Evenjos floated on a warm air current above a populated peninsula of one of the galaxy’s hub planets. She had loosened her corporeal form to widespread water vapor. Anyone who looked up would see only clouds.

It was undignified, to be nothing but dust or foam or water vapor. Evenjos would have preferred to sleep next to Garrett, or perhaps to relax alone on a patio with a glass of liquor. But ever since her resurrection, she had learned new abilities—and new limitations. She could achieve non-sentient forms, and she could avoid drunkenness, if she wished. But she was also fragile in a very particular way.

She would die if she slept like a mortal being.

She would die if she got inhibited or fully depleted.

So whenever she felt tired, worn down from lending her strength to Garrett or from healing countless people, she felt a memory of entombment, like an icy breath on her neck. That was her cue to take a break from whatever she was doing. She dared not let anyone reach her during these times. Instead of sleeping, she floated and allowed her mind to drift in a dreamlike state, resting in the way of a dolphin or a fish.

Her depleted feeling ebbed after a while.

When she judged herself strong enough to wreck cities or flood canyons, she regathered herself and slowly coalesced into the winged empress form that was most comfortable for her. She yawned and stretched. Some mortal habits never quite left her. She did not need to yawn or even breathe, yet her spectral mind refused to relinquish the semblance of autonomic processes.

She circled above the land. It was simple to locate the life spark that was likely Garrett’s. He glowed like a beacon to her Yeresunsa senses.

Evenjos poured through the air ducts of an impressive skyscraper, then regathered herself inside the huge, glassy bedchamber at the pinnacle. Garrett was dressed, groomed, and reading a book—a modern book from Earth, not the book of prophecies—as he finished eating a bowl of oatmeal.

He sensed her before he saw her, of course.

“I kept your supercom safe.” He pushed her earpiece across the breakfast table.

“Thank you.” Evenjos primly took her earpiece. She hoped she hadn’t kept Garrett waiting for an inordinate amount of time. How long had she rested? Three hours? Twelve hours? She had no idea what the average day-night cycle was on this world. It had been daylight when she’d gone into cloud form, and a night cycle had passed, and now it was daylight again.

“We need to take a break from matters on Tzogratzar.” Garrett laid his book aside. “Thomas wants us back home for a meeting.”

“Thomas?” Evenjos had never heard of Thomas making a command-like request like that. The heroes were free to interfere anywhere in the galaxy, however they saw fit. Even if Thomas wanted to enact an important new policy, he would not take credit for it. He would normally let Ariock lead anything military. Kessa led anything civil or societal.

“I don’t know what he wants,” Garrett admitted. “But I’m guessing it’s important.”

Evenjos checked her voicemail. Sure enough, there was a prearranged meeting time and place, and it was set up by Thomas.

There was no hint about the topic. The meeting was to be held in a cozy room inside the laboratory complex, not the war palace. It seemed this was a private matter, not something that Thomas wanted to present to the public or to the war council.

“How much time do we have?” Evenjos tried to quell her uneasiness. Whatever secret news Thomas wanted to tell them, it couldn’t be bad. Surely not. The Torth Empire was defeated, dead, and stomped on.

Maybe this was just a lighthearted friendly get-together?

“You’re right on time.” Garrett pushed away his breakfast and stood. “The meeting is about to start. Ready to go?”

“I … I guess.” Evenjos studied Garrett, hoping he had a hunch as to whether they were heading into happiness or a storm.

It couldn’t be devastating news, could it? If the Megacosm had reconstituted, Garrett surely would have noticed and told her.

Garrett clasped her hands. “The Megacosm is dead. So is the Torth Empire. Come on. Maybe this is good news.”

That was possible. Thomas did deliver good news every once in a while, didn’t he? Like the supercom network. That had made all sorts of things possible.

“All right.” Evenjos leaned very close to Garrett. “Do we have a delegation that we need to bring to Freedomland? Or any supplies?”

“Not this time.”

Evenjos was secretly pleased. She enjoyed boosting Garrett’s raw strength to her own level, to empower him to mass-teleport, but conserving her power was also good. It meant she could last longer before her next rest period. She liked being alert and among people. Resting was too much like … well … like the worst torment she had ever endured.

She embraced Garrett.

Not only did she embrace him; she bodily merged with him. She spread herself under his garments. She encased him in a veil of dust so light and airy, his skin and his white hair and beard appeared to sparkle.

Her wings were lightweight enough for him to teleport with, so she left those out, whole and folded along his shoulders. Now he looked like a weathered angel.

Ready? Garrett asked in a wordless thought.

Ready, she confirmed, headless and voiceless.

Garrett’s mind vanished from her senses. That was the clairvoyant trance.

A second later, they were on a different world.

Gravity was different, atmospheric pressure was different, the lighting was different, the scents and ambient sounds were different, but Evenjos was used to the sudden reality shift of teleportation by now. She regathered herself and took shape as her empress self, still riding Garrett around the shoulders just because it was fun.

“Get a room, you two,” Ariock said.

Evenjos kissed Garrett’s ear defiantly. Then she hopped off.

The room had several workstations, but they were dark. There were also comfy beanbags and plush hoverchairs; the sort used as office furniture. Kessa sat in one. Varktezo sat in another. Thomas floated at the head of the room in his own hoverchair.

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And the Twins floated within his range.

Evenjos frowned at the mass murderers. The childish duo looked harmless and disabled, of course. The girl had a tube across her face, plugging her nostrils; a mechanical breathing aid. The boy perpetually sagged to one side. His roundness helped prop him upright, along with support from his molded backrest.

People made a lot of exceptions for the Twins, but allowing them to sit in on a secret meeting between heroes seemed too lenient, even for Thomas. Kessa ought to raise her brow ridges at their presence here. According to her own laws, penitents must be kept away from sensitive military information.

“We have news,” Thomas said, “that you’ve waited a long time for.” He swept the room with his gaze, including Ariock, Evenjos, and Garrett. “It will potentially change … uh, well. It could change the galaxy and the way society functions in a massive way.”

Again?

Evenjos exchanged a glance with Ariock, and she saw her own worry reflected there.

Garrett sat on a sofa, and Evenjos sat next to him. Ariock took a seat on one of the beanbags sized for extra large people. They all faced Thomas and his extra bold statement.

The boy could have used a few extra cushions to prop himself up. In another context, he would have looked ridiculous, like an adolescent sitting in a grown-up’s chair, taking himself too seriously. But this was Thomas. It was impossible to think of him as a normal teenager.

Thomas presented a round tin container on his lap. He twisted the lid off and showed them what lay inside.

Pills.

A few dozen chalky round tablets, easy for a person to chew and swallow, did not seem like a miracle on the same level as collapsing the Megacosm. Evenjos exchanged skeptical looks with Garrett. This was no supercom network, no brilliant war strategy.

“This,” Thomas announced, “is immunity to the inhibitor.”

Evenjos leaned forward. She leaned further and further, eyes wide and mouth agape, ogling the pills that could make her functionally immortal.

No one would be able to slay her.

Ariock and Garrett exchanged a glance. Their eyes were alight as if they had just won the war all over again.

Because that was what this meant. Winning.

Winning forever, repeatedly, without fear. The last dregs of the Torth Empire would recede like shadows before a bright spotlight.

Insanity gas was so hard to manufacture and to deliver, the broken Torth Empire seemed incapable of using it in battle anymore. Telepathy gas might still confound Ariock, but he could rely on soldiers who were practiced at using it. If the inhibitor was no longer a threat…?

Ariock and all of the warriors would be unstoppable.

Thomas spoke in a tone of apology. “I know this is a case of too much, too late,” he said, “instead of too little, too late.” He closed the tin. “That’s why I invited you here as a small group. I want to discuss the ramifications before we make any policy decisions about how to distribute this.”

“Ramifications?” Ariock paused.

Evenjos forced herself to remain restrained, to sit and think. She tried to think of what dire consequences Thomas imagined.

She looked around. The shani warriors were conspicuously excluded from this extremely beneficial announcement. The entire war council was absent.

“This,” Thomas said, holding up the tin full of immunity tablets, “paves a path for Yeresunsa to become unstoppable.” He gave Evenjos a look fraught with meaning. “The way they were before the Torth rose to power.”

Oh.

Evenjos wanted to defend her own imperial era as utopian. But she had lived in this era for long enough to absorb some of its moral sensibilities. Her reign had been flawed. Not just her reign, but the entire system which she had inherited, and which had been in place for centuries before her birth.

Yeresunsa in her era had lived like gods. Of course they saw their own privilege as fair, just, moral, and the very pinnacle of civilization.

Torth during the Torth era would have said the same things.

Things were different for slaves and for peasants. They had seen those respective eras as tyrannies, and they were correct.

“If we make this public knowledge,” Thomas continued, “then all Yeresunsa will want immunity to the inhibitor. The shani are used to revering their Yeresunsa, so it wouldn’t be a huge change for them. But for the rest of the free galaxy? It’s an ugly paradigm shift. Penitent warriors would become invincible. How long will they be content to atone and obey Kessa’s lieutenants?”

Garrett looked grim. No doubt he was able to imagine the worst of former Torth.

“So you want us to keep it a secret?” Ariock asked.

“For now.” Thomas shrugged. “It’s what I recommend.”

“What do you mean, ‘for now?’” Garrett sounded suspicious. “Until when?”

Thomas looked like he was about to reply, but instead, he gave Varktezo an encouraging look.

The ummin lab assistant stepped forward. “Until we develop the bioscience to engineer Yeresunsa powers in ummins and other sapients.”

Evenjos’s jaw dropped.

Ariock looked just as stunned.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Thomas said blandly, as if Unyat’s ultimate dream was an easy future achievement.

Evenjos stared at him.

“I know scientists who are doing active research on bioengineered powers,” Varktezo said. “I don’t know if they’ll get anywhere. But Thomas thinks it’s achievable.”

Thomas nodded.

Garrett tried, and failed, to speak. Evenjos felt the same way.

“Level the playing field,” Ariock said, his tone warm with approval. “Just like telepathy gas has done. It’s a good idea.”

Thomas smiled.

“So, about these immunity pills.” Ariock gave the tin a speculative look. Apparently he was done contemplating the apocalyptic idea of everyone in the galaxy gaining bioengineered powers. “Does immunity override the inhibitor patch, if I’m wearing one?”

“It does,” Thomas told him.

Ariock looked less than thrilled. Evenjos realized that he would have to juggle what he wanted on any given day: Battle, or sex with Vy. He would not easily be able to have both.

“How long does one pill last?” Garrett asked.

“This generic prototype will give you four to six hours of protection,” Thomas said. “You should take it before a battle, and you can expect it to wear off afterward.” He gave Ariock a look. “You’d need two pills to achieve the same effect. Ideally, we will formulate a custom-tailored version for each Yeresunsa.” He gave the Twins a fond look. “Or rather, Mondoyo and Serette will move forward with that research. This was largely their innovation.”

“No.” Mondoyo blushed. “You did most of the creative work.”

“Hardly,” Thomas said. “It would have taken me at least an extra decade to figure it out on my own.” He spoke to Ariock. “They helped me unlock several key areas of neuroscience.”

That explained why the Twins were here. They already knew about the miracle of immunity. They had helped invent it.

Garrett stood and held out his hand “May I?”

Thomas handed him the tin.

Garrett held up one tablet and inspected it closely. He was probably probing its composition with his awareness.

“Will it work on Evenjos?” Garrett asked.

“The Evenjos version, in particular, might take some finagling to get right.” Thomas looked towards her. “The Twins have great ideas about how to test it without risking your life, if you’ll provide a small sample of your dust.”

Evenjos hesitated.

“Do you trust me?” Thomas asked her.

She understood the subtext. If she trusted Thomas to be her friend—and she did—then she ought to trust his friends, the Twins.

But her hesitation wasn’t about trust.

Evenjos stared at the purplish tablet Garrett held between his thumb and forefinger. She might not even need scientific experimentation to learn how the pill was supposed to effect Yeresunsa. She could delve Garrett or Ariock while they dosed up. As an expert on physiology, Evenjos would learn which chemicals blocked the inhibitor.

She would also, in all likelihood, learn how to simulate the effects of both the inhibitor and immunity to it.

She would become, in effect, a god of gods.

She would learn the secrets of how to shut down stormbringers such as Ariock, as well as how to make herself or other Yeresunsa invincible in battle.

Evenjos met Thomas’s gaze. And she saw his knowledge. He had already made his peace with everything that she was just now realizing.

“I trust you,” Thomas said kindly.

That was almost too much to bear.

Evenjos backed away. Garrett watched her with concern, not understanding how lonely immortality and power could truly be. Maybe she would be able to explain, someday. Maybe such incisive power would matter someday, in a future where anyone at all could become a god.

But for now?

“I am happy for my friends,” Evenjos said carefully. “Ariock and Garrett. But I am not ready for this much immortality.”

“Are you sure?” Garrett sounded wounded, as if he could not believe her decision.

“I am content as I am,” Evenjos said.

“But,” Garrett said, “you’re mortal. Technically.”

“So are you.” Evenjos trailed a hand down his weathered, wrinkled face. Longevity pills could only prolong his life so far. Rejuvenation healing would give him another century. Maybe more. But if Garrett had a finite amount of time left to live…

Well.

Maybe she would try to follow him past the death barrier, once his life expired. She would cross the river and see where souls ultimately went.

She would skip the next rearrangement of the future galactic civilization.

Garrett stared at her with a mixture of fear and admiration.