{Enki | New Cinder}

Every pulse of the realities around Xelan was another cry for help from Celindria. Her dying screams rippled across the multiple existences so all the worlds would know her suffering.

They’d been here before, hadn’t they?

But since the last time, Xelan had learned a few things about his begotten created daughter. Celindria had manipulated him against his brother, reproduced her line from the Tritan responsible for so much of the royal Icarean family’s misery, tried to steal his son, and…

Tameka…

In fact, Xelan couldn’t recall one good reason to save Celindria’s life, even over the millennia of him chasing her.

A gentle weight in his arms, Pehton fought the overwhelming waves of Cascading Light’s side effects. Ones only Celindria could produce.

The Lyrik muttered, “I can still fight, Wingmaster. Don’t count me out yet.”

“No. You’re done for now,” Xelan informed her softly. Louder, he said to the others on the cliff, “Stay back. I’ll handle this. Sagan, can you get Pehton, Pax, and everyone else to safety—”

The Seamswalker appeared beside him. “You bet—Whoa… the effect is so much worse here. Are you sure you’re okay by yourself?” The concern in her violet eyes touched him.

Guilt gnawed at Xelan’s stomach as he planned what she might consider a betrayal. While she scooped Pehton from his arms, he said, “I’ll be fine. I need a few words with my father.” He noticed she shivered from the iciness of his tone before nodding and Seamswalking away.

Remorse wouldn’t feel the effects of Celindria’s requiem as the same as those who hadn’t touched Cascading Light. He was halfway to his feet, fist still closed on Xelan’s estranged daughter, who’d grown silent.

The Gargantuan Tritan faced his son. “Not much longer. I can feel it. Her heartbeat has slowed to nothing. Come with me, Xelan. We can rebuild Imminent together with Pax. You can convince Tameka—”

“Celindria sent her to Torrentus, and it engulfed her in flames.” Xelan shook his head and looked into the voids of his maker. “I want nothing to do with you. Let her go and leave my son alone. I’ll make it quick.”

Primary Rem blinked filmy membranes over voids as big as his half-Icarean son. He declared, “An impasse.”

Xelan swept his coat back to reveal dual sickles on his hips. “This is no impasse, Remorse. These are your last words. Make them count.”

“I loved your mother—”

Wrong. Answer.

The Primary would get no Verse.

In his practiced speed, Xelan charged for him and sliced a prominent black vein in Remorse’s neck.

The Tritan villain snarled in pain and swatted with enough speed to actually strike his Icarean assailant.

Xelan crashed into the cliff face, but recovered before Remorse punched it, opening access into the existing series of tunnels, validating Nox’s accounts in his Verse.

Xelan flitted to the fist containing Celindria. He sliced the knuckles, hoping Remorse would release her.

He didn’t. Instead, he squeezed tighter.

Fighting a Gargantuan was proving strategically difficult—

Oh. Of course.

With a glance at Remorse’s expanded belt, Xelan knew how to end this fight. He prayed to Elden he wasn’t too late as he avoided the next blow and beelined straight to the compression orb—

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“Daddy!” Pax’s warning sliced through the canyon.

Sagan’s words echoed after him. “C’mon, Pax. We have to go.”

Pax’s voice was accompanied with wriggling, struggling noises. “I can helps.”

No!

As if Remorse had predicted Xelan’s next move, he reached for Pax just as Xelan struck the compression orb with both sickles. The shock wave sent him flying back into the crevice housing Celindria’s lab. Debris went everywhere, and chaos erupted above, reverberating throughout the ravine.

Bones shouted, “Pax! Pax, where are you?!”

Andrew asked, “Sagan, are you and Pehton okay?”

Lamassau kept his eye on the prize. “Did anyone see what happened to Celindria? Primary Rem? How did I lose a sixty-five foot tall Tritan?!”

Bones confirmed, “We all lost him, and he took Pax. He couldn’t have gotten far. Split up and find them!”

Xelan sat up and shook his head straight. The Cascading Light effects had stopped, so either Remorse had released Celindria or—

A violent cough sounded from across the way, toward the bedroom. Xelan gripped the counter to stand in the unstable cave dwelling. White fabric streamed in the dust plumb. Blue eyes searched. They stopped when they found Xelan.

Celindria was barren of love and devoid of hate. Her initiation into Imminent had only made it worse.

“Where did I go wrong with you?”

“You cannot see the worlds as they could be. Everything I do cascades into reality. We must break events and people to find where we are meant to be.”

“If you do this… you will never recover your humanity. Your sanity.”

“I will be imminent.”

The debris settled. Xelan holstered his sickles and took in the state of Celindria. Bones protruded from her skin, bloodless. He’d never learned why the inconsistency in her bleeding. It seemed too cruel a thing to research. Instead, he hoped one day she would tell him about her own findings.

That day never came.

This certainly wasn’t it. He saw it in the rigid lock of Celindria’s jaw, and the painful reconstruction of her regal carriage. The age of her eyes had always frightened him. Monoliths collapsed within them.

All Xelan could think about was how different she was from Rayne. Cold where Rayne was warm. Unyielding where Rayne was made of forgiveness. Celindria was self-centered. Rayne was self-sacrificing. On and on, their differences went.

This was his fault. A flaw in Xelan’s making of her. Compared to the average person’s life, Celindria only experienced emotions about ten percent of the time. And even those experiences would only equate to five percent of the expected intensity. He made her broken, and he needed to fix it.

Celindria said, “Well, father. This is the time to strike. I am weakened and easy enough for you to eliminate.”

Celindria still didn’t understand Xelan.

The disappointment broke his heart, and Xelan knew he couldn’t do it. He climbed over a boulder, shuffled through smaller rocks, and ducked beneath a collapsed panel until he stood before Celindria. She showed no signs of fear. Perhaps she felt nothing right now, but Xelan planned to change that.

“Take this. It’s from Devis.” He held up the capsule.

Celindria let her eyes flick to it and looked back to his. “Are you allowing me to live?”

Xelan lifted her open hand, ignoring the broken bone still visible in her forearm. He closed the capsule in her palm. “Only if you use this here and now.”

She narrowed her eyes at it, pressed the trigger to release the pin, and pricked her healing wrist with it.

Without knowing what was in it, Xelan trusted Devis to share something only absolutely vital. This would not—could not—fail. While she experienced the memory, he glanced around the lab for—

There it was. Xelan hopped over a boulder to retrieve Tameka’s chain dart from the lab counter. Something else caught his eye. “Korac’s been looking for this.” The Phoenix Dragon whip—

A sniffle turned him back around to Celindria. Moisture glistened in her eyes. Xelan couldn’t trust it after the countless times she’d faked it in the past. He said, “No more, Celindria. Your research into your ailment can’t infringe on the happiness and health of others any longer. You’re finished. Don’t make me kill you.”

Celindria shifted, mercurial as always, from the tears to resolute grit. “I will never stop searching for the soul you denied me.”

Xelan closed his eyes, and, when he opened them, she was gone. He’d regret this, but after… After he found Remorse and ended him. After he saved his son from his father. And after he recovered Tameka from the Torrentus continent.

Following one of the cave channels Primary Rem had punched through Li Mountain, Xelan carefully emerged at the base. All around, bodies littered a field of cranberry grasses. At the otherwise beautiful sight, he let his tired head hang.

Was there no end to this fight? A future where Xelan lived a happy life with Tameka and Pax. A future where everyone he loved was safe. One where Rayne—

“Xel—Xelan?!”

Now he was imagining her voice.

Exhausted, Xelan lifted his head and stared at a mirage. Blood covered the War King. The bodies were her kills. A ghost. A—

Did… did that hallucination’s shadow just disappear into itself? If this was Rayne, was Remorse telling the truth about Nox? No. Surely Xelan was losing his mind again—

“Xelan!”

The apparition moved like Xelan with a liquid speed, running to stand in front him. Bright blue eyes gazed up at him. Tears spilled, even with her lips spread in a radiant smile. The smell of ocean water and ice cream filled the air.

Xelan didn’t care about the gore as Rayne bounced up and wrapped her arms around him in a death grip. In all their hugs during her time growing up, she’d clung to him as a lifeline.

This time, Xelan held onto Rayne for dear life.

“I’ll never let you go again.”