Cassie!

Quinn's fingers flew over the keys so fast she had to redo the command to bring up heat signatures.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The ship Cassie and Dolor had taken was out there, so close to them. Closer even than Jos Gharo. It seemed to have stopped. Was it possible that they'd seen the Gech?

The heat signature was inconclusive because of the storm, but for a moment, Quinn thought she saw two figures flash.

"Rhys..." she whispered, looking at her fated.

The harbinger was looking at the screens too, a pensive expression on his face. Quinn noticed he wasn't that happy about finding the ship.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "It just showed two possible living beings. It has to be them. We can save her! They are so close."

"In the midst of the storm they might as well be on the other side of the planet," Rhys said. "Look at the dials showing the temperature outside."

Quinn didn't want to do that. She had glimpsed at the readings and they didn't say anything she wanted to hear. The desperation was quickly taking ahold of her. Cassie was right in front of her while she sat in the Gech with a completely valid plan on how to save their lives. She couldn't walk away from that.

"If I leave her here, I will regret it forever," Quinn said firmly. "I have to at least try."

"I'm not letting you out there," Rhys stated, never turning his gaze from the screens.

The anger made a reappearance.

"That's my sister," Quinn argued. "She's the reason I –"

"The only reason why you came to Luminos, I know," Rhys said, standing straight and regarding her.

Silence set in the small compartment of the Gech's control room. Quinn looked at her fated, wondering how much she'd hurt him with that truth.

"It was the only reason at first, yes," she replied, hoping that Rhys understood she wasn't lying. "Now there is more. Now you are the reason I would stay, but I will never be the same if I walk away from Cassie without confirming there's nothing I can do."

The harbinger looked at her and Quinn was reminded of the story he'd told her of the time when he'd been a small boy. Of what Nayanors were capable of when their fateds were in danger.

"I said you're not going out there," Rhys answered exactly as Quinn had known he would. "I didn't say I wouldn't go."

She didn't reply at once. The story echoed in her head, the visions of what the storm was capable of running before her eyes. If Cassie was dead or beyond saving, she risked losing Rhys as well. On the other hand, if there was even the slightest of hopes to save her sister, they had to try.

Quinn stood and took Rhys' hand, pressing them together.

"Please come back," she said, holding his gaze. "Do whatever you can for my sister, but please come back."

Rhys smiled, leaning down to kiss her deeply.

"I will," he promised. "I wouldn't leave you here alone."

"That would be nice, yes," Quinn admitted, answering his smile despite the fear creeping into her heart. "I don't think I can make it back to the fortress alone. The storm is not a place where I'd want to be alone."

"I meant in life," Rhys said, regarding her seriously. "I wouldn't leave you to live alone just like I wouldn't want to live without you."

The warmth his words instilled in her fought with the cold dread of fear and the still-dropping temperature. Very soon, Quinn knew the Gech would be an ice cave. They were running out of time.

"That, too," she said quietly, kissing her fated. "No matter where I am, I want to be with you."

* * *

The harness fit uncomfortably. They had done whatever they could in the short span of time they had left, but there was no helping it. The harness was made for a Nayanor's measures and Quinn didn't come anywhere near that.

"Be careful," she whispered to Rhys when the harbinger leaned over the controls to kiss her goodbye. "Remember your promise."

"You too," Rhys said, grinning. "I want you here, alive and well, when I return."

Quinn nodded. Her body resisted letting her fated go, her hand reluctantly slipping out of his.

She had never been that scared in her life, not even half a day ago when she'd realized that she was completely lost in the carrier. When Quinn had felt it topple over and take her with it, she'd been certain she was living through the last minutes of her life.

That had been pretty bad, to say the least.

Now, watching Rhys go after her sister, wondering if she was losing them both, Quinn knew that the fear for her own life had been nothing compared to that.

She took the first, hesitant step. It was absolutely mind-blowing to feel the titanic structure move with her.

Like an exo-skeleton that weighs more than a star cruiser.

The Gech was walking.

Slowly, hesitantly, clumsily like a child taking their first steps. The comparison wasn't that far off. Quinn had learned to walk a long time ago, but now it felt like she was doing it all over again.

Rhys had been right. The harness itself was so slow there was no chance Quinn could stumble in it. She had to put all of her strength to move it at all and the Gech responded with reluctance, as if the machine felt it was run by someone who didn't know it all that well.

Even so, Quinn was walking the Gech. She observed Rhys make it down to the maintenance door, seeing him as nothing more than a heat signature. The yellowish form on the screen was now her only firm proof that her fated was still alive. The temperature downstairs was much colder and every second, Quinn expected to see it flicker out of existence.

Outside, it would be a thousand times worse.

Yet Rhys was still there, waiting for her signal. Quinn walked toward the ship, careful not to land the structure weighing countless megatons on the fragile vessel.

It had taken her no time at all to cross the distance, but it helped to have a stride that measured in miles for each step.

"Rhys," Quinn called into the transmitter he'd given her. "We're right on top of the ship. I tried to bring us as close as possible, but I don't dare to do much more. When you exit, the ship is about twenty feet to your left and not far from the Gech. You should be able to see it without leaving the Gech's shadow."

Her words came out sounding braver than she felt. Rhys must have heard that as the harbinger chuckled. Quinn heard his distorted voice as her fated replied:

"I will find her, my love. I'll be back. Don't fear."

Easy for you to say, Nayanor. I'm made of blood and flesh. You're made of... muscles, bravado and stubbornness.

"I won't be able to hear you out there, Quinn," Rhys said. "Hang on."

"You're the one going out into the storm," Quinn retorted. "You hang on! Nayanors..."

The harbinger laughed and Quinn heard the warning sirens blaring when the outer door was opened. The storm howled in the transmitter so strongly that Quinn thought it would deafen her. Straight ahead, the violent winds outside ripped into the Gech. Up on the highest floor, twenty floors and more off the ground, Quinn felt it rush over her in a wave. It was so cold it knocked the breath from her lungs.

If Rhys had been a normal man, she had no doubt that he would have gasped at least in the face of the terrible storm. Down on the ground floor, right by the door, it had to be unbearable, but not a grunt was heard on the transmitter. And if that wasn't enough, Rhys was out of the door in a flash and the controls showed the door being closed.

Quinn realized he'd moved fast to spare her. Feeling overwhelming guilt, she watched the small heat signature move slowly along the side of the Gech.

Rhys and the rest of the Nayanors had been right, after all. The storm was too much for a human. They could scrape by, live for a few minutes out there, but it would be a horrible way to die. And indoors, Quinn could already feel the sharp bite of the gale. Just to sit there and wait was a trial.

She watched with a thundering pulse as the yellow spot signifying Rhys reached the small ship outside. Quinn struggled out of the harness when she saw the harbinger returning. She didn't risk riding the elevator down to join him before she saw the door opening and closing again.

"Don't come down, Quinn," Rhys warned before he slipped out again.

Cassie...

She stayed in place like she'd been asked, this time choosing to follow the harbinger's command. Quinn watched as Rhys ventured out again, returning after a long period of time. Every second seemed as long as a lifetime. Her finger hovered above the button to call the elevator and go down to see what was left of her sister.

Then Rhys was back and the door was firmly shut.

"Lock it up, Quinn," Rhys' voice ordered, rough this time.

It seemed he wasn't as impervious to the weather as he would have liked her to believe. Quinn made sure that the outer door was closed and the Gech was in a mode to heat its interior with all the defenses up to keep the storm out.

As soon as she was done, she rushed down to the first level.

Then Quinn froze to the spot, but she wasn't by far the most unmoving thing in the rocking harvester.

Two bodies laid on the floor before Rhys' feet and the dark look in the harbinger's eyes was filling Quinn with such grief she could barely contain it.

Dolor seemed to be alive, no doubt the courtesy of the beating diadon in his chest. Cassie, however, was as white as a sheet. Her already pale complexion now looked like she was made from ice.

The worst were her eyes, open wide, staring at nothing.