Beneath it, her old bed was untouched, and his chest ached at the sight of it.

His hand hovered over the plush, intricately designed blue quilt. Threads of purple woven in with the blue, signifying the two moons of Arcardius.

In his mind, Valen saw Kalee as she once was, lying on her stomach on the bed, her socks unevenly pushed down around her ankles, a book outspread before her as she skimmed over the pages.

If she were still alive, she would have heard him entering this room. She would have glanced up at him, her eyes rolling as Valen gave her some message from their father about training, about duty, about...

All of the things Valen had never cared to learn.

How funny, now, that he was practically a prince. And how far, yet again, he had fallen.

And Nor might never forgive him for what he’d done.

The doorway between their minds was closed. Thick obsidinite bars covered it, so that Valen couldn’t even reach through and knock if he’d wanted to.

And he did want to.

The guilt was a monster, writhing within him. But so was the feeling of loss. Abandonment. And with that...anger.

He’d saved her. Again and again, Valen would hold fast to the truth that he had saved his sister by pushing that enemy with the gun aside.

But you killed me in the process, a ghostly voice whispered to Valen, and he swore it sounded like Zahn’s.

Valen sank down on the bed in despair.

They only had a short time left, before the satellite was complete. And once Androma came, their mission could finally unfold.

Nor might not ever forgive Valen on her own, but perhaps, if he kept working, if he was loyal to his breaking point...perhaps he would still remain a part of something.

For he could not bear the idea of being cast out, left to navigate this life alone again.

He sighed, sinking back against Kalee’s mountain of pillows, wondering how many times she’d felt the weight of their father’s world on her chest as she lay in this very spot.

He closed his eyes. Within his mind, his power waited. It sang his name.

With a twist of his brow, he focused, breathing deeply in and out, pushing aside the pain, the exhaustion, the fear that he would never be good enough for anyone, maybe not even himself—and especially not Nor anymore.

One moment, he was lying in Kalee’s bed.

The next...

Valen set foot inside the confines of his mind.

Valen’s boots crunched across those old bones as he walked past the demons he’d slain, toward the fortress doors.