Smoke rose thick and black, staining the sky above the ruins of the Sanctuary.
The acrid smell of burning metal and ash filled the air.
Clara could barely stand, holding Aurora tightly against her chest, tears carving pale lines down her soot-streaked face.
Beside her, Adrian stared at the gray cloud rising from the hill.
The Sanctuary was gone. And with it, Elias.
No one spoke.
Only the faint crackling of flames broke the silence as Luca covered his face with one trembling hand, trying to hide his tears.
Elias had stayed behind. He'd taken Clara's power, sacrificing himself to save them.
"It's over," Adrian whispered, his voice fractured. "He gave his life for us."
Clara nodded slowly, unable to speak.
Pain squeezed her throat; inside her mind, she could still hear Elias's final word: Go!
Then a small, clear voice broke through the silence.
"Don't cry," Aurora said, wiping her cheeks. "He's okay."
Clara and Adrian turned toward her, stunned.
Luca crouched down, meeting the child's bright blue eyes, Adrian's eyes.
"Sweetheart… what do you mean?" he asked gently.
Aurora looked at him with calm certainty, as if what she said were simple truth.
"Elias isn't dead," she replied. "He's coming."
Clara blinked, her breath catching.
"Baby, don't say that. Elias stayed inside. We all saw… "
Aurora shook her head. "No. I felt him. He's alive."
Adrian knelt beside her, taking her tiny hand.
"How do you know that, Aurora?"
"I heard him," she said softly. "And I brought him back."
Luca exchanged a wary glance with Adrian, thinking the girl was in shock, when suddenly, a faint rustle came from the trees.
Clara lifted her head, heart hammering.
Through the smoke and shadows, a figure stumbled toward them, dirty, torn, but alive.
"Elias?" Adrian's voice broke.
The man moved closer. His face was scraped, his clothes in tatters, but his eyes were clear.
It was him.
Clara's hand flew to her mouth, disbelief written across her face.
"How is this possible?"
Elias dropped to his knees, gasping.
"I don't know… I remember the light, and then nothing. When I woke up, I was in the woods, far away. I heard a voice, it led me here. Aurora's voice."
The little girl smiled softly.
"I called you, Elias. And you heard me."
No one moved.
Clara knelt beside him, still holding Aurora's hand.
"Show me what you did, sweetheart."
Aurora nodded and closed her eyes.
A soft glow spread from their joined hands. Clara inhaled deeply, letting the energy flow through her.
In an instant, all their minds were pulled into a shared vision.
The world around them dissolved.
They were back inside the Sanctuary, seconds before the explosion.
Time slowed, suspended in a frozen heartbeat.
Elias knelt on the floor, his body shaking under the weight of Clara's power.
The walls trembled, light swallowed everything.
Then, one blink.
A little girl, crying, whispered in her mind: I don't want you to die.
A burst of white light.
Elias vanished, and reappeared miles away, unharmed.
The vision faded.
Clara opened her eyes, tears streaming silently.
Aurora was breathing softly, tired but smiling.
Elias stared at her, voice raw.
"She moved me," he said in disbelief. "She moved me with her mind."
Luca raked a hand through his hair.
"A six-year-old… did that?"
Adrian looked at his daughter with awe and fear.
"She didn't just move you. She rewrote reality."
Clara brushed a lock of hair from Aurora's face.
"It's the power born of love," she whispered. "The kind that knows no limits."
Elias raised his eyes to the sky, where the smoke was slowly fading into blue.
"The Sanctuary is gone," he said quietly. "But it's not over. If Aurora can do this, they'll come for her. They'll come for all of you."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"Then we'll stop them. Every last one."
Aurora looked up at her parents, calm and sure.
"Now we're together," she said. "And when we're together, no one can hurt us."
A deep silence settled over them.
The morning light broke through the trees, soft and golden, like a promise.
Clara embraced Aurora, lifting her gaze to Adrian. He smiled faintly, tears glistening on his lashes.
Luca turned to Elias and muttered,
"You were supposed to die. And yet here you are. Guess our team just got a little bigger."
Elias chuckled hoarsely.
"Maybe. But don't forget why we're still breathing. The real war, Adrian, Clara… has only just begun."
Adrian wrapped his arms around the two people he loved most and looked toward the distant horizon.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
Aurora, half asleep, whispered one last word that chilled them all.
"I'll find them."
And the wind through the trees carried her name, like a whisper that promised both hope and reckoning.