In that dead silence of the room, several ominous thoughts went through Shawn's mind.

  The first: Revarik was insane. There was no negotiating with this madman, ever. This only ended with his death.

  The second: Halsey had, at one point, been a Radiant. She had been hiding that fact, or something about the process had left memories scrambled.

  The third, though less certain thought, was that he was a Radiant, now.

  Halsey. Did you know?

  I tried to warn you, Shawn.

  Her voice was strained, in the confines of his mind. Meanwhile, he wore his calmest poker face he could muster, examining Telga's expression. “No wonder you didn’t want to tell me more than I needed to know. You didn’t want us to know the bloody history of your power. Each Radiant is the product of someone else's death.”

  “Not true,” she sighed. “Radiants can and do have children, who inherit some of their powers from their parents. This was the case with my sister, myself, and Revarik. The radiant of Conquest, the Radiant of Inspiration, and myself, the Radiant of Bance.”

  “And the Radiants can absorb power from others.” Cire gritted her teeth, now sitting next to Shawn and gripping his hand firmly, while he sat there, trying not to react to this bombshell. “Telga, you should have made that clear from day one.”

  “I told you it might have a price beyond what you could bear,” she corrected. “Yes. The Radiants have a secondary power, unique to them. We can absorb the Etteria from biological organisms. But under very specific conditions.” She pointed at the jar of fluidified Etteria that Garrett was anxiously looking at, sitting on the bench. “An ability Revarik took from me. He took my radiant essence–but left me alive. Barely.”

  “But what about…people?” Shawn asked warily. “Because, I do not know if I could live with myself if I was sapping people’s powers in that way, Telga, not willingly. I’d throw myself off the edge of Remaria before I became a danger to people.”

  “It’s not like that. The only people that would truly have to worry about that are Radiants, and monsters with enough bio-Etteria in them. Monsters, that seem to be becoming more common,” she murmured, a finger tapping on her beak gently. “I think there’s a history to this. I think the Radiants were created to combat the monsters of the world before they could become too dangerous. Your encounter with the ursinas, and the tunnel viper? The records of Cicero? It’s contained in extraordinary monsters that would have posed a considerable threat to the citizens of Vea’nt, had they moved their hunting grounds.”

  “We can kill them with conventional weapons, though.” Shawn pointed to the rifles sitting unloaded. “Maybe unconventional tactics, but what we did wasn't impossible.”

  “You think those are the worst that Remaria has to offer?” Telga asked icily, eyes narrowed. “You haven’t seen true danger yet, Shawn. The monsters, or what Revarik is fully capable of. Whole cities rendered to ruin by unkilble foes. Monsters the size of buildings. They can, and have been recorded before. And for a while, the Radiants held them in check, and destroyed them.”

  “Until Revarik decided it was easier to kill Radiants.” Shawn rose to his cwed feet. “He killed your sister for power, Telga. For Fate's sake, if you have it in you to kill him, you have to. We have to.”

  “If it were that simple Shawn, I would.” Her exhale was shaky, the tension in her posture obvious. “You think I didn't try, before? When we went to the core world, I–”

  “Don’t,” Regia warned her, cws pressed tightly into her folded arms. “I’ll save you the soul searching, guys. We went down there under the guise of negotiations, two months ago. We were trying to kill Revarik. But it was a sughter, like I mentioned before. Revarik used that device to sap her Etteria core. I barely fought my way through in time to get to her. We burned our one back-door entryway to the core world to get out, and lost almost everyone.” She scoffed, looking bitter. “Wish I’d killed the bck armored, Goldilocks bitch on the way out, I knew from those sharp eyes of hers that she’s a menace, through and through. And worse, intelligent. She’s the one who saw through Telga’s ruse.”

  All the while, Shawn pondered something, while Telga argued with Regia heatedly. Halsey…if you were a Radiant…how long were you in that Etteria?

  I don't know, Shawn. I only remember glimpses.

  Halsey…is Telga your sister?

  …

  Have you been lying to me the whole time? Halsey let out a resigned sigh inside his mind.

  Even if I was, would it make a difference, Shawn?

  Do you not know, or do you just not want to tell me?

  I honestly don't know, Shawn. I remember knowledge of facts and statistics, I remember mathematics. But I don't remember faces. Or names. Maybe it's possible that some of it gets lost in transtion.

  Shawn rose from the table, his cws digging tightly into his palms. "I'm going to get some air for a few minutes. This discussion is not over, Telga. We need to have a blunt assessment of where we are, and where we are going. Because I need to know if I can trust you, to help me pull off the near-impossible." He didn’t linger to take in the resigned look on her face.

  A moment ter, he was standing outside, looking up at the starry expanse. Even as shaken as he was about the reveal, he still could appreciate that celestial beauty of those greens blues, and yellows of the nebu, far above him.

  It took the edge off the disturbing notion he was forever changed. No calming breath could still the churn of thoughts in his head at that notion. He sat there for a moment, taking in the sights. He listened to the chirp of crickets in the distance–one strange creature that had, apparently, made the trip from Earth. It was followed by strange alien bird calls, as they flitter from branch to branch, during the evening hours.

  He let out a slow exhale, trying to calm his nerves, unsuccessfully. Now I understand why you didn't want me to tell Telga. Because you're worried she might try to rip you out of me and try to acquire your knowledge. If only, for a fraction of a chance to gain insight on beating Revarik. In practice though, I don't think she would. I don’t think she could go to her brother’s depths of evil.

  He heard Cire clear her throat behind him, and he made the subtlest of motions. She leaned up against the wall next to him, where he had taken a spot. “So, I thought something was off for a while, Shawn. You've got somebody else stuck in your head. I wonder, why didn't you tell me?” She wasn't mad. She was just concerned.

  “Well, how do you know there is someone else?”

  “It was the way you’ve been acting, your thought process. You seemed to keep learning insights that I don't think you could have gotten on your own Shawn. I think Telga knows, but I don't think she knows which Radiant is within you."

  He leaned back, gazing at the sky. “It's awful, Cire. Somebody else gave up their life so that we had a chance. Whether it was just a normal death, or somebody ripped their Etteria right out of their body. I don’t think Telga knows, though; just look at her. She’s…”

  “Broken?” Cire’s blunt-force verbal trauma might have caused him to wince not so long ago; now, all he could do was nod reluctantly. “Yeah. You know what I see when I see her?” He didn’t answer, and she let out a soft breath. “I saw you. When you were at your worst. You know, you could have confided in me that you were having existential problems inside your head, the past couple weeks.”

  “I have been working up how to tell you for a while. But, then, we went on a misadventure through a mine. And, found a few findings along the way that I wasn't counting on.”

  His posture slumped as he leaned against the wall, smoothly carved logs and stones pressing against his wings. Cire took a position beside him, rubbing one wing shoulder gently. “Shawn, are you still you? I know I asked you on the orbital station, but…”

  “Does it help if I answer I feel like I'm still myself? I know I’m still me. I know who my family is, and who my friends are. I know the things I love and enjoy in the world, the great triumphs and the bitter failures. That hasn't changed.”

  Cire dipped her head for a second, then peered at him, curiosity etched in her attentive eyes. “So, do they have a personality? What's it like?”

  You can tell her.

  He’d known this reveal was coming eventually. But, at least she was on board with it. “Her name is Halsey. At first, she was a series of glyphs that I could somehow read inside my vision. Not like they're there but like in my head, like a projection. After a while, she became a voice." He ughed softly to himself. “She's a bit of a personality, you could say. And she keeps me from doing…well the more drastic things.”

  That's still debatable.

  Cire leaned in, tapping on his beak that felt like getting flicked on the nose, and he let out a grunt. “So, she's a she? Do you think that it's Telga's sister?"

  Shawn folded his arms, heading out though before he took a gnce to answer her question. “I think it's fair to say she doesn't want to know. Because if she is, it's going to break her completely. Imagine, that your dead sister is stuck inside some off-worlder, who doesn't have a vested interest in this world. And she’s so close, but you can't reach out to hug her, and tell her everything will be alright. That you can’t tell her you know there's a way to fix this. Because I don't know if there is. I think this is one thing I don't know is capable of being fixed.”

  “So, she is a person? Not a construct, or an AI?” Cire asked. He took it to mind, she was asking to understand–not to be insincere.

  “With her own mind and memories. Yeah. She has insights. She knows some things, but not everything. She theorizes that maybe some stuff gets scrambled in the…process.” It was the kindest term he could use to describe having your soul ripped from your body.

  They spoke for a few minutes, as he tried to expin what it felt like. To have a second voice in his head. She wasn't fearful--if anything, she was filled with wonder. Until the gravity of it sunk in, that he was changed...possibly forever.

  Cire bit her lip, a moment of sadness crossing her face before she leaned in for a hug. He didn't feel like arguing against this one this time, because he felt like he needed it at this moment. She let out a soft sigh. “Well, Shawn…and Halsey, if you're listening? At least you got put into somebody who's got the will to see things through. Because there's nothing that can stop Shawn. There’s nothing that he can't find a solution for, given time.” Halsey didn’t need to respond for Shawn to be able to know her feelings that emotional spark he felt through his head. Catharsis.

  “I think she needed to hear that, Cire. Thanks.” He let out a soft sigh. “This doesn't change things, though. We still have Revarik to defeat. We still have Maggie to find. And I know we've only been here a few weeks, but I feel for these people. I feel like we have a role of purpose here. If we were stuck here for all time? If I was stuck like this? I think those are things I could live with.”

  Cire let out a soft sound of surprise. “You think you could just…live like this? Shawn, I mean…it may seem terrible but…what if you forget the old you?”

  “There’s no ‘old’ me, Cire. Maybe a few physical changes, but…” he gestured to himself and tapped his forehead gently. “The universe didn’t lose Shawn Pentecost a few weeks ago. You didn’t lose me.”

  Her face brightened at that. “I was hoping you’d say that. I mean, not gonna lie, I was a little worried when you fell in the mine. But I also know you’ve got a stubborn determination, too.” She turned her gaze to the stars, and he did as well, and that exhale of relief was something he needed to hear, while they had a quiet moment. “So, what exactly is our next pn? I know you talked about upgrading the the, creating a milling machine, but we got a lot of steps between. We can do stuff on a small scale for now, but we're going to be slowed down until we get those all done. I'm still learning the alchemical stuff. We've got a long way to go.”

  Shawn straightened posture, and eased off the wall. "That we do, which is why we need to find the people to help us upscale and tech up as fast as possible. And I think we already have some of the people we need."

  “So, I guess we're going to be refining a crapload of ore sometime in the next couple of weeks, huh? Think it’s going to be straightforward?”

  “Yep, and some experimentation. I want to be able to put these monsters down for good. I might not hunt them for their power, but if they get in my way or threaten others, I'm going to take whatever blessings I can get. chance. Just, maybe try to stop me if it starts looking like an eldritch abomination route.” He rolled his shoulders, and noted the slight chill to the air that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago. The seasons, and their situation, were changing.

  She ughed softly at this felt like a ugh of immense relief. “Just like your manga comics?"

  “Yeah. Something like that, so let's get back in there, and start putting up solutions.”

  “Deal. Also, introduce me to the new gal, when you can!” she added. “I know it might be difficult, but I’d like to get to know her, too!”

  Tell her…that means a lot to me. To know I don’t exist in a void.

  “She says, let’s make it a date, of sorts.” Cire ughed softly at that.

  "That could be a wee bit awkward. Alright, let's get back in there, before we're missed!"

  They marched back into the building, with arguing ongoing between Varrick, Telga, and Regia, coming up the hallway. Varrick was upset, to put it politely.

  By the sound of it, Regia was about to wring Telga’s neck.