{Lacceirus-Capra}

As a frightening groan resonated and trembled the subterranean acropolis, Xelan’s instincts screamed for him to grab Tameka and escape on his wings. Every muscle in his body strained with the impulse.

But he was more than his instincts.

With a quick scan of their surroundings and a few deep breaths, he calculated their odds of survival. Seventy-two percent if they left now. This afforded them a ten-minute window of flight the way they entered.

Time to go.

Coordinated and trained, the Shadow assumed their escape formation. Wings out, Tameka held Lynn. Bones clutched Devis, who looked terribly dejected by it. Kombuchi reached out for Xelan, his flight partner.

The Traitor Prince of Cinder spared one precious second to catch Tameka’s gaze. Eyes green and sharp as stained glass. Beautiful and fierce. Mud and viridian blood covered every inch of her. So very ready for the worst-case scenario because she lived it repeatedly.

Without him.

So young but so tired, he knew from Tameka’s memories that her short life was far too eventful. And Xelan abandoned her to it. Their son to it—

Another groan broke his self-flagellation cycle, and with a sharp nod to his Shadow, Xelan gripped Kombuchi before embarking on the emergency flight. Speaking of eventful—

Lynn cried out as their flying pairs narrowly spiraled away from falling boulders and showers of dirt.

Bones growled when a slab sheared his legs through his armor. “Your highness, this shit went sideways!”

Yes. It did. But they expected this. Every Imminent supply chain met them with some element of danger. It’s no surprise the most guarded so far in their hierarchy of malignancy would deliver the most devastating pitfall yet.

As the world above threatened to bury them in an extremely deep grave, Xelan prayed to Elden they’d see Pax again—

“We’ll make it.” Tameka’s endless well of optimism surpassed even her capacity for nacre energy.

It made Xelan look back and grin at her.

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She beamed at him before her eyes widened in terror.

“Look out!” Devis shouted and pointed ahead of them.

Kombuchi shuddered and convulsed before spitting a vat of acid onto a crashing boulder. It dissolved mere heartbeats before it could crush them in Xelan’s distracted state. “This time, ‘I got you.’” The Caprent chuckled at his use of a catch phrase the Prince unknowingly adopted.

“Thanks.” For letting Xelan see his son again.

They rushed on in silence, aside from occasional grunts and cries. The rocks fell heavier and faster. The groans louder and sounded more frequently. Before they breached the tunnel, a deafening rasp burst from behind them. Each spared a glimpse and did a double-take.

Weakest in the center, the ceiling cracked wide enough to allow the looser silt to deposit in an impressive cyclone that meant to bury the city.

Xelan urged, “Faster.”

The tunnel welcomed them with its own battery of debris. Rocks ricocheted in tumbles from the wall, targeting them. But between their aerial maneuvering practices and Kombuchi’s deadshot acid aim, the Shadow found their way to the surface without another noteworthy occurrence.

Black rain fell from a brown sky filled with a toxic stench. Wind—howling and angry—long ago peeled away the vegetation from the barren rock. The planet’s tears dissolved animal life on the surface back when Umbra decimated L. Capra’s atmosphere.

Xelan only learned that from reading Nox’s Verse. The Tritans ordered the atmospheric disturbance all for the mineral that eventually led to the Prince creating the Progeny—

“It’s working!” Tameka cried excitedly.

The rain made to dissolve their flesh if not for the fortified nanite barrier Lynn developed over the last two months. She beamed at them from Tameka’s arms. “It’s converting it into H2O.” Lynn stuck out her tongue. “It even tastes good!”

Xelan smiled at her enthusiasm. All of them, brilliant. They grew so much over the last two years—

1. Capra let out a bellow of pain as it funneled beneath them. From the sky, they watched the planet bury one of its ancient treasures. A gorgeous city reduced to dust. Fortunately, it was in the opposite hemisphere from the rest of Caprent civilization.

Kombuchi straightened his toga where it bunched in Xelan’s clasp. He huffed. “Our friends on Pil will help us recover it. Whenever this is finally over.”

Xelan moved them vertically, standing in the air while he hitched the harness on Kombuchi’s belt. Secured, he observed the ruin. “The crawlers and excavators recovered my stronghold on Earth. We can lend a hand.” But in all honesty, he preferred the mine stayed buried. He was sure now of Imminent’s intentions, and those designs endangered them all. “Once we end Imminent, we’ll unearth the city.” Not a moment before.

Adjusting Devis in his arms, Bones checked his watch. “We’re early for the rendezvous. Do you think B-team made it?” All the while he spoke, he dodged the other man’s billowing locs where the winds slapped them in his face.

“We are most doomed if not.” Devis in Bones’ grip kept his arms folded, looking uncomfortable with the harnessed arrangement.

Xelan opened his mouth to offer a non-committal assurance when Tameka answered with a firm, “Absolutely.”

Her optimism was infectious.

Lynn hitched onto the other woman and smiled vibrantly in response. “No way Sagan would let us down.”

It wasn’t Sagan Xelan was worried about.