The Singularity

He took her to her apartment above the shop. He laid her on the bed.

She was burning up. Her breathing was shallow, rattled. Dark veins were spreading from her heart, creeping up her neck.

"What did you do to her?"

The baker was standing in the doorway. He had followed them. He looked furious, but mostly terrified.

"Get out," Caspian snarled. "I’m fixing it."

"She was fine this morning," the baker shouted. "She was happy! Then you showed up, and now she’s dying!"

"I said get out!" Caspian waved his hand, and a wall of force slammed the door shut, locking the baker out.

He turned back to Lyra. He summoned his magic. He tried to pour healing energy into her, but it bounced off. Her body was rejecting him.

He pulled the Compass of Souls from his pocket. The needle was spinning frantically.

"Show me," Caspian commanded the artifact. "What is happening?"

The Compass projected a hologram of light. It showed two threads. One was Prime Lyra (severed, dead). One was Sector 4 Lyra (alive).

When Caspian kissed her, he tied the threads together.

But the Prime thread was an anchor. It was a fixed point in his personal timeline. Because *his* soul was the constant, and *his* soul remembered the rejection, the universe was rewriting Sector 4 Lyra to match the Prime Lyra.

By accepting him, she triggered the rejection death.

The paradox was lethal. To the universe, "Caspian's Mate" dies of a broken heart. That is the rule he wrote with his own callousness.

"No," Caspian whispered. "No, that’s not fair. I changed. I love her now."

* The universe doesn't care about your feelings,* the silence seemed to answer. *The universe cares about the ending.*

Lyra groaned. Her eyes fluttered open. They were hazy, unfocused.

"Why?" she whispered.

Caspian leaned over her. "Lyra, stay with me. I’m going to save you."

"Why did you leave me in the rain?" she asked.

Caspian froze. She wasn't talking to him. She was talking to the memory of Prime Caspian. The timelines had merged in her mind.

"I didn't leave you," Caspian sobbed, clutching her hand. "I’m right here."

"You laughed," she wept, tears leaking from her eyes. "You said I was boring. You said I wasn't enough."

"I was wrong!" Caspian screamed. "I was a fool! Lyra, listen to me. That wasn't this life. That was before!"

She looked at him. The recognition flickered.

"Who are you?" she whispered. "You feel... like death."

Caspian recoiled.

The baker was right. He wasn't the cure. He was the cancer. As long as he was bonded to her, the universe would try to kill her to resolve the paradox.

He had to break the bond. But he couldn't break a Mate Bond. It was eternal.

Unless he rewrote time itself.