Seeing Dante in pain made Tani forget he could have used a simple teleport to get him onto the living room couch. He only realized it once Nora, Kinon, and he had laid Dante there and made sure he was comfortable.
Nora brought a pair of scissors and cut away the sleeve of Dante’s T-shirt. Tani gasped at the sight of the kara ot crystals squirming beneath Dante’s skin, forming a disturbing black scar—like ink poured under his flesh—that snaked along his right arm.
“What is this?” Nora asked, carefully touching Dante’s arm as Tani settled on the couch and rested Dante’s head in his lap.
“Black weed,” Kinon said, bending close to examine it. “Tani’s mother dealt with a version of this, but I’ve never seen it move so fast. These are fine black crystals fusing with Dante’s blood. I’ll try to burn them off.”
Tani met Dante’s worried gaze and tried to force a comforting smile, though fear coiled deep inside him—the same fear he’d felt each time he watched his beloved buried, nine times over. He dreaded a tenth. He would fight tooth and nail to stop it, but a whisper of terror told him he might fail. Holding Dante, he turned a pleading look on Kinon, who had closed his eyes and gripped Dante’s right wrist.
Kinon sent potent fire magik rushing into Dante. Dante jolted and started trembling, sweat sheening his forehead. He clenched his teeth, and Tani dug shaking fingers into Dante’s hair, desperate to take away his pain. Kinon pushed his fire magik deeper, and Dante let out a ragged shout, the walls of Artri House trembling with the force of it. Tears leaked from the corners of Dante’s eyes, and Tani knew it was too much. The black crystals spread, doubling, and racing upward, consuming more of Dante’s right arm and creeping to his shoulder.
Kinon released Dante’s arm and sat back on his heels, meeting Tani’s panicked stare.
“What?” Tani asked, gripping Dante’s left hand.
“I can’t burn it off,” Kinon admitted. “It’s binding to his magik too quickly, as though my fire is feeding it. You know why.”
Tani’s gaze shifted to the horrendous dark scarring along Dante’s arm. He had hoped the pure energy from a Septum member could combat a kara ot infection.
“This is my fault,” Tani whispered, catching Dante’s bloodshot eyes. “If I hadn’t brought us too close to that table, if we hadn’t bumped into it—”
“Stop,” Dante rasped, his voice hoarse. “This isn’t your fault. It’s no one’s fault.”
Tani shut his eyes, grabbing the front of Dante’s T-shirt in a tight fist, shaking his head. “There has to be a way. Dante, open Artri House. I’ll call Cale and my father.”
“Okay,” Dante murmured, closing his eyes.
Tani reached out for Cale through their mental bond, unable to hide the panic in his heart. Cale, find me at Artri House. Something happened to Dante.
On my way, Cale answered at once.
B-bring my father with you, Tani urged.
When Tani opened his eyes again, Nora rested her head on Dante’s chest. Normally, wild kara ot would have latched on to her too, but it stayed inert, as if Dante alone was its target.
“This is Zal,” Kinon confirmed, seeing Tani’s questioning look. “We were here when his lackey, Aero, gave Nora that vase. I thought it was a harmless gift and never examined it. I’m sorry.”
Tani swallowed back a surge of dread. Then the doorbell rang, and he guessed Sunu had insisted on politeness. Nora sprinted off to answer it. Moments later, she led Sunu, Cale, and Amu back in. Dante tried to smile at Tani, but it came off as a strained grimace. Tani felt tears burn his eyes.
“Immortal Lord,” Kinon greeted Sunu, stepping aside so Sunu could reach Dante. Tani watched as Sunu crouched and studied the black crystals crawling in Dante’s right arm.
“He’s ekho-blessed,” Kinon explained. “The kara ot can’t be burned away. It’s bonded with his magik and is draining his vitality. When I tried to burn it out, my magik targeted his mortal genes.”
Sunu pressed his hand to Dante’s right arm, and Dante jerked violently, swallowing a cry. Sunu withdrew, meeting Tani’s gaze with the same grim certainty Kinon wore.
“I’m sorry,” Sunu said softly. “We keep the ekho-blessed away from this parasite for a reason. Pure ekho fire is dangerous to their mortal genes. Any attempt to purge it—”
“But you helped Lua,” Tani interrupted, disbelief and desperation in his eyes. “You freed that madman from a worse infection.”
“He’s fully ekho,” Sunu replied gently. “Of the fox clan.”
Tani cursed under his breath and turned to Cale, who stood by the door as though afraid to come closer.
“I’m sorry,” Cale murmured, guilt shimmering in his eyes when Tani gave him a pleading look.
Tani felt tears threaten. Then he looked down at Dante, who offered him a fragile smile, despite the agony carved into every line of his face. This man—whose soul Tani had loved for a thousand years—was trying to comfort him despite the torment he endured. A burning sense of injustice flared in Tani’s chest.
“If you won’t help me, I’ll find a way on my own,” Tani said, turning a sneer on Sunu and Kinon. Before anyone could protest, he teleported Dante away, taking him upstairs to Dante’s bed.
“Don’t be angry with them,” Dante managed once Tani settled him against soft pillows. His voice was strained with pain. “The first time we met, you did your best to protect me, Hera, and Tom from this stuff. I was careless this time. It’s not their fault.”
“No,” Tani breathed, staring at the black crystals crawling beneath Dante’s skin. Each movement inched them farther over his shoulder, weaving a suffocating pattern toward his heart.
“Tani,” Dante whispered, but Tani shook his head. “You need to—”
“I don’t want to hear any goodbyes,” Tani warned, gripping the hem of Dante’s T-shirt and helping him pull it off. His stomach twisted when he saw the parasite inching across Dante’s collarbone, turning his golden skin into a grotesque, inky scar. Dante trembled, sweat beading at his temples, and Tani worked fast, piling pillows behind him so he could sit up.
“Baby, talk to me,” Dante urged softly, reaching for Tani with his left hand, their fingers tangling.
“We’re going to find a way,” Tani said, taking off his sweatshirt. “I want my time on your couch, dinner with your family—nothing will steal that from us.”
“What are you planning?”
Tani coaxed Dante to cross his legs so they faced each other. He took Dante’s hands, clasping the injured one with his left while holding Dante’s left in his right. He looked into Dante’s eyes.
“For so long, I’ve cowered under the weight of this calamity,” Tani confessed, tears rolling down his cheeks. “So many people saying we shouldn’t be together—others doing their best to make it true. I’m done. I’ll fix this myself.”
“Baby,” Dante whispered, trying to pull Tani into a hug, but Tani refused to let go.
“I want you to know,” Tani continued, “I’ve never regretted loving you. Every second I’ve spent with you has been the brightest adventure of my life. You’ve been my favorite person for a thousand years and always will be. I love you, Dante Arturo.”
Dante leaned in and kissed him. “I love you, Tani. Always.”
Tani broke their kiss, squeezing Dante’s hands. “Then trust me, Baby.”
“I do,” Dante said, voice trembling, “with everything that I am.”
Tani nodded. “You once burned away my pain with a spell. There’s no reason I can’t try the same for you. I’ve been a deviant my whole life. Might as well prove it.”
“Tani—” Dante started to object, but Tani had already begun whispering the incantation he recalled from Dante’s attempt. Thin lines of light appeared on both their arms, running along their wrists and fingertips, binding them. Dante let out a low sigh at the impact of the bond; it felt heavier than before, forging a stronger link between them.
They were matched, souls balancing on a golden scale. Dante met Tani’s eyes, and Tani spoke, “Acını paylaş. Yakacağım.” Share your pain. I will burn it.
Tani expected to feel Dante’s pain, but instead, a wave of Dante’s fire magik surged into him, pouring through the conduits. Tani’s golden magik raced to meet it, flooding Dante with a brilliant light. For Tani, it felt like a thousand needles scraping through his skin. He gasped, trying to slow the flow, fixated on the black scar streaking Dante’s chest. The crystals slithered away from Tani’s magik, fleeing Dante’s arm and shoulder, converging on his chest—and Tani’s heart hammered in pure horror when they neared Dante’s heart.
Panicked, Tani directed his magik to Dante’s heart, creating a barrier around it. Then he channeled all his strength to trap and purify the black parasite in one place. Dante screamed, the sound torn from his throat. Tani’s power seared away the kara ot, but the strain was colossal. Dante’s eyes rolled back as he fainted, his breathing turning shallow.
“No.” Tani caught him before he slumped over. “No, no, Dante! Please!”
He shook him gently, but Dante was fading.
“I’m sorry,” Dante whispered at some point, his voice barely audible.
A raw cry tore from Tani’s lips. He pulled Dante against him, cradling him fiercely. “I’m not losing you,” he vowed. “I’ve waited a thousand years for us. I won’t lose you now.”
Tani closed his eyes and recited a spell from his homeland, one he’d learned from Amu when he was five hundred years old. The conduits along both their arms expanded over Dante’s body and Tani’s, pulsing with power. Tani felt his senses tap into the well of energy he’d always felt just beyond reach, and the force of his full potential flooded him.
***
Downstairs, Cale felt the sudden shift first, then Sunu.
“Something’s wrong,” Sunu said, racing for the stairs. Amu, Cale, Nora, and Kinon hurried behind him. Dante’s bedroom door was easy to find—the clash of magik blazed like a beacon. Sunu pushed it open, only to stop short at the threshold of Dante’s bedroom.
On the large bed, Tani and Dante were interlaced in dense golden bands that resembled conduits. Magik poured from Tani into Dante, intense and white-hot, first soothing, then violent. Tani’s eyes snapped open, glowing white, arms locked around Dante.
“They’re bonding using the ancient ekho rules,” Amu gasped, rushing forward, ready to yank Tani back.
“Don’t touch him!” Sunu warned. “It’s too late to stop. We can only wait.”
“They’ll die if Tani can’t stop the parasite or complete the process,” Amu said, horrified.
“I know.” Sunu’s voice was low. “But interrupting this now would kill them both.”
“What a troublesome pair,” Cale muttered from behind Sunu. Kinon lingered by the doorway, worry etched on his face.
****
Tani felt himself standing in a white-hot river of energy, the essence of his power. A woman stood at the gate to that wellspring, watching him.
“I’ll use it all,” Tani said, his voice echoing in the roar of the current.
“It was always meant for you,” the woman replied.
“Will it heal him?” he asked.
“If fate wills it.”
“Then I’ll assist fate,” Tani said, smiling widely before diving into the river without fear. The magik was in him, and he was in the magik. He opened his eyes in the real world to see the last spark of Dante’s life flickering. Seizing the full brunt of that energy, Tani sent everything he had into Dante.
****
Sunu and the others were abruptly caught in a web of white light, each link winding from Tani to them, then back again, siphoning their collective power into Tani’s determined effort to heal Dante. No one could move, bound by Tani’s will to save his beloved.
Tani drew on the ekho’s ageless reservoir, using the Septum as a bridge to navigate the roaring magik: Sunu, Kinon, Helia, Eren, Mizian, Rianon, Cale—even Sahdrina’s power flickered to life—united through Tani’s heartbreak and unwavering resolve. He purged every crystal in Dante’s body, driving out the kara ot. The bonding they had all tried to prevent was now complete, transforming an ekho-blessed mortal into a new kind of being—a hybrid fire ekho, born of Tani’s love and desperation.
****
The spell finally released, leaving Sunu free to move. Tani let go of Dante and collapsed onto the bed. Before Sunu could reach him, the laws of the ekho realm snatched Tani’s spirit back to the Palladium gates, his unconscious body dissolving into raw essence.
For the first time in a thousand years, Tani stood in the heart of the palladium gates between realms, whittled down to his truest form. The ekho realm recognized his act of sacrifice, reshaping him into something greater. When he emerged into the ekho realm, he hung in the air, arms wide, as though assimilating into his new environment. The cuffs on his wrists were gone, and power throbbed through him, bright enough to challenge the immortal lord.
Anit, drawn by her son’s trial, arrived at the palladium gates in time to catch him when he dropped. She eased him to the ground, brushing back his red-brown hair and arranging his clothes. He was clad in the rough white robes of Sahdrina’s people.
“Oh, Tani,” Anit breathed, sensing the boundless force rolling off him. “What happened?”
She settled on the grass near the Palladium gates, cradling her son until Sunu emerged from the palladium gates alone. He rushed over and knelt beside them.
“He bonded with his beloved and turned him into a hybrid fire ekho,” Sunu explained, checking Tani’s vitals. “The rules of the ekho realm must have weighed his decisions and found them justified. He has become stronger. Or maybe he was always this strong, and we didn’t know.”
“I don’t know where we can take him,” Anit said, cradling Tani.
“I do,” Sunu replied. He saw the flicker of alarm in her eyes and offered a reassuring look. “I won’t take him to the Citadel. Kinon helped me cleanse the Zona Forest, and we built him a home there, a place of peace, until he’s ready to face the realm.”
Anit’s worry softened into relief.
“What about his beloved?” Anit asked.
“I have left him to Kinon, Cale, Amu, and Sahdrina. Kinon will guide Dante as he gets used to his new reality. And then, Dante must face the palladium gates to test his resolve; otherwise, he will not be able to enter the Ekho realm,” Sunu said. “I worried the realm’s rules would punish Tani, so I came to check on him first.”
“I suppose the weight of the energy flowing through him is punishment enough,” Anit said, holding back a soft gasp when Tani shifted. She glanced at her son, who stirred faintly, his aura testing the air around them. “He’s so powerful now,” she whispered.
“He’s the next immortal lord,” Sunu said, smiling fondly. Then he placed a hand on them both, transporting them.
****
They arrived at a secluded, multi-tiered house hidden deep in the reborn Zona Forest. Each level was wrapped in lush greenery—climbing vines, thick ferns, and potted shrubs that lent the structure a vibrant, breathing quality. Floor-to-ceiling windows on every tier welcomed the surrounding forest and glittering sunlight, offering expansive woodland views. Strong horizontal lines, softened by flowing moss and other foliage, gave the building its distinctive silhouette, punctuated by balconies and terraces. Brimming with plant life, these outdoor spaces seemed to hover just above a tranquil pond, evoking a sense of perfect harmony with nature.
Sunu took Tani from Anit and carried him into a room framed by tall, graceful windows overlooking a sparkling waterfall. The floors were polished stone, etched with faint runes that shimmered in the shifting light. A gentle breeze drifted through open archways, stirring the sheer drapes on the bed.
Living vines coiled around polished wooden posts, and vibrant flowers blossomed on every windowsill. Outside, the ancient trees swayed, their leaves whispering a soft lullaby. The pond near the entrance mirrored not only the house’s curved roof and ethereal spires but also the quiet tide of magik emanating from every corner of the Zona Forest.
Here, embraced by nature’s gentle hum, Anit and Sunu laid Tani on a bed layered with warm blankets. In this sanctuary—built with care and infused with the forest’s rejuvenating energy—Tani could find the solace he so desperately needed. As they settled him to rest, the echo of his determination lingered in the air.
Anit and Sunu stood quietly on opposite sides of the bed, awed that Tani’s resolve had not wavered. Even a thousand years of hardship had failed to corrupt Tani’s will to protect Dante, no matter the cost.
Sui Writes 
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