Darai nodded. “You would do so, my dear. As you have before, when you sent Valen to Arcardius masquerading as an innocent, helpless boy to pave the way for you.” He looked to the analyst. “Arachnid is coming, but with how many ships?”

“Only one,” the analyst said. “One ship. We will meet them in the skies and escort them here to Averia.”

Darai looked to Nor, taking her hand, eyes meeting hers. He smiled warmly, and she felt peace fill her from within at his touch, at his gaze. Peace with the plan. It was nearly all over.

She wanted this. She wanted to move to action, before it was too late.

Nor glanced back at her brother, struck by a sudden thought. “What use could Arachnid possibly have for Androma’s crew?”

“I imagine Androma probably asked for their freedom in exchange for surrendering herself peacefully,” Valen said. “She was always selfless when it came to them.”

A burst of energy filled Nor, followed by the need to get up and move as Darai squeezed her hand once more. “Then send our response,” she said to the analyst, again filled with that sudden burst of courage, that strange need to move. “And arrange for the girls to be there when Arachnid arrives with Androma. Arrange for a full guard, too. Zero opportunities for the Bloody Baroness to escape. I want her in my grasp, so we can transfer the power from her to me immediately. You will be there as well, to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. And once Arachnid gives us Androma, we must seize him, too. The man can’t be trusted. We’d be fools not to take them both together.”

“He will resist,” Darai said.

“And if he does, kill him,” Nor said boldly. “In fact, kill him even if he doesn’t resist. He’s too dangerous to be left alive.”

The analyst nodded, then raced from the room to carry out her orders. Nor turned back to the others, a new energy pulsing in her veins.

This was it. The moment she’d been working toward for so many years.

“A fortuitous ending to our day,” Darai said, smiling. “We must go at once, and begin the process of uploading Valen.”

Nor’s smile fell from her face. She’d forgotten, momentarily, about Valen’s choice.

She looked to him a final time, her heart still racing. Was this it, then? Was this to be the way things ended between them?

“Don’t think of it as an end,” Valen said suddenly. Quietly. As if he’d been reading her mind. He lifted a hand to her, and she went to his side to help him stand. He was so weak. So frail, compared to how he’d once been, when they’d first met on Xen Ptera, when they’d truly become the brother and sister they’d always had, but never known.