SETH
Seth Semira could not comprehend what had happened to him, why he seemed to be lying between the spires of Zal Fel, nor why he was surrounded by blood and bodies and—oh, gods, that was Ged.
Had Seth done that? Sickness lurched through him. His body was his own once more, but the last day was so full of holes . . . When he reached for those memories, his head swam with panic.
No time to dwell. He prioritized as he’d been trained to. He saw Ysira holding Neri tight in her embrace. Strangers milled about the platform, giving the two a wide berth, shouting and gesturing madly. Some were weeping.
There were Firstborn nearby, armored and diminutive. A pair of Zivoran knights kept pointing at them, berating their Captain, who appeared to be desperately trying to explain. Nearby, Saraida—of all people—knelt with her head bowed, as though in prayer.
It was chaos, and it was all too much. Seth wanted to retreat deep inside his own head, refamiliarize himself withevery corner of it and ensure it was trulyhisagain. No many-legged thing lurking in the dark, waiting to emerge when he least suspected.
His breathing came faster. He closed his eyes, but it didn’t help. The afterimage of that terrible fire still glowed red against the back of his lids.
A long, pale hand touched Seth’s cheek. At first, he flinched—and Jacen recoiled. Concern lined his face.
Seth started to interrogate him about whatever this was, because it
was almost certainly his fault, but . . . instead, he pulled Jacen toward him, one hand catching in his fair hair, and kissed him.
They touched foreheads. Jacen wrapped his fingers around the back of Seth’s neck.
I love you,Jacen said in his mind, where one could not lie.
That sensation—the voice inside Seth’s skull—made him flinch again. He pulled away, swallowing hard. He had so many questions, but all that came out of his mouth was a strangled “What thefuck?”
“You’re free.” Jacen’s face was stricken, his tone strange. “We’re all free. It’s—” He looked to Neri, and words failed him completely.
Neri turned, giving Seth a clear view of him. His eyes, already so alien, had changed again. Now his red irises burned in pitch-black sclerae. Dark veins spidered outward, framing those eyes like a mask. Seth could not discern a single human emotion on his face.
Without being told, Seth knew. It was too late.
There were so many bodies. Jacen and Ysira must have brought more than just Saraida, Teheda, and Nines from Otavok, but those three appeared to be all that remained. Teheda and Nines were injured, the latter unconscious. Theycouldn’t have put up much of a fight. But no one, neither the Firstborn nor the loyalist knights, dared attack.
Even as they argued amongst themselves, paced, wept, and nursed their injuries, they all kept Neri in their sights. His will was all that mattered now. Should he decide it, not one of them would not leave this rooftop alive.
A Firstborn soldier approached Neri and Ysira, hands raised. “We surrender,” he said. “What are your terms?”
A dozen others clustered at his back, all motionless. They hardly dared to breathe.
Ysira surveyed them. Then she drew herself up, tall and proud, and spoke as befitting the mother of a god:
“Kneel.”
Most did not hesitate. Knights and Firstborn alike knelt amidst the carnage.
A few remained standing. One, a Firstborn woman, said sharply, “This freedom won’t last. You’ll all burn for this.”
“Maybe,” said Ysira. “But you won’t live to see it.” She advanced on the woman, ignited her ashek, and drove it through her chest. The blade sliced through her armor like it wasn’t there.
“Reckless,” said the Knight Captain. Seth recognized the man from his father’s old guard. “Reckless and stupid. I’ll never bow to the likes of you.”
Ysira paced toward him, wearing an expression hair-raisingly close to a smile. “Captain. You just watched the sky split open and swallow a piece of the moon, and now you speak in defiance of that very power. And you callmereckless?”
He lifted his chin, defiant. Ysira nodded once. She cut his throat. In silence, Neri watched the knight bleed out on the stone.
Ysira raised her voice, addressing the two knights who remained standing. “You’ve seen the truth now, and soon, so willall Celes Lor. You were nothing but tools for them”—she stabbed a finger at the Firstborn—“to use and discard. Even if you stood a chance against us, you could not contain this. The choice is yours. Will you side with your own people or with the parasites who enslaved you?” Her gaze swept across the platform—a challenge. “Choose now.”
The knights finally knelt. Other than Neri, only Ysira, Jacen, and Seth remained standing.
