(TATB) Ch 43: Escape, The Man Known As Shining Silver! (Final)

Her eyes were wide.

Terrified.

She looked like a mountain come to life, all skin and trembling bone, trying to comprehend what she was seeing—a speck in the air glowing like a star and staring back at her like he'd seen her kind a hundred times before.

And I had.

I hovered there, maybe fifty feet off her pillow, maybe more—it was always hard to gauge when the scale was so disgustingly exaggerated. She looked like a continent draped in velvet sheets, frozen with fear. That part used to give me a kick, years ago. The fear. Watching it flicker in their eyes when they realized they weren't untouchable.

But now?

Now it just meant this would be over quick.

"What... what is this?" she whispered, trying to sit up.

I didn't answer. She wasn't owed one.

I raised a hand.

She lifted off the bed like a feather on the wind, limbs flailing, a shriek catching in her throat. An invisible force slammed her against the far wall with a dull thoom, rattling paintings off their hooks. Her body left an impression in the plaster as her long limbs dangled helplessly.

"Don't talk," I said. Calm. Precise pretty sure that she couldn't hear me, I didn't care.

I lowered slowly, boots settling on the polished wood of her massive dresser. The glow faded from my body, light peeling away like steam off boiling water. The moment my feet touched down, the Brob collapsed off the wall behind me with an earth-shaking thud. I barely noticed.

The tank was in front of me now.

Glass. Sand. Hundreds of my people living like pets.

Some sat frozen. Others backed away. A few stepped forward—cautious, but curious. They knew something had changed the moment that white light broke the horizon.

I reached out and pressed my palm against the tank.

A pulse of heat and pressure surged forward from my hand, a clean hole fizzling into the glass with a hiss. The sides of the breach melted away like warm wax, leaving a circular opening just large enough for them to step through.

And they did.

Tentatively. Carefully.

A small crowd gathered near me. Their clothes were ragged, their faces gaunt—but they still held something that hadn't been crushed by time or captivity.

Hope.

A man stepped forward. Short, even for a Lilli. Gray beard. Scar down his temple. He squinted up at me like I was a ghost.

"No way. That's not possible..." he murmured.

"You can't be... Zeno."

I didn't blink.

Murmurs erupted. Some gasped. A few dropped to their knees. I sighed.

"There's no time for talk," I said. "I'm not here for history lessons. I'm here to get you out."

That was when the murmurs turned to arguments. Some of the more clean-cut ones—worshipers, no doubt—stepped forward and raised their hands.

"We're staying," one of them said. A woman with painted eyes and a strip of gold cloth wrapped around her head like a crown. "The Lady protects us. We are safe here. Fed. Sheltered. You shouldn't—"

I held up a hand.

"I'm not here to force anyone," I said flatly. "You want to stay in your glass cage? That's your choice. Just don't call it salvation."

I floated upward again, my feet lifting from the wooden surface of the dresser, cloak drifting behind me like smoke in a breeze. I looked at the crowd below.

"So," I said. "Who's coming with me?"

A few raised their hands immediately.

Others took longer. A couple helped the injured. Some picked up children. The groups began to form—those who still remembered freedom. Those who were tired of praying for crumbs.

A kid in the back asked something next.

"Are you going to kill her?"

Everyone went silent. Even the worshipers looked toward me.

I turned my head, eyes narrowing just slightly as I glanced in the direction of the bed. She was still there—Adrielle—sprawled out in confusion, blinking in my direction. She probably couldn't see me. She had no idea what I'd done.

"No," I said.

They looked surprised.

"I received no orders to kill her," I said. "And I don't waste energy on things that aren't worth it."

My eyes lingered on her one last time.

"She's not a warrior. There's no honor in it."

I looked back at the Lilli's gathering around the breach in the tank, some already beginning to climb out.

"Let's go."

I raised a hand.

A sigil glowed beneath my palm—shaped like a circle within a spiral, spinning softly.

The air around us rippled.

And then—one by one—we began to disappear.