Daedalus never realized that he could feel his twin until, suddenly, he could not. The subtle tug on his prometus by magical particles quietly at work within a body not his own was gone now. The faint sense of presence he had never noticed until today had seeped out of him, leaving him bereft. Solitude thundered through him. He was alone.

Daedalus shook in Cercitis's steadying grip, firelight dancing around them. "Wh-what is happening?" he cried. The frozen wind turned the tears on his cheeks to ice.

"What's wrong?" Astricus demanded, rushing to his wife and foster son.

Behind the starholder, a bundled up Pullati woman threw a new log onto the small campfire and sparks rose toward the star-strewn black heavens.

"I don't know," Cercitis said, searching Daedalus's face as she rubbed his shoulders with a soothing touch. "He just leaped out of his bedroll and started pacing and sobbing. I can't get him to explain."

Daedalus had not wept like this since he was a small child, and now he could not stop weeping and shaking. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. He knew it. Dread filled his bones and he clenched his fists, trying and failing to speak. To explain.

"Excuse me," Serenitas said, shouldering in and drawing him out of Cercitis's grip.

The aedificans did not notice the glare Daedalus's foster mother gave her or Astricus's warning glance at his wife.

The older worldholder leaned forward until she and Daedalus stood eye-to-eye. "What's wrong, Alumna? You were asleep. Bad dream?"

He shook his head wordlessly, sucking in a choked breath, then another. He had not been sleeping but huddling in his bedroll as he met with his brother in the Caeles. Then Domi had said those alarming words--"Fine, you can have it back."--and left. Thrice Daedalus had asked his twin to return. Then the fragile connection to the Trellis failed, as it had been failing most of the day since the team had set up camp in the Restoration Tower's crooked shadow.

The connection had not returned. Either the distant ice cave's Trellis isle was too far away, under attack by rogue promenia, or being repaired.

Or...

No. No, it could not fall that swiftly. Could it? No, it could not. But Daedalus could not feel his brother any longer. And that might mean...

No. Domi could not be dead, surely. Daedalus would have perished as well if that were so. But he had felt his younger twin's determination ripple through the Caeles and he had seen the shape of Domi's intentions. A leaf. Quellwort. Eternal Radiance preserve them.

Moments later, it had felt like Domi dissolved. Daedalus's brother was there one second and then gone. If indeed the younger twin had used quellwort, he no longer had prometus. Yet the Trellis had not come to Daedalus.

He peered up at Serenitas, trying to speak. It took three tries. "I must return to the ice cave at once." His voice sounded high and young to his ears and he paused as she frowned, her black eyes concerned.

"What?" She shook her head, as much in confusion as refusal. "Why in the world do you need to--"

"I need to go!" His voice sounded nothing like his own. Who was this shrieking child?

"Shh," Serenitas said, brows furrowing a she drew him back to the fire. "Come here. Calm down."

Behind her, Cercitis mimed drawing a deep breath into her lungs and gave Daedalus an encouraging nod.

Both women were right. He must calm down at once. He could not permit himself to succumb to panic in this manner; the fate of the world depended upon him mastering himself right now. Drawing a deep breath, he focused on the air's smoky scent as it expanded his belly. His racing heart turned his chest into a silent drum and he counted each beat until, at last, the frantic rhythm started to slow.

Only when he could no longer feel his heart hammering in his chest did he speak again, his resolve crystallizing within him as his panic fled. "I must get under the Trellis at once." His voice sounded eerily calm now against the backdrop of murmuring people and crackling campfire flames.

Cercitis, eyes widening, opened her mouth as she took a step forward, but Astricus drew her back with a headshake and she settled, tense and biting her lip.

Oblivious to the couple behind her, Serenitas frowned. "At once? Domi, it's a full day hike back to the ice cave."

He drew a steadying breath. "Then I will fly." He did not know how he would manage such, but he would find a way.

"Alumna, you just started learning to fly," Serenitas said, shaking her head. "You'll never make it that far, especially in this weather."

"Then you fly me. I must be there in five minutes."

She laughed gently, brushing her black braids over her shoulder. "I can't fly that fast, Alumna. And why do you think you need--"

"We must try," he insisted, his fists balling at his sides. They were wasting too much time. Terrified energy churned within him, urging his body to run, to skip planning and trying to convince anyone, and just sprint mindlessly into the night. He forced himself to remain still, though his voice still shook with nerves. "Even if we do not get all the way there, we must try. Perhaps if we draw near enough, the Trellis will be able to reach me."

"Why are you so insistent on this? I don't understand."

Daedalus drew a deep breath. He felt as though he hovered atop a thin ledge, a freefall to either side of him. Should he tell her? Potential disasters loomed either way.

Swallowing, he made up his mind. "I cannot explain right now," he said, dropping his voice low to prevent anyone from overhearing, especially his foster parents. "But I have reason to believe the Trellis is about to fall unless I am there to stop it."

He did not expect the older worldholder to believe him at first, and of course, she did not. He forced himself to breathe and wait out her disbelief as concern flooded her face. Concern for him, not the Trellis. "What? Are you falling sick, Alumna?" She shook her head. "I don't understand why you're going on about something so strange, but I think we should have a lifeholder take a look at--"

"I am not ill," he said firmly and squared his shoulders. "I am the Principis Heres Worldholder. I command you to fly me as close to the Trellis as possible because I have reason to believe that my royal twin just lost control of it."

<>

The irresistible urge of the Rex's compulsion drew Valens's skill and focus to the sky, poised to support the Trellis. A daunting task. Still, preparing to catch the arcane device felt easier than comforting Domi right now.

"Hush, Alumna," Valens murmured, patting the boy's hot, sweat-dampened back. He didn't have the faintest clue how to soothe the inconsolable kid huddled against him.

Hedera stepped back and shook her head, her face gray with dread. "There's nothing more I can do, Son." She swallowed hard. "I've coaxed his body to produce prometus again. I've double and triple-checked the particles. There's nothing wrong with them. If the Trellis hasn't returned to him yet, then..." She shuddered from head to toe. "Then..."

"Then it's not going to," Valens finished for her, his heart plummeting. The Trellis had not transferred to Daedalus either. The arcane device must be too damaged.

Domi's face, already red and tear-streaked, crumbled. "We have to find another way!" the boy wailed, struggling against Valens in an attempt to jerk to his feet.

Valens kept a firm grip on the kid, half afraid Domi would run blindly through the terrified crowd huddled with them in the tunnel and race up to the surface.

Somewhere high above, the older worldholder could feel countless small explosions heating and shattering the heavens. The sky would begin falling soon. Nothing could stop it. Not any more. Aquarius's worldholders could only mitigate the cataclysm about to befall the planet.

Valens glanced back at Hedera. "Suppress him again, please. For the next twelve hours."

"No!" Domi gasped. "We have to try again! We have to--"

"You can feel the Rex's command, Alumna." Valens could certainly feel the royal compulsion, and he could also feel his inexperienced alumna grasping at promenia like an infant grasping at a rattle. The boy may have carried the Trellis ten minutes ago, but Domi was not powerful enough to join the other worldholders in bracing the Trellis. Valens nodded at Hedera. "Do it." If Domi had no prometus, the kid would not be able to harm himself by mindlessly obeying the command that yanked at every worldholder on the planet.

Hedera gave a shaky nod and Domi wailed and struggled to break free of Valens's restraining grip. Two layers of promenia dissolved in a wash of sparks and the third was rebuffed by the boy's unwilling body until Valens's firm forearm over his throat soon made the younger worldholder fall limp and quiet. Valens settled the kid's head in his lap and brushed tears from Domi's hot cheeks.

With luck, he would sleep through the end of the world. Still, Valens felt awful.

Behind her unconscious son, Merula paced fretfully as Hedera began to work. There was no room for her to walk with so many sobbing people crammed together in the tunnel beneath the Onyx Palace. Sidus had modified the Rex's command to get underground with a command to flee to the now no-longer-secret passage, and everyone in the palace congregated almost shoulder to shoulder. The cramped space did not stop Merula from stalking like a caged jaguar within the three feet of space she'd carved out for herself with her vicious pacing, however.

Valens would give anything to turn his alumna over to the boy's mother. Nothing could be more wrong than separating a child from his mother at a time like this. Valens had his own mother nearby, and his wife, father, and siblings were all with him in the tunnel as well. Their presence was a comfort. Yet he couldn't turn Domi over to the one person the kid needed most right now. The entire palace, from the lowest scullery maid to Domi himself, was gathered shoulder-to-shoulder. No one could know the boy's connection to the Pullatus woman.

"Erus?" For once, Radix's voice was soft. Choked.

Comitas, slumped against the wall, stared bleakly into space. Valens doubted the woman heard the Pullatus. She had retreated into herself, unable to cope with the task of managing an uncontrollable situation.

Valens rubbed Domi's hot back and glanced around the tunnel. Bellus and Sidus were hard at work keeping the crowd from turning the cramped tunnel into a stampede ground. Peritia, Fons, and Hedera had no authority in this situation. And Domi was in no state to rule.

Valens grimaced. "Talk to me, Radix."

They nodded looking scared. "Everyone is packed in here. Including sick Electi. And... and I think Princeps Oliva is soon going to command the lifeholders not to waste any promenia to heal or cure anyone."

Valens frowned. "Why would she do that? There are going to be many injuries." And many deaths. More deaths than the world had ever seen.

The Pullatus bit their lip. "It's hard to explain. Just... I think there is going to be very, very scarce promenia after... Well, after. And I think she's going to direct all efforts to save the farmlands. If we don't get rid of this sickness now, I don't think we'll get another chance. And with everyone stuck this close together..."

Valens followed their frightened amber gaze to the huddled palace servants. Most were Pyrrhaei or Lightless Promethidae. They were incredibly vulnerable. And if the disease escaped the onyx palace, it would spread throughout the city at the worst possible time.

Valens glanced up at his ma. "Please cure my alumna." Only when she nodded did he turn back to Radix, who stood chewing their lip bloody. He hoped giving them something to do would help ease some of their terror. "Tell Bellus to send my instructions to every lifeholder down here. They are ordered to get rid of this disease in the next five minutes."

<>

"B-Basiluculus?" Serenitas murmured as Daedalus collapsed to his knees in the snow the instant they landed after their flight.

Overhead, the night-side sky was dark. Too dark. The glimmering cyan Trellis isle above the ice cave just that morn seemed but a memory but for the lightning-like flashes overhead. Something above them crackled like ice.

"It... It is not connecting to me, Aedificanti," Daedalus said.

The howling wind carried away half his words, but Serenitas must have heard enough. "Did the rogue promenia destroy the isle? Maybe..."

She trailed off, and he followed her doubtful gaze to the horizon. A golden wisp of rogue promenia roiled atop snow-covered basalt hills, far too small to be from a corrupted Trellis isle.

Something crackled above them once more with a ripple of electric blue light across the black heavens. Then a voice thundered from the sky and tugged inexorably at their will. Catch the sky.

Sobbing but obeying the Rex's irresistible royal command, Daedalus cast his awareness and power to the overheated heavens, claiming what promenia of the failing Trellis he could and bracing. Not here, though. Not directly above the ice and basalt but over distant Urbs Hostiae, obeying the hidden layers within the royal command to save capitals and supporting farmlands.

The Rex's next command gripped him so hard his body jerked. Take shelter underground. If you cannot get underground, you shall seek shelter indoors. If you cannot get indoors, you shall get under the sturdiest thing you can find. And if you can find nothing, then you shall kneel where you are, cover your head with your arms, and pray to the Eternal Radiance for protection.

He and Serenitas glanced at each other. The whites of the older worldholder's wide, terrified eyes flashed in the dark. They looked as one toward the mouth of the ice cave that gaped in basalt rock jutting up from the ice. Too far.

Above the two worldholders, the dark Trellis shrieked and crunched as something that was not metal or rock twisted free of its support beams. A shadow broke away from the black sky, promenia rumbling.

You shall catch the sky.

The sky fell.

Screaming, Daedalus and Serenitas knelt and threw their arms over their heads. The howling wind and roar of the unnatural blue sky rushing to meet them devoured their frantic prayers.