You weren't meant to stay in his world.

At first, it was dizzy spells. Then came the chill in your bones that no fire could ease. Your body, shaped for Earth’s rhythm, was unraveling under the pull of Jaeshin’s realm — and of Jaeshin himself. His love, his presence, the power that surrounded him… it changed you, but not gently.

The Wise Ones noticed first.

“She is breaking,” one murmured, eyes like silver tides. “Not from pain alone, but from being claimed by something her form cannot yet hold.”

Jaeshin’s jaw tensed, shadows pulsing at his temple. The guilt in his chest was louder than thunder.

“She didn’t choose this alone,” he whispered, more to himself than to them. “I asked her to stay.”

And you had. Because even when your breath came shallow, even when your strength waned, you smiled for him. For the boys who now slept curled at your side. You never said it, but he saw it in your eyes: You would break for love if it meant being theirs.

But he wouldn’t allow that. Not anymore.

So Jaeshin knelt before the oldest of the Wise Ones and said the words no full-blood ever had:

“Make her one of us. I’ll give up anything. Power. Time. My name. Anything—just let her stay, without pain.”

The transformation would be slow. Sacred. Painful. But worth it.

And as you lay under the black-starlit sky that night, weak but held tightly against his chest, Jaeshin whispered into your hair, “No more breaking, my gorgeous girl. You’ll rise. Stronger. Forever mine.”