{6,000BCE}
In every Probability, Celindria returned from meeting with Remorse in the Ignis Desert to find Nox in bed with Colita.
And in every Probability, it masticated Celindria’s heart. The sound of Nox finding pleasure with someone else, but especially with a lower being. The smell of cinnamon, clove, and sex—It was nauseating and left Celindria dizzy with disgust. The hurt in Nox’s eyes when he spied Celindria watching.
It’s our fault.
We brought this on ourselves.
Every. Single. Time.
We didn’t have to let the Tritan inside us. Nor did we have to let Nox overhear our plans for it to happen again. We could always choose Nox, and we always choose to hurt him.
Bitch.
Korac’s disapproval culminated in his cold white eyes was almost refreshing compared to the pain in Nox’s or the satisfaction in Colita’s. Celindria knew from Korac’s grip on her arm that he would relish enforcing her punishment—He always did. She’d been a threat to their triumvirate from the beginning, and Korac couldn’t understand how little consequence it was to Celindria’s calculations.
Nox was hers. Even now, her lover couldn’t stand to watch the lashings. Not out of cowardice, but because he knew as well as she, this felt wrong. Neither of them should force the other one to suffer. And yet—
The whip struck the moment Celindria deactivated her nacre. Pain lanced as the lashing split her back wide open. For the gathered audience, she cried out.
Skin came off the bone with the second strike, and the night air cooled Celindria’s blood as it spilled down her exposed back. Copper filled her mouth where she’d bit her tongue from the exquisite blow. There was a scent on the air other than iron and salt. Peppermint and winter. Korac lived up to his reputation.
During this pause, Celindria gauged the crowd—Shock and concern. They knew her for good deeds. Now here the Icari treated her so badly—
Nox.
In every Probability, after the second blow, he regretted assigning the punishment, and came around the corner to stop it. He always gaped at the horror he’d put Celindria through.
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We always forgive Nox, because we know it wasn’t his fault.
It’s ours.
And Korac’s.
The insurrection which forged the Vacating must always happen. Celindria shouted to the crowd, “I am like you! I am not like your Icarean masters. They beat me to frighten you. But know that I am not afraid.” For effect, she glared at Nox with madness in her eyes. “Keep beating me. I will free them in the end.”
With little convincing, Korac posed to continue, but Nox—
His eyes.
They’d shifted into Atramentous, and Celindria saw her battered body in his reflection. The picture of betrayal and all things Nox would come to hate.
More lashes; more bleeding and screaming for the masses. Until…
“Stop!”
Celindria could always count on her maker.
{Now}
Celindria’s lab occupied three hundred and fifty floors of the imperial space-scraper. Each one was furnished in glass and steel surfaces, projected monitors, and instruments from the best minds across Paradise—Razor and 2Lip included. Her inspiration preferred the first floor.
Nacre glass, body slice displays greeted Celindria in the foyer. Remarkable bodies—Those of the Progeny. Like all else in this Probability, they’d fallen to her volition, but unlike the rest of the populace, the Progeny were perfect specimens for research once kept apart, alive and unable to regenerate.
They forgave us, and we reduced them to this.
Father approved of it.
Lies. Father is dead in all but the dominant Probability. Ask if he’d approve now!
Why do we lie to ourselves so much?
STOP!
The lights dimmed and lit again.
Celindria opened her eyes, straightened her white pantsuit, and resumed course.
The body sliced Progeny and their young lined the walk down the lab’s main aisle. Pax waved from his station as she went by, and she nodded on her way deeper into the lab. The prize of Celindria’s creativity waited at the end.
Nox stood sentinel over Paradise.
Or at least her replica of him. This one possessed a nacre templated after Nox had invaded Earth, but before he’d captured Rayne. When Remorse and Abresson harassed Nox for breaking their precious beauty’s arm, they’d sampled his DNA then.
Celindria’s favorite Nox: flushed with victory and high on malice.
The fight sex would only be bested by the makeup sex.
Unfortunately, one ingredient remained. When Razor bisected Thailea, Celindria had lost her source of Aegis blood and Cascading Light. She could return with both from the dominant Probability to perfect her creation. Except Korac was the last remaining Aegis to Celindria’s knowledge after Razor had departed the worlds in a publicity stunt.
Before Rayne destroyed Enki, the Silver General only ascended into the Atheneum in two realities: the dominant one and one where Korac and Razor ruled together as Aegis brothers. Korac died in all the others.
We kill him.
Always. We dismiss Korac’s execution as a mercy.
No need to let him suffer alone without Xelan and Nox.
Celindria smiled at the recollection of every instance. Korac died the same—left mad and alone inside the nacre chamber. A fitting tomb.
Now, Celindria gazed into Nox’s empty eyes and knew she’d move Eternity to bring the steal the Silver General’s DNA. She need only activate the proper leverage.
The slave boy betrayed his brother-in-arms once for Cinder.
Let us see if Korac would do it again.