Quietly, he assessed her.

“Are you well?” His voice was soft and melodic.

She hated it.

“Yes,” she hissed in reply, and stood from the wall. She had HIVE’d him, but she did not have enough power to rewrite him as she could the other Metals. They were simple—but he was made differently. If he had known a little more of what he could do before she tore apart his memories, she would not have had enough power to. He could have retaliated and—well, it did not matter.

She would not be this weak for much longer.

Behind the door, in the Goddess’s tomb, was her heart, and once she had it, she could tear this failing memory core out of her chest and return to her full power. And then she would—she would—

It was best not to get ahead of herself.

“The key, brother,” she said, outstretching her hand. He gingerly took the Iron Crown off his head and handed it over. She pressed it into the indention in the door, and the intricate locks began to whine and rotate.

There was a sharp crack, and the door split open, revealing a staircase down into darkness. Anticipation tasted sharp on her tongue as she snatched the glowlight from a nearby Messier’s belt and stepped down into the depths of the tomb.

As she reached the bottom, she listened for her heart to call her. The sweet sound of it beating.

There was silence.

In the center of the tomb sat an intricate stone coffin, dozens of trinkets laid around it on the floor. Vases and relics, golden standing candelabras and pouches of copper coins from long ago with a long-dead Emperor on their faces. In two strides she made it to the coffin and shoved open the lid. It clattered to the ground, revealing—

Nothing.

Not the Goddess. Not her bones. Not the heart—

Nothing.

Her face twisted in anger.

With a feral shriek, she shoved over an ancient stone statue of the Goddess and spun on her heels, her eyes crackling red with fury.

Where was it?

Had the Goddess stolen it already? Or was it in a different tomb? The prophecy had pointed to where the Goddess rested, and that was here, but her heart was not. She gritted her teeth, hating to be made a fool of.

The Emperor, at the top of the stairs, gave her a curious look. “Sister?—”

“Burn it to the ground—the entire shrine. I want nothing but cinders.”

“But—”

She extended her hand and the invisible strings of the HIVE wrapped around his code. With a twist of her finger, she rewrote his hesitation into obedience.

“Yes, sister,” he said.

From the sanctuary of the shrine came an abbess in an opulent silver robe, two abbots fresh from an Iron Shrine on Cerces a step behind her. They should have stayed on Cerces. The abbess’s eyes widened as she saw the opened tomb behind them.

“Your Excellence! You aren’t allowed to be back here!” she cried frantically to the Emperor. “This is the resting place of our beloved Goddess! She is—”