One week later, El sat on the edge of the same roof overlooking the Pyre as it burned blue, Laze on her left and Nexin on her right. Behind her, Nidina and the returned Teth argued over the coming days.

  “And, as I say sister-mine, the fact that we’re going is of course my line,” Teth said.

  “That’s what I just said,” Nidina sighed, but there was a hint of a smile in her voice. It was good to have her twin back, despite his… peculiar nature.

  “Then we see eye-to-eye, and together, as a wing, time will fly,” Teth went on.

  “You… ugh. Whatever. El,” Nidina called, and El turned away from the Pyre to look at her friend. “We’re going to find Faled and make sure we’ve got the supplies ready. Everything should be good to go by tomorrow morning, as planned.”

  “Thanks, Nidina. You know you don’t have to come…” El started, but Nidina was already shaking her head.

  “We’re going with you. We’re a wing. A whole one, again,” Nidina glanced at her smiling brother. “We stick together.”

  El gave a smile and nodded. “I’ll see you down there tomorrow morning.” She pointed at the Pyre. With a wave, Nidina and Teth lifted into the air and zipped off toward the barracks.

  “We’re really doing this, huh?” Laze asked, leaning back and looking at the sky. “Returning the Embers to the nations we… took them from?”

  “We are,” El said. “And you, little miss rebellion leader, shouldn’t be questioning.”

  “It wasn’t a rebellion,” Laze said, but she didn’t meet El’s eyes. “More of a… gathering of like-minds who didn’t want to be influenced by the Church’s control anymore. General Cannon really did most of the hard work gathering everybody up and bringing us back here.”

  “Only after you explained what the Church was doing. And led a group of Firestorm against the Ignitio protecting them,” El went on with a raised eyebrow. “Sounds like a rebellion to me.”

  “Couldn’t let you get all the glory,” Laze said with a smile.

  “You thought I was dead!”

  “I did it in your memory!”

  “I’m just glad you got back when you did,” Nexin said, interrupting the glaring contest between El and Laze.

  “Me too,” El said. “Me too. It’s nice to have everybody back. Like some kind of miracle.”

  “Speaking of everybody, where’s Sol, anyway?” Nexin asked.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Down there, with the Pyre, making sure the Embers are separated. There’s still the chance the Pyre will pull Himself back together, so Sol is keeping an eye on things until we leave,” El explained.

  “It’s lucky General Cannon convinced the others this was the right choice,” Laze said. “I was half-worried that even with the Church in shambles, the military would still push to make the Pyre whole.”

  “With the city’s leadership fractured, somebody had to take control. Somebody had to start getting aid to the people… and getting closure for the families of those that were sacrificed,” El said.

  “What are they saying? Ten thousand sacrificed and counting,” Laze added.

  “Something like that,” El said. “Though they are still digging through the rubble in some places from the battle with the golem and the Ignitio, so those numbers could go up. I guess, the silver lining to this is that with all the Cardinals spontaneously shattering when the Pyre did, and all the Ignitio turning into monsters, it’s galvanized everybody. It got them to listen to what Sol was saying about the dangers of keeping all the Embers together. The danger of the Pyre Himself.”

  “Sol having the storm and an army didn’t hurt his argument either,” Nexin said.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think it would’ve come to him using those. Not after everything that’s happened. They knew he was right.

  “Without the Pyre’s influence on people’s thoughts, well, we really got the first chance to think about what we’ve done as a nation all these years. I don’t think we can use the Pyre as an excuse; it couldn’t really have controlled all our thoughts for centuries, but this is a good time to start making the right choices. They know that.

  “Returning the Embers won’t fix things. Burn it, some of the nations simply don’t exist anymore, and it’ll change our way of life, but it’s a start.”

  “There are people out there, different than us, but that doesn’t make them bad. Returning the Embers to them will let them rebuild their countries,” Nexin said. “I think it’ll be good for the world.”

  “Won’t the Pyre try the same thing again? Turning nations against each other to try and bring all the Embers together?” Laze asked.

  “He’ll try,” El said with a nod. “No doubt about that. We have to make sure that never happens. But, not through force this time. We can’t be a nation of warriors anymore. We need to be a nation of educators. Of supporters. We’re the most advanced and stable nation in the world, even with all this.” She gestured to the swaths of destruction through the city from the battle. “It’s up to us to make the world a better place, even if it will cost us some of what we’ve built up.

  “There needs to be a lot less fighting, and a lot more talking. More understanding. Focusing on what was good for us almost brought the world to ruin. We need to focus, instead, on what is good for everybody,” El said.

  “Sounds like somebody is already practicing.” Laze threw her arm over El’s shoulders.

  “Promotions will do that,” Nexin said. “Special Sergeant Anella Vasage. All grown up,” he added, then wiped a fake tear from his eye.

  El scowled at her brother, then nodded. Tomorrow, they would gather up the Embers that had separated as the blue flames froze the Pyre. After that, it would take weeks, maybe longer, to return them to their original places. Even with her and Sol bringing the others through the In-Between, it was a long road ahead of them.

  Then, who knew what would happen?

  According to Sol, the snows had let up around the world, hence the return of everybody who’d “thawed out,” like Teth and Faled, but the storm would linger until the Embers were safely away. The danger wasn’t completely past, but El had good people, good friends at her side.

  They wouldn’t be heroes, they never were, but they’d do what was right, and then they’d come home and help everybody move forward.

  To make the world a better place?

  El almost laughed out loud as she looked at her friends’ uniforms.

  A better place? Burn it, she’d settle for less wrinkled.