{Ishkur | Bridge}

The explosion didn’t infiltrate Enki’s conduit onto the bridge. It roared its ineffectual violence into the vastness of the Seam, unable to reach. The final shockwave was on its way. It would take days to reach Enki’s hull from Rayne’s position in the Dyson’s Sphere. It would take out the sun.

Xelan stared into the flames after Andrew took Pax from him. The older Progeny was demonstrating to the youngest one how Ishkur’s interface projected onto his beautiful brown skin, so like his mothers. His freckled cheeks formed dimples as he smiled at the glowing symbols. Red curls bounced when he hopped in delight.

Other people were on the bridge, but Xelan forgot them. Everything aside from Pax and—

A shape appeared in the cloud of debris and fire, a silhouette. Shorter than himself and shapely. Fast, soaring, and… carrying something.

Tameka.

Red curls, green eyes, and legs that could break a grown Icarus’ sternum—Fury flew toward the conduit contained in a nanite barrier, and Lucas was fast behind her. The blast swirled around them, yet couldn’t reach them.

The wonders surrounding this woman never ceased. Xelan wanted to grin for her—to let her see his relief and love, but the hole which had pitted in his heart wouldn’t let him operate the corners of his mouth. Instead, he shouted, “Everybody, incoming!”

Tameka barreled into Ishkur’s bridge, repeating, “Silence, don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die.” She didn’t acknowledge anyone else, not even when Pax cried her name. Xelan was worried until he saw the way Fury gingerly laid his foremother onto the gangway. “Please.” Her eyes were haunted when she searched the faces around the room. “She saved us.”

Xelan let himself feel a little relief when Tameka allowed him to pull her up and against his side. Pax ran across the rail-less paths and adhered to her leg like a bear cub to a tree. Muscle by muscle, she relaxed from the adrenaline between them.

After stripping the last of his robes off, Korac formed it into a pillow for Xelan’s dying foremother and checked her pulse with a curse. Smith finally detached himself from Lucas and lowered his head. Lucas closed his eyes and muttered what Xelan recognized as an ancient prayer to Eternity. Beyond them, Andrew flipped his coin.

Kyle knelt beside Silence. “Are you sure the barrier was her?” He gazed up at Fury for the answer.

When Tameka met Kyle’s eyes as if she actually saw him, Xelan knew she was coming out of the shock. Especially as she reached out and brushed Pax’s curls, taking comfort while explaining, “I—The barrier… I don’t know where else it could’ve come from.”

The smile Kyle gave her was reassuring and brotherly. “Yeah. She’s full of fantastic surprises.” He turned and looked down at the unconscious Mother of their galaxy. The next he said with the confidence of someone who’d lived a much longer life. “That’s why I know she’ll survive this.”

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Xelan asked her two comrades, “Why did she need Ishkur? Specifically?”

Lucas ran a hand through his hair, looking as exhausted as Xelan felt. The golden-eyed Icarus said, “This Dyson’s Sphere is her best chance of survival.” He knelt across from Kyle to face him at eye level. “The hull can nullify certain nacre attributes. She needs a medical bay and blood.”

Kyle bit into his wrist without another word and poured the crimson liquid into Silence’s non-responsive lips.

Smith smirked.

Korac checked her pulse again. “It’s already stronger.”

“Phew.” Half the room turned and looked at Andrew, who said, “Don’t mind me. Just gambling with the Probability Matrix over here. Carry on.”

Tameka muttered, almost in disbelief, “She’ll… live?”

Korac nodded at Lucas, who turned and looked up at Tameka, where she stood behind him with Xelan. The golden-eyed Icarus said, “Another miracle of the Shadow. You brought her here in time. You saved her, Tameka.”

“Mommy’s so cool.” Pax stopped clinging to her leg and went to play under the main terminal.

Xelan chafed Tameka’s arm, where the color was already returning to her complexion. Tears of relief and exhaustion pricked her eyes. “Thank Elden.”

Yes. Ishkur was a miracle. Remorse’s death was a miracle. Rayne…

Numb.

Stay numb and optimistic in the moment. Let this be about Silence’s recovery—the liberation of Project Surra—

“Where’s Rayne? And oh my god, is Sagan okay?” Recovering from the shock admirably, Tameka rushed to the unconscious Seamswalker’s side.

As Korac followed her, he kept his eyes on Xelan mid-stride. It was a pointed look filled with pity. “Tell her,” it said. Korac answered Tameka’s second question. The easy one. “Sagan will be fine after some rest, Fury.”

Now it was Xelan’s turn to answer the hardest. He glimpsed Kyle wearing the same pitying stare from Silence’s side. Andrew also wasn’t volunteering, keeping his eyes down. Lucas looked the question at him, and Xelan couldn’t even shake his head in answer. Which was more than enough for both men. Smith put a fist to his chest and lowered his head.

How did Xelan tell Tameka Rayne couldn’t avoid the explosion and likely had never planned to? The martyr deep in her veins wouldn’t allow anything less. And did he share the survival theory with Tameka? Should Xelan tell her he believed his deactivated nanites from when he’d fed Rayne years ago—months for him—in Iona-01 would alter the Weapon and let her survive like Xelan had survived his self-destruction on Cinder. Or was it too cruel to hope—

“Auntie Rayne esploded.”

The room held a collective breath.

Tameka turned from Sagan to stare at her son where he played. “What did you say?”

Pax was drawing on the terminal using a marker from his bottomless pockets and played on without looking at his mother, saying, “I got to meet her. She’s pretty, mommy.”

Xelan was paralyzed as Tameka, wide-eyed and horrified, met his stare. She bolted from the floor and went to him with an edge of panic in her voice. “You went to see Rayne? Did you rescue her like we planned? Xelan. Xelan, where is she?” The tears returned.

Craving her warmth, Xelan clutched Tameka and pulled her against him, holding her through a violent sob.

“No. No. Please tell me. Anything but this. Please.”

Xelan met the eyes in the room, clung to his mate with her sorrow seeping into him in an extension of his own.

Tameka’s voice was muffled and warm against his chest. Her nails pierced his skin where she gripped him and held on for dear life. “Why?! We just got her back!”

No.

Xelan wouldn’t tell her about the nanites. He wouldn’t share the feeling in his bones that Rayne could never stay down—

Tameka startled him by pulling away and blurting, “No. No, she’ll come back. Like you. There’s no way she’ll stay dead.”

There was Xelan’s Fury.