Finally, Finn’s expression softened a little. “I think that hurt the worst, by the way,” he admitted, quieter now. “When I heard you’d reached out to Leta, but not even a word to me.” He grimaced and shrugged. “I know you two are closer than we’ll ever be, of course you’d talk to her, but–I don’t know. I thought we had something too, you and I. More than just a friendship. A–well, partnership.” His eyes had been locked onto her through this whole revelation, but now they looked away. “You’d really come to mean a lot to me then, y’know. I really cared about you.”

For the second time, Corra felt the wind had been punched out of her. “I–I really cared about you too,” she admitted quietly.

A tiny smile curled into Finn’s lips. “Then why didn’t you ever contact me?”

Corra heaved in a deep breath. “Because I needed to be alone.” It was an admission she hadn’t even really considered until it came out of her mouth. “I’d always been surrounded by people. On Kadolyne, the Dionysian, the Beacon. And I just…needed to be alone for a while. I don’t know, it doesn’t really make sense maybe, but–”

“It makes sense,” Finn interrupted and he shrugged again. “Soul searching. Been there done that.” He nodded slowly before tilting his head at her. “Did it help?”

“I think so,” she muttered, brushing a nervous hand through her hair. “Maybe. I hope so…” She looked down at her feet before finally saying in a hurry, “Riley, I’m so sorry, I didn’t ever mean to hurt you even more, I just–”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He came towards her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You gotta do what you gotta do, I get that. Just one thing.” She looked up at him, trying to wipe her crying eyes with the back of her hand. “Are you done? Can you come back now?”

She sniffled a laugh and her vision blurred as it filled with tears. “Yeah. I think I can.” She only got one quick glance at the smile that broke over his face before he pulled her into a hug that threatened to crush her.

“Good. We missed you.”

Tears were still streaming down Corra’s face when Finn finally loosened his hold on her. But they dried quickly when suddenly he said in a tone she hadn’t been expecting, “What’s that light?”

Startled, she whipped her head around to see what he was seeing over her head. There was no light that she could make out, but when he let go and headed forward down the hall, she followed. It wasn’t until he pushed open a heavy door that had only been cracked open that she saw what he was talking about.

The archive was deserted entirely. Except, it seemed, for this one room. There were a couple of folded chairs, a table with some cards on it and a wall of console monitors. “Is this–” Corra began and Finn nodded.

“Security monitoring, looks like.”

The whole thing was shut off for now, the room dark, but it didn’t have the layers of dust the other areas had. This place had been occupied and not too long ago at that. But empty as it was now, there was one singular light on one singular console in the corner. It was tiny, red and flashed insistently, begging for attention.

Finn got there first, turning on the screen and examining its contents. An incoming message, Corra realized as she peered around his shoulder.

“All members,” Finn read, mumbling through some parts of the message, “emergency meeting…town hall…intruders? Looking for–Transmitter. The Holy Origin must be protected at all costs?”

Corra’s eyes grew wide and she swallowed as Finn whipped his head around to look at her. “What the hell? Who are these people?”

“I don’t know,” Corra answered, feeling suddenly short of breath. “But they found Cy and Addy.”

——————

The grand escape plan might have worked, had a few conditions been different. If the Gatekeepers of the Holy Origin had been fewer in numbers, for instance. If the basement Cyrus and Addy had been in wasn’t directly underneath their meeting hall. If Cyrus had been able to see well enough to not run them straight into the middle of a meeting.

“Well it was a good effort,” Addy mumbled behind him. She had her back to him, and his back to her, all four of their wrists tied together and attached to a pole in the center of the group’s hall. The blurry shapes of crazed people surrounded them, still debating how exactly they were going to dispose of the fugitives. One woman thought they should be burned because it would be cleaner. Another man wanted to simply shoot them. A more creative cultist thought something with knives would be more meaningful.

Cyrus couldn’t bear to listen to it anymore.

“Would have been better if I’d found the exit,” he found himself saying, voice hoarse, as he turned to look at her. “Hey. Addy. I–I’m really sorry. All that stuff I said–”

“I know.” Vulnerability shone in her wide, round eyes. “I know. I’m sorry too.”

“You and Kalli, you’re–you’re everything to me,” Cyrus admitted. “And I can be an ass sometimes, you’re totally right, but it’s only because I am absolutely terrified of losing either of you.” Carefully, so as not to pull something the wrong way, he twisted his hand around to squeeze hers. “I love that you’re adventurous and brave, really.”

Addy released a sad chuckle. “And I love that you’re logical and dependable even when everything else has gone to hell.” He felt her fingers lace through his and squeeze even tighter. “There’s no one I’d rather raise our daughter with.”

“Me either.” Cyrus looked up at the people still hovering nearby and swallowed. “I love you so much. If I ever gave you a reason to doubt that, I–”

He could feel Addy shaking her head. “No, don’t. Cy, I know and–gods, I love you too, don’t ever think otherwise.” Her voice was starting to shudder. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry…”

Around them, oblivious to their discussion, it seemed the Gatekeepers of Whatever had made their decision and that decision looked a lot like a double-barrel shotgun. Cyrus squeezed Addy’s hand tighter as a blur approached them and the man from the library spoke. “I promise this’ll be real quick,” he assured them. “Won’t feel a thing.”

Cyrus heard Addy choke down a sob. Her hands were shaking. Or were those his? He’d been near death before, especially living on the Dionysian, but never had it been presented as such a clear, unavoidable reality. He couldn’t say he was afraid exactly. It wasn’t fear that struck him then, as the clicks of bullets being loaded into a gun sounded by his ear. It was sadness, pure and simple. Sadness that he wouldn’t finish his work on Archeti. Sadness he’d never see Satieri again. And especially sadness that he’d never see the woman beside him again. He’d never get the chance to make up for the past few years. He’d never get to lay around with her in his arms in the morning. Never raise their daughter together. Never grow old together.

His own life didn’t feel like that big of a loss. But losing Addy’s? Losing Kalli’s? The very thought made his insides feel like they were imploding in on themselves.

“Which one of you wants to go first?” the man with the shotgun asked. Now, Addy wasn’t holding back her weeping, it was coming out in sharp, hoarse breaths.

Cyrus swallowed the lump in his own throat. “Me,” he managed, only barely.

“Cy–no,” Addy sobbed, pulling against the bonds.

“Better me than you,” Cyrus grunted, fighting back the water from his own eyes.

“You–I can’t–” she stuttered, but suddenly her sadness turned to anger. She twisted towards the man with the gun. “You can’t do this! We have a daughter! She needs us! You can’t do this! You can’t just–kill us!”

“Sorry, miss,” he replied, sounding a bit taken aback. “Don’t really have much choice.”

“You do have a choice!” Addy snapped, but her voice was already cracking. “Please! Please don’t do this.”

“The Holy Origin must be protected at all costs,” the man said and Cyrus yelped as he felt the cold barrel of a gun press against his forehead.

“The others–the people on our ship–they’ll come for you,” Addy bit angrily, but her heart was only half in it. He could practically hear the tears streaming down her face. “You won’t get away with this.”

The man with the gun sighed and applied more pressure. “The Holy Origin must be protected at all costs,” he repeated and Cyrus could hear the others in the room whispering along in unison.

The gun’s safety clicked. Addy let out a horrifying wail. Cyrus just drew in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. And then, there were two loud bangs. And a shout of, “Wait!”

Cyrus snapped open his eyes and looked around at the blurry shapes frantically rushing about in surprise. “Who–” began the man with the gun who pressed it even harder against Cyrus’ head.

“Wait, don’t!” said the interruptor again and Cyrus finally got the relief he was craving.

“Corra–” he heard Addy breathe.

He strained his neck to get a better look at the short brown blurry shape flanked by the tall brown blurry shape marching into the hall. “Don’t kill them. I have something you want.” She raised something shiny in the air, catching the light and flashing brightly in her hand.

All around them, the Gatekeepers gasped. “The Transmission” — “It’s the Transmission” — “How does she have–”

“Let them go, now,” Corra ordered, “Or I’ll destroy it. I swear to God, I will, don’t test me.”

“No!” shouted one of the Gatekeepers, lashing out towards her, but her companion, Cyrus assumed was Finn, seemed to raise a gun that stopped them in their tracks. And that was when things got weird.

“Look! Look at her ear!” someone else shouted.

“She has the mark!” said another.

“The mark of the slave,” gasped someone else to which Corra snapped, “Hey! I thought I said–”

But the man with the gun spoke over her. The gun fell from Cyrus’ temple and he lifted his hands into the air. “Friends! Gatekeepers! Release these captives at once.”

“Well–thanks,” Corra said, though she sounded less sure of herself than she had a minute ago. And for good reason.

“A great day is upon us,” the man went on. “The day we have long awaited. The slave has delivered unto us the Transmission. The prophecy is complete!”

As Cyrus and Addy were forcefully untied and raised to their feet, everyone in the room erupted into a chorus of cheers and celebration. Cyrus couldn’t see Corra’s face across the room, but he had a feeling it displayed the same emotion he himself was feeling just then.

He turned to Addy beside him. “What the hell?”

The basement fell into tense silence. Too tense. Even fuzzy as his vision was, Cyrus could see clearly through the dark that he had crossed a line. The woman before him had been angry before, but now she was much more than that. Much worse. He got the sense that if he said another word, he would be slapped straight across the face.

So he let her speak first. Rather, shout first.

“How dare you, Cyrus! How dare you put me in that position.”

“You put us in this position remember?” he shouted right back, thus beginning a volley of vicious words and expletives so loud and booming against the basement walls, Cyrus didn’t hear most of them, even the ones expelled from his own mouth. It was a fight that had been building for months now, possibly even years and now that their lives were so close to ending entirely, it had to come out. It always had to come out at some point.

But Cyrus hadn’t considered the consequences of shouting in the basement of wherever they were, nor would he have cared if he did. He was too full of despair and frustration to give even half a thought to other occupants. That is, until one of those occupants, a young woman by the look and sound of her, barged in through the door and shouted, “Would you two quiet down in here?!”

“No!” Addy shouted right back, resilient, but by some miracle, Cyrus experienced a brief stroke of genius. Or at the very least, cleverness. An opportunity had presented itself, one he hadn’t expected or even considered, but to hell if he wasn’t going to take it.

He couldn’t see much, but he could see the light from the space beyond the door and anger or frustration or rage be damned, he was going to get there.

Before anyone else in the room had a chance to act, Cyrus seized Addy’s wrist, yelled “Run!” and dragged her towards the light, not hesitating to shove the intruder aside on the way.

——————

There was nothing there. Nothing left of what was once the great Ellegian Consulate Archives, save a dramatic set of stairs and a small maze of hallways with very well-made, if aged, tiled floors. Corra stomped down one of those halls, her heavy footsteps echoing through the entire chamber.

“I can’t believe this,” she growled under her breath as she passed another room with rows of shelves that had been stripped clean. “Not even a scrap page of a book.”

“Weird that Eriaas guy didn’t have the sense to think this place would be raided as soon as his team left,” Finn commented, sounding far less angry than she felt. “Or he didn’t care…”

Corra groaned. “I can’t believe this,” she said again. She didn’t even bother peering into the next room they passed. It was dark and spacious and completely devoid of contents. Like everything else down here.

“I guess the bright side is that the Society won’t find it here either.” Seriously, Finn was way too cheerful. His positivity was grating on her nerves. “If it was here at all. Seems like it’ll be lost to time. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes,” Corra snapped and then corrected, “No. Nothing’s lost to time. It’s out there somewhere. Somebody has it.”

“And you have the Transmission,” Finn noted. “So as long as you never meet, it’ll all be fine.”

Corra looked back at him, a glare set deep in her brow. Somewhere inside her, she knew he was probably right. Whoever had the thing, at least up to now, seemed content keeping it a secret. It was safe to assume they’d continue to do so and with any luck, the device was useless without Corra’s puzzle piece anyway. It was logical.

But Corra wasn’t feeling very logical right then. A stroke of anger mixed with frustration mixed with despair had overtaken her and logic from Finn was the last thing she wanted to hear.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” she barked, turning back to face him.

“No, actually,” Finn admitted with a casual shrug. He was examining a rock he’d picked up between his fingers.

Corra’s jaw dropped half an inch before it tightened. “Seriously? I dragged you out here to look for this thing and we find–” she waved her hands around them “–nothing! And you don’t get why I’m upset.”

“It was a longshot anyway.”

“It wasn’t a–” Corra ran her hands down her face then stared at him, feeling fury behind her eyes. “Why aren’t you angry?”

Finally, he met her gaze, but it wasn’t with the determination and hatred she was expecting, or that she craved. He simply looked confused. “Why would I be angry?”

“Because it’s my fault!” Corra despaired, without hesitation. “It’s my fault we’re in this stupid cave and there’s nothing here and I wasted your time and your crew’s time and–”

Finn’s face screwed up and he made a ‘pfft’ sound. “We were already here anyway. It didn’t take much time. And it’s not your fault we didn’t find any–”

“It is my fault!” Corra argued at once, marching back down the hallway towards him. “It’s completely my fault! So why aren’t you angry, huh?” She growled and then, without thinking, put her hands on his chest and pushed him.

“Wha–hey!” He stumbled backwards and she followed, a storm brewing inside and over her head.

“I brought you down here for nothing. I hijacked your whole ship for a stupid wild goose chase.” Her fingers curled and she pushed him again.

“Corra–”

“You should be angry. You should be resentful. Why aren’t you mad?!”

When she reached out to push him again, this time he seized her arms and held her back. “Corra,” he said sternly, but not sternly enough. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” She ripped herself out of his hold. “Why don’t you hate me?!”

A strange silence fell in the echoing hallway. Corra searched over Finn’s face, desperate to find what she was looking for there. Desperate to see the rage and the fury, even disappointment, but she found none. He was just watching her with confusion and, god forgive, sadness.

“What?”

Corra’s hands clenched into fists and she rubbed her knuckles into her temples. “Why don’t you hate me?” she asked again, calmer this time as reality set back in. She’d lost her sight of it for just a moment.

And Finn put her fear into words. “We’re not talking about the Transmitter anymore, are we?”

Well, this conversation was going to have to happen eventually, right. It had been gnawing away at her from the inside out all week and perhaps they had reached the point where she could no longer avoid it. Slowly, her fists fell back to her sides and she drew in a deep breath.

“I don’t get it, Riley.” Her voice was quiet when she spoke, barely even a whisper. “After everything I did–all that I did to you–God, Riley, I spent years believing that if we ever met again, you wouldn’t even look me in the eye. As you shouldn’t have. As I deserved. But–I come back and–and you want me to stay? You ask me to stay.”

She could feel Finn’s intense gaze upon her, but she couldn’t bring herself to return it. “Corra–”

“No,” she cut him off harshly because she wasn’t sure she could bear to hear what he had to say. “I nearly got you killed. I acted stupidly and put your life in danger. I risked our ship, our livelihood and our lives.”

“What? The whole thing with Callahan? Corra, he was transporting allies, I wouldn’t expect you to–”

“No, that’s not even it,” she interrupted again. “Even if I hadn’t done all that. Even if–” She shook her head. “I mean Archeti…”

Now, Finn immediately jumped in. “I don’t blame you for that. No one blames you for that–”

“Well they should,” she barked sharply. “You should.”

“Cyrus told me everything. You didn’t know what you were doing, you didn’t know–”

“I did know,” she snapped. “It took me a long time to realize that and come to terms with it, but I did know.” She expected him to interrupt again, but he’d gone quiet, watching her patiently. “Cyrus told me what the Caelum Lex was, what it could be used for. And I gave it to a man who I knew would do bad with it. It was a mistake, but it was an informed mistake. I’m done claiming ignorance.”

Finn was still staring at her, more stunned than anything else, which only made the frustration in her core deepen. He didn’t get it. He wasn’t going to get it. She had to make him get it.

“You’re right, I never had any bad intentions. I never meant any of it to happen.” She started towards him. “But it happened because I made choices and I took risks that I shouldn’t have taken. And I nearly destroyed you in the process.” She stopped just inches from him and prodded her index finger into his chest as she spoke. “So. Where. Is. Your. Anger?”

Finn looked down at her finger for a long moment, saying nothing, but she could see by the way his shoulders lifted and fell, his breathing had become heavier. His jaw was clenched. And when he finally met her gaze, she saw it. The rage and the fury she’d been craving. The retribution she deserved. When he seized her hand and threw it aside, she didn’t resist.

“You want anger? Fine,” he growled, lowering his face to glare at her. “Fine, I’m angry. I’m angry you left.”

It wasn’t quite what she was expecting, but the force of it was about right. “That I left?”

“Yeah! You left,” he said again, his tone cold and harsh. “When I needed you most. Injured and dying and having just lost–” He let out a crazed laugh. “Everything! My home, my family, my friends, everything that mattered to me. Do you know how miserable that was?!”

“Yes! And I caused that!” Corra wasn’t sure if what she was feeling was relief that she was finally getting the backlash she was owed or fear at seeing Finn like she’d never seen him before. Regardless, she barely noticed the water forming in the corners of her eyes.

“No you fucking didn’t!” Finn snapped. “Callahan stabbed me. The Society destroyed Archeti.”

“Neither of which would have happened if I–”

“No!” Finn groaned loudly. “No, just stop. God, you want me to yell at you? You want me to get mad and scream and shout so you can feel punished and seek redemption? Fine. Whatever. If that’s what you need. But I’m not going to just read the lines you want to hear. You want my anger, you can have it, but only for what you actually did.”

Corra braced her fists sternly at her side. “I know what I did.”

“And that’s easy isn’t it?” Finn growled. “It’s easy to assign yourself blame for a knife you didn’t wield and a terraformer you didn’t pilot.”

“Easy?!” Corra repeated indignantly. “You think that’s easy to admit my fault for that? Do you know how many people died?!”

It was the wrong question. Finn’s glare intensified instantly. “Oh I fucking know how many people died.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Then how can you say it’s easy?!”

“Because it’s all distant causality! You were one of many factors that lead to something terrible. So was I for working with Callahan to begin with. So was, God, Cyrus, for letting us take the Beacon at all. So was the fucker who first thought ‘hey wouldn’t building a spaceship be neat?’ Fuck all that, you want to make amends, admit to the one crime you actually did commit.”

“And what the hell is that?”

His tone was colder than she’d ever heard him speak. “Abandoning your friend when he needed you at his side.”

No matter how many times Corra had dwelled on this inevitability, she wasn’t prepared for it. Instantly she felt like all the air had been knocked from her chest. She couldn’t breathe. Certainly couldn’t speak. She just stood there, staring at him, completely dumbfounded, with lines of silent tears streaking across her cheeks.

It felt like ages before she was able to manage, “I–I had to–”

But Finn was already shaking his head in distaste. “You didn’t have to do anything. You wanted to. Because you thought it would be easier.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You didn’t want to hurt yourself. You didn’t do it for me. You left for you.”

“I had to make amends–” Every choked word sounded like a cheap excuse even to her own ears. “I joined the Conduit — I– I wanted to save people to–”

“And you could have done that anyway.” He was still watching her as though she was a disappointing child and he her father. “You could have told me. You could have said goodbye. You could have kept in touch. I could have helped, Corra. You didn’t have to disappear.”

Her mouth opened as she hoped a response would come from it, but none did. She didn’t have any excuses left. She’d made a choice that day and she’d made a vow to stick with it. But she had no defense for it, no offering to make up for it.

“I should tell you though, you’re wasting your time.” The librarian patted the shelf next to him. “Gotta lot of stuff here, but nothing about any ancient transmission myths I’m afraid.” He shrugged. “But anyway, feel free to keep browsing. Might find something even better, y’know?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Addy laughed, still sounding far too uncomfortable.

“Thanks!” Cyrus added, pretending to be helpful while internally cringing at himself for ending up in that situation to begin with. As soon as the man was out of earshot, he turned to Addy and said as much. “Shit.”

“It’s fine,” Addy assured him, though she looked just as unnerved as he felt. “It’s fine. He was just trying to be helpful. It’s not a big deal at all.”

Cyrus frowned at her. “You’re sure? Corra specifically said–”

“I know what she said,” Addy snapped, running a hand through her hair. “But she was just being cautious. What’s he going to do? Nothing will happen, it’s fine.”

Cyrus was not convinced, but now that they’d already been caught in a compromising situation here once, he didn’t want to repeat the incident. Hopefully she was right. Hopefully he was just a local looking to ‘help’ some misplaced tourists. And hopefully he could just let it go.

“Maybe we should get back to reading,” he suggested at last and Addy nodded as she took his arm and they started down the aisle back to their desks.

They only took a few steps though before something rolled out onto the floor in front of them.

“What’s that?” Cyrus asked, and it was the last thing he was able to do before gas started to spew from the device and his vision turned black.

—————–

“One. Two. Three!”

Corra heaved in a breath and held it as she pushed against the heavy stone slab one last time. Finally, at long last, it shifted out of the way. She practically choked the air out of her lungs and leaned over, bracing her tired hands on her knees. Finn, also exhausted, sat down heavily on the offending rock and ran the back of his wrist across his sweaty brow.

“I take it back,” he breathed through gasps. “Maybe none of the locals have come snooping around here after all.”

Corra couldn’t spare the lung capacity to give more than a half-hearted laugh. When she’d pictured the two of them exploring this archaeological dig site, she had expected a gate, probably a lock she could pick, if they were super unlucky, someone would have installed some additional security after Eriaas had abandoned the place, but probably security that could be overridden.

What she hadn’t expected was a rock.

It had taken nearly half an hour to get that thing to budge and another fifteen minutes to get it clear of the entrance. The entrance which now, finally, she stood up to give her complete attention to.

At first, her eyes blinking through the daylight, she couldn’t see much of anything in the dark shadow beyond the slab. It wasn’t a large hole in the ground. Maybe five feet in diameter all around. There were layers around the immediate edge, old floors of long-gone buildings, brick, concrete, one might even have been marble. But finally, the floors gave way to something else. Stairs, by the looks of it, that lead downward and beyond what Corra could see from up on solid ground.

“Well that’s not creepy at all,” said Finn, peering down into the hole himself.

Corra glanced up at him. “Hope you’re not claustrophobic.” She held out her hand. “Give me your lighter.”

“Think you’re gonna need something bigger than that, cap’n.”

He handed it to her anyway as she carefully lowered herself through the centuries of flooring and onto the stone steps beneath. A cool breeze hit her legs and made a shiver run up her spine. Maybe she was a little more claustrophobic than she thought. Still, she’d done way worse lately than go cave exploring.

Regardless, she growled, “You better be right behind me,” to Finn as she lit the lighter and started her descent. He was right, the lighter barely illuminated anything because, she found quite quickly, this staircase was massive. Even holding the lighter as far from her body as she could, she couldn’t catch glimpse of any walls or floors. Just stairs, as far as the orange flickering light could cast.

She heard Finn’s footfalls behind her and soon he entered the flame’s circle. He looked around into the darkness with her for a moment then casually placed a cigarette in his mouth, plucked the lighter from her hand, lit it, and handed it back. “Shall we?”

Corra started down the stairs, but cast him a nasty glare as she did. “Still haven’t kicked that habit yet?”

“You weren’t here to reprimand me for it,” Finn remarked, exhaling a plume of smoke into the darkness.

She rolled her eyes and made a mental note to scold Daelen for not taking up the gauntlet in her absence. For now, though, she contented herself to glare at him as they continued down the steps into the black abyss below. The further they got from the hole they’d come through, the more her eyes began to adjust. The dirt and debris that had coated the entrance started to let up and reveal the true deep blue-grey hue of the stone they walked on. And ever so slowly, the stairway narrowed and Corra caught glimpses of shining pillars lining the walls.

“Can you imagine this place when it was new?” she breathed. Images of proper men and women in delicate post-Division War garb sweeping down these steps flashed across her mind. Meetings in the depths of the archives to plan a whole new colonization effort. Taking stock of their ancient artifacts and–

“It’s hard to imagine it even now,” Finn commented bluntly and Corra shot him another glare.

“Well if you’d been taking better care of the Beacon’s stock, we would have a generator and an actual light to use,” she shot back and he chuckled.

“Good thing I still smoke then, huh?” He gestured to the lighter. Corra opened her mouth to retort before realizing she didn’t actually have one. He took the pause as his opportunity to change the subject, “So let’s say we find this thing. This Transmitter thing. What’re you gonna do with it?”

“Get it out of here and put it somewhere safe,” she guessed.

Finn nodded thoughtfully. “No intents to use it then? Try out that little shiny tube thing. The Transmission.”

Corra laughed indignantly. “Really? You think I should use an ancient device to transmit a message whose contents I don’t know to an unknown party? Does that seem like a good idea to you?”

“No,” Finn admitted, but then he grinned. “Could be fun though.”

His smile was contagious. “Yeah, maybe a little.” The thought had certainly crossed her mind. There was nothing Corra loved more than tales of the distant past, of the Origin, of the Ark and the Great Crossing of the first colonists. And sure, if she was being honest, that love was at least part of what had driven her here at all. She didn’t want someone she didn’t trust having some potential power, of course, that was the real reason. But curiosity certainly had something to do with it too.

“But no, I’m definitely not messing with anything unless I know exactly what it is and what it’ll do,” she decided at last. The last time she’d tangled with ancient technology hadn’t turned out so well. “We’re just making it secure. That’s it.”

Finn nodded slowly, exhaling another cloud of smoke. “Beneath a big shitty rock isn’t secure enough as is?”

Corra shot him a look. “When you and me are able to move it with just the two of us?”

He scoffed and flexed his bicep. “Hey I’m pretty strong.”

“You’re pretty out of shape.” She prodded his arm with her index finger.

A long laugh erupted from his throat, echoing throughout the dark chamber. “And you’ve been checking me out apparently?”

It was her turn to laugh. “Just taking stock is all.”

“Well. You’d think a team of archaeologists would have had more sense than to just stick a rock on it and call it a day,” Finn concluded as they finally seemed to reach the bottom of the stairs. They stepped down onto the solid ground, an intricately tiled floor that spread out before them. in all directions, the walls forming a vast circle.

“Y’know what I mean?” Finn went on. “This place is centuries old. Wouldn’t someone want to better protect it?”

Corra walked in a wide arc through the room, holding the lighter out as high as she could put as much of the contents into her vision as she could. But no matter how far she cast the light, she never saw anything. A layer of dust covered the floor, brushing up into the air as she walked across it, and she could see patches where it was thinner. Patches in very specific, geometric shapes.

A sigh passed Corra’s lips as realization set upon her. “Not if there’s nothing left to protect…”

Cyrus looked up and nearly jumped when he found Addy suddenly right in front of him, leaning forward on the desk. She had a mischievous smirk on her face. “Just saw you reading so intently over here, thought I might come over and see what was so fascinating.”

Cyrus blinked back at her, unsure if there was something he was missing. “You know what it is, you picked it out for me to go through. And it’s not fascinating. It’s really dull.”

Addy rolled her eyes. Okay he was definitely missing something.

“Just thought I might come over and see what a handsome stranger like you found so fascinating,” she said with more force.

“Ooooh.” Cyrus pointed at her, nodding in understanding. “Got it.” As Addy narrowed her eyes at him impatiently, he cleared his throat and matched her lean on the desk. His lowered his voice an octave or so when he answered, “I’m afraid that’s top secret, miss.”

Addy barely held back a snort of laughter. “You do your top secret research in a public library?”

Cyrus glared at her briefly, but pulled himself back into character and leaned back in his chair casually. “Gotta do what ya gotta do, miss.”

“That so?” she mused, walking slowly around the desk, letting her fingertips drag across the surface as she made her way to his side. She kept her head held high as though admiring the library’s massive overhead windows, but he caught her sneaking a glance at the notebook still laid out in front of him. Dramatically, he snapped it shut and pushed it aside and she let out a ‘hmph’ of indignation.

“Top secret,” Cyrus said again, importantly.

“Right.” She was eying the book again, held beneath his palm. “But it is public property. So surely you wouldn’t…mind…” Cyrus watched her closely, ready to defend the useless book against this imaginary threat. He could see Addy’s fingers twitching in preparation. He pushed the book further out of her reach. “If I read this.”

In a flash, she seized a completely different book from his pile and fled with it.

“Hey!” Cyrus called after her, forgetting for just a moment to keep quiet as he stumbled out of his chair and chased after her all the way into the nearest row of shelves where she was frantically pretending to read what he recognized as a scientific journal dealing with a study of local metal foundries. It was enough to make even the most enthusiastic metal researcher fall asleep. But of course, it was top secret.

He seized her wrist and pulled her towards him, wrenching the book out of her hand, a scolding already on his tongue, but she got there first.

“I knew it!” she exclaimed in an excited whisper, seizing his wrist as well and pulling him even closer. “You’re researching the Transmitter, aren’t you?”

Cyrus gasped and put a hand over her mouth. “Hush, someone might hear.” He glanced over both his shoulders at the empty row of books and then looked back at Addy, his glare narrowed in on her. “How do you know about that?”

“It just so happens,” Addy began, delicately unraveling herself from their tangle of limbs from the succession of dramatic poses, “that I,” — she took two steps away from him and then snapped her head back his way — “am researching it too.”

“No,” Cyrus gasped, stepping after her as she started to walk away. “That’s too big a coincidence.” He grabbed her wrist again and pulled her back towards him. “Who sent you?”

She refused to look back at him, choosing to admire the ceiling insistently. “I can’t say.”

Cyrus growled and gripped her a little tighter. “It doesn’t matter. You know too much. I can’t let you leave here.”

Now, she turned to him with overwrought shock and dismay, sliding her arm out of his grip. “And what do you intend to do with me then?”

Cyrus hadn’t actually thought that far through the story in advance, but he steeled himself and said in utmost seriousness, “Whatever I have to do to keep this intel safe, miss. It’s too important.”

Addy regarded him with suspicion and then skepticism and then, finally, a smile. “I have a proposition for you, my good sir.” She pointed her finger at his face and started to circle around him. The finger trailed across his shoulder and along his back. “Spare my life and I’ll tell you everything I know about the Transmitter.”

“And if you know nothing?”

“Then you can kill me.” She stopped behind him and slid her hands onto his shoulders. Leaning forward, she whispered in his ear, “But I don’t think you’ll need to.”

Cyrus scoffed and shook his head. “Or I can just take care of you and go back to my reading.”

She continued her circle and this time stopped in front of him. “You could do that.”

“But?”

She pressed her palm to his chest and leaned in close. “But then you’ll never find the Transmitter,” and even closer, “Agent Soliveré.”

A third voice suddenly joined the conversation. “Excuse me?”

Cyrus immediately swallowed the line he had on deck (‘how do you know my name?!’) and jumped backwards at the interruption. Addy, also, stumbled a few steps backwards, straight out of their little fantasy. She straightened her hair with her hand and was bright red when she faced the man who had spoken up at the end of the aisle. Cyrus knew he was too red to even look at him…

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” the man said, his footsteps coming closer. Cyrus carefully glanced over at him. An ordinary looking guy, holding a stack of books. A local, probably worked here, by the looks of it. Probably wondering what these off-worlders were doing acting out noir scenes in his library.

“Oh no, that’s okay,” Addy said hurriedly, shaking her head and holding out her hand. “We were just–eh–” She glanced at Cyrus, hoping he might jump in with an explanation. He did not. “No worries,” she settled on at last.

“It’s just, I heard you guys mention the Transmitter,” said the man and suddenly Cyrus didn’t feel embarrassed so much as incredibly worried. There was one thing Corra had made very clear to him, if nothing else. No one was to know what it was they were looking for. Why, she didn’t say. But the ‘no one’ part. That, he’d understood.

“Is that what you two had all those books out for?” the man asked and Cyrus noticed Addy also had gone suspiciously pale.

“Wha–no, I don’t know what–no, that’s not,” she stumbled but the man laughed heartily.

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re not in trouble.” He smiled. “We get tourists and legend-seekers snooping around every so often. Used to it by now. No big deal.”

Cyrus tried to say, “Okay,” but what came out was more like a high-pitched, nervous sigh.