“You were right all this time,” I say.

“Do you mind if I read the letter?” Six asks. Sam hands it to her. I aim my right palm at the front page and turn on its light. She reads the letter in its radiance, then folds the pages and hands them back.

“I’m really sorry, Sam,” she says.

I add, “Henri and I wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for your dad.”

Six then turns to me. “You know, it’s ridiculous that your parents were Liren and Lara. Or it’s ridiculous I didn’t realize that myself. Do you remember me from Lorien, John? Your parents and my parents—their names were Arun and Lyn—they were best friends. I know we weren’t around our parents all that often, but I remember going to your house a few times. You were just a toddler at the time, I think.”

It takes me a few seconds to remember what Henri once told me. It was the day Sarah had gotten back from Colorado, the day we confessed being in love with one another. After she left, Henri and I were eating dinner and he said, Though I don’t know her number, or have any idea where she is, one of the children who came to Earth with us was the daughter of your parents’ best friends. They used to joke that it was fate that the two of you would end up together.

I almost tell Six what Henri said, but remembering how that conversation came about because of my feelings for Sarah brings back the same guilt I’ve felt since Six and I went for our walk.

“Yeah, that is pretty crazy. I don’t really remember it, though,” I say.

“Regardless, this is some heavy stuff about the Elders and how we’re supposed to assume their roles. No wonder the Mogs are so relentless,” she says.

“Definitely makes sense.”

“We have to go back to Paradise,” Sam interrupts.

“Yeah, right.” Six laughs. “What we need to do is find the others somehow. We need to get back on that laptop. Train some more.”

Sam stands. “No, I’m serious, guys. We have to go back. If my dad left something behind, that transmission device, I think I know how to find it. When I was seven, he told me that my future was mapped on the sundial. I would ask him what he was talking about, and he’d just say that if the dark stars ever fell, I was supposed to find the Ennead and read the map by my birth date on the sundial.”

“What’s an Ennead?” I ask.

“It’s a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology.”

“Nine?” Six asks. “Nine deities?”

“And what sundial?” I ask.