The embrace continued.
Child-Haven and current Haven.
Both aging.
Both spinning.
Both trading life for truth.
I felt myself weakening, the sensation spreading through my limbs like frost creeping across glass.
Years pouring through me.
My body changing.
Moving toward ancient.
Toward end.
The understanding was flowing, each revelation sharp and crystalline in my mind.
The revelation coming.
But the cost was massive.
I was dying.
Rapidly.
The violent clock-spin consuming me, every second stealing days, weeks, months.
Then I felt something else.
Through the golden chain, its warmth suddenly flaring against my wrist.
Through the blood oath.
Astro.
Not watching anymore.
Intervening.
His essence reached through our connection, warm and desperate and determined.
Through the bond that tied our fates.
Through the merged essences we'd created.
And he grabbed the time.
The aging pouring through me.
The clock-spin consuming me.
The life being traded.
He pulled it.
