You could have broken the tension like a rod of glass. The room was trapped in a bubble of complete silence unbroken by any living thing as all those that did live held their breaths in anticipation. On the void side faces were lit in shock and concern, and on the Maker side bodies were tense with anticipation poised and leaning forward. In a way Adam felt he was an intruder on a moment that should have been intensely private, but the outcome would mean everything.

Lanus was their last card to play,and if this didn't work, he didn't know what would.

Looking at Lanus in the near silence, tall, strong, and regal, Adam was struck by a sudden and overwhelming sense of guilt. He had only ever heard stories of Lanus from Sunny. From what she described he had been everything you hope to have in a father, kind, patient, loyal and protective. He had done his best to protect Sunny in a world where she was not welcome.

And his death had been catastrophic.

A death that Adam had facilitated.

Lanus had died during the last push of the Steel Eye operation, and it was Adam himself that had struck the death blow, and it was his death that had caused Kazna's original spiral into revenge, something that once seemed small, but had primed her to become what she was.

Now, the universe was on the brink of ending, and Adam couldn't shake the guilt that secretly bubbled in the pit of his stomach.

The universe was ending and it was his fault.

Despite everything that had happened between him and Sunny, despite their slow movement through mistrust, to forgiveness, to friends and then to love, he had still never been able to forgive himself for what he had done to her father, for taking away one of the only people in her life that had ever protected her. Thinking about into made him sick, and looking at Lanus, fighting quietly to rectify his mistake was almost too much.

The meeting hadn't lasted more than a moment, but still waiting for Kazna's response took what seemed to be a lifetime. It wasn't until she reached up her hand, pressing the flat of lanus's palm to her cheek that Adam felt a spark of hope arrive in his chest. "Hijan Cheel." She said murmuring the words softly into the palm of his hand, "You have returned to me."

Everett and Noctus shifted nervously glancing back and forth between each other unsure what to do.

Renegade lurked at the back of the group arms crossed over her chest.

The expression on her face was difficult to read but somehow seemed to hold undertones of confusion.

"I have." Lanus said, he reached up his other hand, cupping her face in both of his palms, "I am only sorry I could not have come to you sooner."

It seemed things were going well.

Maybe...

Maybe the could end all of this here, maybe they could turn Kazna to their side, of course the Makers would want her to spend a couple of years in their little hell pit, but after a few thousand years Adam might not care so much considering that was plenty of time to raise his children and die peacefully.

He did his best to stifle the hope that was rising in his chest, but to do so wasn't entirely possible.

Reaching out with her lower set of arms, kazna took lanus's hands in hers. For once her expression held no hint of malice, or mockery. Disbelief slowly beginning to melt into excitement, "My love you are here.... " Her voice trailed off for a moment, jaw working to find words before squeezing his hands tightly in hers, "Come, come with me, come and be at my side Lanus."

Adam's heart sunk right down into his boots.

"I am so very close to the greatest achievement of my life. Winning the greatest war." She pulled him closer looking hard into his eyes, "Once you join me, everything shall be as it should be. With you at my side there is no power that can stand in our way." She reached up with her hands, gently caressing his face as if attempting to memorize its form simply by touch, but stopped as a dark expression passed over Lanus.

This was not good, and for a horrible moment Adam wondered if he had made a horrible miscalculation. Would lanus change sides instead of Kazna. Did he just hand over a valuable asset, the one final playing card without knowing what he was doing.

He glanced at Sunny, watching her face.

He could sense the tension in the lines of her body, and the set of her jaw. She knew her father better than anyone.

"What is it?" Kazna asked

lanus took one of her hands in his but stepped back for a moment taking her hand in his, "My dear one.... I was hoping that you would join me.... The Maker world is a beautiful one. There are many battles to fight, many things to do, and I have found my place in the ranks of a glorious army of light."

Kazna frowned, "Within the ranks.... Lanus please you are not a simple soldier, you are a general, a leader of Drev. you are wasted as a simple soldier."

Lanus shook his head slowly, speaking slowly as he tried to chose his words with the utmost care, "Kazna, there are many who have come before us, saints and glorious heroes of the past who can teach us much. I am but a student, eager to learn what they provide. One day I will find my way to the top of their ranks, but I am willing to wait as I learn.'

Kazna shook her head, "But I offer you a chance to take it all now, to join me."

"Kazna.... The path of instant gratification is not the way. Your war will be the end to us. There will be no more battles, there will be no more conquest, there will be nothing left, and I.... I do not wish to lose you to non-existence."

Watching Lanus try and talk Kazna down was like watching a man try to defuse a nuclear bomb with ten seconds left on the clock. Adam's stomach was a pit of nerves and nausea to the point he simply wished to walk out of the room and wait until it was over.

There was a pause in the room, almost imperceptible.

And it wasn't good.

Kazna took a small step back frowning, "Lanus, I am asking you to join me as my battle partner, to fulfill the oaths that you gave to me in the circle."

"Oaths I am willing to fill. I only ask that you give me eternity, not days Kazna."

"Your understanding of what I do is flawed, Lanus. The Makers have warped your mind!" Kazna's agitation was growing, like a slowly building eruption. Lanus was doing his best to diffuse the situation, to talk her down like a hostage negotiator. Not that Adam was an expert on hostage negotiation, but Lanus seemed to be doing a better job than anyone else might have circumstances permitting.

He pulled her back, closer to him, and when he spoke his voice left out all the accusation that another man might have leveled at her, "Than explain to me Kazna, what am I missing? I wish to have you forever, but this war of your can only end in our ceasing to exist."

Kazna shook her head, "We become part of something greater Lanus."

"I am..... Fuzzy on how you become part of something that does not exist, my love."

Kazna huffed in frustration, "You need to look beyond what is simple to understand, Lanus. Give up those things which you know and join me in the unknown, in a greater future beyond this world."

Lanus paused and shook his head slowly, "I am afraid i do not understand."

It was likely at that moment things began to devolve. It was no fault f Lanus, h had done his best in trying to quench the absolute insanity that was his wife, but a man can only do so much.

At that point, kazna was too far gone.

She pulled back from Lanus withdrawing her hand from him, and all at once her eyes hardened, "The Makers have ruined your vision Lanus, made you complicit." He reached out for her, but she took a step back, "I asked you to join me, and as my battle partner, there should have been no question, but even now you resist me. You have been corrupted. You are not the Lanus that I knew!"

Things had gone very suddenly sideways, and now they were riding into hell on a speeding bullet train headed right for "oh shit" valley, and the bridge crossing was broken.

Lanuswas a good actor, had been willing to sacrifice his own sanity for an eternity with kazna, but even a patient man has his limits, "Kazna." His voice was firm, scolding like a father to his child, "Than maybe you never knew me at all."

The words were sharp, cutting.

The first words he had spoken in anger and they sunk right down to the bone"

Kazna's face twisted.

Lanus's posture shifted ever so subtly, "You have broken your oaths Kazna. WHen we entered the circle we promised always to protect each other, to protect our family." he shook his head in frustration now beginning to boil over, "You murdered my children, crippled others and drove more to the near edge of insanity. You have broken the sacred customs of our people by seeking personal revenge, and worse, you have attempted to murder children, my grandson you have tried to kill."

At the mention of his grandson, kazna flared with a sudden spark of rage that had her shadows coursing back to her feet, "Grandson! How could you Lanus, how could you accept that THING." Her mouth worked hard stammering with rage before she could find the words, "That hybrid FREAK is no blood of mine."

This was the first time Adam had seen Lanus truly angry. Up to this point he had been understanding, relaxed, and reasonable, but in that moment he switched to hot overwhelming rage, that filled the room and caused members of both delegations to step back in alarm. Kazna's anger was nothing.

Adam expected the Drev to begin screaming, but instead his voice dropped to a near whisper, "Speak of him like that again kazna, and i will strike you down where you stand."

Adam and Adham exchanged looks.

This was not going according to plan.

Things had derailed and had done so in a spectacular fashion.

Bu of course it was Kazna who finally sent the train careening off the tracks, deploying an underhanded move that would never have been accepted in a Drev dueling ring. She attacked in the middle of a peace talk, and she did it suddenly,underhandedly against all code of drev combat.

In an instant her massive black trident sprung into her hand and thrust forward at Lanuz's chest.

Sunny shouted and held out a hand in shock, but Lanus was just as fast. Reaching up, he dodged to the side, trident passing through the space he had most recently occupied, then with one hand he snatched the shaft of the trident and yanked hard pulling Kazna off balance and straight into the path of his waiting palm.

The move was distinctly un drev in nature, certainly more human, but the slap itself was powerful enough to knock Kazna to the floor.

And it was about that time that all semblance of diplomacy evaporated into chaos