Page 176 of Stars in Aura

‘Nada,’ Zavei said.

Time slowed as disbelief rippled through Sulfiqar’s frame.

Somayeh tossed her lover a gold baton-like device.

Zavei whirled it, and a chain of gilded supernatural fetters burst into existence.

Issa’s eyes widened, recognizing the Vyri’el Shackles.

The same golden manacles forged from the core of a collapsed star and etched with ancient binding sigils that had caged her and her family.

Once latched on, the celestial cuffs and chains cursed one into bondage. While siphoning their sacrosanct essence with every heartbeat, rendering even the mightiest immortal powerless and imprisoned within their stillness.

Their final insult was turning their captor into a Sullied daemon.

She took a ragged inhale as they flew through the air and snapped tight around Sulfiqar’s wrists, dragging him to his knees before the assembly.

Sulfiqar let out a bitter laugh, falling in front of Somayeh and Zavei.

‘You betray me?’

Zavei’s jaw clenched, his expression unyielding. ‘I uphold the celestial order. You hunted pure souls, the essence of what is sacred and forbidden among us, and now you will face judgment.’

Sulfiqar sneered, but his power had already begun to drain away, his innate perpetuity unraveling like threads of frayed silk.

Somayeh’s rang with cosmic finality. ‘Now, you will face the only punishment fitting for such arrogance. You will live.’

The Divine Immortal’s smirk faltered.

Somayeh stepped closer, her emerald gaze gleaming with quiet satisfaction.

‘Only as a mortal,’ she murmured. ‘So while your health is restored, eternity is now denied.’

A gasp rippled through the assembly.

Sulfiqar’s laughter returned, dark, edged with something almost amused.

‘Thefokk? You condemn me to centuries instead of immortality?’

‘Naam, we do, or rather, your foolish choice to hunt pure souls doomed you.’

Sulfiqar’s face darkened, and the rushing of an angry wind sounded until he lifted his shackled fists, a maniacal grin stretching over his regal face. ‘Not the worst punishment for a deity, wouldn’t you say?’

‘Without your perpetuity, you will no longer be a god,’ Somayeh clipped with an edge of finality in her tone.

The smirk vanished.

‘You will be banished to New Savartin,’ she continued, her eyes gleaming with cruel amusement. ‘A mortal life in a gilded cage. No throne. No power. No influence.’

The gods in the chamber shuddered, not at the sentence, but at the thought of living among mortals.

Sulfiqar’s lips curled.

‘Well played,’ he murmured.

His golden eyes drifted to Issa and Ki’Remi, and he shook his head with a chuckle.

‘Ah, but what an end to my reign,’ he rasped, dripping with satisfaction. ‘A divine war. A prophecy fulfilled and, above all, an enduring love story.’

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