The price for discovering a new Cinder was high. Factions of dissatisfied Tritans smuggled our soldiers through the conduits on impossible missions. We wreaked havoc on unsuspecting civilizations, nacre-bearing or not.

You might notice our methods were no better than Enki's. You'd be right. But at least with our way, we reaped the rewards. We determined if the risks outweighed the benefits. We also researched our targets extensively, avoiding situations like that of Monarch 3.

Xelan never joined us. Anything he wanted for his labs, I collected for him, myself. But he didn't want to see the damage I caused in order to get it. We fought over it more and more frequently.

"You need not kill anyone to obtain the mineral."

Xelan calmly dropped liquid onto a tray in a rectangular vessel.

I stared at the familiar gas hovering within it. "The ore is in their sacred mountain. Their tombs. How else shall I acquire it?" His lab smelled as sterile as Enki's shrines.

He glared at me, accusingly. "You could ask."

Beside me, Korac let out a single chuckle.

I growled, "You oversimplify things when in these moods--"

"Shh... I need to concentrate." Bright white robes draped over him like an early lab coat. He stared into the prism and carefully lowered a sample into the fog. "All right. The moment of truth."

Xelan took a deep breath and pressed his hand onto the switch. His palm bled onto the device. Inside, the fog swirled. Zaps of electricity popped within.

I frowned. What did Xelan create this time?

Korac didn't watch the show. He watched my brother, studying him as he concentrated.

Interesting.

Xelan cried out, ecstatically. I looked back to the chamber. A being formed inside. With horns and six pairs of feet. The sentimental fool.

"Many Feet the second!" He reached inside and pet the fully grown hellkite. It was identical to his former pet.

"Congratulations, your majesty." Korac reached in to stroke its snout. The two smiled at each other over its purring.

"How did you accomplish this?"

They both turned to me, and their smiles fell as if I ruined the moment by simply being there. For the first time in a while, I considered my own loneliness. How long before I found someone? Would I always be the one left out? The sting left me in a foul mood.

"Well?!"

Xelan recorded his observations as he answered, "I think the Tritans are building a progenitor. And..." He licked his lips nervously before continuing, "I think I built one."

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Korac stopped petting the animal and returned to my side. I gaped at my brother. "You created something in which they'd yet to succeed?"

My brother nodded. "It was an accident."

I exchanged a look with my guard and scoffed. "An accident?"

In one long rush, Xelan told us the story of how he guessed the gas from the hive in Monarch 3 and the deposits in the soil of Lacceirus-Capra combined to create excessive generative and regenerative properties.

"Now, I need the ore from Thailea. With the amber, I could create a person."

The possibilities confounded me. "Like an Icarus?"

Xelan nodded emphatically. "Icarus, Lyrik... anything of which I have a DNA sample." He swallowed before adding the next, "Even a Tritan..."

Korac ducked his head. "May I?"

I nodded to permit him.

"Are these clones or..."

Xelan shook his head. "New people. With new personalities and no memory of the person I sampled them from." He bit his thumbnail and paced the floor. "I need to run more tests, obviously. I have no idea what traits pass onto the progeny..."

He trailed on with his thoughts. If we could create new people, could we control them? The perfect soldier. The perfect Icarus.

Korac read my mind, "Prince Xelan, can you decide their traits? Like their aversions to metals like gold?" He peered at me. "Or certain radiation in sunlight?"

Now was the time.

"What sunlight? What?" Xelan looked between us. "What happened?"

I popped my neck to release the tension before it climbed down to my shoulders. This wouldn't be pretty. "I came down here to tell you we found a planet for the Icari."

One long, slow blink. "You did?" He shivered. It wasn't cold. "What... what kind of plant life is on it? Is the soil compatible for the Vittle?"

Korac blew the air from his cheeks and walked out of the lab. I didn't want to be here for this fight anymore than he.

"No. But a race of mammals on the planet bleed the combination of iron and oxygen we require to live."

Xelan winced. "Well, I suppose as long as they show no signs of sentience--"

"They are people, brother. Early in their civilization. Barely intelligent--Xelan, why do you fight me on this?"

He roughly stripped off his lab gear while I was speaking. The thin line of his mouth and the tight set of his eyes let me know he was pissed.

My brother brushed by me, and I grabbed his arm. "What do you want from me? The Icari are dying."

He glared at my hand on him, and I let go. He declared, "We will not sacrifice another race for ours, Nox."

An idea struck me. "And with your help, sacrifice is unnecessary."

Xelan tapped his foot and stretched his neck. "Go on."

I stepped away from him and glanced into his new device. "Your progenitor, can it breed our races together? A people that can thrive without their blood and survive under their sun?"

He chuffed, "Consider me surprised you and father wish not to breed the old-fashioned way."

That stung. I'd yet to be with a woman, let alone take one against her will. I hated that he compared me so casually to that bastard. I let it in my voice, "Do not lump me in with him. I want to combine our races. He wants to enslave them."

Xelan's eyes widened. "Domination?! But--"

"I will not let it come to that. But we will invade. Not long from now, in fact. We need your help for us to survive the radiation from their sun. Can you do that, Xelan?"

He blinked once. Twice. Tears fluttered from his lashes. I hated myself. Swallowing his emotions, he promised, "I will try."

"Thank you, brother. I ask nothing more from you."

I turned to leave, and he called after me. "Nox?"

"Yes."

"Does the planet have a name?"

I closed my eyes tight against the youth in his voice. All that curiosity that grew as he did. "The Tritans call it the Third. The species--the humans--call it Geb or Earth."

As I exited the lab, commending Xelan's genius, I recalled mother's words about abominations from long ago.

"It starts with him. And ends with her."

In the empty Spire, I mused, "Well, let her try." Cinder deserved this chance, and I wouldn't let anything--not even a sun--stand in my way.