I thought her dead.

Kiiraskes sat up, then fell over again. She spoke a very foul oath.

"You're hurt!" I cried stupidly.

"I'm not," she hissed. "Help me face the Great Machine."

She was too heavy to drag anywhere she did not want to go. I helped her sit up, and saw then the extent of the damage. She had lost a primary arm at the elbow, but that was the least of it. The wound in her middle yawned wide as she repositioned herself. In my certainty that I had failed her, I did not see her reach into the pack beside us.

She slathered a foul-smelling concoction onto her stomach, then activated her Arc-knife and held it close. I think I must have shouted. I heard the popping hiss of the salve igniting, and the air filled with the stink of roasting flesh.

Kiiraskes groaned and shuddered as the dying beast had.

"Now help me up," she said.

Together, we shuffled toward the burning ruin of Haaksis's creature.

It looked ordinary after the fire had worked through it. It seemed like it might have been a river-catcher, one of several common predators that fed along the waterways. But we had both seen it cloaked in boiling shadow, wielding a power that could douse the Light of the Great Machine. And no river-catcher ever grew so large.

Amid the pile of bones, I caught the shine of something metallic. A gleaming sphere. I reached for it, and Kiiraskes pulled me back.

"Don't touch it." With the stump of her arm, she gestured toward the pack I had abandoned nearby. "Bring that here."

I watched as she tipped a canister of powder over the sphere. The effects of the tonic were fading now, but I could still see the motes as they drew together. A cluster of Light, like a frenzied swarm of fish, gathering closer and closer together over the sphere until I had to cover my eyes.

When I looked again, the sphere was gone.

"What was it?" I could not help but regret that I had not had a chance to study it.

"Haaksis's old evil," Kiiraskes said. "Let's see what he can tell us about it."

Haaksis prepared hot, sweet drinks for us both. Later, I would wonder at his kindness. At the time, I was too tired and sore, and the drink soothed the ache in my throat.

Kiiraskes's wound still looked terrible: a livid stretch of cauterized flesh beneath a cracked carapace. But Kiiraskes refused both food and aid; she stood at the ready, listening.

"I wanted to pilot a Ketch," Haaksis told us. "When I was young. I stole a scout-ship to prove myself. I got lost."

"I didn't have much fuel. I set down on what I thought was one of the moons. But there was no air. No life. No Great Machine. I took my mask. My Ether-pack. I stepped outside."

I watched him clench his fists again, one after the other. Helplessly.

"I found a tower. A fortress-city of tombs like nothing you've ever seen. Something monumental. Something older than us."

I shivered.

"And at its heart, a ship. A ship like a blade." Haaksis's mandibles scraped together. "I found a sphere [1]. And when I held it…"

I heard Kiiraskes inhale, very softly.

"…showed me how to get home."

Kiiraskes said nothing. I sipped my drink, saying nothing. Understanding nothing.

"It showed me everything. The storm at the end of things, Kiiraskes. The uselessness of it all. The ruin of it." Haaksis hung his head. "I still hear its Voice. Even after I cast the sphere away. Even now, after you…"

After we destroyed the sphere, I realized. I set my cup down.
There had been nothing in his demeanor to make me frightened of Haaksis until now. It was as if something had torn free inside him. He must have been fighting it, the entire time. Fighting, and losing.

"I sent for Slayers. I thought there would be more of you left. I thought… there might be a way."

"We can still fight it, Haaksis," Kiiraskes said. "You and I. Come and tell Judgment—"

Haaksis gestured sharply in dismissal. "You don't know what's coming for us. For our children." He groaned. Ether gusted from his mouth like fog. "We have to stop this suffering." His eyes fixed upon mine. "We have to end it all."

He came at me over the desk.

Kiiraskes met him first.

I stumbled back as they fought. Fought like animals trapped inside a cage. A display shattered under the collision of their bodies. Haaksis's bellowing rattled the walls.
I could not throw any flasks without risk of hitting Kiiraskes. I made myself small and pressed my hands over my eyes.

I do not know if they fought for long hours or mere moments. For a time, there was only terror and noise, and once it passed, I felt gentle hands tugging mine away from my face.

"Forgive me," I said.

Kiiraskes grunted. "I haven't yet taught you to fight. That's what I'm here for." She looked down at the still form that had been Haaksis. "Bring the Shank. I have to tell the House of Judgment I killed a Lord of Rain."

[1: Eris spoke of finding such an artifact on the surface of the Lunar Pyramid.]