{Enki | Pantheon}
Silence grew more impressed with Fury’s leadership at the passing of every given moment. The entire scenario occurred as the young woman had predicted. Remorse was intimidated into freeing Pax. He and Bol were already deteriorating. And Three Two Four persisted with his attempt to reconcile with the younger Seamswalker, to the Shadow’s advantage.
Small conduits opened all around, leading to unknown locations, because anywhere was safer than here. The villainous Primaries were intentional in their collateral destruction. Gait’s children were reunited with their respective planets. The Vast Collective soldiers returned in formation through Sagan’s conduits, back to Cinder’s shrine.
Meanwhile, Silence reserved the chain she took from Pax for the last moment. The light under her skin was strobing now, but soon it would blur into one beacon and disintegrate her. At least, that’s what Quet and Remorse had told Silence all those millions of years ago.
Lucas hovered beside Silence, with Smith on his back. The loyal Icarus’ attention was never in the fight. He stared without looking at Andrew across the way. Silence knew because she stared without looking at Kyle beside his brother-in-arms.
If it weren’t for the pulsating light beneath her skin, she’d say this was ridiculous.
Smith muttered to the other man, “You two are ridiculous.” Both Silence and Lucas glared at him, but as always, Smith refused their attempt to deter him. “I mean it. They’re right there. You’re fighting on the same side. Say something.”
Halfwit.
He knew it wasn’t that simple—
“Hey!”
Stilted and slow, Lucas and Silence looked away from Smith and across the way to where Kyle was waving like the sexy goof he was. Beside the wild man, Andrew’s normally golden complexion paled in mortification to the same shade as Lucas’ skin. Even the Gargantuans stared at Kyle, perplexed.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Silence couldn’t help herself. She laughed. She laughed harder when Kyle nudged Andrew beside him, saying, “See? I still got it.”
Smith grinned beside her, and despite himself, Lucas gave a small smile under the blush to his cheeks.
“How unfaithful of you, Surra.” Remorse went and ruined the moment. She glared at him, not willing to waste her words, but incidentally prompting him to continue. “Elden tore the worlds apart to find you, and you moved on so soon after waking.”
Tumu’s voice was firm. “That’s enough, Rem. Don’t take advantage of the armistice.”
But the vicious Primary’s words had already performed to his liking. They needled into Silence’s guilty conscience. She fell in love with Kyle while her memory had evaded her. Elden was far from her mind then. Even so, the love of Silence’s life was long gone, died defending his people as Rayne would soon do. And how would Silence ever confess to Kyle that she knew all along there was no hope for his close friend—
“Hey… If you need to frown, that’s okay, but don’t let him get to you.”
Kyle.
The memory Progeny had flown across the battlefield to console Silence. She stared at him, unsure what to say or think. Lucas and Smith were her only constants since she disobeyed Elden’s only wish.
“Save this world.”
Silence closed her eyes. Softly, she said to no one. “It starts with him and ends with her.”
“What did you say?” Kyle sounded properly confused, and Silence opened her eyes to find a confounded frown on his face. He wet his lips before asking, “Can you repeat that?”
Silence knew the invocation appeared throughout Nox’s and Korac’s Verses, but it was so much older. Of course, Savis had learned it from Cascading Light and passed it on. Only, it saddened Silence how badly it was twisted around Rayne in recent years. Looking into Kyle’s concerned eyes, she supposed she owed him something in explanation. “It’s the first thing I retained from the Probability Matrix. I’m not sure of its full context.”
Beside Kyle, Andrew’s face fell. Both men looked as if she’d kicked their favorite Hell Kitten. Expecting answers to make sense of this ever-tangling web which brought them together was courting madness. Only an Aegis could interpret threads as complicated as these.
Silence reached a hand out to brush Kyle’s arm, her own swirling with light in beat to her imminent death. The act of comforting him was worth pushing fatalistic thoughts aside. Instead, she offered, “We can find its meaning together.”
Kyle stared at her in disbelief while Andrew perked up. The intention reader looked beyond her, presumably at Lucas. After a tense moment, both men grinned, and Silence’s heart thrilled with hope.
Please.
Let this be the Probability to happiness.