{Ishkur | Palatial Grounds}
Sagan and Korac looked beautiful together. Their love shone like a beacon across the grounds. The warmth of it radiated through the others. The Shadow.
Xelan and Tameka.
Andrew and Kyle.
They all looked so happy. Even as Xelan stood at the table and asked them to follow him to the stronghold, home of the imperial family. He’d fortified it, hadn’t he? And disabled the desert entrance. It was only accessible by conduit now.
All those treasures.
“Why don’t you go to them?”
Nox stepped up beside Rayne with a dramatic billow of his cloak as it caught the breeze.
Under her hood, she passed him a sideways glance. “It might be hard to explain you.”
The enormous Icarus stood so far above Rayne, she couldn’t see, but rather heard the smirk in his baritone. “Can you imagine the gift it would be?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I love you, Rayne. You’re not alone. Please don’t be afraid, because I’ll see you soon. I’ll find you—
“I won’t ever let you go—”
Rayne winced, but shored herself up to say, “It’s better this way. Look at them—Thriving. They don’t even know their enemy is alive, let alone at this event.”
Nox’s hood moved as he looked down at her. “You believe Celindria is here?”
“I know.” Rayne could feel it. “But it’s far too public to attack and not really her style.” Not to mention slightly hypocritical to knock her for slinking around the event when… Well…
All the women and girls had templated themselves with Rayne’s likeness. It helped her hide, but if Korac were to see her standing beside a giant in a cloak—It might be a tad obvious who they were.
No.
This was as close as Rayne could get. The placeholders at the wedding… She glanced at Nox again, wondering what he’d thought of them. Now that they weren’t inside her head, things felt different. Less intimate and somehow more.
The storm in Rayne continued to rage on, and lingering here cost them time. Still… “I’ve never known a couple so perfect for each other.”
Agreeing, Nox said, “Quite.”
In an instant, Rayne flashed through Razor’s entire dossier, checking and rechecking their itinerary. “Are you ready to get back to work?”
There was a humorous and faux-dramatic tone in Nox’s voice. “To defend the Concerted Empire anonymously against its greatest threat? Why, yes. I’m always ready.”
“Let’s go.”
Would the constant barrage of enemies manipulating the Probability Matrix ever end? Would the nightmares of dying to save her people, only for Celindria to survive, ever stop?
Yes, to both.
Rayne and Nox would see to it together.