The Feedback Loop

They were halfway across the gap when the hum started.

It began as a vibration in the soles of their feet, then rose to a high-pitched whine that rattled Elara’s teeth. The bridge beneath them flickered.

"Elara," Kael gasped. "Slow down."

She looked at him and gasped. The veins in Kael’s neck were black and bulging. His skin, usually a pale alabaster, was turning a bruised, dark grey.

"I... I can't," Elara stammered. She tried to dial back the output, to stem the flow of heat pouring out of her core, but the connection between them had changed. It wasn't just a flow anymore; it was a vacuum. The bridge demanded energy to sustain itself against the storm, and it was pulling everything she had.

"The resonance," Kael grit out, sinking to one knee on the bridge of light. "It’s... exponential."

Because Kael was a void, he had no bottom. Because Elara was a sun, she had no ceiling. The bridge acted as a superconductor. The more power she gave, the more he absorbed. The more he absorbed, the more space he created for her power to rush into.

It was a feedback loop. And it was accelerating.

"Let go!" Elara screamed, trying to wrench her hands free. "Kael, let go of me! It’s too much!"

"If I let go," Kael wheezed, looking up at her with eyes that were entirely black now, the whites consumed by shadow, "the bridge shatters. You fall."

"I don't care! I'm hurting you!"

"You're not hurting me," he whispered, a terrifyingly calm smile touching his lips. "You're filling me."

The bridge beneath them solidified into something brighter than diamond. The path to the Solid Lands was clear, only a few dozen yards away. But Kael couldn't stand. He was trembling violently, smoke rising from his shoulders—not steam, but actual smoke.

He was reaching capacity.

Elara felt the pull deep in her marrow. Her life force, her magic, her soul—it was all being ripped out of her, funneled into the boy she loved. "Stop it! Kael, stop absorbing! Push it back!"

"I can't," he choked out. "I have... nowhere to put it."

The air around them began to distort. The storm outside the bridge fell silent, drowned out by the roaring sound of the energy transfer between them.