The ragged slash in reality nearby began to slowly crawl backwards, broken earth slid together, and even the snarling presence of Lindon’s hungry arm quieted.
But Lindon was only aware of those things as distant details. His attention was fixed on the seven newcomers armored in white.
He had seen Suriel twice before, of course, and caught images of the rest of them in the vision trapped inside Eithan’s marble. But in person, their radiance took on totally different meaning.
A weathered man with gray hair, dark skin, and merciless eyes drifted to the front and descended to the ground. “Ozriel. You have much to answer for.”
Eithan looked him up and down, dismissed him, and looked to the other six. “You sent him to speak for you? You knew I wouldn’t talk to him.”
“You look different,” a woman in ghostly gray said in a dreamlike voice. She was the only one not wearing smooth armor, and she vaguely gestured to him. “It suits you.”
“Thank you, Durandiel. You see? At least one of you is friendly.”
Blue lightning cracked across the sky, and anger pressed down on Lindon from every direction. A woman with hair of white-and-red flame glared at Eithan. “Do you know how many lives your absence cost us? Do you have any idea?”
“I know how many would have been lost if my predictions were accurate,” Eithan said calmly. “I never foresaw the Mad King getting his hands on a new weapon.”
A straight-backed man wearing glasses and a cane snorted. “Then your sight is not as flawless as you pretended.”
“It was your weapon!” the flaming woman shouted.
Eithan’s eyes drifted over to the stone-faced man in front of him. “Was it?”
“All will be answered for,” that man said with icy calm. “You have cost us enough time already. Gadrael.”
The strangest-looking of the seven, a short man with blue-gray skin and horns for hair, raised a hand. Spinning discs of intricate script surrounded Eithan from head to toe, and aside from feeling alarm for Eithan, Lindon immediately asked Dross to remember anything of the runes he could.
Eithan coughed out a breath as though he’d been punched in the stomach. “That’s uncomfortable. You could have used a softer touch.”
The blue-gray man, Gadrael, gave him an icy stare but said nothing.
“Zakariel, take the prisoner,” the stone-faced man ordered. “Let us convene the Court and put an end to this farce at last.”
He turned and stepped into a flash of blue light, then vanished.
A girl appeared behind Eithan. She might have been ancient, but Lindon could only think of her as a girl; she looked younger than he was. She gave Eithan a razor-edged smile.
“Good to have you back, Oz.”
“I have missed our charming dynamic, Zak.”
The girl stamped her foot, and space rippled. “Call me Zerachiel!”
“Maybe old age has altered my memory, but I don’t think that’s your name.”
“I’ve changed it!”
They vanished a moment later…but Eithan seemed to linger a fraction of a second longer than the girl. He met Lindon’s eye and gave him a beaming smile.
“It was fun,” Eithan said.
Then he disappeared.
The other Abidan strode away one at a time, without a word for the mortals. Except for one. Suriel lingered, bright green hair drifting behind her as though she floated underwater. Her eyes were bright purple rings of script, and lines of smoke ran from her hand up to the back of her skull.
It had only been a few months since he’d seen her again, and when she was the only one remaining, Lindon bowed deeply to her.
“Pardon, but I never expected to see you again so soon.”
“Lindon…” She breathed out a sigh. “I don’t know what to say to you except that I’m sorry.”
Blue light streamed from behind her, like the wings of an azure phoenix, and the stars winked back into existence one by one.
“Ozriel hid himself well, and I couldn’t foresee his actions. When the two of you intersected, it caused…great changes. I fear that my actions in your home have had disastrous results.”
Lindon’s stomach tightened. “Not for me.”
“Not yet. But your fate is far beyond reading, now. And Cradle is still in danger.” Stars continued to reappear, and spatial cracks sealed themselves, as Suriel said, “Right now, the heavens lie in ruins. Perhaps Ozriel’s return will allow us to fix some of what has been broken.”
“Apologies, but what’s going to happen to him?”