{Enki | New Cinder}

How endearing. The Shadow still hadn’t learned to look up.

Silence smiled at the family reunion on the mountaintop below. She didn’t need to look at Lucas to feel the warmth of his beaming grin beside her. Even Smith, piggy-backing on the Icarus, smirked broader than usual.

With a feline stretch of her blue wings, Silence admitted, “This was worth it.”

“We did good,” Smith agreed.

Lucas remained quiet. Silence peered at him through her periphery. Her companion’s radiant expression had faded to a smile full of longing as he gazed down at one particular member of the Shadow.

When Sagan led Xelan, Pehton, Bones, and Lamassau through the conduit, Andrew lingered behind with Rayne. An intensity amplified between them the longer he stared at her in silence. Answering some wordless question, Rayne nodded, and Andrew seemed satisfied with this. He took one last look at the defeated Weapons littering the plane before turning and slipping through the conduit.

Lucas sighed, and Silence knew it was involuntary. She’d let out a few of them herself.

Smith reached out and chafed his friend’s arm. “You’ll see him soon, buddy.”

The interaction expanded Silence’s heart. She’d built this small family and never questioned how it had integrated so well into the Shadow. This was all she ever wanted—

Azure pulsed under Silence’s skin at the same time as it pulsed under Rayne’s. Her companions shot Silence concerned glances. Softly, she said, “It’s fortunate they told her about the deadline. Look how resolute she is.”

Rayne hugged herself below, so vulnerable in the midst of the destruction she’d wrought. Silence had been appalled by the Nox and Rayne depositories, given Abresson used the image of her grandson and the woman who slayed him. Even though Imminent manufactured them using Xelan’s perfected concept from four thousand years earlier, their likenesses weren’t configured until Nox died a few years ago. It only took a software patch of his and Rayne’s DNA for the nanites to convert their appearances all across Enki. In Silence’s short time among this refurbished Imminent, she noticed Celindria’s veiled irritation over the veneers.

Silence understood.

“Look,” Lucas called softly and nodded back at the scene.

Smith’s smirk was audible beside Silence as Rayne opened her wings once more and ascended. He said, “That’s our cue.”

“So it is.”

Silence and Lucas darted downward before the upward girl noticed them. Alighting on a separate mountain, they watched Rayne fly into the heart of Enki. Something gnawed at Silence. “Where do you get your courage, girl?”

Lucas sounded certain of the truth. “Your grandsons.”

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Smith gave an approving chuff from Lucas’ back.

While Silence agreed some of it was their influence, she knew better. She said softly, “Stardust in her blood and electricity in her eyes. On your death, a world ends with you. Know the stars will fall still and weep for you.”

“Amen,” Lucas and Smith said at once.

Despite the structural damage, travel through Li Mountain’s cave system proved easy enough. They made the journey in companionable silence, no pun intended. In flight, Silence found herself twiddling with the pendant containing Rayne’s blood. It had become a comfort, and as they emerged through the conduit to their location, she was glad to have it.

Across the Pantheon’s barren tundra, the Vast Collective positioned its armies. Primary Bol would know, and wherever Remorse fled to, they would join forces to distract their mutual enemies from what would take place in Enki’s center above.

Smith smiled even as he cursed. “Do they know what they’re up against?”

Lucas’ laugh was bitter. “How could they?”

They were right. The Shadow were better prepared after talking with Rayne about the Weapons, but nothing could prepare them for the raw experience.

Silence couldn’t take her eyes off the conduit to the continent beneath Torrentus. Any minute now…

“Silence, what would you have us do with Fury once she emerges?”

Lucas asked a good question. Tameka was the greatest threat to Silence’s happiness, to her life. That and the Atheneum’s potential noncompliance. Kyle understood how her life depended on finding Ishkur, but the Shadow were still unaware of what Ishkur was.

Nevertheless, Tameka was Xelan’s mate and Pax’s mother. Silence said, “No harm can come to Fury. No matter the risk to us.”

Approvingly, Lucas said, “Understood.”

Smith smiled with his nod. After another moment, he asked, “What will we do with Remorse?”

Lucas answered, “Once they access the bridge, we can use it to locate all beings possessing nacres within Enki, including him and Pax.”

Silence gestured at the masses below. “He’ll show for this. The Primaries and Abresson will want to witness the trial run in person.”

Repositioning on Lucas’ back, Smith said, “Oh yeah… Wasn’t that rat supposed to evacuate the reserves?”

He was right. The last order Primary Rem had given his subordinate was to evacuate the depositories before Rayne destroyed Enki. This way, Imminent could enforce the New Galactic Order using the Weapons fashioned after her and Nox. Yet, Abresson had retreated from the authentic Rayne and her Nox shadow before successfully migrating the horde.

Lucas said, “We haven’t seen a trace of him since he failed earlier.”

Smith laughed. “Maybe Remorse finally killed him—”

“Yes.” Silence was sure of it. “He’ll face his end this day, but the Matrix offers so many Probabilities.” She did not keep the smile from her face. “Fuck that son of a bitch.”

Her companions chuckled. Smith said, “Kyle really rubbed off on you.”

The name made her wince, and Lucas reached out to squeeze her bicep. He offered in consolation, “Me, too.”

As if summoned, the Progeny with a penchant for memory, stepped through one of Sagan’s conduits into the Pantheon. Silence stopped herself from assessing how well the combat suit fitted Kyle’s form, how the green in his eyes popped with his brunette curls swept back, and the way his grin held so much hope from recent good news.

“Do you need us to leave you alone with your thoughts?”

Smith’s voice held too much humor for a deputy in Silence’s army.

She drew out the motion of turning her head to glare at him. The wordless expression said enough.

Smith stopped smiling and stared into Silence’s eyes, tracing Probabilities for a demise at her hands.

Lucas snickered and broke the tension.

They both nudged him with their elbows.

Eventually, Lucas asked, “Silence in our stars, will you join the battle or spectate from a vantage our simple allies cannot seem to discover?”

Again, a good question.

Below, Iuo and Kyle exchanged a high five, both elated by Rayne’s return. It was palpable and contagious. And sad, but that sadness was inevitable.

Decided, Silence announced, “I will intervene when they enter the bridge.” Azure pulsed under her skin, and she added in a sad murmur, “I must locate Ishkur.”

Smith asked, “And if the Primaries should interfere?”

“I will finish what I started.”