No one was entirely surprised to find most of the Hoary Fleet waiting for them outside the Bittergale. Capitaine Vrain invited them aboard the Thunderclap, addressed Isabelle as capitaine, and informed her that l’impératrice had extended her an imperial invitation to a personal audience at her earliest possible convenience. There was no mention of the recall order.

To Quill, Isabelle presented the regalia of Prime Architect Cassius, which had indeed been discovered amongst the wreckage. It was, after all, the thing he had officially signed up to find.

“And the Vault?” he asked, gesturing to the reliquary ring on her finger.

“It’s empty,” she said, which was literally true. “People are therefore still free to fill it up with whatever fantasies they prefer.”

Isabelle arrived in Rocher Royale at the first cusp of autumn and presented herself to Sireen in private audience to explain herself and what had transpired. It was a story long in the telling, and lasted well into the wee hours.

“So,” Sireen said, when at last she’d extracted every detail she could imagine from Isabelle. “If you are to be believed, in the time since the Prophecy was made, you and only you have emerged from the Vault of Ages. And you have set the world on its proper axis so that it might not be destroyed again. Does this make you the Savior?”

Isabelle blanched at the very thought. “Madame, I would never presume such a thing.”

“Other people would,” Sireen said. “The flickering of the world, as you called it, touched every corner of the world, every city, every hamlet, every charcoal burner’s hut. Some people went mad. Dozens of cults have sprung up within and without the Temple claiming that it was a sign of the Savior’s coming. Several charismatics have even claimed to be the Savior.”

“Put them in a room and let them fight over it,” Isabelle said. “The Savior isn’t something anyone should be. If you think about it, the Savior’s coming would be the end of the world, the end of strife, but also the end of achievement, improvement, and change.”

“So you think that meaning requires suffering?”

“No, just … uncertainty, I suppose, room for curiosity, and the space to grow and become something more than we are. I’ve had perfect moments, but I couldn’t keep them, and I wouldn’t want to. There are different perfect moments to hunt for, surprises to be had, and discoveries to be made. I would hate to have to pick just one.”

Sireen sipped her wine. The two of them must have worked their way through half a vineyard over the course of the night.

Sireen asked, “How do you come back from that; from touching the Builder’s mind?”

Isabelle said, “It helps to have things to come back to, family, friends, duties. Yet even if I had none of those, my bladder would have brought me round eventually.”