After Umbra spat in Nox’s face, he held Xelan as a young boy. When that went away, he was left with nothing. A black emptiness similar to when Rayne shutdown on him in her mind. He felt each moment like the opening of a wound, and he swore Umbra’s spittle was still stinging his eyes.

Or were those tears?

A voice penetrated the abyss.

“This is an Icarean graveyard, and this is where Nox buried his trauma.”

Nox only recognized Silence’s voice from when she’d speak to Rayne through the Martyr Complex. His foremother. She was in his consciousness.

This was memory manipulation. This was Kyle Roberts.

“Check around. We’re looking for any sign Nox is working with Celindria. Or any wrongdoing in the last six months.”

Xelan was here, too. Nox understood his brother’s pragmatism, but the words cut nevertheless. He would need to sit and meditate his way through their prying—

Lust.

It burned through Nox until his knees buckled, and Celindria’s voice nearly brought him to the brink. “Lover, give into me. I want you—”

It cut off abruptly.

“Ugh. I found an old one here, and I deeply regret it—Shit, I doubt there’s anything in this place I won’t regret seeing.” Kyle’s voice came through teeth clenched in disgust and hatred.

Nox understood him as well. This animosity could only dissipate with substantial effort on Nox’s part. Hard work was ahead of him to bridge these canyons.

Silence was quiet, but he felt her moving about. Her steps were lighter than the males’, graceful and gliding. She touched what felt like Nox’s chest as if it were stone.

“My son, you gave so many pieces of yourself away to those foreigners. You have condemned yourself to solitude,” Savis said, touching Nox’s face with a trembling hand.

Calibrated.

Optimized.

Stabilizing…

Unable to stabilize.

Warning: Five hours and eleven minutes until maximum destabilization.

Nox flinched away and found the memory scape empty. Despite that, his heart pounded against his skull, blood pumping through him with the need to hunt. To prevent the destruction of his family.

Please, let the leash not return—

“I think I found something!” Kyle shouted. “These are marked with dates. This one is from two days ago.”

Footsteps rushed over Nox, and impressions dented along his arms as if they were walking over him. Deeper steps for Xelan and spiked ones for Silence in her heels.

They touched the stone of Nox’s chest again.

Curiosity and adrenaline coursed through Nox at Matt’s dramatic arrival. He could taste the dust from the small explosions on his tongue. Xelan, Kyle, and Silence watched the memory play out. Rayne challenged Celindria, who said she’d lost something ‘precious.’ That she would claim what was hers.

When Rayne took it to mean Nox and challenged Celindria to, “Come and take him from me,” Kyle made a disgusted sound. Silence observed according to her name, but Xelan…

Well, even though Nox couldn’t see him, his baby brother was biting his thumbnail without a doubt.

The fighting started in the memory, and Nox relived every blow. There was an anxiety which he hadn’t noticed in the moment. Rayne was fighting at his side, gorgeous in battle, but out of instinct, he’d checked on her throughout the fight. It was incredulous because Rayne was impossible to defeat, but the thought of losing her in combat made Nox more vigilant.

Tired of knocking Celindria’s vessels unconscious, Nox shouted to her and the epiphany hit him as strongly in the recollection as in the moment. An echo of his own voice, he said, “Lay down your arms, Celindria, and come with me. We can go to Xelan together and serve our time.”

The offer unnerved Nox then, as it did now, but after some time it had settled. It felt right. He had no intentions of a relationship with Celindria, but their mutual rehabilitation made sense. Both of them had dragged down the galaxy to hurt the other.

“Come with me, Celindria.”

The three people in Nox’s memoryscape were silent until Kyle said, “I don’t buy it. I’ll go looking for more.” He walked off, but Xelan and Silence remained.

Nox’s baby brother was thinking. After a long quiet moment, he said, “I could use your wisdom, foremother.”

Silence said, “We can spend an eon in here searching for what you wish to find, or you can trust Rayne that Nox’s allegiances lie with her.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

An eon.

Treasure hunting through seven million years of Nox’s memories would certainly waste the precious little time Elden warned them had.

Xelan called to Kyle, “Where is Nox? We usually see people in their memoryscapes.”

With a chuff, the young man said, “I put him in time-out.”

The five Progeny made such a balance of power and personality. Read and manipulate the mind, harm and heal within memory, cross the galaxy and split worlds apart, drain entire stars and level armies, and shoulder all twelve worlds on strength alone.

Nox didn’t resent kneeling to their mercy even as Kyle appeared in the darkness with a deep scowl.

“If I didn’t think Rayne would hate me for it, I’d wipe your memory clean. Then you could have a fresh start as a blank slate. It’s still better than you deserve.”

There was a logic to it. Nox asked, “Is that the swing you want to take at me?”

Kyle looked away into the nothing, shaking his head. “You know I hate the sound of your voice? When you talk, all I hear are the things you said to Rayne the day you violated her and forced me to watch. I hear what you said to me on Volcano Day. Asking if you’d thanked me yet for delivering Rayne to your lack of mercy.” The last he spat.

Nox waited and let Kyle’s words sink into him.

The scowl on his face softened. “Because of Rayne’s forgiveness, I’m happy now. I’m better than I ever thought I could be. Banging your grandmother helps, too.”

Nox’s brows shot up, but he remained silent.

“I know Rayne is capable of amazing things. When they told me she’d subjected you to a mental rehabilitation, I knew she’d likely succeeded. Her capacity to forgive is why the Progeny didn’t execute me, but fucking damn it, I’ve never seen her happier in my life.” With a violent rake of his fingers, Kyle attacked his hair and scrunched it. Angry. “I’ve never seen her—not even with Sagan—look the way she did when you came into the room. And I hate you for it.”

The word dripped with venom. Nox could only listen. There was little he could say without making this situation worse. He couldn’t say he was fond of Kyle. The only thing he knew about the young man was that he’d betrayed Rayne and was now living with Nox’s foremother. Smugly.

But they could agree on one thing. This ire was well-deserved. So, Nox took it.

In the stretch of quiet, the acrimony seeped from Kyle. It relaxed with the drop of his hand, the droop of his shoulders, and the defeated hang of his head. He said, “You’ve put me in a difficult position. I can kill you or frame you as Celindria’s minion—”

Nox couldn’t keep his eyes from widening.

“—Or… I can step aside and let Rayne finally be happy.”

A breeze came from nowhere and blew through their hair. The forest green of Kyle’s irises swallowed the whites of his eyes. Black wings opened on his back. His words came in three pitches. “Whatever punishment the Co-Emperors decide, I will mete it out.”

Walls erected around them in a cube, one side at a time. It surrounded them with cranberry grasses, black-barked trees, and a sky devoid of Li’s cruel blaze. Nox stepped back and stumbled over a stack of stones.

Grave markers.

The memory it played lived in him.

“Xelan. Korac. Come out from under the table this instant.” Savis sounded… joyous. Such a rare brightness to her shaky voice.

Nox chuckled as the younger boys pulled on his pants leg to join them in their raucous. With an approving wink from their mother, Nox slipped below the cloth. His brothers had arranged the bottom of the chairs into defense formations identical to ones from a fictional battle described in Uncle Vinco’s Verse.

“We attack at dawn,” Xelan whispered.

Korac tried to hide the rolling of his eyes as he admonished, “Prince Xelan, you should always attack in the thick of night.”

Nox opened his mouth to argue the merits of both tactics, when heavy boots sounded within the dining hall.

Toxicity seeped into Umbra’s voice as he asked, “Woman, where are our children?”

Korac and Xelan had clasped their hands over their mouths, while Nox watched the boots move closer from under the table.

Savis said, “They are playing as children play.”

When the boots stopped beside mother’s chair, Nox signaled for the boys to move back while he positioned himself closer to intercept—

Nox nudged a chair out beside Umbra.

Within seconds, their father knelt to search under the table. Xelan squealed behind Korac’s hand, and their personal guard put himself between the only real monster in the Spire and his Prince.

Nox glared at their father.

“Why do you invoke my ire—What is this?” Umbra glanced down one end of the table and then the next. “Is this Elden’s second offensive?”

Terror froze the younger boys to the spot, but Nox nodded.

Umbra looked up from the floor at Savis seated beside him. “You are lacking in their education, female. Come see.”

With a slight waver, Savis knelt beside her husband and peered at the formations. She said, “This is how Vinco described it.”

With a disgusted snort, Umbra said, “Vinco was not even there. The second offensive was one of your father’s most worthwhile efforts. It played out as thus. Mongrel, move the chair behind your back—Yes, that one. Those were the eastern squadron. Xelan, tilt the one on your right to the side and bring it forward.”

The three boys moved the furniture until Umbra approved the formation. All the while, Savis asked questions and encouraged his instruction. Her eyes were filled with something Nox only saw on rare occasions.

It wasn’t love. He didn’t think she ever knew it. But it was… something.

Nox experienced the wonderment all over again, and it staggered him to his knees—

A hand clasped his wrist, catching him before he fell.

Xelan.

The younger brother didn’t help pull the older to his feet, but Xelan held steadfast while Nox pulled himself up.

Even with the hard edge to Xelan’s eyes, at least this was a place to begin.

“I want in.”

Xelan dropped Nox’s hand, and they both turned to face Kyle and Silence.

Kyle continued, “I know you won’t execute him, but I have some ideas for his sentence. Is that cool with you, Wingmaster?”

Nodding, Xelan said, “I have some scenarios you’d like. Let’s discuss it after Andrew screens him. Silence, is there anything else you wish to see?”

This was the first time Nox had ever met his foremother. She crossed the field and looked up the few inches of their height difference into his eyes. Her skin was darker than his, and her voice reminded him of Karter, both husky and deep. But her eyes… They looked like Umbra’s. Only sad. “You showed me the only evidence I have of my daughter’s happiness. You protected Savis from her abuser and did everything in your power to better her life. Thank you, Nox.”

Silence hugged him, her face pressed against his chest. In this gentle squeeze, Nox felt the controlled potential in her arms. She could crush him easier than Rayne. He patted the Mother of the Twelve Worlds and felt her words warm his bones. He murmured, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.”

“Shh… She chose her way to end, and I’ll never blame another for it. Not even Umbra. Certainly not you.” Silence pulled away from him and changed the subject. “Are you prepared for the trials ahead of you?”

Nox nodded.

“Good.” Silence gave a glance back at the men waiting on her before reaching to whisper conspiratorially in Nox’s ear. “I’ll try to steal you some alone time with Rayne, but I can’t guarantee much.”

Nox scanned the horizon of gravestones and wondered how many of them contained a memory of Rayne and how he’d looked forward to filling it with more.

It was time to say goodbye.