"Now," Govan continued, "how are Lee and Kee? Those aren't their real names, by the way, but I know who you mean. Is Kee still pushing the younger races to develop while Lee does… whatever he does? I haven't seen him in quite some time."

Here's a funny thing: Stapledon had a track meant for street-level heroes and for those heroes whose strengths lent themselves to espionage. I'd taken exactly one class in that track—the required one: Managing Dual Identities.

From what Haley said, higher-level classes focused more on skill development in reading people, verbal misdirection, and extracting information from conversations.

In retrospect, I could have used more of that. I made a note to pass that on to Isaac Lim if I survived.

"Kee's doing fine," I said. "She's somewhere out in the universe, but I'm not sure where. We mostly communicate via in-between spaces. Lee's probably with Nataw."

"Is he?" Govan stared at me. "Would I be correct in guessing that he's trapped in the Core Device?"

"To the best of my knowledge," I said. If Govan could tell when I lied, that would have been true, but it still left room for uncertainty. It might be enough for Lee.

Govan laughed. "He's slippery. That's part of what makes him as dangerous as he is. He's not the strongest of us, but he's strong, and he adapts. You never know quite where he is or what he's doing. We thought we'd found him not long ago, even in your time. Signs appeared in one universe after another, all related, all hinting at some scheme. We rushed to investigate, finding dead ends or nothing at all.

"Except, funny thing… One of our caches, a trap that promised to end galactic civilizations in an infinity of universes, stopped working. Even more interesting, Halas, one of our number, has disappeared. Halas knew Lee before he switched sides and had gone to find him with Bakanan, another of us. Bakanan is dead in all universes. Do you know anything about that?"

I shook my head, "I don't know anything about Bakanan. Kee mentioned Halas once, but she didn't say what happened to him."

Watching me, Govan smiled, "You're not lying, but you know more than you're saying about the scheme. What was that protecting? Was it you?"

"Probably," I said. "Maybe more than that. The impression I get of Lee is that he has plans within plans."

I suspected Govan would miss the Dune reference, and I wasn't wrong.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Yes," Govan said, voice rising, right fist clenched. "That's an excellent way to put it—plans within plans. Precisely. You're one of them. You have to be. You have enough of Nataw's wide-eyed wonder at the world and his naivety, and you're a child. We removed our ability to reproduce, but here you are, alive, growing, and full of potential."

He looked me up and down. "You're supposed to be something I can't kill, something that will force me to step back. Lee knows this. I can't let my brother die, and killing you would almost be like killing him, especially since you believe he's entrapped and you're on the way to save him. Why do you believe that?"

There was no way to avoid the honest answer. "Lee told me that he'd set up the Core Device so that it wouldn't accept commands from anyone but Nataw or his descendants. I assume that it will also accept commands from Lee, but maybe not now. Nataw's genes have spread throughout our world. They're mostly so diffuse that they don't matter, but in a few people, they're more concentrated enough that they hit some minimum. Then they can control the device, and it looks like someone locked Lee out."

"Or so he told you," Govan said.

"I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's disappeared before, but not like this, and it wasn't as if he contacted me out of nowhere. He contacted me from an Artificer base, the one you just grabbed me from."

I watched for his reaction and wasn't disappointed. He frowned and closed his eyes, finally saying, "That's troubling because it makes sense. I constructed that place. Kee worked on the Core Device there. Lee created a pocket universe with an entrance in her lab. We destroyed that entrance, but if someone blocked his access to this universe, there might still be a connection..."

"Dammit!" He slammed his fist against a chunk of fallen skyscraper. The metal frame caved in, and the building sank further into the ground. "I have to be fair to you, but I don't want to be."

"I get that," I said. "Lee told me about when everyone started to see the future. Some of you saw the new intelligent species rising and destroying yours, sometimes helped by your own people. He told me that you separated into the Live and Destroy factions. Live intended to help other species survive. Destroy formed to prevent everyone you know from being destroyed. There's no shame in wanting to protect those you love. That's why I'm here. I'm here because people I care about will be destroyed if I do nothing."

He turned away from the shattered building to stare at me. "You're killing my friends, and I'm helping you. That's what I see in my visions. Explain it. Tell me why I'd want to do that."

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe because Nataw is the person you care about most, and he and I are on the same side. That's my best guess."

He screamed, and as he did, the world around me shuddered, making me wonder if this reality were about to tear itself apart.

"Tell me everything from the beginning. I need to know who you are and how you came to be involved. I need to know you. I need to know what I'm trading my people for."

"That's going to take a long time," I said.

"It doesn't matter. You can talk for hours, and you'll arrive back where you were no later than when you started."

Stars and galaxies glowed behind his eyes, which had turned into deep wells. I didn't dare look too deeply into them.

"The whole story?" I thought about it. "You could say it began when your people separated into Live and Destroy. You could say it began when my grandfather chose to create a suit of powered armor, but for me, it began when my friend Cassie started to bug me about reforming the Heroes' League. We were in high school…"

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