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The additional sweep of Draven and Serena’s house did not reveal anything new, with the exception of this weird silvery box filled with weird silvery cubes. We had taken it back to the Great Dome and now stood staring at this object dominating the center of our council table. Its reflection lingered on the glass, and we struggled to find words as we tried to peel our eyes away from it.

“And here I was, thinking today might be devoid of significant progress,” Phoenix muttered, breaking the silence. Derek had summoned him back from his field work with the Daughters so he could be here for this. Of all the Shadians currently on the island, our great-grandson was the most equipped to study this new piece of tech.

Phoenix ran his fingers along the edge of the box, then pressed the delicate lime green button. The lid popped open, revealing the small cubes inside. “Grandma Sofia and Kale were lucky to find this. I sanction every new piece of tech that comes out of GASP’s engineering corps, and I’ve never seen this before.”

“It has to be property of Isabelle’s clone,” Kailani added. “The cubes are much different than what Claudia’s double took from her, though. Bigger. The design varies, too. The material… these are something else, I’m sure of it.”

“The irony being that we don’t know what that other tiny cube thing was, either,” Phoenix let out a dry chuckle. “But you’re right. These things are definitely different.”

Draven and Serena were sitting down, clearly baffled by this recent development. “For two months, those things must’ve been up in her room, hidden beneath the floorboards,” the Druid mused.

“I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that our daughter has been gone for those two months,” Serena spat, her patience worn thin and her resolve fractured. I remembered the look on her face when she first learned that Isabelle had gone missing. Long ago, I’d lost my son, Ben, and now I had no idea where Thayen was. I didn’t need to imagine how Serena was feeling. I knew it all too well.

“Thayen and his crew are handling that issue, hopefully,” Kailani interjected, trying to steer the conversation away from a pit of despair. More frequently than ever, the grief and the anger provoked by this entire situation had a way of hammering down on our resolve, making it harder for many of us to get through the day. The more we waited out here, unable to go after our people, the more it hurt. “Let’s focus on what we can do here, just until another shimmering portal opens.”

I looked to Phoenix for ideas. His wife and daughter were in the realm beyond, and he was hanging on by a fine thread. We needed him busy and focused on this new discovery—for his sake and ours. “Does it look like anything you might have seen before, darling?” I asked.

“Not really,” Phoenix replied, frowning as he approached the silvery box. He carefully lifted one of the small cubes. It fit in the palm of his hand, its edges glimmering lime green, much like the button on the box. He turned it over several times, then held it up to his ear. “I’m hearing something…”

We all moved closer, curious. Maybe we’d hear it, too.

“It’s faint, but I can hear it,” Phoenix continued. “Voices, I think. Different tones, but familiar. I need to figure out what’s inside.”

“It’s not magic,” Kailani said. “Not any magic I know of, anyway. The Word hums inside me whenever I’m close to these things, but that’s all I’ve got.”

“What if it’s a combination of magic and technology?” I suggested. “We can’t be the only ones in this vast universe who mixed the two. Well, technically speaking, Ta’Zan was first…”

Derek nodded slowly. “I’m inclined to agree. Is there any way for us to ascertain if the magical part of these devices is the same as what opened the shimmering portals? We need to establish some areas of commonality, otherwise we’re stuck with foreign elements, tangled and impossible to decipher.”

Kailani and Phoenix exchanged glances. “I’m more than happy to work with you on this,” the witch said. My great-grandson gave her a warm smile.

“It would be much appreciated.”

“We’ll do an external study first,” Kailani told us, while Phoenix nodded in agreement.

“Then we’ll scan each cube. Hopefully, we will be able to see inside. It’s our best shot at studying whatever circuitry makes these things work,” he added. “Once we’ve got an idea, we’ll start looking into ways of cracking one of them open.”

Derek sighed, settling in one of the chairs nearby. “In the meantime, maybe a shimmering portal will open, and we’ll be able to go after our kids.”

“I was going to ask…” Phoenix began, leaving his cube with Kailani. “Can I join your team when that happens? Assuming a shimmering portal opens nearby, and you’re the first responders, of course.”

“Yeah. I’m sure both Viola and Astra would be happy to see you,” Derek said, a dark expression in his eyes. We hadn’t had a moment alone in the past few hours, but I knew he was troubled over Thayen, too. The uncertainty was the worst, but we had to move past it. The Shade still needed us. The parents of those who had gone missing needed us.

Phoenix and Kailani took one silvery cube each, gently touching each side as they tried to feel for anything out of the ordinary. A particular groove, perhaps, or a hidden latch. Anything that might help them open the damn things and figure out what purpose they served.

I sat down next to my husband, while Serena and Draven went out for some air. I couldn’t blame them. These were hard times, and their situation was by far the most concerning, given how long it had been since Isabelle’s abduction. The idea that a clone had expertly filled in for her was particularly disturbing. We were marked now—and hopefully easy to detect thanks to the Reapers—but I couldn’t help but wonder how many times I’d unwittingly crossed paths with clones in The Shade.

How many times had I hugged or kissed them, thinking they were my children or grandchildren or beloved nephews or nieces? I shuddered as Derek put his arm around me and pulled me close. Ben and Rose were watching the screens with renewed interest, as new messages came pouring in from different parts of the GASP federation.

“The Daughters are still working on a way to reverse-engineer a shimmering portal,” Rose said. “I think we’re better off staying here for now. There isn’t much else we can do.”

“I agree,” Ben replied. “River will come by with fresh blood and food at some point. Caleb is currently supervising all the dispatch teams.”

“We’re in limbo,” I sighed, resting my head on Derek’s shoulder.

Ben turned to face me. “We’ll get him back, Mom. Thayen is one hell of a fighter.”

“I know. I have all the faith in the world that we’ll get Thayen back,” I said. “Truth be told, I’m dying to figure out what this whole thing is about. Ugh, I don’t know, it feels like we should know more at this point, at least about the enemy. They serve a purpose we don’t understand. We don’t know what we have to do or how to do it.”

“We’ve responded well so far,” Derek replied in a bid to comfort me. “Especially considering all the unknowns we’re dealing with. Besides, from what I remember, every new enemy we’ve encountered baffled us in the beginning. Hopefully, this time, Kale and Phoenix here will be able to get something out of those cube thingies and get us some new information.”

Rose frowned. “I’m curious. Phoenix, you said you heard voices inside.” He nodded once. “What if they’re recordings? I’m just spit-balling here, but if this is some kind of foreign magi-tech, what would the purpose of voices inside be? My money’s on recordings. Footage, maybe.”

That actually made a lot of sense. “Isabelle’s clone had them here for a reason. She could clearly travel to and from her dimension through the shimmering portals, so why did she leave the box behind?” I wondered aloud.

“Maybe she didn’t have enough to send back,” Rose suggested with a shrug. “And she was still trying to gather enough intel when she got caught?”

“They already have all the intel they need,” Ben replied. “Considering they’re perfectly capable of mimicking us and infiltrating The Shade.”

“There was something in the tiny cube that Claudia’s clone recovered from Isabelle’s double, too. Or something about it that made it so important. Either way, it’s gone, they have it,” I reminded them. Without knowing what purpose each object served, it was easy to get confused.

Rose thought about it for a moment, and her shoulders dropped. Phoenix noticed her disappointment and set the cube on the table with the others. “We’ll find out,” he told her. “It’ll take some patience, but we will get to the bottom of this, one way or another.”

I believed that. I really did. It just bothered me that there were so many gaps still left to fill for the bigger picture to become clear. Rose’s theory about the cubes containing recordings did make sense, though. I only wondered what kind of recordings they contained—and why Isabelle’s clone had decided to keep them here instead of sending them back to wherever she’d come from. Unfortunately, she was dead, and she didn’t have an actual soul for any of the Reapers to question. She’d only had a fake one that did not belong in the Afterlife. It had been good enough to fool us, but not good enough to pass that threshold.

“Oh. Esme and Kalon are coming over,” Rose said, reading a new message from the screens. “Says here you authorized opening the main portal for them, Dad.”

“I did, yeah. Tristan and Unending are out of our reach for the time being. The last message Tristan left was that they would be away for a while, but we do have Esme,” my husband replied. “I figured we could use an anthropologist to help us with all the intel we’ve gathered so far. The clones are operating within a system of values. Esme can study what we know and potentially offer something useful in terms of analysis. Something we might have missed in the chaos that led to Thayen and the others… vanishing.”

“Good,” I said. “Esme is excellent at what she does. She specializes more on the physical side of things, but she is perfectly capable of filling in for Tristan in the theoretical department, as well.”

Besides, I looked forward to seeing her and Kalon again. They’d been on the outside until now, and our minds were nearly overwhelmed with our efforts to respond strategically and make sense of what small details we’d been able to gather thus far. A fresh pair of eyes might offer new insights, perhaps even an assessment of what we were doing right and what we could do better.

My stomach ached, and it wasn’t hunger. I missed Thayen. I missed him more now than ever before because I had no idea when I would see him again. I had to believe that he would be okay. That he’d survive, whatever fate decided to throw at him.