Calibrated.

Optimized.

Stabilizing…

Unable to stabilize.

Warning: Eighty-three hours until maximum destabilization.

The white room dissolved around Rayne. Per her promise, Elden left her in this awful place. The smell of ash and dust choked her. The rock walls of the square room reached up into the sky. The red soil beneath her bare feet sifted between her toes. The black inky lake served as a moat for the island in the center. An island she saved for last.

The Martyr Complex greeted her by opening. Rayne stepped off the skid and over to the nacre glass device with Night Killer reassembled in hand. The exsanguination cylinders gleamed with their gilded razor-sharp edges. She flinched as she recalled the whirring sound of it. Every. Hour. The machine drained all her blood from the reservoir since she escaped. The conduit closed.

With a trembling hand, Rayne reached out and touched the control panel. “I understand.”

A tear joined many others on her cheeks. Not the last one over the next three and a half days. Resolute in her duty, Rayne flew up the tower, leaving the Complex to wait.

If she were honest with herself, she felt a little relieved. Facing her friends, her trauma—could wait until she awakened from her mission. This was easier. And hey, she deserved a few decades of sleep after battling insomnia most of her life. How else would the people of Cinder make it through the conduit? Yea. This could work out.

Rayne sniffled. She finally grew out of lying to herself. Good thing it would take less to convince the others. And then it was time to say goodbye.

Through Elden’s eyes, Rayne saw her brother and friends survived. Joy and pride overwhelmed her. They could save these worlds.

She crested to the sky. Flew impossibly high into the rain clouds. The scent of dust after rain. Mountain crags peaked all around. Black lakes swirled. The conglomerate Icarean dwellings glittered with decorative trinkets. Cinder was beautiful from up here. Maybe she’d leave the casket to explore it occasionally.

Shouts and her name called. Below, at the entrance to the castle, Tameka and Sagan waved to her. They both beamed at her with exhaustion and love.

Nox was wrong. It wasn’t better to push her friends away. She resolved to tell them about the Weapon the moment they were alone. Adding a flourish to the downward spiral, she alighted on the rocks near Tumu.

Andrius nodded to her. Devis waved, shyly. T.A.O. searched Rayne’s soul. Atramentous eyes went straight into her being and apparently liked what they found because T.A.O. smiled at her.

Sagan sat up with Korac’s help. The Icarus looked better than when Rayne last saw him. He really loved Sagan. She didn’t fault him for it. He inclined his head. “Your majesty.”

Rayne couldn’t help but smile.

Tameka rushed to her side and assessed her lack of injuries. With a smile, she said, “I knew you could do it.” Then she jabbed a finger in Rayne’s face, “But don’t you ever—EVER—scare me like that again. I don’t want to hear those words from your mouth. Got it?”

Power and fury. That was Tameka. Rayne smiled at her and hoped it showed all the love she felt for her sister. “I promise. I didn’t even think when I said them. I’m sorry.”

Tameka folded her arms over her chest. “Good. I might forgive you.”

“I can stand,” Sagan assured from the mud.

Korac threw one of her arms over his shoulder and took her weight. He walked her over to Rayne. Sagan’s smile said she might not need the help, but enjoyed the attention far too much.

Rayne shook her head and fought not to encourage her with a smirk. “I can’t tell you how happy I am you survived—”

Sagan’s smile vanished. “Don’t lie. You saw him put it in my hand. You wanted to be alone for the fight. Even T.A.O. knew that.” She nodded over her shoulder at her ancestor. “I’m with Tameka. You took too many risks in that battle. We’re both a little pissed at you.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Tameka nodded.

“But unlike her, I’m a softy and easier to forgive. I only wished—” Sagan’s face fell.

A hug sounded so good right now. Rayne missed the way her friends’ smelled. Unable to do anything else, she put her fist to her nacre. “Me, too.”

Korac glanced between them. When Rayne caught his eye, she mouthed, “Thank. You.”

The Icarus nodded with an element of wonder in his gaze.

“Rayne.”

The girls parted for the compressed Tritan. Her heart skipped a beat at the forlorn look in his voids. Like someone died or committed an atrocity.

“Yes, Tumu?”

“Where’s Nox?”

Tameka glared at the blue alien.

Korac barked, “Where the fuck do you think?!”

Sagan peered up at him, confused. Barely recovered from her near-death experience.

“You won’t like the answer, Tumu,” Rayne promised. She put herself between her friends and the giant. Korac’s eyes bored into the back of her head. The blue alien flinched when she twirled Night Killer and reached back with it. Someone took it from her.

Tumu shook his head. “I need a straight-forward answer.”

“You’re asking for a confession?”

“…Yes,” he confirmed.

Tameka scoffed, “What do you mean? What do you think happened to him?”

Rayne looked at her sister with a gentle smile. The redhead stood proudly with Night Killer. It made the brunette’s smile broaden. “It’s okay.” She turned back to Tumu. “Officer of the Third, I killed King Nox of Cinder.”

“Rayne, King of Earth and Cinder, with the authority granted to me by the Vast Collective—”

Tameka stepped up, “Tumu, what are you—”

The Tritan shot her a dissuading look and continued, “—I detain you to provide testimony before the Tribunal for war crimes committed against the Collective.”

Sagan cried out, “No! You can’t do this.” Korac gently held her back while Tumu took Rayne’s arm in a firm grasp.

“Until you testify to your crimes, you have no ownership of self. Do you understand?” Tumu’s large voids shone with remorse but also resolve. Duty and all that.

Rayne answered aloud, “Yes.”

“No!” Tameka shouted. She put herself in front of Tumu, looking way up. She gripped the staff, tightly. “Let. Her. Go.”

“Tameka.” The Tritan stared miserably into the young woman’s face as he requested, “I need you to support Sagan.”

She narrowed her gaze at him but complied. “Why?”

Korac stared hard at Tumu like he knew what Rayne knew. What they should all know came next.

“Korac, General of the Icarean Army of Cinder—”

T.A.O. rushed forward and the two male Progeny held her back.

Sagan cried, “No! No! Why?—”

Rayne fumed at the blue giant who carried on, avoiding her gaze.

“With the authority granted to me by the Vast Collective, I detain you to provide testimony before the Tribunal for war crimes committed against the Collective. Until you testify to your crimes, you have no ownership of self. Do you understand?”

Tameka held Sagan as Korac slipped from under her. The blond Progeny cried as he pressed his forehead to hers, hand on her nape. “I promise to never go where you can’t find me.” He unsheathed his second axe and placed it in her hand.

Sagan pretty-cried like no girl Rayne ever met. Hardly able to stand, she gritted her teeth to say, “No matter what happens, I will not let you go.”

Tameka growled at Tumu, “How can you do this? I won’t let you take Rayne, do you understand—”

“Tameka…” Rayne turned to her best friend of many years and hopefully many more. She looked over the girl’s shoulder. “He’s not alone.”

The redhead recoiled, and the blond frowned in confusion. They looked back at the empty road. Korac stepped up beside Rayne with his hands loose, showing he was unarmed. “I understand.”

Tumu lowered his head. “Unmask. She knows you’re there.”

The two Progeny women startled and stepped away when the projection lifted. Pehton led an entire garrison of Lyriks and Mon3 drones. A lamia recorded the events.

Korac muttered, “How’d you know they were there?”

“I can hear their hearts beat. You?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Smell.”

Pehton raised one of those tranq guns and shot T.A.O. without preamble. Sagan fell to her knees with Tameka checking her vitals.

Andrius rushed to his sister. Pehton held the gun on him. “Sorry. Orders.” She shot him, followed by Devis.

Korac cursed, “Why are you detaining them, Officer of the Third?”

Pehton spoke up at Tumu’s dejected expression, “He’s not. They’re not even here. Iuo?”

The Reipon lamia answered, “According to official record, Xelan, Prince of Cinder, testified at his trial that the First Wave Progeny died eight thousand years ago after the Vacating with exception of Celindria, who died two thousand years ago at the obliteration of Thailea.”

Rayne stared hard at Tumu, willing him to look at her. The more she tried for eye contact, the more he avoided it. Meanwhile, Korac watched Pehton cuff Devis and Andrius like he wanted to break a birdy’s neck.

Tameka growled from where she sat with Sagan, “He wouldn’t let you do this.”

The black Lyrik knelt beside T.A.O. She fastened the woman’s hands behind her back using a sleeve of nacre glass. Indestructible cuffs. “He’s dead. I have a job to do. These are our orders. Tumu?” She passed him two sets of cuffs.

Korac glanced down at Rayne. He put his hands behind his back. She did not. He smirked at her. Looking straight ahead, she waited for Tumu to lock her down. The Tritan skipped her and bound Korac with a whimper from Sagan.

Tumu started, “Abresson—”

“Eminent Abresson,” Pehton corrected with a glance at Rayne.

A stocky drone lifted the dainty Seamswalker in his arms. Two more threw the First Wave male Progeny over their shoulders.

Tumu continued, “Eminent Abresson will try Rayne now. I won’t shackle her until after the Tribunal.” He looked down at her, and she up at him. The conflicted emotions in his voids affected her very little.

Tired. So tired. Today lasted so long, and it wasn’t over, yet. “Tumu, take me to your leader.”