Sarathen spun away from Jack, blue-tinted blade springing to life as she moved. Standing next to the fireplace, Graves was screaming hysterically as robed figures tumbled out of the flames. “There they are!” she cried. “The Nost, there!” She pointed her handgun at him and squeezed the trigger, but a figure dove between them, slamming into Jack.

“Bobby,” Jack gasped as they tumbled to the floor.

“I saved you again,” he whispered, eyes glazing over before losing focus. Jack thought of Bobby’s mother, lying on the kitchen floor, and tears sprang to his eyes. But the report of Graves’ weapon echoing off the walls pulled him back to the present. Searing pain blazed through his side as one of her rounds struck him. Why was Graves shooting at him? Sarathen turned with a whirl of her blade and threw herself at Graves and the newcomers. Jack pulled his battle cloak around him to ward off any more bullets.

“Get to Ann,” Sarathen roared, blue hair swinging with the motion of her arm.

Braiden shoved Pete and Greg between himself and Sarathen before calling his quarterstaff into existence. “Go!” he said, swinging his weapon at Darean, who was scrambling to reach Jack. Lightning danced around the room. Jack rolled over, glancing once more at Bobby’s vacant eyes, and tried to catapult himself from the floor. The stabbing pain in his side sent him careening sideways, and he barreled into Ann and Lily, toppling them both. He squeezed his totem with one hand and gripped Ann’s arm with the other. The Isle of Song, he thought, think about the Isle.

“No!” Lily grabbed his cloak, but it was too late. He felt a tingling sensation and the hair on his arms stood up. Ann’s eyes shot open, and she looked at him without recognition. The room broke into fragments around them, shards of brittle glass falling away. He focused on the Isle. He thought about the Pool of Consciousness, about the Shen singing the world, and all the years he spent meditating beside that pool. He squeezed his eyes shut and chanted, “Isle of Song, Isle of Song.” The smell of salt and sand filled his nostrils.

“Jack?” Ann’s voice.

“You have come,” three women’s voices sang in unison. He opened his eyes and tried to stand, but stumbled back to the sand. Ann sat cross-legged beside him, looking around dazedly. Her red hair stood out at all angles and the slender silk dress pressed into her thighs.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“You, Nostshen, are on the Isle of Song,” the three women said in sing-song voices with perfectly matched pitch. Jack tried to stand again but fell. He grabbed his side and felt blood seeping through his shirt. It wasn’t gushing, but it was steady.

“You’ve been shot,” Ann said. Then, “You’ve been shot!” She scrambled over to him and looked around for something to place on the wound. He felt her fear. Even through the pain, it was comforting to have her back in his mind.

“Why would Graves shoot me?”

“The Order,” the women chanted.

“She was with the Order the whole time?” Jack looked over to them and realized that none of them were wearing clothes. Each stood on a different side of the pool and swayed slightly as they spoke in their sing-song voices, sinewy bodies swaying with the breeze.

“Of course,” one said.

“That is why Sarathen could not make her forget,” another said.

“And how the Order found you,” the last one added.

One had dark hair, another blond, and another red. One’s skin was black as night, another pale, and another chestnut brown.

“She was Nost,” Jack said. “But didn’t know it.”

“Who are you?” Ann asked as she settled in the sand beside Jack. The high slit in her dress parted up her thigh. She pressed her hands against Jack’s wound and the small stream of blood nearly stopped. He wondered if he was healing because he was on the Isle or because he was fully awake and close to Ann? Maybe it was a Shen ability?

“We are the ones who sing the world, we sang it before, and we sing it still,” the black-skinned woman said.

“We are the oracles of Delphi,” said the light-skinned one.

“And the sages of the east,” said the chestnut-skinned woman.

“Those who seek our wisdom find the gateways,” they sang in unison. “Or the fragments in the world that speak to us.”

“You’ve been here since the Nost forgot about the Isle,” Jack said.

“The Nost never forgot,” one woman said.

“They lost the way,” Another said. Their eyes glowed like the sunrise.

“Same thing,” Jack said.

“Losing the path is not the same as forgetting there is a path,” the light-skinned woman sang.

“But now you will sing and we will rest,” they said in unison.

“No, we aren’t here to sing we—”

“Two more come behind you,” the woman with red hair said, tilting her head as if listening to the wind.

“Caught in a loop,” the black-skinned woman said.

“But they will arrive soon,” said the woman with blond hair.

Jack and Ann looked at each other.

“Who’s coming?” Ann asked.

“We cannot see them as they travel, we only know they come,” the women sang.

“That can’t be good,” Jack said. He looked around and saw a barren landscape, not what he remembered from his journal. He tried to imagine where his hut had been, but only barren red stone remained. Before the Burn, this was the center of the Shen world, the city center of the capital. Now, the lonely archway stood on one side of the Pool of Consciousness and the World Tree stretched up on the other. He remembered it being larger.

“Time shapes all things,” said one of the women behind him as he turned and struggled to his feet. He gently pushed Ann’s helping hand away. His side ached, but it was less than before. He stumbled to the edge of the Isle and gaped down at the ocean far below. Just like his visit in the In-between. They were a thousand feet in the air on a pillar of red rock.

“The oceans change,” another woman said as he turned back to the silvery liquid of the pool.

“We built that,” he said, pointing to the archway beside the pool, “when I came back from the Lab. I remember.” Not from his journal, his own recollection.

“Your bond is complete. You become whole,” said the dark-skinned woman, watching him intently. Jack looked into Ann’s eyes and knew she was Tara. But for some reason, he thought of his dad, of his small hand wrapped inside his father’s fingers, of walking through car shows for hours. Later, Jode’s voice would come and tear his family apart.

“You left for the military because you were afraid of that voice,” Ann said.

Jack nodded, knowing she was reading his mind. “I got into a fight when I was sixteen and hurt someone; I couldn’t control my anger.”

“It wasn’t you.”

“Jode brought out my rage, but it was still me.”

Ann wrapped her smaller hands around his.

“But he’s gone now,” she said.

Jack shook his head. “And so is my dad. He died while I was deployed. I think I broke his heart.” He looked over to the Archway and thought about Haven. Could he walk through that gateway and into Haven? Could he find his father in there somehow and tell him he was sorry, that it wasn’t him who did all the terrible things, that it was Jode who made him do it. Jode, who was his creator but not a father. Would his dad care now that he had been uploaded to Haven, now that he remembered other lives without a terrible son?

“Jode isn’t gone,” Jack said. “He’s below us.”

“And I’ve been searching for him for so long,” Lily said, laughing behind them. “I can’t wait to see him.”

Jack spun to find Darean and Lily standing in front of them with a look of triumph on their faces.

“You,” Ann said.

“How?” Jack asked.

“I’m your bonded sweet Saeb,” Lily said, “I deciphered your old fat man totem when I captured you years ago and copied the code to your old one, your real totem. We had so much fun in that dungeon, even if you did bite a little.” She winked at Jack. “But that witch Sarathen put a hole in you before I could make you open the gateway. To understand how it works, I just needed to see you activate it.” She pursed her lips into a pout. “But now I have.” She held up the silver spike, his old totem, and cackled merrily.

“From the Origin War, how did—”

“We simply needed to see the destination to code it,” Darean said, standing beside her.

“I needed to see it,” Lily said, glancing at him.

“Now,” Darean continued, ignoring her, “Lily can work out all her issues with Jode and I will have access to the Lab and ONUS.”

“What about the Nost Accords?” Ann asked.

Darean laughed. “A tool to flush you out. I had to make you the enemy of everyone.”

“You killed Sarathen,” Jack said, staring at Lily.

“She took what was mine,” Lily said, narrowing her eyes.

“You sowed my mouth shut and tried to turn me into a monster!”

“I tried to make you mine again. It’s not my fault you started turning into a Mara, your body refused to evolve,” Lily said.

“You cannot be here, Shu,” the red-headed oracle said, striding around the Pool of Consciousness toward them.

“You must leave,” the olive-skinned one said. Her voice commanding, yet still full of melody.

“We will help you,” said the dark-skinned one.

“No!” Darean said. Jack felt a wall go up around Darean. Angry red tentacles of emotion lashed out from the oracles. Darean’s black totem blade burst into existence, shards of blue electricity crawling up and down its length as he clutched the hilt with white knuckles. “I have worked too hard and long to see the lab slip away now. I know it’s here!”

The oracles, with their smooth bare skin, stood in a row before him, in front of the pool. The black-skinned woman reached down and placed her palm on the red stone earth. The light-skinned woman mirrored her as the one with chestnut skin and red hair stood in the middle. The ground shook beneath his feet and he stared, wide-eyed, as stone seemed to melt and flow up and around the two kneeling women.

“We serve,” one said.

“The light,” the other said.

“And protect ONUS and the Isle,” in unison.

“We sing the world and guide those souls who need guidance,” the red-headed woman said as the other two stood, each covered in red stone armor from the neck down. The stone plates wrapped around every curve, resting against the Shen’s skin. Jack wondered how it stayed on. Lightning crawled across the plates and he imagined battle cloaks hanging over the two women and pictured them in a drop-ship.

“You fought for the Army of Light,” he said.

“We have lived many lives,” the light-skinned woman sang.

“But the first resonates the deepest,” the dark-skinned woman said.

The red-headed woman raised her hands between them as Darean gaped. “And ONUS flows through this Isle stronger than any other place.”

“I will not fail,” Darean said, gritting his teeth. He glanced sideways at Lily, who nodded as her own totem blade exploded into existence. Jack tried to will energy into the small figurine he held, but he still couldn’t call his blade.

Darean charged the oracles and was consumed in a mass of blue electricity. His blade flew at the red-headed woman in a blur of motion, but one of the armored women was always in front of her, blocking the attack. Bolts of lightning flowed into Darean continuously, and Jack didn’t think he would last long.

“Lily!” Darean said, swinging his blade without pause.

Lily cackled again and took a step forward but mid-stride changed course and reached for Jack. He dove to the side. When he rolled up to his feet, Lily was grappling with Ann. She had a fist full of Ann’s auburn hair with one hand and held her totem blade above her head with the other.

“How do I get to the Lab?” She lowered the blade toward Ann’s head and a burst of energy ran through Jack. He scrambled forward and lifted his arm to stop the blow, but instead of his hand, he found his blade lashing out. His arm tingled with energy and his hand vibrated on the hilt of his sword as Lily’s blade made contact. “Where is the Lab?” Lily cried. Her eyes were furious orbs filled with blood and spit flew from her mouth.

“Lily, help!” Darean screamed.

Lily flung Ann to the side and lifted her blade, striking at Jack again and again. Jack blocked and parried until his arm ached with the effort. He scrambled away desperately, circling the Pool of Consciousness until the calm waters separated them. A strangled cry tore his gaze from Lily’s snarling face. Across the pool, the Oracles had Darean wrapped in lightning. The Shu lord stumbled back, blade flailing wildly as the two armored women pressed him. In unison, they roared, “For the light!” as they barreled into him. Blood flew from them as his blade sliced through red stone armor, biting into soft flesh below. They pushed on.

“The light!” They screamed, and Jack felt a defiant urge to bellow an answering cry. It was an urge he had not felt since the early years of the Origin War since before Jode and his vile Shu took and defiled Lily. It was a cry for his warriors to rush into the fight, to beat back the darkness: each one knowing they might die. In the years before Haven, they called it rushing the light. Only in death would they rest, and only in the light of death would they find peace.

“Into the light!” he called. It was a cry to these Shen women who fought with him and still remembered the Army of Light. He imagined grim smiles on their faces as they plummeted through the Haven Gateway, pushing Darean in front of them. His look of terror sent a shiver down his spine as the three figures flew through the archway. A flash of light and the Isle was still.

“May the light shine upon you,” he began, turning in time to see Lily’s blade gliding through the air toward him. He danced away, but searing agony ripped through his side, close to where the gunshot wound had recently closed. Stupid, he thought, taking his eyes off the enemy and letting his battle cloak hang open. He whirled his blade in a sweeping arch as he fell and felt it bite into her flesh. She dropped to the stone beside him.

With his cheek pressed to the warm red stone, he stared into her eyes as their blood mingled in the dirt. For a moment he rested, listening to the sound of ragged breathing. Finally, he said, “I’m sorry.” His totem blade fell back into the figure of an old robed man. “I’m sorry he hurt you, Lily. I tried to fix it but I can’t.” Lily sneered at him and he closed his eyes against her malice. His stomach spasmed. He could sense that long-ago day lingering in her thoughts; the brutal memory of her capture that lingered just below all of her thoughts.

“This is where I die,” Jack said, imagining the soft sand that once covered the Isle. “We will both die here with the gateways and no one will ever find the Isle or the Lab again. It’s over.” He took a deep breath and sighed, ignoring the pain in his side.

“You will not die here,” the red-headed Oracle said.

He felt arms wrap around him and lift him into the air. Opening his eyes, he found Ann cradling him as the last Oracle spoke. “Carry him into the Pool of Consciousness. The wound is grave and beyond even the Pool’s ability to heal, but it will give him enough time.”

“I don’t want time,” Jack said. How long had it been since he stood in the In-between with Millae, on a version of this cursed island, telling her the same thing? “Why won’t anyone let me die? We don’t need to sing the world, let the humans have it.”

“With a little time, we often find better paths,” the woman said.

“What will you do, Oracle?” Ann asked as she carried Jack into the Pool. He tried to twist out of her grasp, but his wound sent shards of fire through his spine.

“My sisters’ journey has ended and so has mine.”

She stepped over to Lily’s prone form and scooped her up. Blood gushed from her stomach. Her eyes fluttered beneath closed lids but did not open. The Oracle stepped into the pool beside Ann and gently laid Lily into the silvery liquid, pushing her into the center.

“I will finally rest,” she said with a sad smile. Jack and Ann watched her step out of the pool and without another word, strode into the stone archway. A flash of light and the Isle was silent. Each of them turned to watch Lily’s body sink below the surface.

“Let me go, Ann. Please.”

Jack imagined he felt the ancient ocean breeze on his face. Ann waded deeper into the Pool of Consciousness, cradling him in her arms.

“I set a trap when I was here before, you can’t walk into—”

“I know what you did before,” Ann said. “I knew you when you were Saeb Borlace, and I know you now, Jack Blackwell.”

Jack opened his mouth to ask again but clamped it shut as his head dipped below the water. He clawed at her arms as she followed him in. In the distance he saw Lily’s body floating in the clear liquid, night-black hair floating around her pale-skinned face, rose-colored eyes open and staring. He wondered why the Oracle put Lily’s body in the pool.

He had forgotten how vast the water was below the surface, and how clear. It was an ocean beneath a pond. The silvery shimmer on the surface was like a gateway. Maybe it was a gateway. Ann’s grip on him loosened, and he watched her drift away. The snake on her tight silk dress seemed to writhe and twist around her body. Ann tried to hold her breath, but it was futile, he knew. Sometimes it was better to let the flood take you when it comes. He opened his mouth and let the liquid rush into his body, staring through her into the past.