“Truth echoes louder in shared silence.”

  SolDiri glyphs, dated millennia before humanity evolved.

  Feebee approached the shifting zone that contains the shadow. It took form and beckoned. There were stairs, black as night leading down, through the surface of the shadow.

  She started for the stairs. The QI wasn’t so sure, ‘Is that a good idea?’ it asked.

  Feebee just continued, ‘I know this is real.’

  ‘The fact that you know its real and still want to go down in is no way reassuring.’ The message was accompanied by a short burst of the QI’s laughter. Feebee didn’t join in, she was feeling nervous. She knew it was real. They both did.

  The deeper she went the more her eyes got used to the darkness. She neared the base of the stairs and switched to IR.

  She was in a dark open space that stretched as far as she could see. A standing stone was in front of her. Across its faces were strange glyphs. SolDiri shapes and patterns that she recognised from old and ancient memories.

  One face, directly in front of her had the Void Spiral at its centre; this she knew. And below it was writing in many languages.

  ‘Can you translate this?’ she asked the QI.

  Scratchy laughter returned. ‘Of course.’

  Dark thoughts emerged. ‘Don’t read them. They are blasphemy. Destroy the stone. Cleanse this cursed place.’

  She parsed the chatter within. These thoughts were at odds with what her senses were telling her of the place. What her inner self perceived.

  They were coming from an echo-self. She recognised it as the dark one who coached violence. Who wanted destruction. It tried again, ‘Destroy the stone and you will take control of unwritten futures. Complete the ascension you deserve.’

  The conflict grew. She thought back to all the times she and Kirr had spoken. And through those memories real and old came a simple message.

  “Chaos lacks Purpose” and as she spoke it, her vision spiralled across timelines. She caught glimpses of multiple pasts leading to new futures. All crossed her timelines. Options, options, choices that could be remade, retaken. It was tempting but she had her past and would let it take her to a future.

  As these thoughts filled the air, sounds, tonal songs accompanied by deeply resonant baselines filled the space and the standing stone was lit up by circling motes. They pulsed and flitted in time with the music. Feebee joined in humming at first, then as balance quivered, her words flowed.

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  She shaped the song’s end. The cadence of her words fitting the Shadow’s song perfectly.

  Whisper, whisper Silent Flame,

  Carved in stone before you came.

  If the stars begin to bend,

  You will shape them to your end.

  The stillness that followed called her name. Not in words but in the motion of motes. Their silent interaction aligned with the song.

  As she watched, the words, the languages, on the standing stone resolved into the same three words. All now written in English and illuminated by motes; like ancient script, held in revered places.

  The Silent Flame.

  She had been named.

  Feebee gasped as a flash dream rocked her. She saw small ring-tailed beings around a fire at night. One, its face and limbs painted, danced to the rhythm of drums and the primal chants of those around the fire. They danced, leapt and stamped in the middle, mimicking the motion of the animals of the jungle in which they lived.

  As this memory flowed through Feebee’s consciousness the Beast piggy backed into her mind. He showed her futures where order and balance failed, where chaos reshaped the world into a better place.

  She spoke directly to the Beast, 'I do NOT walk your path. I wish to pursue my own journey.'

  Then the memory, the vision broke up and Feebee returned. The Beast was still there, lurking, watching but more distant.

  ‘There must be atmosphere in here. Else how am I hearing and feeling the music, the beat?’

  ‘You’re right… Earth atmosphere mix, mostly nitrogen. Then oxygen, argon and CO2.’

  ‘Can you recharge my air.’

  ‘Already doing it.’ The QI actually sounded smug.

  Feebee walked around the standing stone. The Shadow Eclipse on one face had been changed, ancient graffiti. It had been made to look like two people staring at each other, about to kiss. There was writing below. “A true joke bends the world”. She looked again, the script was in her handwriting.

  The QI asked Feebee Kirr’s joke again.

  ‘So, why did the entropy field break-up with the graviton?’

  Before the QI could say anything Feebee jumped in, ‘Because it couldn't handle the attraction. It felt like the relationship was just collapsing under the pressure.’

  They both laughed, the QI was the first to recover. ‘Well played. Nice addition to the joke and a genuine groan.’

  ‘I’ve got another, do you know why I like door jokes?’

  ‘No, tell me, why?’

  ‘They’re a-door-able.’

  She laughed at her own joke, the QI let it go and joined in.

  And reality changed.

  Or more accurately remembered. Remembered a forgotten pillar of SolDiri balance, the essential place of humour in the world.

  "A true joke bends the world."

  And as this was going on…

  The Beast listened. Ahh, they have let slip a new clue. But the Beast is confused by the paradox of not funny being funnier, not clever being cleverer. It creates a series of queries to resolve the not-logic. These tied down the Beast. It couldn't dominate Feebee. It backed off, hoping to resolve the paradox of humour and come at her from there.

  Back now…

  Feebee reached out to the writing, the graffiti. The hand it was written in was her’s. She knows this for a fact. Curious.

  As her hand touched the standing stone the murals floating in space around the room, lit up. They flicker through Feebee’s many possible futures. There were multiple references to the Ember walking through flame. A person of immense inner strength. The Orrery was showing strong links to Feebee but it felt like someone else.

  A new standing stone emerged. Created from the ground up as she watched. At its centre, written across its face was a name: “Feebee of song, The Silent Flame of Balance.”

  The QI whispers to Feebee, ‘I didn’t write that. You did.’

  ‘No. I didn't,’ responds Feebee. ‘It’s yet to be written?’

  Feebee kneels down and takes off her helmet. The air smells... of nothing.

  She rests her head against the stone, against the writing and weeps with a mix of joy and sorrow. Her emotions cycle, first laughter and ending with sorrow.

  Her QI glitches, she feels it stutter. Her body flushes. Then the QI speaks, ‘My core just fully ascended. I can now see so much. Access so much more. The resources of the Orrery stretch out before me.’

  'How?'

  'Apparently, I passed some sort of ascension test too.'

  ‘Well, don’t you go all God-like on me either.’ They laughed.

  Space became alive and alight with motes of all colours and shades. Even green ones. Only a few but more than the one she’s seen before. The motes suddenly all turned and started to flood up the stairs.

  Feebee followed and once out at the top of the stairs saw the ship, close, overhead.

  It looked different. The asteroid had gone and in its place was tethered a small comet. The QI did some rough math and came out with tonnes of ice that could yield a lot of oxygen. Enough to sustain a ship full of people for decades. WOW!

  ‘Yes WOW. The Orrery has been busy. It has prioritised your survival and saw the repair of the ship as greatly increasing this.’

  'How?'

  'Things runs differently here.’