Xara led the way without another word, while Jax followed at an unhurried pace, boots echoing softly against obsidian pathways as the city shifted around them.
The deeper they went, the quieter Aurelion’s Fall beca.
Public platforms gave way to narrower bridges, the ambient hum of citizens fading into a subdued, reverent silence. Here, the architecture changed subtly, it was less grand
The towering spires curved inward protectively, and the runes etched into the walls were older, denser, layered with contingencies upon contingencies. These weren’t defensive wards ant to repel enemies.
They were ant to contain sothing, and Jax picked up on that imdiately.
"These wards," he said calmly, eyes tracing the air where invisible sigils overlapped, "They’re not keyed for hostility."
Xara glanced back at him, a faint smirk touching her lips. "Of course you’d catch that. No, they’re stabilizers,"
They passed through an arched threshold ford of dark crystal feathers fused together at impossible angles. Beyond it lay a sanctuary suspended entirely apart from the rest of the city—a floating garden cocooned in layered barriers.
Soft light filled the space, not radiant or blinding, but warm and diffused, as though the air itself glowed gently. The scent of night-blooming flowers hung in the air, mixed with sothing faintly tallic—residual power, carefully filtered.
At the center of the sanctuary stood a circular platform surrounded by shallow water, its surface perfectly still. Upon that platform sat a lone figure.
She was kneeling.
Her posture was composed but rigid, spine straight, hands folded neatly in her lap. Long, raven-black hair cascaded down her back like silk, interrupted only by a pair of folded wings—smaller than Xara’s, but beautifully shaped, their feathers a deep charcoal with faint iridescent edges.
A wide band of silvery cloth was wrapped gently but firmly around her eyes, which were firmly closed shut at all tis.
The mont Jax and Xara stepped fully into the sanctuary, the girl’s head turned toward them.
Her face was strikingly beautiful, soft features, full lips, high cheekbones, and skin the color of warm dusk. There was no fear in her expression, no confusion as she sensed soone unfamiliar nearby.
Jax stopped and looked at her.
"...I see," he murmured quietly.
Xara exhaled through her nose, "Orianna did tell you were quite perceptive with problems like this,"
The girl’s head tilted slightly, as if listening more closely, her attention fixing squarely on Jax. Her lips parted, but she didn’t speak.
"She knows you’re here," Xara said, "Even before you crossed the outer barrier."
Jax’s golden eyes narrowed just a fraction, his gaze sharpening—not with suspicion, but with interest.
"That’s not mana perception," he said slowly, "At least not in the traditional sense."
Xara walked forward, stopping just short of the platform, "No. And that’s part of the problem."
She turned slightly, gesturing toward the kneeling Fallen Angel. "Jax, et Ashanti."
Ashanti inclined her head respectfully in his direction, movents practiced and graceful, "...Demon King," she said softly.
Jax felt it then, the subtle tension beneath her words. Power held under imnse pressure, like a star forced into human shape.
He stepped closer, stopping at the edge of the shallow water encircling her platform. "You’re blind," he said gently.
Ashanti didn’t flinch. Didn’t react at all beyond a faint tightening of her fingers.
"Yes," she replied simply.
Xara folded her arms, gaze hardening as she looked at the girl. "She wasn’t always."
The air shifted as Xara spoke, her composure cracking just enough for sothing heavier to seep through.
"Ashanti was born with absurd potential," Xara continued, "Not just for a Fallen Angel, for any race. Her affinity wasn’t singular. She could resonate with divine residue, abyssal mana, even conceptual forces if properly guided."
Jax straightened slightly, "A convergence type."
Xara nodded, "Exactly. A once-in-a-generation existence."
She snapped her fingers, and faint ghost-images appeared in the air, Ashanti as a younger girl, wings spread wide, eyes glowing with brilliant silver-gold light as power surged through her. The projection flickered violently, mana spiking out of control.
"She trained too fast," Xara said flatly. "And worse, she learned too fast."
Ashanti’s jaw tightened, but she said nothing.
"We warned her," Xara went on. "Slowed her training. Limited her output. Bound her power temporarily. But it wasn’t enough. Her core kept adapting and growing at a pace no-one could solve. I even enlisted the help of Orianna and the others but nothing changed,"
The projection shifted again, this ti showing a violent surge of light, raw and uncontrolled, tearing through stabilizing sigils.
"The overload happened during a controlled resonance test," Xara said. "One designed to map her upper thresholds."
Her voice hardened, "She exceeded them."
The image froze on a blinding flash.
"When her power spiked," Xara continued quietly, "it didn’t just burn through external channels. It turned inward."
Jax’s gaze flicked to Ashanti’s covered eyes.
"...It destroyed her optic nerves," Xara said. "Physically and Conceptually."
Silence settled heavily over the sanctuary.
Jax didn’t look away from Ashanti. "Healing magic?"
"Useless," Xara replied imdiately, "Divine restoration rejected the damage, it registers her blindness as a consequence, not an injury. Abyssal regeneration fails for the sa reason. Even ti-based reversal spells collapse under the paradox."
Ashanti finally spoke again, her voice calm but edged with sothing raw.
"My power defines the damage," she said. "To undo it would require denying what I am."
Jax inhaled slowly.
"And since then?" he asked.
Xara gestured around them. "She stays here. Always. This sanctuary is tuned to her frequency, keeps her power from destabilizing further. She trains only in theory. Observes only through sound, mana currents, spatial pressure."
Ashanti lifted her head slightly. "I can still see the world," she said softly. "Just not with my eyes."
Jax felt it again, that imnse, restrained presence coiled within her, "You’re wasting," he said quietly.
Xara’s gaze snapped to him, "Excuse ?"
"You’re containing her," Jax corrected calmly. "Not guiding her."
Ashanti’s fingers twitched.
Xara’s wings flared slightly, then settled. "We did what we could. What we had to. Every ti she draws too deeply, the city’s stabilizers spike. If she loses control again—"
"You’re afraid she’ll finish what the core started," Jax said flatly.
Xara didn’t deny it.
"Yes," she said. "I am."
Jax stepped closer, close enough now that Ashanti could clearly feel his presence. Her head turned toward him instinctively.
"And that," Xara continued, voice low, "is why I want you to take her under your wing."
Ashanti stiffened.
"...Xara," she said quietly.
"You need soone who isn’t afraid of your potential," Xara said firmly. "Soone who doesn’t treat your power like a liability. Soone who can stand where it erupts and not be erased."
Her golden eyes locked onto Jax’s.
"And I know exactly one being in this world who qualifies."
Jax studied Ashanti for a long mont. He saw past the blindness. Past the restraint. Past the fear carefully buried beneath discipline.
What he saw instead was possibility.
"...Ashanti," he said gently. "Do you want this?"
She hesitated.
Then she bowed her head deeply.
"I want to be more than a burden," she said quietly. "I want to move forward again."
Jax straightened, golden eyes burning softly.
"...Then stand up," he said.
Ashanti froze.
Xara’s breath caught.
Slowly, with asured grace, Ashanti rose to her feet.
"Good," Jax said. "Then we have a lot to talk about."
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