Love is not loyalty. Love is gravity and now they are falling toward different stars.
The Academy felt strange.
Breaths seemed heavier.
The moon refused to look down.
And silence grew teeth.
Sol avoided mirrors.
Kairon broke one with his bare hands.
Eren cleaned up the shards… and kept a piece in his pocket.
They found themselves in the same hall by accident.
Or fate.
Or because Elariax had walked there first.
She didn't speak.
She simply turned and looked at them all.
Her eyes didn't plead.
They didn't challenge.
They reflected.
And in that moment the boys stopped seeing her.
They saw each other.
And the war began.
Kairon stepped forward.
"You were in her memory," he hissed at Sol.
"You touched something that wasn't yours."
Sol didn't flinch.
"I touched what she buried."
"What you tried to burn."
Eren stood between them, voice calm.
"She's unraveling. You feel it. I feel it."
"We can't afford to fight"
"You're just afraid," Kairon snapped.
"You're still in love with the ghost of her.
She's not your childhood sweetheart anymore."
"And she was never yours, prince."
The word prince struck harder than a slap.
Elariax didn't move.
But the thread around her finger tightened.
Silver shimmered.
Barely noticeable.
Yet enough.
Because suddenly all three felt it.
A pull.
Not physical.
Emotional.
A tug toward her and away from each other.
The thread had no end.
And each of them thought
Maybe she only wants me.
Then, her voice.
Low. Soft. Surgical.
"Kairon."
He snapped to attention like a soldier.
"You broke the mirror. Do you know what it released?"
He opened his mouth to answer
but couldn't.
"Sol."
He looked up sharply.
"You heard the countdown. Do you know what it started?"
His pulse stuttered.
For the first time in days he didn't write.
"Eren."
Quiet.
Always quiet.
"You still dream of who I was. Do you know who you're protecting?"
He said nothing.
But the shard in his pocket bled through his jacket.
"You each want me," she said.
"But you don't know what I am."
"And soon, I won't either."
She turned her back.
"That's when you'll decide if you love me.
Or if you only loved the pieces I let you see."
She vanished down the corridor.
And the silver thread tightened behind her.
Around them.
Through them.
One thread.
Three hearts.
All bound.
And beginning to fray.