Cire let out an exasperated groan, hearing the commotion. “Well, this is par for the course. Regia, ying into Telga. If I didn’t know better, I’d say those two were the odd couple of this world.”

  “Telga clearly comes off as Jack Lemon to Regia’s Walter Matthew,” he commented dryly, with Telga accusing Regia of being reckless with her two summons, and Regia shouting back that they had all been kept in the dark, and that could have cost lives.

  Cire motioned him forward. “Let’s diffuse this before this boils over.”

  He could almost picture Regia pointing accusingly at Telga with a sharp cw, scorning her for withholding what she knew of the primal Etteria. “...would have taken it from him, and he’d never have been forced to fight against monsters and madmen!”

  “And he’d be dead, Regia,” Telga shot back. “You can be so short-sighted.”

  Shawn sucked in his breath, wondering if he should just wait for them to finish by the ajar door. This was going to suck to walk back into. Regia's voice notched upward from simmering to boiling.

  “Oh, I’m the shortsighted one? You’re the one who let yourself walk into a trap, and that’s how you got your powers zapped, while I had to watch! You were our best hope, Telga! You blew it, because you let your emotions get the better of you!”

  Shawn heard a shrill, angry response. “You were there, Regia! You saw what he was doing! We need every advantage we can get…or everyone will be dead, or a thrall.”

  “Let me take the lead.” Shawn tucked in his tunic as Cire pushed the door open, and everyone went silent. Regia was on the tips of her talons, leering at Telga. When she saw him, her gaze softened, and she settled into a more rexed stance.

  “So, are you good?” Regia waited several seconds before she asked him, gauging his reaction with her eyes scanning him. His deyed response indicated he was in fact, not quite good yet.

  “I will be. Eventually.” He surveyed the room, with Varrick now positioned between Telga and Regia, and Garrett taking to the sides–he was the most reserved in the room besides Chakra. “I have a question, Telga. Why haven’t you asked?” Shawn’s bold assertion stopped all discourse in the room. He stepped toward Telga. “You haven't asked me the most important question.”

  “Which one is that?” She knew, of course, which question had deliberately been avoided for so long.

  “Which Radiant is now a plus one, along for the ride.” He stopped a meter away from Telga, arms folded. “You’ve known since the beginning there might be a Radiant’s soul inside those crystals, based on the device–”

  “Don’t.” Her single-word refusal was barely above a whisper, and her wings fluttered with the faint sign of a tremble. “Because I don’t want to know, Shawn. I don’t want to know who it is. I don’t want to know that the soul of someone I cared dearly for is forever lost. That’s why.”

  “They aren’t forever lost.” He let out a breath so quiet, he doubted anyone else would have even noticed. “You know something? I might be dead and buried by now, if it wasn’t for them. I might be a pile of gnawed-on bones in the ursina’s ir. Their knowledge has already helped us. You’re looking at it the wrong way, Telga. You treat this like you’ve opened a Pandora’s box.”

  “What else could it be?” she fumed. “If we hadn’t discovered the secrets of the primal etteria, Revarik–”

  “You can’t know what he would, or would not have done, and specuting on that is a pointless exercise.” He knew he had to break this cycle. Telga was shutting down because she couldn’t see the upside. “I’m not thrilled to be an arcanist experiment who luckily, was not rendered into a pile of ashes on day one. I have abilities and a plus one in my head that are going to put them to good use, to do what you wanted me to do: help find a way to save your world.”

  “Shawn–”

  “Don’t tell me it’s impossible. You, of all people, who held godlike powers. I still don’t know why you also danced around your sister’s name.” His voice came in low, with a slow understanding of what this must feel like. He saw that weary look in her face, and the way her fingers clutched into her leggings.

  “I’m with Shawn. Telga, you’re stuck.” It was Varricks’ turn to talk, fingers clenched around his pipe, unlit, and holding it out of habit. “You think this is beyond hope. It isn’t. I would have said so a few weeks ago. Until Shawn and Cire helped pool their knowledge and talents to make upgrades on the rifles. Or the new armor inserts we’re prototyping.” he pointed to the half-finished mesh of fabric that Cire had found fascinating from the river reeds nearby. “Or, their unlikely survival against odds that few could face and win.”

  “Telga, you’ll never be able to move forward unless you face the truth. That you bme yourself for your sister’s death, even though it isn’t on you. You think, if you took Revarik’s side, she'd be alive.” Shawn deduced the logic–the same logic that worked against him, for so long. He’d bmed himself for what happened to Maggie. Every day. “The truth is, Telga? Your brother would have done it to someone else. The way he ughed at you, on Secturas station? That man has no regard for the sanctity of life. He’s been like that for a long, long time.”

  “You don’t know him like I do, Shawn!” she bristled–he’d knocked her out of her apathy, for at least a moment. “You don’t know who he was–”

  “I know who he is. And I know where you are now because I’ve been there.” Her furious words were cut short as he drove the point home. Her beak clenched shut, the way her eyes took in his painstaking expression. And she could hear the clench of regret that wrapped around his vocal cords. “That was me, for ten years. I bmed myself every day, that the reason Maggie was gone, was because I wasn’t strong enough to save her. Or that I didn’t try hard enough. There were bad nights that I woke up, feeling that drowning sensation. That feeling of death. Her pleading look, under the water, that memory was stuck in my head, on repeat.”

  Telga spent three seconds surveying the room, tapping a cw anxiously against the back of a chair, at the small meeting table. Then, he continued, knowing his words had their intended effect. “I know you feel lost, Telga. I know what that’s like, that there isn’t a thing you can do in the face of the impossible. That’s it’s easier to just be lost. But there’s a whole world riding on our shoulders, now. A world I’m going to scour from top to bottom, to find Maggie, no matter what it takes. And kill Revarik along the way, because there’s no scenario where I don’t put an end to him, for what he's done.”

  All eyes were on Telga, now. He was worried he’d push her over the edge of despair if he got this wrong, as Shawn concluded his thoughts. “Facing the things we fear will always be hard. But we need to, for the sake of others.”

  “I can’t…”

  “You can, Telga. I’ve faced horrible things too–” he stopped, as Halsey pinged him internally.

  Shawn…I need you to tell her something, in my stead.

  What is it? He could see Telga’s apathy breaking, the way she unclenched her fingers gently.

  ‘We are but cosmic motes of dust, in the eye of the great shoal to the beyond. But we shine bright when gathered collectively, forged together in the cosmic nursery of the stars, to form something far greater than our infinitesimally small selves.’

  “Telga…she wants you to hear something.” He reyed the words as Halsey spoke, and he saw the look of shock on Telga’s face. Her eyes went wide, a hand drifting to her beak. But, as he continued to speak, recognition took hold, and he saw her wings flutter. He heard a sniffle, and heard her voice shudder.

  “I…I know that passage. It was written in an academic journal of Marthicus Cedaline. A great researcher who spent his whole life studying the stars. He was one of the first to find the key to portal technology, to worlds beyond.” It took all her composure to say it with a steady voice. “My sister was enamored with his research. She quoted him often, and his occasional philosophical views. That one…was her favorite.”

  I remember that one from the soul, Shawn. Death didn't steal that from me.

  “Telga…you’ve been afraid to say her name. As if the memory will bring a pain too great to bear. But you still keep looking at her picture, in your locket.” He pointed gently to her, fingers still looped around the chain, like a nervous tic. It was a guess, but he knew it had to be right. Halsey, tell her something only you would know.

  You might hate me if I say this one aloud, Shawn.

  The part where you lied about knowing who you are? I realize why you did it, to spare her that pain. But, I might also be able to save a lost soul if you do.

  He waited for a response, while Telga gnced down, opening the locket. Everyone slowly gathered around her, and Shawn saw the picture for the first time. “I… haven't dared to say her name in so long, Shawn, that I’ve lost count.” Telga didn’t raise her head to address him but gazed longingly at the locket’s contents.

  It was a small image, and he could see three figures–young avians. The one in the middle was Telga, with snowy white feathers, bright eyes, and a shorter beak. To her right was the insidious source of their woes, with crow-bck feathers, a zy smile on his beak, and sharp, ruby-colored eyes.

  A smaller, innocent-looking version of Revarik. Where did you go wrong, Revarik? No one falls this far without reason. His eyes focused on the st figure, and he heard a startled cry in his mind.

  I remember this photo. I remember the loving father who took it for us. In the garden out back, by the floating isnds of Caldari. Greenery draped everywhere, flowers hand-pnted by mother.

  Standing on Telga’s left, arms and wings draped loosely around her, was a female, salt-and-pepper feathered avian with bright blue eyes. An eye color almost like Maggie’s, and his own. She was leaning in, grinning and tousling Telga’s feather crest, who didn’t seem to have a care in the world. He could, indeed, see the lush greenery of the background, and distant floating isnds that carried life of their own, not too distantly.

  Shawn could sense the love and affection between these two siblings that Revarik almost instinctively leaned away from, in the still image.

  “She knows that pce. The floating isnds of Caldari, Telga. She knows the hand-pnted flowers in the garden. The blue and white ones, with a five-petal pattern. What do they call it?” he asked quietly.

  “Starfire orchids,” she breathed, her hand shaking, and her voice wavering. “They bloom in the evenings about the same time the stars become visible, and they glow from a trace of etteria in their biology. But, how do you–”

  “Your mother pnted them, right?” She nodded softly, and he could see the realization dawning around everyone. “It’s rustic. Almost deliberately messy. But your mother wanted something natural to decorate her home, something that wouldn’t come across as hand-sculpted.”

  I said I would always be there for her. I remember that day. That nothing could separate us. And if this reveal gets us killed, I still will have held that promise, one st time.

  A hand went to her beak, the room going silent. Even Regia’s scorn for Telga had melted away, when she realized how badly she was hurting. Telga, in the meantime, let out a half-choked sob, almost held in check by her resolute composure. But, it wasn’t enough this time.

  “She said…she’d always be there for me.” The words were barely louder than the teardrops. Shawn saw it out of the corner of his eye, as Varrick gently nudged Garrett and Regia, and they shifted position ever so gently. Telga looked at him directly, shaking. “I wouldn’t have believed it after what Revarik did…but…”

  “No one’s truly gone if someone remembers them.” In that moment, it almost felt like his, and Halsey’s mind were working as one–the words came without resistance, and he could feel the unwavering resolve coming from her. “Upon ethereal wings, we traverse the stars. Wayward travelers spreading enlightenment, our gift to the living, in our memoirs.” He didn’t know the quote…but Halsey did.

  The locket dropped, caught by Cire’s reflexive hand. She swiftly stepped out of the way, maybe because she saw the motion coming when Telga smiled faintly, even as tears flowed. “Father used to say that. That our gift is not in our gestalts or fancy tricks of magic…but what we impart upon others…I missed you. I missed you so, so much…Halsey.”

  Shawn knew what was needed, and gave Telga a comforting hug while she broke down in a tearful smile, shuddering and shaking from wingtip to wingtip. A faint electric buzz wrapped around his feathers–an odd sensation he didn’t have an analog for.

  He knew that this was one thing he needed to get right–not for his sake, but for hers. “Telga, she might not be physically here…but she’s not lost. Not anymore.”

  She might have heard him, or she might not have, as she gripped him a little tighter. But he knew this moment was for both of these two. Halsey let out a shaky exhale in his mind.

  Shawn…I know you already have a world of impossible challenges…but will you–

  I’ll look after her.

  He didn’t need her to finish her thought before he’d made up his mind, and he held onto Telga gently, who wavered between sobs, and a joyful ughter. Halsey, if my goal is to put this back together, I'll start with the small pieces first. And they might be small, but they’re just as important as the big ones. They’re all part of the same beautiful picture.

  Only Cire stood there at the doorway, the others having subtly departed into the adjacent room of the apothecary. She lingered at the door frame before giving him a faint smile. She needed this. That was what he read in that small tug at the corners of her lips, and the way she motioned her hand gently to him as she left the room–hushed whispers just audible where Regia and Varrick spoke quietly.

  “Halsey…how are we going to do this…you always had an answer…” Telga’s voice found traction for just a moment, strained to the point of breaking. “I mean…Shawn…I’m sorry–”

  “Telga, I’ve been in mourning for ten years. I still might be. I know what it feels like.” Even his voice threatened to betray his feelings. “Like I’ve always said…and Halsey might agree…you solve the big problems by solving the small ones first. Because I’m not leaving this world without Maggie…and giving you guys a chance at a better future than the one Revarik has pnned. That’s my promise.”

  Telga let out a soft sigh, interjected by a sob. “Don’t let Halsey talk you into dangerous scientific endeavors. She can get a little too focused at times.”

  He ughed softly, and felt that clench of emotions in his throat. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. But uh…we probably have a lot more to go over.”

  Telga nodded softly, as she finally let go, wiping the mist from her eyes. “We do. But…maybe we start fresh tomorrow?”

  “I think everyone should camp out here for the night,” Chakra called out calmly, after poking his head around the frame. “Take as much time as you two need. We will need everyone at their best, for what is ahead.”

  Shawn knew what y ahead: a lot of work, a lot of calcution, and probably, a lot more tears shed. But he knew he’d fix one small thing by taking a risk:

  Telga truly had someone to fight for, now.