“All of the Order’s decisions must flow with Riiva’s accordance. We are but pieces of its infinite wisdom, never to be fully enlightened. A leaf cannot see the full scope of a tree; the tree cannot see the full scope of its forest, nor the forest of its world. There is only harmony, and in harmony, there is trust.”

—High Scholar Benzus Faid, former Scholar Suprema of Mentorship, in a controversial speech allowing half-heretic Ela Artfor to enter the Order of Riiva

The elderly scholar waved his hands. “Tragedy has struck our Order. The loss of two lancers—one a High Lancer—within such a short time is, unfortunately, not as uncommon as we’d like, but we have not allowed ourselves to become numb to the pain of loss. High Lancer Girxorgian of Clan Ra-Folgoth and lancer Drel Ofrans have both been confirmed to have perished while failing to complete their respective missions.”

Without thinking, Zaina stamped her foot and said, “Gir didn’t fail!”

The scholars muttered amongst themselves in the background. When the elderly scholar raised a hand, they all fell silent. “Citizen of the galaxy, if I may, I do not believe we’ve had the chance to formally introduce ourselves. To whom am I speaking?”

“My name is Zaina Quin. I’m from Demelia, and—”

“Young Zaina,” the scholar interrupted, “you have no way of knowing our procedures or unspoken rules of decorum, so I cannot hold your unknowing actions against you; however, it is common courtesy to allow the courtmaster, whichever scholar, lancer, or citizen it may be at the time, to fully speak their part without uttering a challenge or disturbance.”

“Oh,” she said. Of course. They weren’t even going to hear her out. Her shoulders slumped.

The scholar’s hover-bed floated toward her. “Have no fear, young Zaina. You will have your say when it is time. All that being said, the point you contested does pique my interest; we sent High Lancer Terco”—he motioned toward the human lancer to Zaina’s side—“to ascertain the fate of Demelia, and it was found broken. The Eldritch’s next move is unknown to us. I request that you elaborate.”

Zaina gulped and tried to sound less nervous than she was. “Gir didn’t fail. The fact that I’m here at all is because he saved my life. And as for the Eldritch, you won’t have to worry about that thing anymore.”

The scholar’s head tilted to the side. “It seems we know little about the happenings of these past weeks. I greatly look forward to hearing what light you can shed on the gaps in our knowledge.”

The human scholar who’d first met Zaina, seated lower on the antler-tree, shouted, “Why are you even giving her the chance to speak? Anyone can see, plain as day, that she’s a heretic! She arrived on the stolen ship of a missing High Lancer with another lancer’s corpse on board. Those two things are facts, and they alone—”

The elderly creature cleared his throat. “High Scholar Elest Vae, you speak out of turn. I, as Scholar Suprema of Arbitration, will oversee the proceedings until such time as I have ceded my role as courtmaster. A decision must be made as to what to do with this citizen of the galaxy.”

Elest Vae, turning beet-red with anger, shouted, “She’s no citizen of the galaxy—she’s a heretic!”

The elderly scholar’s hover-bed rotated toward the antler-tree. “I did not believe one of our own scholars would require reminding about our procedures and unspoken rules of decorum, especially when the infraction was cited mere moments ago. High Scholar Vae, please return to your seat. If you are called upon to speak or render judgment, you will be notified.”

Elest grumbled to himself. Zaina glared at him for a moment before turning her attention back to the elderly scholar in the hover-bed.

He placed a shriveled hand over his heart. “My name is Ardo Nash, and you’ve already heard my title. You indicated you were a resident of Demelia. Is that correct?”

Zaina nodded. “Yes. Born and raised just outside of Ildegor.”

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“I am familiar with the region,” Ardo replied. “I studied the plant life in Demelia’s northern hemisphere some thousand years ago—it saddens me to see that world, and the bountiful harvests of its soil, gone so soon. Now—your testimony has already indicated a matter of great importance, which we must attend to immediately. You mentioned that the Eldritch was defeated at Demelia: please, go into further detail. How was it defeated—does any part of it remain?”

She nodded. “There was this weird orb on its forehead—I split it in half, and its body disappeared. But the two halves of the orb didn’t.”

Ardo’s eyebrow rose. “Do you know what happened to them?”

“I picked them up. They’re on Gir’s ship, wrapped in one of my old shirts.”

Ardo floated closer to the platform. “High Lancer Terco—if you would, please go to the ship and find the stone’s pieces—bring a glyph to carry them; don’t make contact. Once you have it, take it to tower zed-thirty-four and place it in one of the empty high-security containment storage cells.”

The human lancer nodded. She stepped onto another circular platform and descended, disappearing from view. Zaina turned back toward the antler-tree, where Ardo was still floating and scratching his beard.

“You said you split the Eldritch in half,” he said. “How, pray tell, did you manage that?”

Zaina took a deep breath. “With my cipher.”

Whispers flew among the scholars—Elest Vae’s eyes widened as he turned a darker, angrier shade of red. Ardo Nash perked up—raising a hand, he silenced the others.

“This has been a most unusual conference of the Suprema Assembly thus far,” he said. “No doubt this meeting’s transcripts will be referred to when teaching etiquette and proper procedure to future scholars for millennia to come, as a perfect example of a lack of decorum. That being said, young Zaina, your answers only leave me more curious as to what exactly happened. You have come here, under circumstances which you must understand are quite suspicious—to put it mildly.”

She nodded. “Trust me, I know.”

“And yet still you came,” he said. “So, let us cut straight to the heart of the matter at hand. We cannot decide on a further course of action until we have sufficient information regarding recent events. Being that you appear to be the sole survivor among the non-evacuees of Demelia, I should very much like to hear your story.”

“Do you want the long or the short version?” she asked. “It’s kind of a lot.”

Ardo didn’t look amused. “We have nothing but time, young Zaina.”

Thinking carefully of every word, Zaina recounted the events on Demelia—from the Eldritch arriving, to her leading it away from Ildegor, to falling into the Riiva Fragment, to meeting Gir, to their confrontation with the Eldritch—she didn’t leave anything out. Then she told the story of her time on Otmonzas, not excluding anything, from her brief stint with homelessness to her stay at Sister Tyza’s, meeting Reida, the fight with Drel the lancer—she made sure to tell the whole story no matter how bad it made her look.

The High Scholars listened intently—even Elest didn’t interrupt her. Once she was done, Ardo nodded and thoughtfully stroked his beard.

“You have been through quite a lot,” he said, “and you have quite a bit of valuable information.”

Elest was fuming, and a few others had concerned or questioning expressions, but none of them spoke up. Zaina smirked at Elest for a moment. This was going much better than she ever expected—much to his apparent chagrin.

“Young Zaina,” Ardo said. “We have many more questions, if you wouldn’t mind answering them.”

She nodded—that was expected. “Yes, of course.”

“I am curious,” he said, “about the wording the creature used. When it spoke to you, it mentioned a—shattered Codax, was it?”

Zaina nodded.

“Interesting. The Eldritch is even older than the Order—it has a perspective on the galaxy that we believe may be an important resource in deciphering some of the Nova Rim’s oldest mysteries. Do you believe, in the context of what it said, that it was referring to the Riiva Fragment as such?”

“I think so,” she said.

Nash stroked his beard and nodded. “Interesting. Now—the creature’s goals. It wanted you for a host, but—no offense meant—why you? What makes you special to it?”

Zaina shrugged, not wanting to dwell on that thought—or feed the darkness waiting within. “I don’t know why it chose me. I wish I did. It seemed to have it out for me since the beginning, before I even had my—encounter.”

Ardo asked, “Did it indicate in any way why it intended to destroy the planet—what it would gain from doing so?”

Zaina shut her eyes. She tried to remember if it had said anything like that, but nothing came to mind. “It called the planet’s destruction ‘the Deluge.’ I think it wanted to use that to power some kind of beacon. It said something about—about cleansing the galaxy, and an endless night—”

The whispers were back, and they grew louder the longer Zaina spent in that memory. Darkness crept in from the corners of her vision, as if only to remind her it was there, within her, and it was alive.

Ardo didn’t press. Zaina quieted the voices to a buzzing hum with a few deep breaths and continued, “I don’t know—why, or what it was doing, to be honest. I don’t—I don’t really know anything.”

Ardo gave a knowing nod. “You know more than you give yourself credit for, Zaina. We will have time for more questions when you are ready. For now, there are other matters for us to discuss.”

Zaina was relieved to change the subject. Her chest tightened whenever she thought of the Eldritch—it was defeated, but she doubted it was gone. She jammed her eyes shut for a second, then forced herself to listen to the High Scholar.