[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This Chapter 65: In Which I Have the Worst Nightmare and We Choos

I woke up from the vision screaming.

Not a small gasp or a startled jolt. A full, throat-burning scream that brought Azryth upright instantly, power manifesting around him like he was preparing for attack.

"What? What is it?" His hands were on my shoulders, eyes wild. "Are we under attack? Is it the poison..."

"Vision," I managed, my voice hoarse. "I saw... I saw..."

The images were still burning behind my eyes, two futures, both crystal clear, both absolutely real.

In the first, I stood in a chamber I’d never seen before. Azryth was in front of , contained within a circle of binding magic, he was reaching for , saying sothing I couldn’t hear through the magical barrier.

And I was crying, sobbing. As I activated the seal that would lock him away forever.

"I’m sorry," I heard myself say in that future. "I’m so sorry. It’s the only way."

The gates sealed, reality stabilized, the realms stayed separate.

And I lived the rest of my life alone, carrying the weight of having imprisoned the person I loved to save everyone else.

The second vision was worse sohow.

We were standing in the ruins of sothing, the safehouse maybe, or Valek Tower, hard to tell through the destruction. Rifts were tearing open everywhere, reality itself coming apart at the seams.

"We should have chosen," future-Azryth said, his voice hollow. "We should have made the sacrifice."

"I couldn’t," future- replied. "I couldn’t lose you, even if it ant this."

We watched the realms rge in chaos, watched people die, watched everything burn because we’d refused to make the impossible choice.

And we were together, holding each other while the world ended around us.

Both futures ended in tragedy, both futures were unbearable.

And according to the vision, both were equally possible.

"Riven." Azryth’s voice cut through my spiral. "Tell what you saw."

I did. Haltingly, through tears I didn’t rember starting, I described both futures, the one where I sealed him away and lived with the guilt, and the one where we refused to choose and watched everything burn.

By the ti I finished, dawn was breaking through the broken windows.

Azryth was quiet for a long ti, his hand moving in slow patterns on my back.

"A prophetic vision," he said finally. "Your seal must have triggered it, Kael wardens sotis develop foresight when facing impossible choices."

"So those futures are real? One of them is going to happen?"

"They’re possible futures, not inevitable ones." He shifted so we were face to face. "Prophecies show what could be, not what must be."

"They felt inevitable," I said, my voice small. "Both of them felt like the only options, like no matter what we do, we lose."

"Then we reject both options."

I stared at him. "What?"

"We reject them." He said it with absolute certainty. "The vision showed you two predetermined paths, sacrifice to save the world, or refuse and watch it burn. But those aren’t the only possibilities, they’re just the most obvious ones."

"Azryth, the prophecy..."

"The prophecy says we can seal gates or tear them open. It doesn’t say those are the only options, it doesn’t say we can’t find a third path." His hand cupped my face. "We’re a Kael warden with an impossible seal bound to a demon lord who was exiled for refusing to follow predetermined rules. If anyone can find option C, it’s us."

"Option C being what, exactly?"

"Being both realms stay separate AND we stay together." He said it like it was simple. "We seal the gates without one of us being sacrificed, we stop Veyrith’s nexus, close the rifts, and don’t have to choose between love and survival."

"That sounds impossible."

"So did closing rifts permanently, so did surviving demon-killing poison, so did weaponizing emotional honesty into magical interference." He smiled. "We’re very good at impossible things."

He genuinely believed we could do this, that we could find so third option the prophecy hadn’t accounted for.

"What if we can’t?" I asked. "What if when the mont cos, those really are the only choices? What would you want to do?"

"I’d want you to seal away."

"Azryth..."

"If it cos down to or the world, you choose the world, every ti, without hesitation." His voice was firm. "I’ve lived five hundred years, I’ve had my ti, but you? You deserve a full life. And the thousands of people who’d die if the realms rge chaotically? They deserve to live too."

"I couldn’t do it," I said. "I saw myself do it in the vision, and it destroyed , I was alive but not living, I was just existing with the weight of what I’d done."

"Better that than watching everyone die because we refused to choose."

"Is it really better?" I grabbed his hand. "Because the second vision showed us together while the world burned, and at least in that one, I had you. At least we faced the end as a unit instead of spending the rest of my life alone with guilt."

"...are you saying you’d rather the world end than lose ?"

"I’m saying neither option is acceptable, I’m saying we find a third path or die together trying." I t his eyes. "You’re the one who said we reject both futures, don’t backtrack now by trying to convince to seal you away."

He was quiet for a mont, sothing complicated crossing his face.

"I’m trying to protect you," he said finally. "Even from yourself, even from choices that would destroy you emotionally."

"And I’m trying to protect us, both of us, what we have." I pressed closer to him. "The vision was trying to make choose between you and the world. But what if that’s a false choice? What if there’s a way to have both?"

"Then we find it."

"How?"

"I don’t know yet." He said it honestly. "But we have advantages the prophecy didn’t account for. Your seal is adapting in ways even your mother probably didn’t predict, our bond weaponizes emotions, the arbiters might have information about the nexus that reveals a weakness. We’re not operating blindly."

"We’re also not operating with a clear plan."

"No. But we rarely do." He smiled slightly. "And sohow we keep surviving anyway."

His emotions washed over , terror, matching my own, doubt about whether this third path even existed, desperate hope that we weren’t deluding ourselves.

But underneath it all, determination, the sa stubborn refusal to accept predetermined tragedy that had gotten us this far.

"Okay," I said. "We reject both futures, we find option C, both realms stay separate, we stay together, nobody gets sealed away or watches the world burn."

"Agreed."

"..but what if we can’t find it? If, when the mont cos, and those really are the only choices?"

He held my gaze. "Then we face the cliff, together."

"That’s not a plan."

"No. It’s a promise."

It wasn’t the reassurance I’d wanted, but it was honest, and that mattered more.

"The vision felt so real," I said quietly. "Both futures felt inevitable, like they were already written."

"They’re not. Futures are fluid and changeable." His hand moved through my hair. "The fact that you saw both ans neither is set. We’re standing at a crossroads, and the vision was showing you where each path leads. But crossroads always have more than two directions."

"We just have to find the third path."

"Yes."

I closed my eyes, trying to push away the lingering images. Future- sealing Azryth away, future-us watching the world end, both versions haunted in different ways.

"We should tell Mara and Henrik," I said. "About the vision, they might have insights."

"Okay, after breakfast, we’ll brief them." He paused. "Though we’re not ntioning your willingness to let the world burn rather than lose , they’re already concerned about the prophecy’s emotional component."

"Fair."

We lay there as dawn fully broke, both of us processing what the vision ant.

"One day until limbo," Azryth said. "Maybe the arbiters will have answers, maybe they’ll know a way to seal the gates without sacrifice."

"Maybe."

"Or maybe we’re chasing impossible solutions and deluding ourselves that option C exists."

"That too." I looked up at him. "But we’re trying anyway."

"Because we’re idiots."

"Because we’re in love." I corrected. "And love makes you do stupid things, like reject prophecies and hunt for impossible solutions."

His affection and exasperation reached in equal asure.

"You’re going to be the death of ," he said.

"Not if I can help it."

"That’s what concerns ."

We got up eventually and faced the day. We told Mara and Henrik about the vision over breakfast (leaving out the parts where we admitted we’d rather doom reality than lose each other).

"The fact that you saw two distinct outcos ans neither is set, you still have agency." Mara said.

"That’s what Azryth said too."

"He’s right. Prophecies are warnings, not commands." She studied . "Though I’m concerned about the content, both visions ended tragically."

"We’re aware."

"And you’re still determined to find a third option."

"Yes."

She exchanged a look with Henrik. "That’s either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid."

"Why not both?" I said.

"Please stop saying that," Henrik muttered.

"The arbiters might help," Mara said. "If anyone understands the chanics of realm gates and how to manipulate them safely, it’s them. They exist between dinsions, they literally live in the space we’re trying to preserve."

"So limbo becos even more important," Azryth said.

"It was always important, but now it’s critical." She stood. "Which ans we prepare even more carefully, we get to the arbiters, get answers, and get out before limbo can break you."

The rest of the day was intense preparation. Henrik creating more protections, teaching us ntal exercises to ground ourselves against illusions, Mara coordinating with her arbiter contact, setting up the eting.

And through it all, the vision haunted . Two futures, both terrible. Both possible.

We had to find the third path.

Or die trying.