I

IGNITE

ONE

SPARK

{Six Months Prior to Sagan and Korac’s Wedding}

Rayne was dead. As the explosion reached critical mass, her body disintegrated and scattered like phosphorous butterflies. The light blinded her for only a second, embracing its destiny—

The end of Enki.

Rayne was neither alone nor afraid. She was warm in Nox’s arms. There were no tears. No pain. He shouldered that burden. In the last second of Rayne’s life, she cupped Nox’s jaw, clenched in agony. The pain he asked to take from her.

Then nothing.

For a little while.

Rayne first became aware of her regenerating body when a freshly grown tendon tugged on a reflex and alerted her to the presence of an arm. Two, in fact. Eyes were forthcoming. She laid on a surface, one she understood was a resurrection casket, but with no idea of how she was in it. She only knew it was taking a while.

Time was hard to measure without a watch. Or a body. Especially without knowing how it had taken to constitute the two arms and half a leg—maybe an entire brain—Growing a new body was exhausting.

And boring.

Rayne had lain there for a long time before she could twitch a finger. Then the voice came.

“Daughter.”

Kindness in a familiar baritone. Nox had inherited his voice from Elden. This wasn’t Rayne’s first time speaking to the deity. He always came to Rayne at her darkest hour. The first time, Elden had come to Rayne heartbeats after she’d slayed Nox. The second time happened while she was dying in the heart of Enki, an hour before the Weapon fully detonated. But how…

“Elden?” No voice yet. Rayne asked the question with her consciousness, hoping to reach him. She wanted so badly to open her eyes, but maybe they still needed to form. Ew.

Light permeated Rayne’s mindscape and under Elden’s construct, her consciousness became an empty white expanse like on TV. Stood inside it, wearing her last outfit, Rayne checked the metal links holding the blue full-body suit together. Her hair was the same, too. Into the white, Rayne called again, “Elden?”

“Daughter.”

Rayne turned to find an enormous figure behind her. Charcoal gray skin with molten gold tattoos, dancing along the striations of his corded arms. They framed his face—Elden was extremely handsome and a little bashful about Rayne’s inner monologue, if the blue flush to his cheeks was any indication. His eyes… They were hers in Atramentous. Li blazed in them.

Although it was an honor to see Elden’s face for the first time, Rayne was spellbound by his hair: black on the underside of each strand and white on the topside. He was an Icarus. How did he have Aegis-esque features?

A sadness competed with the kindness in his voice as Elden said, “A mystery for another time. We have much work to do, daughter.”

After a reverent pause, Rayne spoke with her mind again. “How am I alive… grandfather? Dad? Throw me an endearment here.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Elden’s chuckle was rich and filled Rayne like a plate of her mom’s cooking: comforting and gone. He said, “‘Forefather,’ if you would. And I would be so honored.” The deity of the Icarean race—of the entire galaxy—bowed to Rayne.

She was proud to say, “Forefather.”

With strides as graceful as a jaguar—the cat for which the Shadow was named—Elden crossed the white space and held out his closed fist. Rayne stared down at it until he opened his slender fingers, revealing a nacre. A white one. His. Incomplete with one empty chink and one amber sliver from her nacre.

Elden said, “There is nothing which will stabilize the Weapon in you. Even now, it wishes to begin again. To fulfill your promise, you require instruments more advanced.” He held up the nacre, pinched in his fingers so that Rayne viewed him through it. “This will see my children and Cinder safe. Will you accept it, Rayne Echo Callahan of Earth and Cinder?”

Rayne’s heart said to reach for it without hesitation, but her wisdom told her to consider with caution. She wet her lips before saying, “Tell me of its composition. Its upgrade history? What about you? Will you—”

“I will be within, but apart from you.” This rang with truth as Elden’s eyes burned with sincerity. As much as an exploding star could look sincere. He said, “This is Quet’s nacre, the Tritan Primary who created and wronged my Silence. He was the strongest and most intelligent of his kind. I am uninformed of its history before the Aegis granted it to him. Seek which Aegis created it, if this is significant to you. The upgrades are made from constructs based on my understanding of the now. Are there more questions?”

Elden gave the avian head tilt of an Icarean warrior. Thin gold rings, piercing Elden’s ears and nose, moved with the gesture. His shadow, too, but it wasn’t only his. Silhouettes of Elden’s descendants formed the shade he cast. Massive man, massive family.

Considering Elden’s proposal, Rayne tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. After a few heartbeats—and she had a heart to beat—Rayne asked, “Will I be able to communicate with you? Or will you have any influence over me?”

“Yes.”

Rayne’s eyes widened a little. She asked, “To what end?”

Elden straightened and his fist closed over the nacre once more. He gave Rayne the full weight of his burning stare as he said, “I want to take the life of the perversion. The woman who spurns the gift of life. Celindria.”

Of course. “She’s what you mean by ‘seeing your children and Cinder safe.’”

In a familiar gesture which broke Rayne’s heart, Elden bit his thumbnail, paced, and explained, “Yes. Celindria poses the only indomitable threat to my children’s empire. To Cinder. And to Pax.”

The smallest peak of a figure in Elden’s shadow gave a little wave.

Rayne blinked at it and shook the odd sensation from her head before asking, “How much time will you give me? Until you decide to take my body into your own hands—Turn me into a weapon like everyone else?”

Elden’s back was to her while she watched him stiffly lower his hand. His voice wasn’t only in three pitches. More like a million. It was hard to even understand the words cascaded into her head.

“One year.”

With her hands covering her ears, this was enough to choke Rayne. Even here in her consciousness, tears—hot and scalding—rolled down her cheeks. Pouring her heart aloud, Rayne begged… to anyone who was listening. “Will someone give me a choice? Ever? Why am I only this?!” Lost, she fell to her knees and let her head hang with the weight of her constant responsibility and sorrow.

Thunder rumbled all around.

Elden’s voice was back to one pitch, and he let some gentleness into it as he assured, “None of my arrangement is permanent. If we kill the perversion within the year, you can return me to the nacre chamber and take a neutral nacre.”

A thought occurred to Rayne, and she enthusiastically wiped the tears from her face. “Why can’t you resurrect yourself like me? You can have your own body and—”

“Part of my nacre must always remain with Cinder to keep the Sphere functional. Forgive me. I want better for you, which is why I offer this. Take my nacre. Leave yours here with a sliver from mine. And you and I can defeat Celindria—A mission you already wish to undertake. Only with this arrangement can I assist you.”

Alive with Elden…

“What about Nox?” Will there be two Icari in Rayne’s head? She glanced around, searching for him, and frowned. “Where is he?”

Elden’s eyes narrowed a touch, but enough for Rayne to notice. The Icarean deity said, “I love all my descendants, but perhaps one among them disappoints me. Nox died in an act of true selflessness, so I honor him as fitting to the son of the Icarus who ruined my daughter. Nox’s nacre occupies Umbra’s pedestal in the nacre chamber, shining alongside all the Coalition who’d sacrificed themselves so Cinder could survive. Appropriate, is it not?”

Nox’s words came to Rayne. The words he’d said when they’d lived his greatest sin against her together. “I’ll regret it until I’m gone, until I’m dust, and long after.”

Lightning branched in an arc of kinetic energy behind Elden, striking the white space in a shower of sparks.

“Elden, I’ll agree, but only if you let me resurrect Nox, as well.”

So, yes. Elden’s eyes reflected his view of Li, a red giant, from the nacre chamber. And, yes. Like all Icari, he was differently emotive in his facial expressions and body language. But there was no mistaking it.

Elden grinned bright enough to light his eyes. It was such a perfect echo of Xelan’s signature smile that it squeezed Rayne’s heart to see it. The behemoth of a god said, “Granted.”

Rayne took Elden’s white nacre from his hand and swallowed it.

Cheers to another year as someone’s weapon, but at least this time, Rayne was given a choice.