Jack stumbled as shadowy faces swirled around him. He looked down at the leather-bound book in one hand and totem in the other. Their shapes stood out in stark relief against the swirling gray and black shadows. He studied the totem, a carved figure of an old man with a bald head and long robes. The little figurine held his arms crossed in front of him with hands lost in the folds, a half-smile on his face. Jack shifted his gaze to the book with the familiar tree carved into the surface of the leather, the life tree from his dream. He raised his head, and the shadows spun away. His knees started to buckle, but he felt a firm grip on his arm, steadying him.

“Saeb,” came a woman’s voice, “it is you.”

“Laean?” Jack looked into her deep crimson eyes and stepped back, pulling his arm free. The solid wood of the front door press into his back.

“I should be across the world,” he whispered, holding up the book.

Laean smiled. “You made it through the trials.”

“Saeb’s trials,” he said.

“You are Saeb.”

“No,” Jack said.

Laean gave him an appraising look, narrowing her eyes before nodding her head. “That, I think, is the heart of the trials. You… I mean Saeb, wanted to ensure that the incarnation that finally reaches the totem was sane, not infected with Shen madness… or Lily’s.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack’s head was throbbing.

“Sit down and eat,” she said. Jack allowed her to lead him to the kitchen table. He lowered himself slowly to a chair and placed the journal and totem in front of him. Laean rummaged in the refrigerator, pulling out sliced turkey, milk, and bread.

“Eat this,” she said, setting a plate beside the journal. He hesitated only a moment before devouring the food.

Between bites, he said, “I have to find Ann. How long—” he looked at his watch, but the digital screen was blank.

“Sometimes electronics don’t survive when we channel that much energy,” Laean said, leaning against the far wall. He wanted to cringe under her scrutiny, but his stomach growled again and he continued to eat. “You have only been gone moments, a half-hour at most,” she said.

“Moments,” he muttered. “But I was, I,” he stammered and took a deep breath before continuing, “I was in there for ages with Saeb and Millae, and Lily,” his throat clenched but he continued, “and Jode, the trial took forever, it—”

“Time moves differently in VR. But now, here you are with your totem.”

He nodded, and she narrowed her eyes at him. He could feel her touch his mind. It wasn’t hostile or forceful, more like a gentle probing.

“What are you looking for?”

“Just making sure,” she said.

“Of what?”

“That it’s you. You survived the trials,” she said. “Your body isn’t wasting away staring at the wall until it dies.”

“That happened before?”

“On a few occasions,” she said, flicking her eyes away.

“But something is bothering you,” Jack said, taking a drink and sitting back. He felt stronger but not ready to stand yet.

“I have only found you a handful of times, Saeb… Jack. And each time you failed the trials.” Her gaze pierced him, red eyes illuminating slightly. “I stayed with you as your body died.” He felt her touch on his mind grow stronger and wished he knew how to block her out.

“And you wonder what’s different this time?” Jack said, slowly climbing to his feet, testing the strength in his legs.

She nodded. “You’ve never come back to me… to us.” She stood up straight from the wall to face him.

“I’m bonded this time,” he said.

“We’ve never been able to find a bond for you,” she said.

“Who is ‘we’?”

“Gai, my bonded. You met him at the train station.” She smirked.

“The guy I hit?”

“Yes,” she said with the same twist of her lips.

“I won’t go crazy this time, I have to find Ann. I can’t let Darean do to her what Jode did to Lily.” His heart clenched at the thought of Lily. Even now, as Saeb’s memories dimmed, he could imagine the longing for her like an addiction, a hole that could never be filled.

“They ‘evolved’ her,” Laean said, twisting the word as if it were sour. The tension around her eyes melted away along with the glow as she broke contact with his mind. “I believe you, Jack.”

“Good, and now I have to go.” He turned and strode toward the front door. “I have people waiting for me and if I haven’t been gone for long, there is still time.”

“Wait, Jack, there is more you need to know.”

“I can’t wait, not anymore. Darean has Ann in a box, I saw it, with water running over it so I can’t connect with her. Do you know what that feels like? It’s a need so strong that it hurts.” Jack reached the front door and put his hand on the knob. “And she’s alone: scared and confused.”

“I have worked for this too long to let you kill yourself by charging into Darean’s horde.”

Jack opened the door. “Saeb said I could trust you and maybe that’s true, but I don’t know you.” He turned to look at her, “Do you know what the last trial in my journal was?”

She shook her head.

“It was in the Lab, a test to prove that I would not let Millae and Jode loose on the world again. You’re Shen and I don’t know who you serve.” He pulled the door open, “Lock up when you leave—”

“Jack!” A force pushed him into the door, slamming it shut with his body. He looked back, but Laean stood across the room with a storm raging across her features.

“Fool,” she cursed. “Shut your mouth and listen for once. You are not ready, even though you must go. Your mortal friends cannot help you, but I can.”

“I won’t let you slow—”

She raised her hand as she spoke, cutting him off. “I’ve searched for you longer than you can imagine. I’ve known you even longer, and I know how stubborn you can be.”

“You can’t—”

“I’ve been the keeper of your relics for too long, but they’ve finally worked. The journal was to help you awaken and test your spirit, and the totem, a key that can unleash fire on the world again.” She paused, watching him struggle with the idea.

“I don’t want to do that.”

“That’s right,” she said. “You burned the world once, but I know you serve the light and I mean to ensure it stays that way.”

“What will you do?” He reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around his totem, feeling the smooth stone in his palm. She stepped into the small living room and he pressed his back against the wall. He felt energy pulsing out from her. She tilted her head to the side and the corner of her mouth quirked up.

“Just listen,” she said, tilting her head down and shaking it furiously until her black hair swirled around her face. When she lifted her head again, her eyes glowed with a brilliant red color and her hair clung to her smooth face in short blue strands. “I’m here to serve, but sometimes I need to lead.”

Jack gasped and released his totem. “Sarathen,” he said.

“May the light shine upon you and the fortune of creation grant you strength,” she whispered.

“And you,” Jack said breathlessly. “How?” He rushed forward and took her hands in his. Countless scenes flashed through his mind as they touched. Floating through the floodwaters for years on a small ship, finding the Island of Song, and before that, cities and battles, storming into Shu strongholds and human camps, cramped carrier ships…

“We are your keepers, and we still fight for the light,” she said with a chuckle as tears sprang to her red eyes, matching those in Jack’s bright brown.

“We again?”

“Braiden is always with me. He is called Gai now.”

“And you have bonded?” Jack said.

“For many lifetimes, to stay in the physical and hunt for you.”

He nodded, struggling to remember details, but they would not come. He knew Sarathen, though, and would always know her.

“You have lived many lives, General, but never passed your own trials.”

“The bond is the key,” he said.

She nodded, and he knew she was reading his thoughts. He welcomed her presence and felt safe for just a moment, for the first time in a long time.

“We tried to find a bond for you in the past, but—”

“Why didn’t you try to bond with me?”

“I couldn’t…” she said. “I would have,” her eyes grew more intense. “But to stay in the physical, to keep the fight alive and keep searching for you, Braiden and I had to maintain a bond.”

“So, he would have to die for you to bond with me.”

“And he would have, gladly, but each time we found you, you were so far gone. Or if we found another Shen to bond with you, it never worked. You rejected every one. And you never linger in Haven, we know this—”

“My curse,” he said.

“—we’ve tried to reach you in Haven as well.”

“But you, Sarathen, in the physical, you could have—”

“It is not so simple and now we must act quickly if we are to shut down the Nost Accords.” Jack tilted his head and felt her connection to his mind withdraw.

“But, why didn’t you try?”

“There is so much to tell you,” she said, “But now, we have time for only the basics.”

“What are the Nost Accords?” he asked.

“Saeb,” she paused, searching his face, “Jack, I mean.” She released his hands and stepped back. Her voice shifted to an operational tone that felt familiar and strangely comforting. He pictured her standing in front of a team, briefing them about objectives and challenges for an operation. She was his best… what? Ally? Friend? “Both the Nostshen and Shu hunt for you in Haven and the physical,” she was saying. “They have agreed to lock you away and destroy your totem. That is the heart of the Nost Accords. After this, the Shu will control the physical and Shen, Haven. You are the only one who stands in the way because you are the only one who can reach the Isle of Song with your totem, and they know this. And, to seal the Nost Accords, they need to reach the Isle of Song.”

“Why?”

“The Shen live tortured lives in the physical, and the Shu cannot reach Haven. No one knows why ONUS does not upload the Shu, but when they die, they are gone forever. So, the agreement is to capture you and use your totem to reach the Isle of Song. There, they will seal this pact by crafting a block into every Shen who downloads. Shen can never bond in the physical again.”

“The Shen madness will take them.”

“That’s the idea. The Shen will stop downloading and interfering with the Shu utopia. Besides, if the humans are trapped in the rebirth cycle, why should it matter to the Shen council anymore? Let them suffer on earth and live in paradise in Haven.”

“No real harm then,” Jack said.

“That’s the logic, but it doesn’t work like that,” Sarathen said. “Humans carrying a lot of trauma are just as capable of creating a nightmare in Haven as they are in the physical.”

“The Shen will sit on their asses in Haven and let the humans suffer Shu rule on earth and their own tortures in Haven.”

She nodded, her blue hair swaying from the motion, red eyes locked on his. He felt her reconnect with this mind. “Most are fine, but some can’t escape the hell they carry with them, even after the In-between uploads more knowledge into them.”

“But they can only craft this block at the Isle of Song?”

“It’s the only place to channel enough power and reach every consciousness in Haven and earth.”

“And my totem is the only gateway to the Isle,” Jack said.

“As far as anyone knows.”

“What do we do?”

“We get you ready to fight,” she smiled again and her eyes lit up. Her expression sent a shiver of excitement down his spine and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “I’ll take this with me,” she said, lifting the gauntlet. He had forgotten about it until that moment. “You have your totem now, and Braiden will put this to good use. This artifact is too strong for you.”

“I used it before,” he said.

“Your totem is the most powerful artifact I know of and only you can use it, luckily,” she said with a nod to his pocket. “But where it is refined and sophisticated, the gauntlet is like a sledgehammer. Raw energy, hard to control.” He wondered what a refined artifact would feel like. The gauntlet was the only Shen technology he had used. And it was harder to take off each time he put it on.

“It’s addictive,” she said.

“You’re reading my mind.”

“Of course, and now, do you remember our battle cloaks?” she asked, with another mischievous grin, red eyes sparkling with excitement. Her perfect porcelain skin and round face looked better under blue hair, he thought. He tried to compare it to Saeb’s memories of her before, with her dark skin, but the two images of her blurred in his mind. She was more of a feeling than an image, like most people, he realized, and her presence in his mind was almost like his bond with Ann. She was a familiar sensation, like coming home after a long journey.

“I remember them,” he said, returning her smile. And for a brief moment, he felt like the world was back into some sort of balance.