Oblivion.

Their surroundings kept slipping from Sagan’s mind, and no matter how hard she tried, her memory couldn’t find purchase on it. The only thing she grasped were the rainbow ice rings above her head through the filter of a blizzard and a black firewhirl. From it came the metallic taste on Sagan’s tongue and the smell of unrealized potential. Electric and tangy. The buffering wind blew Sagan’s hair from her face, but at least it couldn’t tangle in her skirt—It was so short and tight. She felt bad for Rayne’s gown, torn upon entry. The War King had changed her stilettos into well-loved combat boots, making for quite the fearsome sight. Everyone else just rolled with it, minus one tossed cumberbund.

On any other planet, their earpieces would connect them to the Shadow since they’d upgraded their devices for empire-wide communication. But Thailea was out of bounds—Cutoff from the rest. It was down to them, their weapons, and their sliding sanities, because nothing about this place would leave them the same.

“Hold on to me, amos!” Korac had to shout for Sagan to hear him over the deafening roar.

Beside Sagan, Andrew fell to one knee.

Lucas was right there for his partner. He went through Andrew’s pocket until he retrieved a coin, his Probability token. Folding it into his lover’s hand, Lucas said, “I know you’re experiencing it, too. Try to keep your grip on the dominant Probability and don’t let go of me.”

Silence and Smith also showed signs of strain while they maintained their grip with the Matrix fluxing around them.

Tumu pointed higher into the ravine. “There!”

When Sagan’s mind would let her grasp the visual above, she made out where stone—

No.

Glass—

No.

Gold—

—Formed a bridge across the ravine. Nox stood upon it, facing Celindria. From here, Sagan could see light peeking through cracks along his skin where he couldn’t contain Elden’s essence.

Rayne shouted over howling wind to Xelan, “We can’t fly in this!”

A drone appeared on the path ahead of them from a crack in what sometimes looked like a seamless wall of glass and other times looked like a sheer panel of gold or a rocky cliff. After spending so much time around Puk and F8, Sagan recognized the force of personality in the multi-faceted eyes of Monarch 3’s race. Like all of Celindria’s other vessels, this one lacked that warmth.

Korac nodded at the drone and answered Rayne’s question. “We fight our way up.”

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Sagan should take the moment seriously, but for a second she let herself smile at her two favorite people. Rayne and Korac’s hair had fallen loose during the battle, and now the contrasting manes competed, white versus black, for the honor of banner to the Shadow. Korac glimpsed Sagan’s smile, and he kissed her abruptly, with a hint of ‘just in case we die.’

None of that.

With a surprised grunt from her husband, Sagan pulled the half-Aegis/half-Icarus down and kissed him like they were planning to survive. When she broke them apart, she said, “I promise to never go where you can’t find me.”

The drone watched all the while and chuffed in response to their mid-battle mush. From within her pawn, Celindria said, “You two will die first.”

Chittering echoed around them, and gravel shifted from the walls when they appeared as cliffs. Sagan looked up to find dozens of drones scaling down the ravine, coming straight for the Shadow on their perilous perch.

Kyle shouted, “We’re not exactly at an advantage. It’s the one time I wish I was a fucking goat—”

Lightning struck the bridge above, and Rayne screamed.

Tumu shouted, “We need to move! Now!”

With Xelan in the lead, the team plowed forward, sidling along the thin pathway. It widened as they came closer to the drone ahead. Now they could see the crack from which he’d emerged, and it was filled with more of Celindria’s vessels.

Rayne could use her magnesium field and render them useless, but, depending on the drones’ upgrades, it often resulted in permanent blindness. Was that better than dead?

As if Xelan read Sagan’s mind, he turned to Rayne, ordering, “Do it! We can replicate or manufacture replacements for their eyes. If they survive.”

Shields up.

Light blazed from Rayne’s eyes. It was so agonizing many of the drones fell into the ravine, unable to maintain their grip. Sagan hoped somehow they survived, but the look on Korac’s face said it was unlikely until…

A net appeared below in time to catch the fallen drones, and it glittered like golden thread.

Korac was staring over Sagan’s shoulder, and she turned to find Smith breathing heavily with his hand pressed to the cliff face. Sweat beaded on his forehead as if he’d exerted himself. The smiling ‘human’ looked between Lucas, Silence, and Tumu. They bowed their heads in thanks.

Xelan shouted, “Let’s keep moving!” There wasn’t time to unpack everything all at once.

Ahead of Sagan, Rayne verged on mowing Xelan down to race up the tunnels and their natural stone steps. Or glass. Or gold. Although after Smith’s little demonstration just now, the gold made more sense.

They climbed stories of stairs to the top, where the sounds of an epic clash reached them. This was where Sagan became nervous. Their plan was a risky one. Without Tameka, it was damned near impossible. She glanced back at Andrew and Kyle to find similar anxieties on their faces.

“You can do this,” Korac whispered in Sagan’s ear.

She faced him with only a breath between them. His faith in her was plain in his white eyes as he repeated, “You got this.”

Sagan smiled. “Yeah. We do.”

Such was the ferocity of the firewhirl, Korac could shout, “Everyone ready?” without those on the bridge only meters away hearing.

Rayne took Sagan’s hand, who clasped Kyle’s sweaty fingers, who, for once, went along without complaint and took Andrew’s hand. The Progeny weren’t whole without Tameka, but they would have to try the plan without her.

Ready for whatever came next, they rounded the final corner to find an angel facing a shadow on the bridge.

Celindria.

White wings contrasted her deep purple complexion and shielded her from the wind. From here, Sagan could see the First Progeny’s Atramentous eyes.

The swirling maelstrom of Cascading Light.

Andrew had called it Eternity.

Kyle gulped so hard Sagan could hear it over the chasm.

“We need Fury.”

For once, he wasn’t wrong.