A few days later, I was allowed to bring Tagetes up from the hospital to the penthouse to recover. Gran had decided to stay here on the station and take care of him, so she could get to know him. I waited until he had been settled in for a few days before having the big talk. Gran was in the shower, so my brother and I would have some privacy.

I poked my head into his room. Tagetes was a slim line under a plush mint-green coverlet, on a huge bed. He smiled at me, his mouth a toothy slit in his too-thin face. "Come in, Marys."

"Is now a good time to talk?"

"Of course. Please, have a seat."

I pulled up the seat Gran had been sitting in for most hours in the day. Beside it was a root-stem weaving frame. She was about a third of the way through making it, strands of green and gold entwining around each other, curling into the Araucaria pattern I'd become so familiar with. I'd never known she could do root-stem weaving, but I suppose she'd not done it while we were in exile. It would have been too hard to hide that her style and technique were Araucarian.

Looking away from it, I met my brother's calm and confident gaze shyly. "I don't really know where to start."

"Start anywhere. I promise, I will make a quick study of your ways."

"What does that mean?"

"I was born to serve. Black Rose first of course, but when it was clear you were coming to the station, she taught me to be ready to serve you, when it was time."

"Tagetes... you're my brother. Not a servant."

"I... do not know how to be a brother."

"Well, I suppose in some ways, it's similar. You're going to look out for me. But the difference is, I'm going to look out for you too. And you'll protect me, but only as much as I protect you. I'd say don't put your life in jeopardy for me, but I know that I'd do something just as stupid if it were me, so I can't exactly say that without being a hypocrite."

"I don't understand. You want to protect me? But my purpose is to protect..."

I sighed, and reached for his hand. He seemed unfamiliar with touch, at least out of the confines of his armour. He stared at our connected hands, his eyes watchful. I kept my touch light, not wanting to scare him or breach what had to be some pretty messed-up boundaries. "I'm hoping that our enemies are done now. I mean, our mother's enemies, of course. But people like that will see no difference between Black Rose and her children. Still, the Wilt is over. That's not to say there won't be other threats in the future. But this part, at least, is over."

"So then... what do we do? The only life I have known is protecting Black Rose's life and her investment in this station."

"I know. And I don't know yet what we should do. Maybe we stay here and keep things running smoothly. Maybe we move on to somewhere we won't be quite so... notorious. I'm willing to take suggestions, especially from you, and Gran too. And there are a couple other people whose opinions I'd trust. All I know is, I would like to do it together, if you'd like to."

"Of course. I was born to serve you."

So much for progress. "No, no you weren't."

"Then what was I born for?"

"We'll find that out, okay? Together."

"Together. Yes. I like that."

Mention of our mother hovered on my tongue. I wanted to ask how he was doing, in regards to mourning her. But it still felt too raw to bring up. Unlike me, he’d lived with her his whole life. Yet he didn’t seem to be grieving her, not like I’m sure I would grieve if, say, Gran died. But I didn’t know him well enough yet. I wanted to give him some time.

The data screen at the front of the penthouse buzzed, announcing messages. Gran's shower had stopped. I squeezed Tagetes's hand and let go. "Have a think about things. Talk to Gran too. We can figure out what the future looks like together. We have money from Mother to make our lives look completely different than this, if we want to."

"I have a lot of time for thinking, sister. Oh and, may I just say, your hair is looking particularly lovely today."

I laughed lightly and smiled at him as I left the room. Perhaps that was just the start of the big talk we needed to have. There was a long way to go, between the two of us. He wasn't a fully adult person yet, because of how Black Rose had raised him. But I was determined to see him grow and discover who he could be, with people who could love and care for him, rather than seeing him as the result of the lowest point in their life.

Gran was coming out of the bathroom in a fluffy robe. Before I could pass, she stopped me.

"Are you going out?"

"Not yet. Just heard the screen buzz."

"Be careful, if you do go out."

"Of course, Gran."

"Your mother made so many enemies..."

"I know. I'll take care."

Again, my mother’s ghost lingered in the unspoken words between us. I didn’t need her telling me I looked like her, with my hair like this; she didn’t need me asking if she was okay, with her child dead not even a week. I put my hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

She cupped my cheek before letting me go. "I always liked your hair best like this."

I half-laughed, half-sighed, and kept going to the foyer. The data screen was full of messages. The top one was the most important, and one I was happy to take. It said Frod was waiting in the elevator, requesting an audience with me. As he rode the elevator up with my approval, I deleted the seventeen messages on the screen from Astera. I had nothing to say to her, and needed nothing she could say to me. There was no going back to Gerondia. So there was no need whatsoever to make nice with my toxic ex.

I'd finished the mission we'd always talked about. I'd done it with no help from her. Well, not much anyway. In the immediate fallout, she'd had her sick enjoyment of the fact that Lisia was my mother. But I could see the confusion growing in her eyes during the hours of debriefings with her and Frod, when it became clear that, for some reason, I wasn't running to her for comfort. And then when my time talking to her was done, I cut off contact completely, not giving her the pleasure of my company at all.

I suppose, in some ways, I'll always be like my mother.

Frod arrived, straightening his uniform belt as he stepped out of the elevator. He stood to attention before me. A slow smirk crept across my lips.

"Steady on, Frod. It's just me. No need to be so formal."

He coughed and attempted an uncomfortable slouch. "Sorry, I er... I'm just used to coming up here to report to Black Rose, as a subordinate."

"Come to the balcony. I'll make you some coffee."

He followed me, a few steps behind. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. How long was this formality going to last from him? It was ridiculous. When I'd arrived here, I was no better than something unpleasant he'd stepped on.

By the time I'd made us coffee and came back to meet him at the little table on the balcony, he still hadn't quite settled in. He looked around the garden, his beady eyes the widest I'd ever seen them, his hands tucked behind his back for lack of anything better to do with them. "I hope Stat Sec is doing all right?" I asked. "No blowback from all the Wilt arrests?"

"Things are a lot easier, now that they're gone. Black Rose did us all a huge favour, taking them down as she did." He sat, took the coffee, drank a sip, and considered the plain white mug in his hands. "You promise it's not poisoned?"

I burst out laughing, and he chuckled, but he really was earnest and nervous. "Frod, I would never... You and I are basically friends now, right? After all we've been through."

He smiled, but it was a thin one, not reaching his eyes. "I'm glad you think so. I know I was rather harsh toward you when you first arrived..."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"I get it. You're uniform. I was a rogue element. And in a way, not that I was to know it, but... my arrival here ended up changing everything. The status quo you worked so hard to uphold is all over now."

"I'm not ungrateful, Marys." Finally, his shoulders were angling down, rather than up towards his ears. "The situation needed changing. It had gone on too long, and this place had become a wretched den of unlawful activity that I could do very little about. Now, I hope to find a way to execute my duties in a more fair way, rather than the arbitrary way I had to act before."

I nodded, and took a long sip of my coffee. "I think that would be good. You let me get away with too much. I let myself get away with too much, too. I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf."

He pointed with one knuckle up at my hair before picking up his mug. "I'd say you already have. Interesting look, Marys. I can see why you're not wearing your big coat with this hair. I'm no fashion expert, but the two looks wouldn't quite match."

I gritted my teeth in a forced smile. "Quite right, Frod."

He swallowed, and continued, "But yes, this is what I came up here to ask you about. I want to know your intentions for this place. I think it's time this station changed for the better. We need to find a new way forward. The paradigm of the past isn't going to cut it anymore. These cycles of punishment, bribery, forgery, blackmail, underhanded dealings... it all needs to end. I did everything I could, making some bad choices for the sake of upholding what law I could. But the law became bound up in private and personal vendettas, and stopped being law. So I want to lodge my opinion with you, if I may be so bold."

"By all means," I replied. "You're one of the people in this station whose opinion I wanted to seek out anyway."

He relaxed a touch again, his shoulders back to their usual downward slope, his hands gesticulating freely. "What if we sort of... press a reset button? Make it impossible for people like the Wilt to operate. Find a way forward where this place will be safer for everyone. Maybe even sort out our extradition treaties and make it so people like Xen don't have to fake their deaths to escape trafficking?"

I nodded. My own shoulders were relaxing too. "Yeah. I'd like that. I don't know yet what my next move is. Whether I stay or go, whether I rule like my mother did or if I abdicate to make room for some sort of democratic system. But I do know this place has to change, in line with your thinking. So why don't you put together a proposal of how things could change around here, and we'll talk again soon?"

Frod nodded smartly, finished his coffee, and stood. He had all the energy of someone about to walk off briskly, but then he stopped and turned around the garden with a heavy sigh.

"You miss her," I stated.

He nodded. "Yes. We worked together for many years. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was better than letting the Wilt take over."

I narrowed my eyes, and ruminated over what I saw in his face for a few seconds, before I asked, "Were you in love with Black Rose, Frod?"

He smiled and looked down at the grass under his boots. "From a distance, always. She was unassailable, a statue of a woman. I could only admire, really. Love like one might love a goddess. Unreachable... Odd, to think that. I'd seen her near-death, broken, all but tortured by those men. You see, I think she only kept me around because I was implicated in that time for her. I'd helped get her back on her feet, and she kept me as her pet policeman because of that, once all the power was in her hands. If I'd ever become an inconvenience for her, she could have crushed me in an instant. But she never did." He faced me squarely, the love glow fading from his face. "But as I said, I was implicated. I was too close to her, to the situation. I wanted her revenge on them, after knowing what they did to her. So I let things slide in her favour, when I shouldn't have. Not as a keeper of the law."

"You were a good friend."

He nodded, then shoved his hands in his pockets. "I suppose I was. Goodbye, Marys. I'll be in touch."

I sat there, finishing my coffee slowly, enjoying the view down to the base of the Atrium. It was good to have those two conversations out of the way.

Now it was time for the hardest one.

I checked myself in the mirror before I got into the elevator. I didn't love the whole loose white button-up shirt thing I had going on, but nothing else in my wardrobe suited my new hair. Certainly nothing in my mother's wardrobe suited. I doubted I'd ever wear anything from there.

The elevator ride down was too fast for my nervous mind. Instead of heading straight for my destination, I took a stroll around the other end of the Atrium, to the viewports.

Under the station, the singularity had resolved into a brand new star. Shining a clean white-blue, it had ejected much of the extra materials it had gathered in a rainbow ring nebula. I was informed by people in the know that from certain vantage points in the galaxy, it now looked like a bright blossom on the side of the Bramble. I was also reliably informed that the Thorn's multi-spectral shielding had only just saved us all from the deadly radiation waves heralding its birth. All of this had taken place while I was deep in the guts of stat sec, being interrogated as to what I knew of the Wilt's crimes. I'd missed the whole damn light show.

Funny to think that while I'd been so caught up in my personal quest, this place came so close to being blown up that none of it would have really mattered anyway.

The Perocian with the bluish pond of a face from my first day was here again. He looked at me, and his voice resonated in my head. "Love what you've done with the hair."

"Thanks." If he could read my sarcasm, he let it pass.

"Isn't the new nebula fantastic? I'd say there's an opportunity here for lots more tourism on the station, for people coming to see it. Good timing too. I heard there's going to be major improvements to the library. Some kind philanthropist donated a huge packet."

"Yeah." I tried to hide my smile. "I heard that. They do good work in that library. They deserve it."

"And then there's this new Zenith character. I wonder what her coming will mean for the station?"

I glanced sidelong at him. "Oh yeah?"

"I hear people calling her Zenith, because apparently she's Nadir's sister. Others are calling her White Rose, because they see her staring down from up there, dressed in white."

"Huh. You don't say? Well, I hope she does a better job than Black Rose, keeping the peace around here."

"Agreed. Can't say I'll miss those monthly blitzes. They were spectacular, but very bloody affairs."

"Well, if you'll excuse me. I've got to meet someone. Nice speaking to you."

His kind thoughts followed me as I crossed from the viewports to the Vindemia Cafe, across the central vault.

Xen was rollerblading around the cafe, far more adept now than when Xen had first tried working in them. Seeing me, Xen slowed down, thighs bumping into an empty table in front. Xen's mouth fell open.

"Your hair... it's in spring-time mode now."

"Yeah." I looked away, embarrassed.

"There’s even little flowers in your hair. It's really cute!"

"Great..."

"No, I mean, like, pretty..."

"No, you mean I'm a small cute Gerondian with bubblegum-coloured hair, looking like some child's doll."

Xen shrugged and grinned. "Can't it be both? Anyway, just let me finish up and grab us some coffee."

I waited at the table Xen had bumped into, not far from the vault, and far away enough from the cafe counter so Xen’s nosy colleagues wouldn't hear everything. I kept my hands clasped together to avoid any nervous fidgeting or nail-biting. Five minutes later, Xen reappeared with coffees, and a fruit pastry for me. One of the ones I'd really liked back during our first few days together.

"Hey, you remembered."

"Of course."

I ate, and Xen drank, then I drank, all in silence. Xen watched me with guarded eyes, and I glanced back at Xen when I could muster up the courage.

I was the first to break the silence. "Is everything all right with your old boss and colleagues and stuff? They're not upset with you about the whole faking-your-death thing, are they?"

Xen's nose wrinkled. "A little, but mostly they understand and are glad to have me back."

"And how are you recovering physically? Everything back in working order?"

"Mmhmm!" Xen lifted both arms and showed their fluidity of movement, and the full set of new synthaskin. Then Xen shook the new hair out, brown and purple again, but back to Xen's original, preferred length. "Some lovely wealthy patron of mine anonymously donated the best material money can buy to re-equip me." Xen's eyes smiled at me throughout, and I couldn't stop smiling back.

"Oh, that's nice. You deserve nice things, after everything you've been through."

"And you?" Xen's concern was written in Xen's brow. "I can't imagine what you've been through in the last few days. When you're ready, I'd love to hear it all. And what you see your future looking like. But, as I said... only when you're ready."

I stared into Xen's eyes, teetering on the edge of a deep dive, as I always was with Xen. Of course I was going to spill everything to Xen, like I always did. I tried my best to keep it all concise and coherent as possible: the facts of what had happened after I last saw Xen, the discussions I'd been having with law enforcement, with my family, with myself and the ghost of my mother ever-present in that garden of hers. "I can't bring myself to hate her anymore. I feel her pain, you know?"

"It's because you're a good person, Marys."

"No, but... I'm working on it. I think it's something I can work on, rather than just something I am or am not at any given time."

"Sure."

I told Xen all about it, all my feelings, puzzling out the question: should I stay or go? Lead or abdicate? Own it, or vanish beyond the horizon? And at some point in all of this, Xen's hand found mine, and Xen's fingers entwined with mine. The sensation was so distracting, it was all I could do to keep talking with a lick of sense.

In Xen's eyes, and in the touch of Xen's hand, I was reassured: we would be back together again. Soon. There was no rush though. More important that I get the groundwork right for everyone, so that something peaceful and productive could thrive on this station. A future we could all benefit from.

"So yeah. That's about it. What do you think?"

Xen moved closer and beckoned, leaning in to whisper to me. I came close, my skin thrilling from the feel of Xen right there.

Xen whispered: "I bet you tell all your lovers your little sob story."

I pulled back from Xen, to find Xen laughing, cheeks blushing. I snorted, then burst into laughter, and nudged Xen in the side. Xen nudged back, and our laughter redoubled, echoing up and down the Atrium.

Some say things must come full circle. Revenge; closure; generational cycles; legacies.

But you might say instead, that it's better if things come into balance. Maybe it's not about revenge, but in finding the new way forward, where everyone is made whole by the outcome, if that’s possible.

I think you would be right.

THE END