The celebration on the bridge of the "Odyssey" was a wonderful, noisy, and slightly hysterical mess. People were laughing, hugging, and a few were just sitting at their consoles, quietly crying with relief.
Their fleet was alive. The war was over. For the first time in a long time, it felt like they could finally breathe.
But down in the Rite Chamber, Ryan was not celebrating.
He had won. He had rewritten a god and saved his friends. But there was one more piece of business to take care of. One more debt to pay.
He closed his eyes. The cheering from the bridge faded away. He let his new senses, the senses of a Genesis Lord, expand. He was no longer just looking out at space. He was reaching into the very fabric of the universe, into the threads of time and memory.
He was looking for his lost friends. He was looking for Jaxon and Kaelia.
