas?!" she demanded.

Her voice cracked through the still air, half storm, half tremor.

He looked at her.And then—He laughed.

"I knew it," he said between breaths. "I absolutely knew you’d ask it like that."

Autumn blinked, stunned by the audacity.

He wiped at the corner of one eye as if she had genuinely amused him.

"We will talk about it, Mamma," he said lightly. "We will talk about it."

Her expression hardened.

"Do not call me that unless you plan to explain it."

He winced playfully.

"Yeah. Fair. That’s fair."

He glanced upward briefly, as though calculating something invisible in the air.

"Look... I broke a few rules to get here from the future," he admitted casually.

Autumn froze.

"From—"

"Yeah," he continued quickly, scratching the back of his neck in a gesture painfully familiar. "Temporal anchors, sealed gateways, cosmic balance... you know. The usual things you absolutely aren’t supposed to tamper with."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You’re joking."

He grinned.

"I knew you would whoop my ass."

The grin widened.

"Honestly? I was prepared for lightning first. Questions second."

Despite herself—

Despite the chaos—

A flicker of something dangerously close to disbelief tugged at her lips.

But then—

The smile on his face faltered.

Just slightly.

Then more.

The playfulness drained as if someone had pulled a thread behind his eyes.

His shoulders straightened.

His jaw tightened.

And something old—too old for his face—surfaced in his expression.

"But..." he said quietly as if the word carried more weight than fighting any battle. "I have been working my entire life trying to get back to this exact moment."

The wind shifted.

No humor now.

No mischief.

His eyes met hers fully.

Storm-blue deepening.

Vulnerable even.

"I calculated timelines," he continued, voice steadier than his gaze. "I studied fractures in causality. I trained under people who don’t even exist yet in this version of the world."

His fingers twitched faintly at his sides.

"And every single path ended the same way."

Autumn’s breath slowed.

Her chest tightened.

"What way?" she whispered.

His smile tried to return.

It didn’t hold.

The corners of his mouth trembled before settling into something far more fragile.

"Without you."

The words landed like a quiet blade.

"Without you all," he repeated.

His voice lowered.

"Without the two of you...and my sisters"

His eyes shimmered—not weak.

Not broken.

But strained from holding something too long.

"I watched it happen," he said softly. "Over and over again."

The storm above flickered faintly, responding to the tremor in his voice.

His expression shifted again—

Happy memories flickered through.

Then playful defiance.

Then shadows.Then dead seriousness.

All within seconds.

As though he had learned to wear each one depending on what survival required.

"I didn’t come back for glory," he said, gaze unwavering now. "I didn’t come back to rewrite fate for fun."

His throat tightened slightly.

"I came back because there’s a future where I don’t have you guys anymore."

His breath hitched just once.

Barely noticeable.

"But I refuse to live in that version."

The air between them stilled.

The sea below quieted completely.

And for the first time since he appeared—

His eyes looked like a child’s.

Almost watery.

Almost afraid.