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“I’ it,” I say

“I know you believe that, sir, but I’ll remain behind You

a civil war But there will be hell to pay My Sovereign will have need of er toward her despite the accusation in her voice We shake hands

“Watch over my family”

“With my last breath, sir” She thrusts her fist into the air in the Rising salute “Hail libertas” And in a smaller voice, “Hail Reaper” She departs the room

Sevro sneers at her departure “Any other cowards?”

Seeing the doubt Holiday’s departure has brought into the roohts a burner His slender body is laconic, his skin a deep ebony and covered with cerulean astral tattoos He blows a s his blue-black hair from his eyes “I didn’t eat cockroaches to sit at home while you have all the fun” The pilots of Warlock Squadron follow hi Min-Min My lancers, Rhonna and Alexandar, join her, followed by a flood of others Clown can hold back no longer He bursts to his feet

“I’ll go with,” he says “Darling, you stay with the children”

“Like hell,” Pebble says, joining hih I see the doubt in her eyes

Sefi and the Obsidians are all who remain

“Sefi, are you with me?” I ask

I see her answer before she gives it Unlike Wulfgar, she doesn’t worship at the altar of the Republic She carries the welfare of her people on her shoulders When Ragnar died, that was her inheritance

Slowly, she stands “I care nothing for Venus or Mercury,” she rumbles “They are not worth Obsidian blood We have carried the Rising on our backs, and for what?” Her eyes scorch the rooh? For the rest of the Colors to hate us, call us ?”

“There are still Obsidians left in slavery,” I say, though I’ve seen this co for soeted them in the Rain above all others “Your brother’s nar put her hand in ht the bond would last forever, but I have felt the cracks for years now as I asked more and more from her people “The Ash Lordand ”

“My brother was a living god” The Obsidians with her nod reverently “But he is dead and in the s before Allmother death On this middle plane, only I speak with him now” She closes her eyes Her second eyes, the ones tattooed in blue on her eyelids, stare at me each time she blinks “And he tells eance But to my people”