Darian nodded at Camille, who ordered the executors to stop the execution. Mallory stared upward with glassy, trembling eyes, like she'd just seen the light at the end of the tunnel. But she couldn't speak or even move a single muscle.
Darian had already heard a bit about Vanh. Over the last ten years, he'd stopped trying to stand out, and very few people had any contact with him. Which was very different from before, when he was basically a king without a crown in the Solar Federation Empire and made everything revolve around him.
When Darian came back to Earth, he learned that Vanh had been gone for a few days. Nobody knew if he was on a mission or… inside that training universe. Darian didn't have time to think much about it, but now, standing in front of him, was a surprising reality.
