A galaxy is made up of vast, dark spaces. Wide gulfs of nothing sprawl throughout all of existence, but those aren’t the bits we see. The light years of emptiness and separation in the cosmos yield to the brilliance of the stars and the lives that make up the worlds around us. Across eternity, the light of a single sun, or a single person, can reach out and touch places and hearts that seem impossibly far away.

Kai reflected on how far her reach extended as she drifted cradled in a sky ablaze with life. Surrounded by the unending vastness of eternity it was hard to picture that she could ever touch enough of it to matter.

“I didn’t think it would end like this,” she said. Around her, the wreckage of seven moons and a Class VI planet danced like a shower of swirling snowflakes. Superheated snowflakes made of molten rock, but it made for a lovely backdrop nonetheless.

“We’re not done yet,” Mel said to her daughter. Despite being surrounded by the emptiness of space without a ship in sight, they weren’t in any danger or distress.

“Seriously Mom?” Kai asked. “What is ever going to be hard than this?”

The two of them were floating in a shield bubble while below them a Elder Wyrm the size of the entire star system hung dead in space.

“Try having two kids at once,” Mel said. “It’s all been easy going from there.”

“Yeah, I’m seventeen now,” Kai said. “You’re going to have to give that one a rest someday.”

“Maybe just for today,” Mel said. “Happy Birthday dear.”

“It doesn’t seem real,” Kai said. “My whole life feels like it’s been leading up to this one thing, this one fight, and now it’s done. All the different death cult attacks, all the training, all the work with you, and Aunt Bo and Grandma, and we’re here. We actually survived it.”

“You had a little help,” Galen pointed out over their telepathic link.

“Seventeen Crystal Star Battle Ships worth of help,” Fari said. “In addition to us of course.”

“That’s kind of a once in a lifetime sort of thing too isn’t it?” Kai asked.

“Well…” Mel said and scratched the back of her head with a terrible grin on her face.

“That depends a lot on what we find in this one,” Galen said.

“And a lot on how the Empress’s negotiations go,” Darius said.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘how the Empress’s negotiations go?” Kai asked. The dead cosmic beast that floated thousands of miles below her and filled the sky from one end to the other did not seem like the sort of entity one could negotiate with.

“You called this Elder Wyrm into our space right?” Galen said. “You’ve got to know there’s more than one of them right?”

“No,” Kai said, “No, I don’t have to know that.”

She looked again at the beast that an army of the Crystal Empire’s most powerful forces had only barely managed to defeat. One Crystal Star Battle Ship had enough firepower to obliterate a planet. Seventeen of them were an inconceivable force to marshal against anything. Or at least anything smaller than a creature that literally spanned the length of a star system.

As Kai watched, the Galactic Devourer’s impossible physical form warped the orbits of the planets in the Bithrion System. Even the star they orbited around drifted into the endless body of the Elder Wyrm. If any of the planets had been capable of supporting life, the battle of Bithrion would have been the greatest tragedy of the Crystal Era. Of course if the battle had been lost it would have been the end of the Crystal Era, but Kai and Mel and a million other people had worked to ensure that neither was the case. They’d selected the day and the location with care and precision. They’d trained and put into place a thousand contingency plans.

Sooner or later, this Elder Wyrm, a galaxy eater, was going to surface into the Crystal Empire from the realms beyond warp space. Aetherial future sight predicted it. Scouts sent into warp space saw the portents of the impending arrival. Even basic physical readings of the the material realm showed that trouble was coming. The signs were all there and the all pointed to the same conclusion.

However the Imperials tried to maneuver things, the arrival of a the Galactic Devourer was an avalanche that couldn’t be turned fully aside. Once that was clear, their plans changed. Kai’s training accelerate and the venue changed to locations remote enough to allow her to experiment with the Void summoning magics that she was particularly talented at. If they couldn’t stop the Elder Wyrm’s arrival, they could at least dictate that it happened on their own terms.

Summoning the terror from beyond the stars was the hardest thing Kai had ever attempted. It was an impossible spell to cast, and everyone knew it. So no one asked her to do it alone. Millions of spell casters lent their power to the effort. Five of the former Jewels of Endless Night, each filled to over-capacity levels combined their power and placed it under Kai’s control. Most important though were the people who stood with her inside the summoning circle on the planet that had been more than a shower of pretty molten snowflakes prior to the Elder Wyrms arrival into the material realm.

From Mel, Kai drew her strength, from Galen she drew clarity and focus, from Fari; vision and balance, from Darius; energy and drive and from within she found a desire for life she hadn’t been aware of before.

Together with her family and all the other casters, Kai spoke, and through her, a vast chorus called out. With one voice, they laid a challenge before the Elder Wyrm and it rose up in full hubris to answer and consume them.

Hours later, its corpse lay cooling in an abandoned solar system. It had the chance to retreat. It could have fled, though doing so would have meant existing in a diminished state. Instead it battled on to the bitter end, certain at every stage that its victory was assured by its incalculable power and eternal nature.

Power and history failed it though, both succumbing to the knowledge the Imperials gained about the cosmic beast through investigations into the far distant galaxies which Elder Wyrms had ravaged in previous ages. Thanks to the work and sacrifice of countless people, the Empire had been ready for their foe and while the solar system scale battlefield was reduced to ruins, no civilizations were lost, and no people were displaced.

But that was from a battle with a single Elder Wyrm.

“How long have you known there was more than just the one of these things?” Kai asked.

“A few years now,” Darius said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kai asked.

“Because the other ones aren’t your problem to deal with,” Mel said. “You opened the gate. That was an impossible task to put in front of you. You didn’t need to be distracted by the rest of what’s going to come next.”

“And what is that?” Kai asked. “What is going to come next?”

“That depends on the Empress and on the Elder Wyrms,” Fari said. “You opened the gate that shielded us from them, but that was also the gate that protected them from her.”

“What is she doing?” Kai asked.

“Speaking to them,” Grandma Kai said.

“Just speaking?” Kai asked.

“Sometimes words can carry a lot of weight,” Fari said.

“In this case, think of it like someone speaking, where every word is a spell,” Grandma Kai said.

“Even that’s selling it short,” Zyla said, joining their telepathic link.

“We can see the after-shadows of their conversation,” Yael said. “The ‘words’ they’re speaking can shatter stars.”

“And they’re still being ‘pleasant’ with each other from what we can tell,” Zyla said.

“What happens if the discussion doesn’t go well?” Kai asked. “They could still attack us couldn’t they?”

“That’s the best outcome from some points of view,” Hanq said.

“Being attacked by an army of these things is a good outcome?” Kai asked.

“We know their weaknesses,” Hector said. “The Elder Wyrms should be very grateful that the Empress is here to keep us in check.”

“Birthrion just became the wealthiest system in the galaxy in terms of sheer material resources,” Osgood said. “We already have half of Titanus planning to fly out there and start excavation work!”

“So wait…we’re going to farm these monsters now?” Kai asked.

“Only if they’re foolish enough to attack us again,” Guardian Opal said.

“If the Empress’s discussions go as she hopes, they’ll agree to a more symbiotic relationship,” Guardian Raychelle said.

“The plan is that we would work together against any other similarly large scale entities that might want to devour either them or us,” Mel said.

“There’s other things the size of an Elder Wyrm?” Kai asked.

“Oh there’s much larger entities out there than Galaxy Devourers,” Grandma Kai said. “Once you get significantly beyond the scale of an Elder Wyrm though they don’t tend to be able to interact much with this dimension. We become too small for them to even perceive.”

“And if the Elder Wyrms don’t go for that offer?” Kai said.

“Then we have a lot of fighting ahead of us,” Bo said. “And the galaxy is going to become unimaginably wealthy.”

“I don’t know if I can process that,” Kai said. “Nothing’s going to be the same again, is it? Either we get an army of these things to fight with, or we’ve got an army of them to fight against.”

“Nothing ever stays the same,” Mel said. “That’s what our lives are. We change things and change with them. And with each other.”

“The trick is that to make the changes turn out for the better,” Darius said.

“By whatever definition of ‘better’ we can come up with and make stick,” Fari said.

“Of course a few missteps along the way are to be expected,” Hanq said.

“And sometimes it can take a lot longer to make a change than it really should,” Yael said.

“And some changes have permanent consequences to deal with,” Grandma Kai said.

“But that’s why we have each other,” Hector said.

“So can I suggest a change then?” Kai asked.

“It is your birthday,” Mel said.

“And mine too!” Galen said.

“Seems like we have two birthday wishes to grant then,” Darius said. “What were you going to ask for Kai?”

“Well…” she said.

***

“We raised two very good kids, didn’t we?” Mel asked as she sipped from her tiny-umbrella’d drink and lounged against Darius on the warm sands of Abyz’s most beautiful beach.

“I’d rate them as noticeably above average,” Darius said.

“Getting Bo to charter an entire town for the after-battle celebration for everyone who took part in the Bithrion Encounter was pretty clever,” Fari said. “But I have to wonder if this didn’t have a little bit of the leg work done up front.”

“You know how those two are,” Mel said.

“More to the point you taught Galen half the evil tricks he knows,” Darius said.

“Closer to 80%, but it’s true, those two are dangerous,” Fari said.

“As dangerous as we were?” Mel asked.

“What you mean ‘were’?” Darius asked.

“She’s trying to lure us into a false sense of security,” Fari said.

“Which means she has a plan,” Darius said.

“And that it’s a terrible one,” Fari said.

“I was just thinking…” Mel began.

“We should really stop her right there, shouldn’t we?” Darius asked.

“But you know we’re not going to,” Fari said. “I mean we never have before right?”

“This is true,” Darius said.

“Right, so I was just thinking, a dead worm the size of the one we left in Bithrion will probably attract an even bigger fish before too long right?” Mel said.

“And you want to find a way to catch that fish too don’t you?” Fari asked.

Darius settled for sighing in amusement.

“You know me so well,” Mel said.

Without another word, the three packed up their items, slipped out the party-city and, with no one the wiser, rocketed away in search of their next adventure.

The rear engine coil was dangerous. Sparks of energy had a tendency to fly out when the Horizon Breaker performed any taxing maneuvers. Getting caught in the anima streams had sent more than one of the ship’s techs to the infirmary, and as a result Kai’s mom had declared it and the rest of the engine room off limits to Kai and Galen from the day they took their first steps.

Which made it the perfect place to hide.

“No fair if you’re hiding up high where I can’t see you,” Galen said over their private telepathic link.

“I’m not!” Kai said. “But you’re still never going to find me.”

In a sense she was cheating, given that she was using an out-of-bounds area for her hiding place, but the last time she and Galen played according to those rules Galen had been too young to form actual words.

“No moving around either,” Galen said, the undertone of his thoughts betraying that he was at a loss for where Kai might be.

The twins spoke to each other almost exclusively through telepathy. Neither remembered when they’d started doing so, though the Aunt Fari was pretty certain it hadn’t been in the womb. That was something of a relief to Kai. Her brother was already considered enough of a prodigy, she didn’t need for him to be any farther ahead of her than he already was.

Of course, most of his skills came from the special lessons he had with Aunt Fari. Kai knew that if she had classes like that, she’d be a wizard with Mental anima too. Her mistake had been speaking too early.

Like most kids Kai had begun experimenting with language from the moment her brain pieced out that the sounds the friendly giants were making might mean something. She didn’t remember any of them, but Mom and Dad had told her the story of how happy they were the first time she’d put together a sound that could be called a word.

Apparently they’d bet on whether she’d say “Ma” or “Da” first and she’d stumped them both and gone with something that sounded like “Faawi” (and so her Aunt claimed victory.) After that she’d been an immensely chatty baby. Galen teased her that he’d been so silent because she never let him get a word in edgewise.

His silence didn’t escape attention though. First there’d been discussions. Then regular doctor visits. Then special doctor visits. Kai overhead the grownups talking about Galen and asking if he might be developmentally impaired. They were afraid he might never start speaking, and Kai laughed at them.

For as talkative as she was externally, Kai could never match how much Galen rambled on over their private connection. The grownups questioned her about it and that’s when she learned that the link between her and Galen wasn’t something everyone had and that it was exceptional even as far as Mental anima spells went.

Aunt Fari said that their telepathy was so efficient that it bordered on a natural, rather than supernatural ability. The scans she did only managed to discover the link when Fari knew exactly what to search for and Galen and Kai were actively chatting on it.

That was a great day, because Kai finally felt like she was part of something special. Between her parents, her aunt, Uncle Captain Hanq and all the other people they knew, it seemed like everyone was amazing in some manner. Everyone except Kai. Because she was still little.

The tests that Aunt Fari and Aunt Opal put Galen and Kai through weren’t always fun, but Kai loved them. At least up until the point where it became clear that the special telepathy spell was one that Galen alone was responsible for.

He was the gifted one. He was the prodigy, the one who got special classes with Aunt Fari to help him learn to use the natural talent at Mental anima that he’d been born with.

Kai, meanwhile, got to do the regular workouts that they’d been doing since they were little.

It wasn’t bad, training with Mom or Uncle Captain Hanq or even Dad sometimes, but Galen got to do that too. He wasn’t as good as she was of course, he spent too much time doing brain exercises, but he was good enough for his age and that was all that Mom asked of them.

Which was almost the worst part.

Kai knew she should be able to cast spells already, but her mother didn’t seem to care whether she could or not. From what Uncle Captain Hanq said, it sometimes took into adulthood before some people developed actual proficiency at spell casting. He tried to assure her that the Energetic anima cantrips she was able to shape were a sign of early skill, like her Dad had shown, but the little puffs of fire and lightning she’d managed to conjure seemed utterly worthless compared to things she saw the crew being able to do.

Little bits of Energetic anima casting were never going to let her fly, or tackle a Dragon Comet on her own. All she could do was little stuff like bending away the sparks the came off the engines while the Horizon Breaker was in flight.

That plus Mom, Dad and Aunt Fari being absent from the ship while they were off on a mission meant that it was the perfect time to use the engine room for Hide and Seek. Uncle Captain Hanq wouldn’t agree but he was much less likely to catch them than Aunt Fari, who seemed omniscient when she was on the ship, or Mom or Dad who could somehow see right through even her best stories.

“I’m not gonna give up!” Galen said. “I know you’re someplace dumb.”

“Maybe I’m in the galley,” Kai said. “Sneaking all the candy while I’m here.”

“You wouldn’t tell me that if you were really there,” Galen said. “And if you’re sneaking the candy, I want some too.”

“Why would I give candy to someone who calls my hiding place dumb?” Kai asked.

“You gotta when share I find you,” Galen said. “That’s how this works.”

“If you find me,” Kai said. “I might get safe first.”

In this particular game of Hide and Seek, the safe spot for the Hider was back inside their cabin. The children made it more challenging by locking the door and letting the Seeker carry the key. That would slow Kai down, but she knew if she could lead Galen far enough astray she could manage to get inside in the time he spent looking in the wrong place.

Kai’s plan was simple, solid and quite workable. It wasn’t her fault that it backfired on her almost completely.

One moment she was taunting her brother and the next the engine room was engulfed in flames.

“Kai! What was that!” Galen screamed.

“Something’s wrong,” Kai said. The world spun upside down and Kai noticed that she was pressed face first against the floor but that it felt like the ceiling was “down” instead. With white knuckled fingers, she clutched onto the grating of the floor but despite the disruption of her sense of gravity she didn’t even begin to plummet towards the ceiling.

“I’ll get people there!” Galen said. “Don’t move!”

“There’s fire,” Kai said. “I think I have to move.”

“No wait, the fire fighting spells, they’re supposed to put it out!” Galen said.

“Maybe, yeah, ok, but these flames are like frozen,” Kai said.

All around her, purple, green and magenta tongues of fire as tall as she was stood around Kai. None of the moved but all of them gave off a terrible heat.

“I’ll go get Hanq!” Galen said.

Kai had no idea what the Captain could do about these weird flames, but having him on the case was infinitely preferable to trying to handle it alone.

“I’ll try to stay here then,” she said.

The moment she spoke the words though she began revising her opinion on the matter. That’s because that was the same moment she saw a cowled man materialized out of the flames.

“The Dark Bomb worked,” the man said. “It looks like we caught a break too. The child was in the engine room when it went off. Their ship is crippled for a short while.”

Kai slid silently back behind one of the Warp Crystals. She knew those things were tough. No tiny bomb was going to break one of them, so she hoped it would protect her from the man who was surveying the engine room.

“All personnel in room are inert,” the cowled man said. “Shall I proceed with termination?”

He waited for a response Kai couldn’t hear.

“They’ll be conscious again in minutes if I just leave them here,” the man said.

Another pause and Kai watched the man’s shoulder’s slump.

“Understood, the child is the priority. Will verify termination and then exit through the flame portal. Abandon me here on schedule if I’m not done in two minutes.”

“There’s a guy here,” Kai said to Galen. “I think he’s looking for one of us.”

“Is he bad?” Galen asked.

“Of course he’s bad!” Kai said. “He just blew up the engine room!”

“Kai, stay hidden and stay away from that person,” Uncle Hanq said after Galen added him to their link. “Gold Team will there in a minute.”

That sounded like a really long time to Kai. The Horizon Breaker was big, but Gold Team had teleporters. She couldn’t think of why they couldn’t be with her right away. Then she saw the glittering film that covered the walls, floor and ceiling of the engine room. Kai didn’t believe she was much of a spell caster, but she’d been well educated in the various types of spells she might encounter, including teleportation interdiction fields.

Her breath jammed up in her throat when she understood what the glitter meant. Gold team wasn’t going to be able to get to her, not super fast like they should, and that didn’t happen by accident.

“This guy thinks he can find me in two minutes,” Kai said.

“How good is your hiding spot?” Galen asked.

“It’s dumb,” Kai said.

“Listen to me,” Hanq said. “Hide as best you can. If he does find you though, stall for time. Tell him you’re a Tylaxrian and that you’re the chief engineer. Tylaxrian’s are as short as human children.”

“Do they look like kids?” Kai asked.

“They do if you say they do,” Hanq said.

Kai didn’t have the opportunity to try subterfuge though. The attacker zeroed in on her like the warp crystal and machinery between them wasn’t there at all.

“Target discovered,” the man said. “She survived the Dark Bomb somehow.”

“Wait, I’m…” Kai began but the man wasn’t listening to her.

“Returning target to the Void,” the man said. “Eternal Slumber Bless Thee.”

Kai recognized the last four words as kind of sentence that could serve as the verbal completion element for an elaborate spell ritual. She hadn’t learned much about big spells like that except that they were dangerous and very fragile.

The man’s entire body was transformed into a cloud of gray and purple smoke.

Void anima.

Or one form of it at least.

Kai tried to scream and back away. Void anima was something her mother had been very specific about.  It was ultra-dangerous and she was to avoid any Void casters at all costs.

Unfortunately, despite the speed Kai’s fear gave her legs, the Void anima man was faster. He leaned forward and caught her head in a talon of pure life stealing death.

And everything in the world faded to a singular, silent darkness for Kai.

“No!” she screamed.

“Kai!” Galen said. “What happened!”

“He got me!” Kai said. “Everything is all dark now. Am I…”

She couldn’t process the words, couldn’t even think of it being true.

“No, you’re not lost granddaughter,” a woman said from the darkness.

“Kai, who’s there with you? What’s happening?” Galen asked.

“Someone has made a terrible mistake,” the woman said. “And I am profoundly grateful for it.”

“Who are you?” Kai asked.

“I am Kai,” the woman said. “The Kai who you were named for, your grandmother.”

“What are you doing here?” Kai asked.

“That’s a long story,” the elder Kai said. “For now, let’s just say I’ve been watching over you two from here in the shadows in case anyone was foolish enough to try something like this.”

“Something like what?” Kai asked.

“To kill you with a Void anima attack,” Grandma Kai said. “I thought someone should make sure you had some defenses against that since they’re hard to come by. I see I didn’t need to be worried though.”

“What do you mean?” Kai asked.

“I didn’t have to save you granddaughter, you managed that all on your own,” Grandma Kai said. “I’m just here for the moral support and encouragement.”

“I saved myself?” Kai asked. “You mean I can cast Void anima?”

“Apparently so,” Grandma Kai said. “You’ll need a lot of practice with it, and it’s usually hard to find a tutor but as it turns out I think I can speak for at least three who would be happy to work with you, myself included.”

Kai reached out into the darkness and felt a chill wash over her. She could sense the empty hunger of the anima around her but as she moved, it flowed away, pushed off by her will and imagination.

“Oh wow,” she said and stood up. With a blink, the world returned, and through Void anima  covered eyes she saw it in a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors. All of the anima, all of the life around her.

Including the man who tried to attack her.

“If you’ll pardon me for a moment?” Grandma Kai said.

Kai watched as a dark form shot through with stars wrapped itself around the man before her. She had to back away a moment later as the Void anima surrounding the man grew solid and deeper. The anima spun and the pair sank down into deep into the empty darkness without even the hint of a scream escaping from the man.

A minute later, Gold team burst into the engine room but by that time Kai had clear away most of the frozen flames.

“Where’s our intruder?” Hanq asked.

“He’s been dealt with,” the elder Kai said, appearing beside her granddaughter.

“And the people he was working with?” Hanq asked.

“Outside my purview,” Grandma Kai said. “But he won’t be coming back at least and I doubt they have many who can pull off what he could.”

“Will you stay anyways Grandma?” Kai asked.

“Of course dear,” the elder Kai said. “You Aunt Bo is making plans to come here now. Since your Mom is busy, we’ll show you a few things about how to use your new gift.”

Despite the fear and shock she was suffering, Kai heard those words and it was like the stars burned brighter just for her.

She was getting special classes too!

Fast Response ships were not the place for children. While the Horizon Breaker wasn’t, technically, a warship, it logged more combat time than a half dozen planetary navies combined. Plasma arc spells so routinely pounded its shields that during hull repairs the crew worked around the more interesting ones to produce a mural of battle damage on the ship. Concussion waves slammed through the structure so often that every chair was enchanted with its own tiny capture field to help the crew remain seating through the worst battle storms. Boarding actions were rare for the ship to suffer, but that didn’t mean the internal corridors weren’t laden with more traps and counter-intrusion spells than most Royal Palaces.

“There is no sane reason I should let you back onboard this ship,” Hanq said. His words would have carried more weight if he wasn’t speaking to Mel’s back as she settled two tiny infants into their crash-cradles.

“I agree,” she said. “It’s selfish and short-sighted of me to demand this of you.”

“Your family is going to be in too much danger…wait, what did you say?” Hanq asked.

“I said it’s selfish of me to come here,” Mel said. “I’m exposing the crew and the ship to danger that they have no part in.”

“Exposing us?” Hanq said. “No, that not…what are you talking about?”

“I think my baby shower gift for her didn’t last quite as long as I hoped it would,” Fari said, appearing behind him.

“It got us through the first six months,” Mel said. “That was a godsend. Really it was.”

“What baby shower gift?” Hanq asked.

“Do you remember the mission we had to Bleakwater half a year ago?” Fari asked. “Ilya and I were piloting doppelgangers of Mel and Darius and we let their ‘killer’ get away?”

“Yes,” Hanq said. “I thought that was resolved though. Guardian Blackbriar filed a report five weeks later saying she’d led a force to apprehend the cultists that were targeting Mel.”

“Master Raychelle is good, amazing even, but it looks like our friendly little death cult is a bit more widely distributed than we knew,” Mel said.

“We kind of suspected that,” Fari said. “The problem was we saw their agents moving against seven other women whose children could fulfill their prophecy. We had the choice of acting on what we knew or letting those women die to draw out a bigger piece of the cult.”

“You did the right thing stopping them,” Mel said. “And thanks to your warning, Darius and I were able to turn over the thirty cultists who tried to blow up the city we were in to the authorities on Titanus.”

“And that’s why you need us to ferry you in for an Imperial Review?” Hanq asked.

“That’s the first thing I need you for,” Mel said. “The review should come up clean though. I’ve been through enough of them now, and no one important hates me at the moment, and this was so clearly in self-defense that I’m not worried about the verdict.”

“But you’ll need a place to stay afterward,” Fari said. “Somewhere safer.”

“Right,” Mel said.

“And where would that be?” Hanq asked. “This ship is fast but I’m not pulling a crazy black hole slingshot maneuver like the one you three did.”

Mel laughed and Hanq’s blood ran a little colder. It wasn’t a joyful laugh, it was a gleeful one. The kind of laugh someone makes when they get to give someone else news that the someone else is almost sure not to enjoy, but which they may, perhaps richly, deserve.

“We were hidden away on Titanus pretty well,” Darius said. “We arrived in secret, and we stayed hidden away in my parents house for most of the time we were there.”

“Which, to be fair, with two babies isn’t hard to do,” Mel said.

“Even with my Dads’ connections, and Mel’s magical stealth capabilities though, they found us,” Darius said.

“Thirty of them?” Hanq asked.

“Yeah, they really should have sent more,” Mel said.

“More?” Hanq asked.

“Mel’s had some frustrations she’s needed to work out,” Darius said.

“I still think you should have let me burn that diaper factory to the ground,” Mel said. “Seriously, the rashes from those things were just…” She made an unintelligible growl of anger and disgust that no one else in the room wanted to dig any deeper into.

“Galen and Kai have fully recovered from that ordeal,” Darius said.

“I think she still wants to hit people,” Fari said.

“I restricted myself to the people who tried to blow up my city,” Mel said. “I feel I deserve a world of credit for that.”

“And instead you get to sit before a review panel and defend your actions,” Fari said.

Mel sighed.

“Like I said, that part doesn’t bother me. It’s nice to deal with people who can cut through lies like a knife through paper. They ask the questions, I give the answers, and none of us wind up turning into the kind of people who would try to blow up a city in order to specifically kill two helpless children.”

“You did bring the cultists in alive didn’t you?” Hanq asked, hearing the anger that still lingered in Mel’s voice.

“Yes,” Mel said. “Not undamaged, but alive.”

“We have a guard posted on them on Titanus and an Imperial prison transfer ship en route,” Darius said. “Since these people are affiliated with a branch of the cult we haven’t encountered before there’s potentially a lot we can learn from them.”

“Enough to take down the rest of the cult?” Hanq asked.

“Doesn’t seem likely,” Mel said. “Fari’s plan was an excellent one, but this cult is very compartmentalized. I’m betting we’ll need to spend years tracking them all down, and even then we’re likely to miss a few until their galactic apocalypse comes to pass.”

“Why are they so fixated on your children?” Hanq asked.

“They know we spoke to Kai back before she was born,” Mel said. “That’s right in line with part of the vision they receive, hence she’s a high priority target for them.”

“They don’t know exactly who will cause the calamity that they’ve foreseen to come about so they don’t take any chances,” Darius said. “Any viable candidates they can find are eliminated.”

“We’re especially likely to be the targets they’re looking for thanks to some work that Yael and Zyla did,” Mel said.

“I thought that was supposed to be temporary!” Hanq said.

“It was,” Mel said. “I asked them to leave the changes they made in place though.”

“Why would you do that?” Hanq asked.

“Because every thread of fate that leads to Galen and Kai is a thread that doesn’t lead to another expectant mother,” Mel said. “And all of the threads run to me before they go to either of the twins. If these idiots want my kids they are literally going to have to come through me first.”

“And that’s why we want to move back in here,” Darius said.

“Move back in here? I thought you’d found a safer place to live?” Hanq said.

“They did,” Fari said. “Here. With us.”

“This ship isn’t a safe place,” Hanq said.

Mel took Hanq’s hands in her own and looked her old teacher in the eyes.

“Nowhere is safe,” she said. “I could cut all of the lines of fate that surround us and we could go live on the most remote planet in the galaxy and we’d still never be safe. But that’s ok, that’s not what life is.”

“This is a far cry from the most isolated planet in the galaxy,” Hanq said. “We fly into the danger that other people run away from.”

“Because we know that we can fly out again,” Mel said. “We’re not martyrs Hanq. We help people because we can, and we can because we work together. As good or better than anyone else in the galaxy. I’m not coming here because I want you to run away with us and keep us safe. I’m here because I’m going to take the fight to this cult and all of the other ones out there that I can find and there’s no one I’d rather have at my side while I do that than you and the people on this ship.”

“So you’re not just coming back as passengers then?” Hanq asked. “You’re here in your official capacity as a Crystal Guardian?”

“Yes, and no,” Mel said. “Yes, I am still a Crystal Guardian, with all of the responsibilities that comes with the position. But I could give that up.”

“There’s a general clause for any Crystal Guardian who needs to go on inactive duty to raise a family or for medical leave,” Darius said.

“I’m not here as a Crystal Guardian though,” Mel said. “I’m not making this as a formal request because this isn’t an Imperial matter. This is you and me.”

“Then I should probably say no,” Hanq said. “I grew up in this world Mel. It made me someone I spent years learning not to be before I met you.”

“That’s why I’m asking this of you,” she said.

“You don’t get it,” he said. “The twenty year old me? The guy I was then? I wasn’t a Warlord because I was nice, or because I was wise, or because I was strong. You don’t get to be that kind of person without being mean, and vicious and more broken in the head than anyone should ever be. I got lucky I got beat when I did. And how I did. Even with the stars aligning just perfectly, it still took years before I was able to pull things together and look myself in the mirror again.”

“But you did,” Mel said. “You’ve made that journey, you’ve paid that price. Do you think you shouldn’t be around kids? Do you think the environment you’ve created here isn’t the right place for them?”

“Of course it isn’t,” Hanq said. “Those two little ones shouldn’t be raised on a warship, surrounded by catastrophes and violence and fear. They should be raised somewhere quiet and peaceful and happy. Somewhere with open skies and a good environment. Somewhere with good people around.”

“Do you hear how often your crew laughs?” Darius asked. “I’m not talking nervous laughter or gallows humor. I heard plenty of that on Hellsreach. I’m talking about the real, happy to be alive, happy to be here doing what they’re doing sort of laughter. The Horizon Breaker may not be quiet or peaceful, but you’ve made this ship a happy place when things are under control.”

“And how often do we have things under control?” Hanq asked. “We move from problem to problem. That’s our job.”

“And we’re good at it sir,” Fari said. “I could pretend to be modest here, but the reality is we get sent in to do deal with problems other people can’t because we’ve proven we’re capable of doing so. Some of that comes from the Imperial grade equipment we have, some of that comes from the unusual skill sets the crew possesses but by my analysis most of the reason we do so well is that everyone works together as a team. I’m not saying we don’t get into hairy situations, but a lot of the time we keep our strengths hidden and let things look worse than they really are so that we can get to the source of the problem we’re facing rather than just dealing with a symptom of it.”

“You know the reason we work so well together is that I recruited most of this crew from my old band of retainers, right?” Hanq asked. “Are those really the sort of people you want to raise your children around?”

“Yes,” Mel said. “I want Kai and Galen to grow up around people whose focus in life is helping others. People who are brave, and giving and maybe not entirely slaves to following the rules. You might have recruited a crew of scallywags Captain Okoro, but they’re my kind of scallywags.”

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into here,” Hanq said. “Kids raised by a crew that’s just short of being pirates are going to turn out to be a terror.”

“I’m counting on it,” Mel said. “It’s how I was brought up after all, and I think the guy who raised me did a pretty amazing job of it.”

Mel woke to darkness and screams and the smell of smoke. Forcing her heavy eyelids open she saw what looked like the after effects of city busting bomb. Clothes were strewn all over the place. Around and underneath their garments, piles of vague clutter were clumped in unrecognizable shapes in the dim starlight that filtered into the small room.

Ten thousand miles away, voices were crying out, their owners bereft of all hope of surviving the monsters of deepest night that surrounded them. Mel struggled to drag herself out of a fatigue that had filled her bones in place of the marrow and that coursed through her veins in place of the blood they should have held. Dragged down by sleep’s legion of hands, her brain desperately sought to understand the cacophony that surrounded her.

All had been quiet and normal when she lay down, and yet everything was loud and horrible as she awoke. She wound a thread of Physical anima between her fingers to claim the jolt of energy she needed to claim full consciousness but was stopped by a single thought. Just one glorious, wonderful realization.

“It’s your turn to get up for the twins,” Mel said without the slightest trace of remorse as she poked Darius.

Watching him wake was comical enough that staying awake held some appeal.

But not as much appeal as the blissful embrace an all-consuming slumber offered.

She smiled as she drifted back to sleep in Hector and Osgood’s home on Titanus. Tomorrow would pose new challenges, but she was already recovering from the frankly epic labor the twins put her through and she knew her little family would be able to meet those challenges.

Millions of light years away, another part of Mel’s little family was busy cackling with evil glee as she watched a killer hard at work.

Fari had assembled Captain Okoro, Yael, Zyla, Bo and most of the Chinuri delegation on the bridge of the Horizon Breaker. On a view screen in front of them they watched the Junior Tactical Delegate “successfully” disenchant the lock to crew quarters where “Mel” and “Darius” were sleeping. The Junior Tactical Delegate was someone who had been content to fade into the background throughout their entire discussion. The few remarks he’d made had been solidly in support of the Senior Tactical Delegate who took the lead for most of the conversation, so it was easy to pass off the younger delegate’s silence as being due to respect for his mentor.

Watching the delegate creep into Mel and Darius’ room an alternate interpretation played out in most of the observer’s minds.

“He came along on this mission to kill them?” the Senior Tactical delegate whispered in disbelief.

“I don’t believe so,” Yael said.

“Right,” Zyla said. “The attack on the space liner was shielded from Aetherial foresight. There was no warning it would occur, so he couldn’t have been planning for this.”

“What we’re watching is an opportunistic attack,” Fari said. “He has access to someone his masters thought they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near.”

The Junior Tactical delegate stepped into the room and closed the door. Once he was concealed from the hallway, he produced an ornamented cylinder from inside his robes.

“What is that?” the Chief Financial delegate asked.

“An anima blade,” Captain Okoro said. “I find watching this disagreeable. Can we end this now or do these delegates really need to see blood spilled?”

“They won’t believe it without confirmation,” Fari said. “So far all our assassin is guilty of is being a creepy trespasser.”

Hanq scowled and turned away from the display. He understood what was really happening but that didn’t make it any easier to bear.

When the Junior Tactical delegate struck, he was at least clean and precise about it. In three quick motions everyone in the room beside himself bore fatal injuries. Fari adjusted the low light vision on her sensing spell to show the results of his work. He hadn’t sent a warning, or showed any mercy. There was no chance a healer was going to undo the damage that he’d wrought on his victims

With a horrifying, and clinical sort of detachment, the Junior delegate sheathed his blade and collected samples from his victims. From their room, he proceeded to the ship’s aft where the docking bays were.

“You are monstrous,” the Lead delegate said. “How could you let him slaughter your crew like that? Just to prove a point to us?”

“You had to believe,” Fari said.

“We would have believed you after he entered their room,” the financial delegate said. “Or certainly after he drew his blade. There was no need for anyone to die here.”

“No one has,” Fari said. “Not yet anyways. Ilya will you collect our doppleganger bodies and bring them up to the bridge?”

“Yes sir,” the ship’s Chief Medical Officer said.

“What is this?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked.

“Proof for you,” Yael said. “That we can protect our citizens.”

“And that our assassin truly believed that he was killing Imperial personnel,” Fari said.

“This was all theater?” the Senior Tactical delegate said.

“Yes,” Fari said. “But your Junior delegate was no more in on it than you were. The role he played was one he chose for himself.”

“I don’t understand why he wanted to kill your personnel though?” the Financial delegate asked.

“Because the real version of me is carrying a special child,” a woman who looked like Mel said. Behind her stood a man who looked like Darius and Ilya, the ship’s Chief Medical Officer who had repaired the bodies to their original undamaged state.

“How is this possible?” the Lead delegate asked.

“They’re doppelgangers,” the Senior Tactical delegate said. “Although magic puppets might be a better name from what I can see. Who’s controlling them, the anima threads are a beastly tangle to make out?”

“Commander Ilya and I are both controlling them,” Fari said. “She handles supplying them with the Physical anima they need to maintain those forms and move around while I direct their movements and speak for them.”

“Like this,” Far said, through the false Mel’s mouth.

“That explains why you would let this play out as it did,” the Financial delegate said. “But I’m still lost on why it all occurred in the first place. How is this child you speak of special?”

“She’s a potential subject of a prophecy which a rather far flung death cult has been murdering people over for quite a while,” Bo said.

“At the moment, she’s not a potential subject, she is the only subject of the prophecy,” Zyla said.

“You should know that the creature which destroyed our space liner is at the other end of that prophecy,” Yael said. “We learned that because it made the mistake of coming close enough to us for Zyla and I to catch some of the Aetherial threads that were left in its wake.”

“Somehow it seems Commander Fari deduced that too,” Zyla said.

“We’ve been expecting someone to take another shot at Mel and Darius for a while,” Fari said. “The cult pursued us very aggressively until we got back to the Horizon Breaker, and it didn’t seem like they were going to give up that easily.”

“So you were working off of a hunch?” Zyla asked.

“When an unexpected distress call came in from the two of you, and I heard that we’d have a number of passengers with special privileges on board, plus you’d had an encounter with the kind of creature referred to in the prophecy, it wasn’t hard to put things together,” Fari said. “Also, I trusted there was an excellent chance that you’d engineered the events after the wreck and were trying to get as much return on the disruption as you could, by drawing together the key players to one location.”

“You sought to profit from our distress?” the Lead delegate asked.

“They worked to salvage as much as they could from a calamity,” Bo said.

“That is unacceptable!” the Lead delegate said. “We are not pawns for your little games.”

“You were never pawns,” Fari said. “You were closer to lab rats.”

“What do you mean?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked.

“We knew that one or more of you were servants to the organizations we are investigating,” Fari said.

“But we didn’t know which of you that might be,” Yael said.

“So you used my sister as bait to lure out the cultists you were after?” Bo asked.

“What?” Fari asked. “No, your sister is perfectly safe. We used her doppelganger here to lure out the assassin we were expecting and send the cult a message.”

“What message?” Bo asked.

“Mission accomplished, the threat is neutralized,” Fari said. “The easiest way to get a death cult to lose interest in you is if they think they’ve already managed to kill you.”

“Well, that’s a viable strategy for this death cult at least,” Zyla said.

“Why all the theater for us though?” the Financial delegate asked. “We could have been informed much earlier as to what was about to transpire.”

“That would have been an option,” Fair said. “Except that there’s still one question that remained unanswered.”

“Why was the assassin in our ranks in the first place?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked.

“Exactly that,” Fari said.

“We could ask him, but it appears that he has sabotaged the security locks on the ship’s fighters and is exiting the docking bay in command of one of them,” Bo said.

“It took him long enough,” Fari said.

“I thought Imperial spellcraft was second to none,” the Financial delegate said. “How did he overcome your security.

“He found a hole in it at one of the unused access tubes for the docking bay,” Fari said. “Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice that the security spells on the access tube had been rendered inert a few seconds before he found it.”

“You let him escape?” the Lead delegate asked.

“Of course,” Fari said. “We need him to report in and provide the tissue samples to his higher ups. They won’t believe that his mission was a success without that.”

“Also, we have various contagious tracking spells on him,” Yael said. “So once he makes contact with his superiors, we’ll be able to track them as well.”

“Within a few months we’ll have their entire organization outlined and should be able to move against it all at once,” Zyla said.

“How does that help us understand why he was here though?” the Financial delegate asked.

“By giving him only a short window of time to act within, we were able to force him to leaves his principal gear behind in his room,” Fari said. “As soon as he entered Guardian Watersward’s room, I instructed the crew to seize his belongings.”

“You suspected he’d be carrying a toxin?” Yael asked.

“It seemed likely,” Fari said. “His attack on Mel and Darius with the anima blade would have been suicidal against any of the other delegates because none of them were planning to sleep tonight.”

“If he planned to kill us all, perhaps suicide was a viable option for him?” Lead delegate asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Fari said. “That he planned to kill us all. He had opportunities and passed them up.”

“Perhaps he was waiting for the right time?” the Senior Tactical delegate said.

“Or the right person,” Fari said. “Like us, he didn’t know who his target was.”

“How can you know that?” the Financial delegate asked.

“Because he had plenty of opportunity to eliminate any of the other delegates or the Imperials when the space liner was destroyed and he didn’t strike then,” Fari said.

“So who was he looking for?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked.

“A traitor to the Chinuri.” Fari said. “If you read his personnel file, you’ll see that he is very devoted to your world. I would guess that’s why he became involved with the death cult in the first place.”

“He wanted to kill anything that would threaten his home,” Bo said.

“How did you gain access to his personnel file?” the Financial delegate asked.

“We’ll talk about your abysmal spell web security later Ambassador,” Fari said.

“Why would he want to kill one of us though?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked. “We represent the hope for the Chinuris’ future.”

“All of you except for one it looks like,” Fari said. “Guardian Clearborn, can you trace the link between the poison in the assassin’s room and the delegate it would have been administered to?”

“I already have,” Yael said. “Chief  Ambassador, you are under arrest.”

“You must be joking,” the Lead delegate said. “I am not subject to Imperial law.”

“I make this arrest under Chinuri law,” Yael said. “You are the one the assassin was here to kill, and I’m wondering if perhaps we shouldn’t have let him.”

“This is ridiculous,” the Lead delegate said. “What possible reason would he have to kill me.”

“Because you are a senior member of the Red Running River and you’re here to ensure that our attack does not go off as planned,” Yael said.

“That’s preposterous!” the Lead delegate said. “What proof do you have?”

“We said we were going to give you access to our comm net,” Hanq said. “Did it not occur to you that we might notice who it was you called?”

“We can give the rest of you a full set of transcripts of the calls if you like,” Fari said.” This is my favorite bit though.”

The holo image shifted to a view of the Lead delegate in his room speaking with another Chinuri. After a second, audio sprang up to expand on the visuals.

“The Empire is launching their full strike tomorrow,” the holo-image of the Lead delegate said. “But they’ve sent in a special operations team early. Be on the look out for them.” the Lead delegate said.

“We’re transferring the contents of the base to our primary fallback position now sir,” a man wearing the emblem of the Red Running River said.

“Good,” the Lead delegate said. “Do it quickly and then get out of there too. If they find nothing they may not look around here for many years to come.

“By the Rushing of the Red!” the holo of the River cultist said.

“By the Rushing of the Red!” the holo of the Lead delegate echoed.

“This is ridiculous,” the Lead delegate said. “Those could have been forged!”

“You may wish to try that argument at your trial, but by then the Chinuri Police will have been able to unearth more details surrounding who your really are.” Fari said. “I’m streaming them the information on where they need to look into already.”

“These are serious charges,” the Senior Tactical delegate said.

“With serious consequences,” Yael said. “Consequences that could be lessened if the Ambassador was to direct the River forces on Bleakwater to stand down.”

“Before you spout off any angry bluster denying your ability to do that Ambassador, please take a look at these reports,” Fari said and had “Mel” hand the ambassador a viewing glass. “You’ll find the names and connections of every River member on Bleakwater in that report, including the several hundred of them who are under your direct employ. That report is being transmitted to the Chinuri congress as we speak. By my count that gives them close to five thousand solid cases to prosecute.”

“In case you haven’t received your daily report, there are only thirty nine hundred River personnel left on Bleakwater,” Zyla said. “Fari is including the one’s who’ve already escaped off-world in the number of those who we are tracking.”

“I’m missing why a member of this death cult you spoke of would be targeting a member of the River?” the Financial delegate said.

“This particular death cult isn’t obsessed with death,” Fari said. “They’re killing off people they believe may trigger a galactic scale apocalypse. In their own minds I think they believe they’re making the hard decisions the Empire won’t in order to keep people safe.”

“How does that align with the River?” the Senior Tactical delegate asked.

“The Red Running River is part of a consortium of other cults dedicated to overthrowing the Crystal Empire,” Yael said. “Their ultimate aim is to hasten the arrival of creatures called the Galactic Devourers.”

“They believe the arrival of beasts like that, while the Empire is still in its early stages, will be enough to overwhelm the Empress and return the galaxy to a state ripe for them to move in and assume control,” Zyla said.

“That’s insane,” the Senior Tactical delegate said.

“What are you going to do about it?” the Financial delegate asked.

“Be ready for them,” Fari said.

Fari watched the Chinuri delegation leave the conference room, each scheming their own schemes, each blissfully unaware that there was a traitor in the group working at a cross-purpose to their own.

Fari couldn’t see the lines of fate that ran between the delegates. She couldn’t see which were slated to die before the night was over or which would stand victorious over the ashes of their opponents. Even with all her many-revealing spells and razor sharp senses, the exact makeup of the delegate’s psyches were a mystery to her.

In part that was because they were protected by diplomatic immunity from the best of her more probing spells and in part it was because each of them was a career politician, so merely being aware that they were lying didn’t do much to explain what they were lying about or why.

“And that’s why we need to experiment on them,” Fari said, presenting her case to her boss.

Captain Hanq Okoro steepled his hands over the bridge of his nose and took a moment to consider his Tactical Chief’s recommendations.

The Chinuri that were onboard hailed from a world outside Imperial sovereignty. The Empire wanted them to join the Galactic Parliament and the Chinuri wanted that as well. For various reasons however it had taken over a decade to broker a deal which would allow that to happen.

Experimenting on the latest round of delegates was unlikely to be well received by the Chinuri Planetary Congress and under normal circumstances was something that would never have even been suggested much less entertained as a serious option.

Hanq hadn’t been blessed with a life where he was allowed to live under “normal circumstances” often though.

“What sort of experiments do you have in mind?” he asked Fari.

“Just one,” she said. “I want to see how they react to learning who Mel and Darius are. And who their child might be.”

“That’ll put Mel and Darius in danger won’t it?” Hanq asked.

“Possibly,” Fari said. “If my guess is correct someone will try to kill them before the night is up.”

“You do recall that with all that’s been going on, they are both more delicate than normal, right?” Hanq asked.

“Yes, I can hardly forget that can I?” Fari said.

“And you don’t think that will be a problem for your experiment?” Hanq asked.

“It might even work in its favor,” Fari said.

“Will you get what you need out of this plan?” Hanq asked.

“Definitely, even if Mel and Darius are killed, we’ll have it all recorded for later analysis,” Fari said.

Hanq sighed.

“Why do you never bring me plans that I like?” he asked.

“Because you’re the captain,” Fari said. “You only like plans that put you in danger, and those are terrible plans.”

“Leading was so much easier when I was Warlord,” Hanq said. “Worst thing I had to worry about then was being killed by an underling.”

“I could make daily attempts on your life if that would make you feel better?” Fari asked.

Hanq laughed.

“You know, I might just take you up on that,” he said. “Keep me from getting too old and soft.”

“One way or the other,” Fari said. “But the question remains; can I experiment on the Chinuri?”

“I know I’ll regret this, but I’m curious to know what’s going on here too, so yes. You may provide them with the rope they need to hang themselves,” Hanq said. “And if by some miracle this doesn’t blow up in all of our faces, I’ll see that you receive a commendation for the work you’re doing.”

“Commendations are unneeded sir,” Fari said. “This is all part of my gift to Mel.”

“I will never understand you two,” Hanq said.

“I think that’s ideal for helping you sleep at night sir,” Fari said.

Hanq waved her off with a shake of his head.

Out in the corridor, Fari stumbled upon the next person she wanted to talk with.

“We’re going to hold some emergency negotiation sessions with the Chinuri delegates before the action against the River base,” Yael said. “Can I call on you to be there for logistical support?”

“I believe you can,” Fari said. “I have a wide variety of information relevant to their discussion.”

“That exactly what we need,” Yael said.

“Are the delegates assembling now?” Fari asked.

“Yes, we wanted to give them as much time to work the information as possible,” Yael said.

The two women smiled at each. Each had their own plans in place and, as they’d expected, those plans dovetailed together quite nicely.

The conference room was abuzz with chatter when Fari entered it. She walked in through the door rather than simply appearing within the room so as not to remind the delegates of exactly how much of a presence she had throughout the ship.

In a sense, she was the most confined of anyone on board. She lived within her gem and was bound to wherever it was taken. If someone stole the gem, they effectively stole her. At one time that bothered her, despite knowing that most people were just as stuck within their bodies as she was in her gem and kidnappers stole people all the time so she was at no greater risk there either. Over the years of working with Horizon Breaker’s crew though, things had changed.

Fari was thousands of years old by one measure, but it hadn’t been until the Jewel of Endless Night that was her body was destroyed that she truly started to live again. For the millenia that she’d been bound as the control spell for the Ravager, she’d been held in its stasis. With the bindings broken, she’d freed of more than the slavery that it imposed on her. She was free to change. As all living things do.

Change wasn’t easy of course, but looking back, especially to the odyssey she, Mel, and Darius had recently undertaken, Fari was finally starting to the see the signs that other people had been telling her about for years.

“Ambassadors, if you could take your seats please,” Zyla said. “As you know, we are fast approaching our target and there is much that we are sure you will want to discuss.”

“Yes,” the lead delegate said. “Foremost of which is how you will guarantee the safety of the Chinuri citizens on the planet during your assault.”

“I’ll take that question,” Fari said. “We have several highly trained Advanced Operations teams on board the Horizon Breaker. While we will be waiting for proper support to show up by tomorrow to launch a full scale lockdown of the Red Running River’s base, the initial covert assault on them will begin within a few hours.”

“A covert assault?” the senior tactical delegate asked. “You can’t possibly hold a contingent large enough for that on this ship.”

“It takes fewer people than you might think,” Fari said. “One of our team leaders is an experience Void anima caster.”

“Is she still leading the team?” Bo asked. She was observing Fari carefully, searching for the clues that Fari had to prevent her from spotting for the time being.

“Not directly, but she will be overseeing the mission,” Fari said.

“I would think we should meet with this mission director,” the lead delegate said. “I would prefer to hear the plans from her directly if she is the one who will be responsible for any accidents which occur.”

“I can send for her,” Fari said. “But Black Team reviewing their initial assault plans now. Is it critical that she be part of this?”

“Yes, I believe so,” the lead delegate said. “Or are the lives of my people only a secondary concern?”

The bald-faced belligerence of the lead delegate’s tone was nothing more than a tactical play to wrest control of the meeting from the Imperials. Fari knew this. Yael knew this. Everyone in the room knew it, but the game still had to be played.

“Of course not,” Fari said. “She’ll be with us in a moment.”

“Won’t that impact the raid though?” the delegate for financial oversight asked.

“Her team is very well coordinated,” Fari said. “They can handle most of the review process without her.”

“Be fair, they can handle all of the review process on their own,” Mel said, walking into the room with Darius close behind her. “I just like to keep up the appearance that they need my help still.”

“Guardian Watersward, the Chinuri delegation,” Fari said, introducing the room.

“You seem to have a lot of faith in your team Ms. Watersward,” the tactical delegate said.

“They are among the best in the Empire,” Mel said. “We’ve worked together for years.”

“Those are easy claims to make,” the lead delegate said. “What proof can you offer that this will not become a bloodbath for my people.”

“I wasn’t aware that this meeting was about proving anything to anyone,” Mel said.

“We are ready to deny our approval for this operation and rescind all offers which are on the table if we are not satisfied in this matter,” the lead delegate said.

“That is something which would need to be put to a vote,” the financial delegate said. “Bleakwater is not our colony, and any of our citizens there are either on the other side of the planet or are probably working with the organization which just tried to kill us all.”

“An organization which the Empire claimed they could protect us against, and is now using as an excuse to assault a world on our borders!” the lead delegate said.

“Ambassadors, please,” Yael said. “This is unnecessary. We can present our plans to you and you will see that we have the safety of your people accounted for.”

“Even the ones you claim are working with the Red Running River?” the lead delegate asked.

“Yes, even them,” Mel said. “You’ve been outside the Empire for decades now, which means you’ve probably never seen the things a full Imperial Strike team is capable of.”

“You can take down the Red Running River with a single strike team?” the financial delegate asked.

“That’s impossible,” the tactic delegate said. ”There are too many of them. even if you started winning, the others would flee before you could catch them all.”

“They can’t flee if they’re locked down before they know the fight has begun,” Mel said.

“And how can you accomplish that?” the tactical officer asked.

“We have a very good spell web infiltrator on board,” Mel said.

Each of the delegates carried a clear glass panel with them and, simultaneously, each of the portable screens blipped to life.

“Very impressive,” the tactical delegate said. “But how are you going to deploy that asset. Surely you can’t risk someone so talented on a combat mission like this one?”

“The asset is a resilient one,” Mel said. “I usually safeguard her myself but for this mission my team leader will be her handler.”

“Why is that?” the lead delegate asked. “Isn’t this a mission you should be involved in personally.”

“I am not allowed on active combat missions until my child is born,” Mel said, holding her belly to indicate the swell of the child within.

“I thought you were a Void caster?” the tactical delegate asked. “I was under the impression that such casters could not reliably reproduce.”

“That was my belief as well, but between the fact that my mother was a Void caster and that I’ve heard my daughter’s voice already, I think we will prove to be an exception to that rule,” Mel said.

“You’ve spoke with your daughter?” the tactical delegate asked.

“Not spoken to, only listened to her,” Mel said. “We were on holiday and discovered a planet where you could hear people you might someday be connected to. So we’re reasonably sure she’ll come to term if we avoid exposure to any dangerous situations.”

Fari suppressed a grin. She’d been scanning all of the delegates. Waiting for this very moment. With the lightest of touches she put forth tethers of Mental anima to connect to the delegates who matched a very specific profile of detectable biochemical responses to what Mel said.

The threads of Mental anima came back with solid pulls of connection. The killers Fari was looking for were here. In the conference room. All she had to do next was let them get away with murder.

Space liners are not meant to fragment into pieces. It’s considered bad form for any sort of space capable vessel to allow its passengers to experience the sensations that come from direct contact to the vacuum of space. That said, it is an unfortunate reality of galactic society that sometimes space ships do not live up to their intended purpose. This was why casters who spent a sufficient amount of time in space frequently earned their environmental certifications.

As an agent of the crown of Abyz, Bo carried certifications for several different hazardous environment. Her training had been undertaken at the personal behest of the Queen who desired that all of her personal guard be able to survive in anywhere she had cause to deploy them. At the time Bo hadn’t seen the point of including “space” as one of those places though. The Royal Guard was rarely called off planet and the coursework for space environmental certification was brutal and time consuming. Quietly, she’d spent weeks coming up with complaint after complaint as to why she should be allowed to skip the pointless certification classes.

Oddly, not one of those complaints surfaced in Bo’s mind as she reflexively cast an instantaneous air shield at the sound of the space liner’s superstructure shearing into pieces. The destruction of the space liner shocked adrenaline into her system, but thanks to the brutal training she’d so wanted to avoid, the magics didn’t waver in the slightest.

That wasn’t particularly surprising of course. She only had to contend with collateral damage after all. There’d been much worse to deal with during training. Usually spaceships failed because someone made them fail after all and if those someones were really vicious they’d make sure any simple personal shields weren’t enough to save the space stranded passengers.

Having secured her own safety, Bo turned to aid the people who were with her, mindful of the dangers a wrecked spaceship was likely to present. Apart from the free floating (and potentially high velocity) debris, there was the presence of the ship’s anima fields to worry about. Freed from their proper conduits, those could be more dangerous to the passengers that the attack that ruined the ship.

With wreckage all around her, it should have been difficult to find the Imperials, Yael and Zyla. The Guardian and her partner though were both glowing like mini-novas. Not twenty feet away, they were bubbled together in a single shield of their own casting, and working furiously.

Zyla was drawing in motes of magic like a galaxy of stars collapsing to a single point in her right hand. The collected power, which had once been the ship’s main anima shields, flared from her and flowed to Yael through their clasped hands.

From the Guardian’s free hand the magics poured forth in a kaleidoscope pattern. There were a thousand sapients on the space liner and in less than two seconds there were a thousand shields to protect them from the ravages of the airless, cold void.

Bo watched as the two casters worked, Zyla bringing in as much of the ship’s scattered magic as she could and Yael connecting the individual shields to allow people to communicate again.

“Can you get the escape pods?” Yael asked over a telepathic link.

“Did they survive?” Bo asked.

“Fortunately, yes,” Zyla said.

Escape pods are built for extra resiliency, but Bo was dubious they would be serviceable after the ship took enough damage to reduce it shattered parts.

Of course, by that argument, people were (generally) less resilient than either escape pods or space liners, so the fact that most, or perhaps all, of the ship’s passengers and crew were still alive seemed to be an even more amazing stroke of luck.

“Thank you,” Bo said to the two fate casters, whom she was fairly certain were responsible for the lucky breaks that allow for her continued good health.

The rescue of the ship’s passengers wasn’t an easy matter. A suitable ship had to be dispatched, and a emergency warp path calculated. Some of the passengers had been injured in the space liner’s destruction and many more were panicked and traumatized by the events that occurred. In the end though, the ship arrived, the injuries were treated and the passengers were calmed.

Most of the passengers.

The Chinuri delegation was united in their agreement that the Empire had failed to protect them. They stormed onto the bridge of the rescue ship while Yael, Zyla and Bo were speaking with its captain.

“We request an immediate return to Nuriana,” the Chinuri lead delegate said.

“We’re closer to the conference site than your homeworld,” Yael said.

“We cannot negotiate with an Empire that does not take our safety seriously,” the delegate said.

“We take the safety of all our citizens and allies seriously,” Yael said.

“How can you claim them when you are not willing to strike against the Red Running Stream still?” the lead delegate said.

“What makes you think we’re not going to strike against them?” Zyla asked.

“You did!” the delegate said. “When we boarded this ship, you said you could not act, that the time wasn’t right.”

“My apologies,” Yael said. “I spoke in a confusing manner there I see. Agent Riverstone, will you brief the Chinuri on the information we have just been discussing?”

Bo looked at the Guardian and then at the Chinuri delegation. Secrecy was a tool the Royal Agent was used to relying on as a standard part of her arsenal. Any information she gave the Chinuri was a potential hole in their plan, and unless she missed her guess, the Red Running Stream would be alerted to those holes minutes after the briefing was concluded.

“Are you sure of this?” she asked Yael via a private telepathic link.

“Completely,” Yael said.

Yael was one of the three principal casters who had rewoven the planet-wide fate spell on Abyz. Zyla was the second. With those credentials, Bo felt willing, if not exactly comfortable, playing along with their plans.

“The Red Running River has been found to be in league with a number of other cults operating within the Empire. As such, Guardian Clearborn has received permission to treat them as an immediate danger to Imperial Citizens,” Bo said.

“We have more than permission though,” Zyla said. Her look of restrained glee was apparent even to the Chinuri.

“Yes,” Bo said. “My investigations have turned up a wide range of connections between the River and a group I was researching. We have a deep list of their personnel, associates and financial holdings.”

The Chinuri delegates were hushed, waiting with discerning expressions for where the tale was leading them.

“So you’ve been supplying our enemies for how long?” the lead delegate asked.

“According to my findings, the River has been the source of many high end spell components for the cult network,” Bo said. “So it would be more accurate to say that the River has been supplying the Empire’s enemies with the tool to cause things like the mayhem we saw today.”

Yael, Zyla and Bo knew that the encounter with the cosmic beast had been only barely related to the Red Running River, but it was still a useful connection to draw on.

“That’s what cleared us to act against them,” Yael said.

“And what action will you take?” the lead delegate asked. “Sanctions and isolation won’t work on them.”

“We have other tools at our disposal,” Yael said. “In an hour, the fast response ship Horizon Breaker will be docking with us.”

“You’re going to launch an assault on them?” the lead delegate asked. “But what of the ones on Nuriana? You cannot assault our homeworld!”

“I think you mean you’d prefer we not assault your homeworld,” Zyla said.

“Your sovereignty will be respected,” Yael said. “The Empire will send no forces to Nuriana. Fortunately for us, the main contingent of the River’s forces are located on the moon of Bleakwater, which is outside of Nuriana controlled space.”

“There are Chinuri scavengers on Bleakwater,” the lead delegate said. “Leftovers from the abandoned colony there.”

“Yes, and a hidden military base, and, on the other side of the planet, the headquarters for the River,” Yael said. “By this time tomorrow, that headquarters will not exist, and everyone found there will be in custody, awaiting trial.”

“I must get a message back to my government,” the lead delegate said. “They might interpret this as the prelude to an attack on Nuriana.”

“You will be given full access to our communication spells both here and on the Horizon Breaker,” Yael said.

“We can arrange for a privacy shielded conference if you wish to discuss this matter amongst yourselves too,” Zyal said.

“Yes, thank you,” the lead delegate said. “This must be properly reviewed.”

The other Chinuri were fanning their hands in agreement with their leader and none of them lingered on the bridge once given the opportunity to escape.

“You know there are spies from the River among them don’t you?” Bo asked after the last of the Chinuri left the bridge.

“At least two if things are going according to plan,” Yael said.

“Two? Well that’s good,” Bo said. “And would you care to share the details of this plan?”

“We can’t,” Zyla said. “We’re working several steps removed from the cores of the problem. The threads we’re weaving are very delicate as it stands and the more people who can see them the greater the load they’ll have to bear.”

Despite growing up on a planet that was nearly strangled by Aether spells, Bo still wasn’t fond of fate magic. It was fantastically useful, but as in the current situation, she couldn’t help but feel like it was perilously close to leaving everything to chance and then claiming victory for whatever parts worked out close to how you wanted them to be.

She held on to that unease like a shield, and greeted the arrival of the Horizon Breaker with trepidation as a result. If things were going to go wrong, it would be one once the Empire proved it was seriously committed to the endeavor. As the Horizon Breaker docked with the rescue ship, Bo knew there was no turning back. The rogue Chinuri would have to act to preserve their forces somehow.

“Welcome aboard,” Mel said, greeting the new arrivals. “Darius will show you to the observation room and we can get underway for Bleakwater.”

Something was wrong.

The Chinuri boarded the ship, seeming eager to be rid of a problem that had plagued them for decades. Some, including the lead delegate were less eager than the others, but that wasn’t what was setting Bo’s nerves on edge.

“The trip will take two hours,” Mel said as the delegates, Yael, Zyla and Bo were seated in a room with a view out from the forward, starboard side of the Horizon Breaker. “Once our forces move in you’ll be able to follow their progress on holo-screens that will be projected at your seats or a composite one projected against this wall.”

Mel turned to leave and Bo followed her.

“You’re looking well,” Bo said.

“I’m keeping busy,” Mel said.

“No, I mean, you’re not showing as much as I would expect,” Bo said.

From the message she’s received, Bo had thought her sister was over eight months pregnant, but she was only barely starting to show signs of being with child.

Bo looked closer and other oddities came to her attention.

Whoever she was talking to, the woman did not move like her sister did. Mel was a martial artist who had trained for decades. As someone with similar training, and who had fought Mel in all-out struggles on several occasions, Bo had an instinctive sense for how her sister carried her weight. The woman standing before her had more weight than Mel was accustomed to carrying but even that didn’t explain the clumsy footwork and body posture that this “Mel” displayed.

“I’m not that far along yet,” the woman said.

“How many months?” Bo asked.

“Five,” the woman said.

Which would mean that when Mel sent Bo a letter announcing her pregnancy six months ago, she would have been writing it one month before the pregnancy actually began.

Something was wrong with her sister.

Zyla lay on her bed and felt a strange and unfamiliar sensation fluttering in her chest. It was contentment, or as near to it as she could ever remember experiencing.

“You doing ok?” Yael asked, rolling over and stretching out a sleepy yawn.

“Mmm,” Zyla said, trying to hold onto the feeling.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Yael asked.

“Didn’t need to,” Zyla said. “Not after we spent all day relaxing at the pool.”

“That was surveillance work,” Yael said.

“We know the Chinuri delegation is safe until at least a week from now,” Zyla said. “We don’t have to guard them this closely.”

“True, but it was a nice day wasn’t it?” Yael asked.

“I want to say that it was too close to home,” Zyla said. “Being on a interstellar liner and being pampered and catered to every moment of the day? It’s very similar to how the elites were treated when I was a child. I want to say I’m not interested in that anymore, but I don’t know that I’d be telling the truth, which probably makes me a terrible person.”

“I think there’s kind of a critical difference or two there,” Yael said. “As a child you were surrounded by slaves. The crew on this ship are well paid and respected as the professionals they are.”

“I suppose that makes it easier to accept,” Zyla said, “But it still strikes me that we could be doing something a little more productive with our time than sipping expensive cocktails and telling sanitized stories of our exploits to the Chinuri.”

“Well,” Yael said, scooting closer to Zyla. “While we know the danger peak for the Chinuri is still a week away, they feel much safer having us nearby before then, and that’s buying the Empire a lot of good will. But since we don’t need to be around them every minute of the day, we could look for other…productive uses of our time?”

Zyla felt a soft kiss on her earlobe and a warm arm wrap around her waist.

Thanks, perhaps, to unconscious manipulations of fate by one or both of them, it wasn’t until late in the morning when they were enjoying a belated breakfast that the calm which surrounded the two women started to unravel.

“Guardian Clearborn?” one of the wait staff asked. “We have a special courier ship requesting docking privileges to meet with you. Shall we clear them for connection?”

Zyla turned her Aetherial senses towards the courier ship and found that it was blank, hidden from her vision in a manner that was disturbingly familiar.

“Yes, please invite them aboard,” Yael said. “And is there an open conference room we could meet them in?”

Zyla shot Yael and uncertain look but waited until they were alone again to speak.

“This is someone we know isn’t it?” she asked.

“That’s my guess,” Yael said. “But I’m as blind here as you are.”

“A trap?” Zyla asked.

“We’ll have to assume so,” Yael said. “Don’t want to get caught again like we did on Abyz.”

Those had been some of the worst days that Zyla could recall. Being alone, on a hostile planet was bad enough. Losing Yael and believing her bound under the dominion of an all-powerful queen had been even worse though.

Zyla didn’t always carry an anima blade anymore, but she made sure to pick one up before meeting with the newcomer. She was deadly without one, but sometimes the obviousness of a glowing blade held inches away from someone’s face sent a much clearer message than anything else could.

“I hope this isn’t an Imperial representative,” Yael said.

“You’d prefer someone more hostile?” Zyla asked.

“No, but if this is an official visit, then it will be for something critical enough to pull us off guard duty on the Chinuri,” Yael said.

“I see. Our delegation will react poorly if we try to abandon them at this stage,” Zyla said.

“I know,” Yael said. “If something sufficiently serious has come up, their reaction may be the least of our worries.”

“Have you caught any glimpses of something that big on the horizon?” Zyla asked.

“No,” Yael said. “But then I didn’t foresee this either.”

“For a moment there I wasn’t sure,” Zyla said. “Do you think anyone else understands how fragmented our view of the future is?”

“Given how often we’re able to get people to make mistakes or play it overly safe?” Yael asked. “I certainly hope not.”

A tall, dark skinned woman in military livery entered the room a moment after Yael and Zyla stopped talking. Zyla blinked and recognized first the uniform, then the woman wearing it.

“Thank you for taking time away from your current assignment to meet with me,” Agent Bo Riverstone of the Abyz Royal Guard said.

Agent Riverstone reached into the satchel she was carrying and Zyla had to struggle to keep her anima blade sheathed. The gesture of restraint proved to be a wise one as the Ayz Royal Guard produced a pair of folders and handed them over for Yael and Zyla to read.

During their ill fated trip to Abyz, Yael and Zyla had run afoul of Agent Riverstone and been stymied in their attempts to fight against her by the magics the planet possessed. On a space liner in the middle of nowhere, Zyla knew she could fight far more effectively, but she still wasn’t sure if she could win a battle if one were to erupt between her and Bo.

“You come with official Imperial orders,” Yael said, looking over the folder,”But you are still part of the Abyz military structure. How did this confluence occur?”

“We have, I believe, some common enemies,” Bo said. “I was tracking a cult that called themselves “The Over Masters”. You’ll find their files sorted into a section in the back labeled ‘Defunct Organizations’.”

Zyla skimmed to the end of the file and pulled up the pages on the Over Masters. It was only summary information but it still filled a dozen sheets with names and associations in very small print.

“It says that the Over Masters were the descendants of a Warlord who once ruled Abyz?” Yael asked.

“Yes, and now that our fate weave has diminished, they decided to attempt a retaking of their claim,” Bo said.

“It doesn’t look like that went well for them,” Zyla said. “Did any of them manage to escape? Or even survive?”

“We took several of them in alive,” Bo said. “But unfortunately quite a few escaped our net.”

“You said they were common enemies?” Yael asked. “How are they connected to us?”

“If you look at the final page of their entry you’ll see a listing for ‘Affiliated Organizations’,” Bo said. “See if the third name on the list sounds familiar.”

“The Red Running Stream?” Yael said.

“The Over Masters are connected with the assassin group that is targeting the Chinuri delegation?” Zyla asked. “How?”

“They share a resource pool,” Bo said. “We’ve seen identical combat artifacts turning up in the armories for both of the cults, and several others as well.”

“They don’t seem to share any ideological connections though?” Yael said.

“No, they don’t,” Bo said. “Which is why I’m here to see you.”

“We’ve been on defensive duty since we were assigned to this case,” Zyla said. “We haven’t been able to research the Red Running Stream at all, apart from interviewing the Chinuri on them.”

“That’s ok,” Bo said. “I have placed my personal team of agents at the disposal of the Empire while we investigate this threat to Abyz. They’re running down leads on the Red Running Stream and the other cults that we’ve discovered.”

“What do you need us for then?” Yael asked.

“We can track down all of the logical trails,” Bo said. “There is another piece of the puzzle that I need an expert opinion on. It’s a prophecy.”

“That sounds like something we can evaluate for you,” Zyla said.

“It’s about my sister,” Bo said.

“Or perhaps not,” Yael said.

“That’s almost exactly what she said you would say,” Bo said. “If it changes things, the prophecy actually involves her daughter-to-be.”

“Mel’s pregnant?” Yael asked.

“Interesting,” Zyla said. “I didn’t think they would be able to have a child.”

“I gather they didn’t either,” Bo said. “But stranger things have happened.”

“I’m not sure that it will matter much for our ability to help you understand the prophecy,” Yael said. “Mel’s daughter is probably obscured by her mother’s powers as far as we’ll be able to see.”

“What is the prophecy?” Zyla asked. “And why do you think it relates to the connected cult issue that you’ve found?”

“It’s intuition,” Bo said. “Nothing more, and I’m concerned that I’m seeing a connection because the events are important to me rather than because there’s any reason for them to be related.”

“That’s possible,” Yael said. “We usually see things from the very limited perspective of ourselves.”

“But if you felt strongly enough about this to seek us out, then it’s worth not dismissing your intuition too lightly either,” Zyla said.

“Thank you,” Bo said. “It feels like with the connection between the cults there must be some well hidden force at work. Their goals are still opaque to me, but the only reason to go to this sort of effort, on this sort of scale, is if you wish to cause a lot of havoc.”

“And the only thing worth directing that level of havoc at is the Empire,” Zyla said. “Which makes this our direct business if so.”

“Yes, but we can’t abandon the Chinuri yet,” Yael said. “Until we find the skein of whatever plan might exist we have to play for the wins that are available to us.”

“I think we have the time to do that,” Bo said. “The prophecy that Mel and Darius talked about spoke of the time when their daughter, or whoever it applies to, takes control of their own powers.”

“Children can start casting at a very young age,” Zyla said.

“But they don’t normally have full control of their magics until their teenage years,” Yael said.

“Since the girl in quest hasn’t even been born yet, I would guess that there is time for us to get ahead of this problem,” Bo said. “And that’s what I’m here to confirm.”

“It’s certainly something that we can look into,” Yael said. “Give us a moment to get ready and then read the full prophecy aloud to us. If we work together we may be able to track its path forward and see the event that it’s referring to.”

Zyla quieted her mind and opened her senses to the Aether. A moment later she felt Yael take her hand and then felt their vision join into one. Together they were far stronger than either of them was apart, but they needed to be exceedingly careful that they didn’t cast themselves so deep into ocean of time that they wound lost in the dreams of what might be.

As though from a great distance away, Zyla heard Bo begin to recite the lines of the prophecy. They were in a very old tongue but thanks to the Galactic Common translation spell everyone in the Empire used, even the ancient words were rendered meaningful. They spoke of a time perilously close, only a heartbeat away, but that was when the event was viewed on a scale far broader than a human life span. The scale of time had to be that wide open though to encompass the size of the threat that the event carried.

In her mind’s eye, Zyla saw all the lights in the galaxy blown out, one after another, until nothing remained, just a hole in the universal fabric with nothing around it save the nearest neighboring galaxies which were next on the menu.

Deep in the depths of time, Zyla felt her hands start to shake at the enormity of what lay in wait them, but the warm grip of the woman she loved helped her to hold on and make it back to the present.

Where the space liner was shaking as though caught in a maelstrom of incredible turbulence.

That was worrisome.

Space is many things, but filled with turbulent winds is not usually one of them.

Looking out the conference room’s wind, Zyla saw something massive blotting out the stars. It had surfaced into their reality, following she and Yael back for unknowable reasons and was diving down once again into the folds of time to await some unspeakable day when it could rise once more.

Though is was thousands of miles away, the shockwaves of its arrival and departure slammed into the star liner, shattering bulkheads and rending apart the frame. Caught in the creature’s wake, the ship disintegrated, leaving Zyla, Yael and Bo adrift in the empty reaches of interstellar space.