Groans filled the room as the soldiers began to stir. Andi tensed, waiting for them to attack. But instead, they blinked wearily, as if waking from a long sleep. Slowly, they seemed to come back to themselves.

Some cried out as they saw their fallen comrades. Others began to walk about absentmindedly, reuniting with their friends, calling out for their loved ones. A group of them simply sat and wept, staring down at their hands as they remembered what they’d done, as they remembered the darkness they’d felt beneath the compulsion.

Finally, they were free.

Klaren knelt before Nor, reaching out to rouse her gently. The fallen queen opened her eyes, focusing them on her mother, hope in her gaze. Then she looked to Valen, lifeless in the pod, his body still encased, his eyes still open and unseeing.

“No,” she gasped, turning to Andi with a murderous expression.

Andi held out her hands, ready to defend her choice, but Klaren spoke instead. “It was a mercy, Nor,” she said, her robotic voice as gentle as could be. “Your brother was long gone, lost to Darai’s power. And now...he set the galaxy free.”

Tears poured from Nor’s eyes as she stood, reaching out for Valen. Klaren helped her undo his bindings. Andi turned, giving them their space, just in time to see her crew approach.

Gilly came first, a blur of red hair as she leaped at Andi, wrapping her tiny arms around Andi’s middle. Breck followed, slapping her across the shoulder as she pulled both of them in for a hug.

Lira was the last to approach, her blue eyes holding Andi’s as if she’d seen what Andi had been about to do. As if she knew, and was not impressed by what her captain had almost done.

“I had to, Lir,” Andi said. “There was no other choice.”

“I know.” Her pilot smiled sadly. “But we must thank the Godstars that they found a way around that choice, and made a new one for you.”

Andi realized, suddenly, that she hadn’t yet told Lira about Lon. But her friend seemed to sense that, too. “Did my brother die well?” she asked.

There was pain in her words, but also something more. Adhirans had always had a different way of looking at death, knowing that though a body was gone, the spirit carried on.

“He saved us,” Andi said, watching as Lira’s scaled cheek slowly began to glow, then dim again as she took a deep breath. “He died a hero, Lir.”

Lira nodded, then reached out and squeezed Andi’s hand gently.

Dex arrived next, bleeding, but alive. And more handsome than Andi had ever seen him, a soldier who’d survived a brutal war and grown stronger because of it. He looked past their group as Klaren and Nor placed Valen’s limp body on the floor.