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She felt a stab of guilt for doubting Riv. She needed to make amends, so she waited until he was done with Zane before approaching him.

She found him at the quieter end of the bridge, in a nook created for a calm tete-a-tete, far from prying eyes.

He stood at the vast viewport, gazing outside as the place she’d called home for many years receded from sight.

Riv started when she wrapped her arms behind him to pull him close.

He turned around, his face splitting into a smile. ‘You OK, my angel?’

His eyes probed her lilac ones, searching hers to sense where she sat on their earlier cooling off.

She gave him a soft look. ‘I adore you so, Riv; it’s difficult to be angry with you for too long. I can’t bear to waste another second being upset with you.’

‘My sweet love,’ was all Riv could say, leaning forward to kiss her.

She shared her lips before pulling back to serve him a rueful look. ‘That said, I apologize for my stroppy attitude earlier, my Sableman. It’s hard to leave what I’m familiar with and trust in a future I can’t envision yet. It was unfair of me not to trust in you.’

His face softened, his arms banding around her. ‘I understand. If you want to, we’ll come back, my heart. That I can promise you.’

‘I’m not sure we will. I’m not sure I now want to return, given that it holds so many dark memories.’

‘Just hold on, love. Once we get through this trial, we can make the best memories together.’

Élisa fell into his arms, her eyes wet with tears. Each day with him now was a gift, and overwhelmed with emotion, she reached up to him.

He lowered his lips to hers, and as Glimmer ascended to the skies, they lost themselves in a passionate embrace filled with promise and hope.

RIV

The sand shifted as six silhouettes cloaked in stealth suits landed on a lake’s thick, stark-white surface, which had been long dried up by the intense sun rays and was now captive to a raging nebula.

Zane shared a quick direction. ‘Keep all comms to our HUDs. Élisa and Killen, if your helmets fail, your dampeners will still allow you to listen to our comms and neural conversations. Everyone, follow me.’

Killen and Élisa hovered alongside Xion and Ki’Remi for cover while Riv acted as rear guard.

He stared with interest at the edge of the dried lake they’d landed beside, studded with a series of stainless-steel statues featuring strange, ghoulish creatures.

As they made their way closer to the phenomenon, twisting down to the salt surface, the sand below them shifted into a startling color range, from dusky mauve to bright pink.

The unfamiliar salt pan was devoid of vegetation and life.

Apart from clusters of shrouded silhouettes in tan and white cloaks. They floated just above the ground, caught in a bizarre, circular dance around the nebula’s base.

Xion exclaimed, breaking the silence. ‘What the freakin’ hell?’

‘I recognize the monks of Devansi alongside a few foreigners,’ Killen replied. ‘They’ve been worshiping the entity for weeks now.’

The group approached the swaying monks with care.

‘No weapons yet,’ Zane cautioned. ‘Besides, I can deal with any attack if it comes.’

Riv glanced at Élisa, who’d drifted close to him at the rear of the advancing party.

‘You OK?’ he asked her via the HUD network.

She turned and gave him a look through the transparent plex of her helmet. ‘I’m coping. And the dampeners Ki’Remi provided are working so well, there’s no negative effect.’

He called out to his son, who was tracking ahead and keen to get into the action. ‘Killen?’