Chapter 370: Final Prep

By the time the twin moons started to rise again, the plan had given up trying to change.

Roles had been fixed and placed into order. Lucifer would spear the breach into the inner walls of the enclave. Aeloria would support but under the tight limitations around the starfire seals. Nyx would snip the joints in the walls. Heron, Zane, Anita, Rhazor, Remu, Francisca, and Dera would hold the corridor open during the first breach. Lucian would stay with the otherOrigin Clan to hold the realms from falling for as long as he could.

There was no elegance left in the plan. There was only whatever form had been the absolute strongest they had been able to place before the harvest had moved beyond reach.

Anchor stones keyed to Aeloria’s restricted outputwere distributed among the support line while the last tools were double checked and secured in the lower strategy hall. Emergency extraction marks burned into the wrist, bound to a single recall command Lucian could initiate if the realms began to fall. Nyx moved down the line personally, embedding slender threads of living darkness into the edge of each person’s authority – mini cutters to be inserted into the barrier joints come main attack time.

Zane turned one of the anchor stones over in his hands, glancing across the table at Lucifer. "If we pull this off it means punching a hole through into a place that was never meant to be breached and cutting a siphon that feeds off the old generation. If we fail, it means at best dying cleanly outside the final wall. The worst case in failure is dying inside and feeding the orb ourselves."

"That is the risk," Lucifer said. "It has not changed."

Anita secured the last of the blood-bound tracking lines before giving a single, short nod. "Then we stop polishing. The next time our team assembles, I trust that it will take place on the outer edge of the hidden sector."

Aeloria took hold of one of his palms and pressed it carefully against the projection table as if feeling something distant in the strain of the starfire seals. "I will keep my output within the confines of the agreed line. If I step over it the deeper seals will begin losing integrity. If that happens, prioritization to extraction becomes the new goal. No argument in the field."

Nyx’s black eyes flicked away from her. "No arguments. If you start breaking the garden from the inside, I will be the primary person to toss you out of the fight."

The preparations closed down one by one until there was nothing useful left to assign. All of their team dispersed to rest, to check and double-check their weapons and their own realms as much as possible in preparation for departure. The hall emptied out until only the hum of the monitoring lattices remained.

Lucifer tracked down Vina, Ella, and Luna in the upper chamber that still held the quiet weight of the night they had spent together. There was no formality as he passed through the wide glass doors and found the three waiting for him. It was the closest thing the chamber had been since the night it had belonged to the three of them in privacy.

Ella spoke first, arms folded. She had the sharp gaze of someone who was prepared to watch the game shift out of her control. "So this is final departure. Not a scouting run. You’re not heading back in there to measure it up. You’re going to be breaking the enclave open."

"Yes," Lucifer said.

Vina stood towards the window, the twin moons casting a thin red edge across the profile of her face. It had long been stripped from her the formality she had held as one of his shadow guards, but the severity in her posture remained untouched. "And Aeloria is not in a state to take up the center position. That means you will."

"Yes."

Luna took the place on the edge of the low couch her fingers clasped together. She was the most subdued of the three, but no less watchful. "We knew the risks were great. Knowing it was a clean failure, hearing that you are the spear instead of the support, does not help. It just makes it clearer."

Lucifer closed the door behind him and crossed the room until he stood in reach of all three of them. For a moment he said nothing. The war still hung just outside of the chamber. The personal truth of the three women in front of him was no less inside the chamber. Neither one of them disappeared to allow for the other one.

"I am not asking you to be happy about the positioning," Lucifer said. " I am just telling you where I will be when the next crossing is made. The harvest is already pulling on those new seats. My parents are still in those chains. If we wait to make a new safer plan, the orb will finish and the safer version will not matter."

Ella’s mouth tightened. "And if you do not come back?"

"Then it falls to Lucian to hold what he can and for the three of you to keep on living long enough to make the next decision without me," Lucifer responded. "I am not going into that sector to die for a clean story. I am going to cut the siphon. But I will not be standing here pretending the final wall is some kind of promised protection."

Vina moved first, stepping closer. Her fingers found purchase on the side of his face, thumb brushing a single time over his cheekbone, the same way she had in the blackness of that former night. "Then you listen to me before you leave. You don’t get to disappear into the role of hybrid and forget about the fact that you finally stopped keeping us at arm’s length. You have the ability to open a road through that wall if anything is to be there. I am not interested in mourning your legend if you find a way past it."

Luna pushed herself to her feet, joining the conversation by settling her hand on his forearm. "We will keep the palace and the inner lines in stable condition for the duration of your absence. We will not feign happiness. We will not ask you to choose between the people in chains and me or my sisters. Just remember you have more than a war waiting for you past that breach on the other side."

Ella exhaled slowly before unfolding her arms just at the end. She came in last, pressing her forehead lightly to his for a second before stepping back far enough to meet his eyes. "Finish it if you can. Survive it either way. I can deal with a hard win. I cannot live with you throwing yourself to be the price for an orderly passing without even pretending to try and come back."

Lucifer looked up from the table, studying the three of them – the woman who had stopped hiding how she felt about him, the woman who had always pushed him to understand the truth and the quieter third woman who held both of them together, all without raising her voice. The war had not suddenly reduced. It had just stopped being the sole player in the game.

"I will come back if it is possible," he said. That was the only truth he could offer on the subject. None of them wanted a sweeter one.

When he walked away from the chamber a short amount of time later, the final preparations were completed. The breach team would gather at the outer platform before the next full cycle of the metronome. The roles had already been assigned. The tools were in place. The personal and the war stood side by side, and not one of them erasing the other.

Outside, the pulse continued to tick away.

Inside the sealed universe of their worlds, the last quiet hour before the second crossing was slipping away.