{Cinder | 7,000,000 Years Ago}
“Elden, would you like to hold your daughter?”
Familiar with the mess of birth, Silence cherished her time holding Savis before the nurses cleaned her. Elden had stayed with Silence the entire delivery and never balked once, as she expected of this great man. He held his arms in a cradle to hold their first child, and when he smiled, she knew Savis was the first of many children.
Gently, Elden swayed with her, gazing down with the adoration of a man who yet knew how much raising a daughter could change a father. The sweetest expression.
The nurses helped Silence clean and dress herself while he held her. It was so important to hold them.
“Will she always be this soft?”
Eternity, his questions were so endearing. It made Silence stare at her own hands. Were they as soft as in the beginning—
Azure light pulse under her skin, and she swallowed. The frequency… It had increased recently—
“Silence, my silence. Looking at you while holding her, I find you more radiant than the day you first claimed Cinder.”
Why were these tears so hot?
“Shh.” Elden came to stand beside her and bent to kiss her temple. “We live this glorious day, together—”
“Elden?” Umbra deigned to stand in the doorway of Silence’s chambers. She must have glared because he quickly straightened. “Forgive me, Silence, but the Coalition demanded an emergency forum at the audience house.” His eyes clung to Elden, still holding Savis.
Her lover and unioned mate handed over their daughter to the nearest nurse. On his way over to Silence, Elden said, “Forgive me. This regards the most recent quest pods, and the results they delivered this morning. We may yet find the foreigners. Tonight, we feast.”
Elden leaned down to kiss Silence. Before he could break it, she gripped a handful of his hair at his nape and pressed him into a deeper embrace. Even as they parted, Silence’s fingers lingered in the blending of the colors in his hair. Dual strands. So unusual for an Icarus.
With a broad grin, Elden left. His Silence retrieved their daughter from the nurses and sung to her of their beautiful world. Until…
Fire burned in Silence’s sight. Black and cold. Misery stretched far in her vision. No one particular instance clarified their future for her, only the whisper of their names. Savis, Umbra, Elden, Nox, Xelan, and—
It starts with him and ends with her.
When Silence returned to herself, Savis was wailing in her arms, twisted in the blanket. Her nurses begged Silence to handover the infant before she accidentally strangled herself. Instead, the mother straightened Savis’ swaddled blanket and held her closer. “No. Not my child. They can’t have another one of my children—”
Azure pulsed under Silence’s skin.
The Exalted and Ishkur were her last hope. She shielded herself from the truth, closing her eyes. All the peoples in the galaxy were ablaze in black flames. With every blink, the Probability Matrix showed Silence only the worst futures.
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Where no one would know happiness.
{Enki | Opal Mezzanine | Now}
“Mother, why do you cry?”
Silence blinked away the tears, aware of the here and now. Lucas stared at her with expectation on his face, waiting for his answer. Smith smiled kindly at her without words or curious prodding.
These boys were her family.
With a dry swallow, Silence said, “Do you remember the day I knew it was over?” Chills pricked her skin, but she ignored this body seeking comfort. This heart seeking joy. Both sought Kyle and Elden and the life she’d never attained. That happiness Cascading Light had promised her…
Lucas opened his arms to Silence.
Why did this hurt so much?
Silence fell into them, and Lucas squeezed with a fraction of his strength but enough to wring tears from her. Smith’s arms pulled them both into his embrace, and she held on with her life in the balance.
“Not long now,” Silence muffled against them.
Lucas shook his head in her shoulder. “It won’t come to that.”
“We won’t let it.” Smith still sounded as if he were smiling, but sadly.
The golden-eyed Icarus confessed, “I woke you.”
Silence pulled back enough to search Lucas’ eyes for the truth.
His subsequent nods confirmed it. “I repaired the stasis mechanism and awakened you. This Probability’s Shadow showed potential in their capabilities, which might bring you to Ishkur. Forgive me for concealing it from you during your forgetting. I knew you’d remember and hate anyone who forced you to do so.”
Azure light pulsed under Silence’s skin, echoing throughout the colored lights of the room. Echoing in Rayne.
Silence said, “Thank you, old friend. After my encounter with Story Taker, we can trust they’ll find it now.”
They separated, and Silence lifted the pendant to stare into Rayne’s blood. The mezzanine swirled in pink and purple.
Smith returned to monitoring the girl’s journey in the projection with respect in his smile for her.
Lucas peered at the tiny Pretiosum Cruor on the chain. “Will it afford you more time?”
“We cannot know everything for certain.” Silence’s voice no longer trembled with the emotions she’d confined for the sake of her sanity. Such a long existence. Such a hard one. “I only wish to taste her extravagant optimism once more.” The last time Silence drank Rayne’s blood, it broadened the frequency of the pulses by one additional week, and it tasted like stardust.
Smith chuckled. “Optimism. There’s more than enough to go around.”
Lucas grinned. “Rayne didn’t come by it on her own, Mother. All the wonderful people in her life keep her bolstered. Something I still struggle to convince you of to this day.”
His words entered Silence as a truth she had long since denied. Hard to trust. “When you give birth to an entire galaxy with your neck under a boot, you return to me and we can discuss ‘trust issues.’”
Lucas sighed, losing a long-fought argument. “Trust the Shadow. Trust Rayne.”
This insistence rang of more than concern for Silence’s mental well-being. She cocked her head to the side and accused, “Are you certain this isn’t your bid to reunite with a certain intention-reader? He was sized quite nicely.”
Lucas gaped like a fish, gasping for air, and choked on her assumptions.
Smith shook his head incredulously and pat the other man on the back.
Bristled by Lucas’ incessant bid for an alliance with Rayne, Silence asked an obvious question with an obvious answer. “Why did you bring Andrew to Cascading Light?”
Her companion looked away from her and stared down into the projection of Rayne’s flight across Enki. Softly, Lucas said, “So much promise and such vision. He sees into lives in ways we cannot. I thought it was a perfect marriage of his talents and his potential.”
Silence unfurled her wings and stretched one pinion until it touched a particle of floating water. Disturbed, the bubble burst. As one did. “I apologize for pricking you, Lucas. It was unkind.” She held her hand out to him.
He took it and cupped his face with it, drawing something from the contact. All beings reacted to her thus. “All is forgiven.”
“Rayne’s arriving.” Smith grinned down at the projection with eager anticipation. “I haven’t been this excited since—” He shot a sheepish glance at Silence. “Well, since her fight with Nox, but before that it was millennia.”
In a tone laced with mock-pity, Silence asked, “Was your life so empty?”
“Oh, yes. These are the best days of my existence, and I can’t wish for better company.”
An exchange took place between Lucas and Smith which spoke of their mutual esteem for the Shadow and their time shared with them.
Silence felt it deep in her marrow. An appreciation and allegiance worth dying for. But until it came to that, Silence would watch the girl with two nacres and an azure pulse uncover the secret which would ignite the greatest pyre this galaxy would ever witness.
And it would be the last.