Home Bound

Avea was awoken by the rumbling of a loud engine, its exhaust filling the air. She slowly opened her eyes to thousands of stars dancing above her, making her head spin with vertigo. She was staring up at the night sky. She'd made it out of the tunnels somehow. "Uuuggh" she groaned trying to sit up, but her entire body ached refusing to move. She felt something shift beneath her and quickly realised that the stars weren’t moving she was.

She turned her head, her blurry vision sweeping over the shifting landscape, seeing all of the pale flora fly past her. Struggling to get her bearings, Avea was lying flat on the back of a rickety hovercycle, driving over the uneven terrain of the Outlands. Come on Avea ... remember, she tried desperately to remember the final moments in that cave, but all she could recall was that final burst of searing light, and the Guardian Dolunay's shrieking howl as the the minotaur was dragged back into the abyss of its prison.

Every bump along the rough surface, Avea's body slid across the metal ridge. Her heavy head fell to the side seeing the blurry back of a hooded figure at the helm of the hovercycle. The mysterious hooded figure didn’t notice Avea’s stirring behind them, their eyes remained forwards. Clutching the throttle the rickey hovercycle sped as fast as it could carry them across the slanted terrain. The hood's deep midnight clock blended into the darkness, but Avea caught the glimpses of it whipping windly in the high speed winds, like a shadow trying to outrun the night. The Outlands lay silent around her, the crowds and the racers long vanished, leaving behind only the whistle of the wind echoing through the vast emptiness.

Avea tried to speak, but the hovercycle hit a bump lifting her body into the air before slamming down on something hard. Another pained groan escaped her lips, as she shifted her body a rusted orange orb laid beside her. Bebop, who'd somehow been deactivated. The bots robotic limbs tucked inside the bodice like a turtle in its shell. Avea pulled the bot to her chest cradling its husk gently, unable to muster the strength to fling herself off the hovercycle and run to safety. She was tired, so very tired that she didn’t even try to fight the pull of unconsciousness. The last thing she saw that starry sky before falling back into the darkness.

She blinked her eyes open, only this time instead of seeing an endless stretch of stars above her, she was staring up at a ceiling strung with dozens of dangling mobiles. They swayed gently in the air, fashioned from rusted clogs and scraps metal, clinking with a soft melodic chime. Avea squinted her eyes adjusting to the cold glow that filled the dark cramped room. She instantly recognised the weaved shreds of fabrics that had been layered over the patches in the wall. Beneath her was soft, padding with worn blankets that still held the faintest scent of engine oil. Avea glanced around at the familiar room where every inch was covered with worn trinkets, old tokens and crafted talismans nestled in the cracks around her. Resembling a treasure trove, that is if you considered treasure to be shiny junk that had been drained from the canal.

She was home.

Avea lay on the squishy surface, blinking up at the ceiling above her. She flexed her fingers and toes, alarmed when she didn't feel a twinge of pain. She sat up a little straighter, examining her hands. Panic rose in her chest, her skin was smooth, unbroken, the brutal beatings from the underground couldn't have been a dream. The angry scrapes from the hover race? The sharp ache in her ribs from where Vexor had drove his fists? Even the imprint of Dolunays cold grip around her wrists had disappeared. She had remembered how it had felt, like cold ice seeping into her bones until it bit deep. Now it was nothing more than a faint tingling, as though only a memory of pain.

"How?" Avea whispered, it felt as if her mind had been split open, her thoughts pulled apart until all that was left were broken drifting pieces. Avea laid on the bedding, sorting through the swirling fog of her memory, but no matter how hard she tried, couldn't hold onto to a memory, all of them dissipating like mist. Something lingered in her back of her memory, just beyond reach. She could see the rift closing with Dolunay inside, after that her memory cut off like a snapped thread. And now... she was home. Lying in perfect stillness, as if it had all been a dream. As if none of it had ever happened.

Bebop remained tucked under her arm. Avea breathed a sigh of relief, at least they'd both made it out, even if she had no idea how. She made quick work of rerouting a couple of Bebop's circuits to restart the bots system. Bebop spurred awake. The antenna sparking and metal limbs emerging from out of the bots bodice."V whats going on?" Bebop's voice crackled through the static, slightly scrambled. Avea didn't answer. She raised her finger to her lips, signalling for the bot to stay silent. Her eyes narrowed, as she strained to listen to the strange sound.

There. Just beyond the corner came the sound of frantic movement. Scruffling, uneven and desperate like someone or something dragging themselves across the floor. A cold weight settled in her stomach. She swallowed hard. "Mum?" The words slipped out, barely more than a whisper.

There was no answer. Only the scratching noise that grew louder. Avea turned the corner, "Mum?" she tried again, her breath caught in her throat as she stepped closer, every muscle in her body tense. The moonlight around the corner cast long jagged shadows across the walls. The scratching grew nearer, an unsettling sound that sent shivers down her spine, as she readied herself to turn the corner. She reached the edge and hesitated, heart hammering in her chest. Something was off. She could feel it deep in her gut, like a cold stone stinking to the pit of her stomach. "Mum?" she called again, voice firmer this time. Her hand brushed the corner as she steeled herself, forcing her body to move.

She turned the corner.

The moonlight slashed into the room, in sharp, pale streaks. Moving around her mother who was crouched in the center of the room, frantically scribbling on the floor."This was not the scenario expected," Bebop hissed. Avea tried to speak, but the disbelief had stolen her voice away. She glanced out window, where the full moon raised high in the sky, however instead of a divine majesty it now felt like a glaring eye. "Mum what are you doing?" Avea's voice pierced the silence. "Stay back," her mother finally spoke, her slender form remained crouched, feverishly etching a circle upon the decaying floorboards. "Bet you wish you were back in the tunnels right about now" Bebop hissed again, hovering cowardly behind Avea. "What is this?" she whispered, unable to make sense of what was unfolding before her.

Avea could only stand in horror as her mother's long nimble fingers finished tracing her circle, too entranced in her task to hear her daughters panicked questions. Not so much as lifting her head, her mother's eyes wildly moving from symbol to symbol. Lines of worry carved into her complexion, as she murmured to herself in a low hushed tone. Her focus unwavering, as though the fate of the world rested on her shoulders. At last her mother stopped, Avea felt a pulse move through the room, shifting anxiously, balancing on her toes, desperate to flee out into the night. Yet she obeyed her mother and stood still, not daring to move.

Her mother finally stood in the center of her complete circle, her presence commanding it. Her mother was tall and lean with muscle, often tending to tower over folks when she walked along the trade routes or bustling lanes of T'alli. Her dark sleek hair, gathered into an ornate coil, tumbled free in delicate strands that framed her gentle features. A gaunt piece of fabric clung to her form, concealing the scars peeking outwards from arms and torso. As a child, Avea had once asked her mother how she’d gotten those scars. Her mother had replied softly, "A life before you, my darling," and they'd never spoken about it again. At her core, Celia Maxwell was a dreamer who could marvel at the beauty in the most insignificant of things and recreate it from the far reaches of her mind. “Beauty dwells in secret” she would say to Avea while she dredged up junk from across the Valent ring and sculpted the most bizarre artworks inside their ramshackle home.

Now, standing before her, Avea couldn't meet her mother’s eyes, choosing instead to focus on her hands, weathered and cracked."Avea look at me," Avea winced at her mother’s hard voice. Hesitantly she tilted her eyes upwards to meet her mother’s hard stare, and immediately felt as though she’d been burned. The fury in her mother’s bright eyes made all Avea’s guilt rise up. Avea thought she might choke on her guilt like it were bile, but instead forced herself to speak.

"I know I shouldn’t have gone to the outlands…"

"Our one rule, don’t go past the border and you broke it!" her mum said, pacing across the room. She whirled around to face Bebop, her features twisted with rage. "You were supposed to keep her out of trouble!""Bebop tried to talk her out of it!" the bot squeaked, zipping to hide behind Avea. "Coward," Avea muttered under her breath, her own anger clawing its way up."How many times do I have to tell you? You don't know what you've done," her mother yelled, her usual tight composure fracturing. Her mother shook her head, "participating in criminal activity and going down into ..." "Hover-vech racing isn’t illegal!" Avea screamed back, her chest heaving, the whole night spinning into a blur of fear and fury."No but competing for credits on unsanctioned turf is!" her mother fired back, voice breaking, words ragged with desperation.

A tense silence fell, stretched so tight it felt like it might snap.

Avea’s heart hammered. Her mother was unraveling right in front of her, lashing out in panic at the worst possible time.She didn't have time for this tired fight, she had to warn her mother of what was coming for her. Her mother didn't interrupt, the intensity in her eyes held Avea captive, but she continued. "There’s a reason I tell you not to go into the Outlands, Avea" her mother's voice had gone low and hushed. Avea forced herself to breathe, "I know the tunnels are dangerous," she replied, her voice trembling, "but, Mum... there’s something else down there. Something... trapped. A shadow called Dolunay or it was a shadow." Her mother’s face offered no comfort, no reassurance. Avea's heart beat harder, faster. She had to keep going. She had to get it all out.

"I know this sounds insane," Avea stammered. Her hands trembling, "but it spoke to me. It knew me. It told me things... about how I have something, I don’t know ... an ooi, or ..." "Uri," her mother spoke quietly, her voice almost a whisper. Avea stopped breathing for a moment. Her throat tightened, and the room tilted slightly around her."You know," Avea whispered, the words barely forming. "You knew all along."

Her mother's silence was deafening.

That's when Avea stared down at the drawings encircling her mother, and pure dread sliced through her like a blade. The drawings she'd seen the very same ones in that cursed cave. She'd couldn't forget, the way that they had moved beneath her fingertips was seared into her memory forever. She stared in disbelief. Her mother had drawn the symbols. Her eyes snapped wide. Panic erupted inside her, sharp and merciless, stealing her breath. "How ... how do you…?" Avea gasped stepping back. Her mother stepped towards her pressing her palm against Avea's cheek. That same feeling of calloused cracked hands touching her skin. "It was you?!" Avea whispered.

The memories drifted back in blurred fragments, the light warrior emerging out of the cave walls with their crescent blades at the ready, being carried out of the cave and being hoisted onto the back of the battered hoverbike as it carried her through the darkness and wind.The hooded figure at the helm of the bike, but Avea’s eyes then froze on the shawl that was wrapped around her mother’s shoulders.

How did she not recognise that blue shawl? That blended into the night sky, a deep blue that resembled the night sky when the last rays of light bled into the darkness. "I made sure Dolunay would stay buried down there until the full moon was complete,” her mother said, her voice sharp as a knife's edge. "But you disobeyed me and went down into the tunnels, you've awakened him before the full moon. And now, you're in danger."

“What are you?” Avea's voice came out barely a whisper. She wasn't listening to her mother's warnings. The light warrior couldn’t have been her mother, it wasn’t possible. Her mother heard her, the fury melting from her eyes turning to heartbreaking sadness. “A life before you my darling,” was all she said, her eyes glistening with tears. Avea went still, “you were the light warrior?" Her mother huffed a laugh, "light warrior, I quite like the sound of that." "No, it can't be true... it can't..." Avea gasped, her breath quickened. She stumbled backward, her mind spiralling, as she fought to anchor herself. "Avea, darling, stay with me!" her mother caught her holding her upright. “Stay with me Avea” Her mother inhaled deeply and exhaled, Avea did the same looking into her mother's bright eyes that were filled with so much remorse and guilt. “Listen to me,” she said her hands cradling Avea’s face the gentle brushing away the stray hair tucking it behind her ear. Avea flinched, her mother dropped her hand the pain in her eyes unbearable.

"Avea I know you don't understand, but we're running out of time," her mother urged, gripping her shoulders with a fierce intensity, as though afraid if she let go Avea could disappear before her very eyes. She inhaled deeply, her breath quavering, "They have been after you since the day you drew you were born. We have fought to protect you, to keep you safe." It was as if her mother were lost in her thought, not quite speaking to Avea, but to herself. "I never imagined they would find us here, on this planet. But Dolunay… is powerful and relentless in his pursuit. I should have never underestimated him."

"I don't understand what does he want with me?" Avea gasped, finally able to find her voice again. The mobiles began swinging violently above them, a haunting chorus of chimes. "Listen my girl, I'm so sorry I should have told you everything, but I didn’t want you to have to live your life in fear. No child should have to" "Tell me what?" Avea wasn’t even sure she wanted to know, everything had been pulled out from beneath her and now she was free falling trying to grab at any semblance of reality. So instead she grabbed onto her mother, silently pleading for her to not let go.

Suddenly the twinkling sound from the mobiles became more like warning bells ringing loudly all around them. The entire house shuddered violently, groaning as deep cracks split through the wall. Their trinkets toppled, glass shattered, and a rain of debris fell to the floor. Her mother was still holding onto her, her grip like an iron shackle. "Avea for once I need you to do as I say" her mother sharply whispered. "You need to find Barnaby Briggs, he will explain," Avea nodded, staring into her mother's eyes while her own were wide with terror. They were the same eyes that she'd stared into her whole life and yet she'd felt like she'd never seen them before. A deafening roar echoed through their home, before a shuddering rush of ancient power tore through the house.

"Dolunay's broken through the wards," her mother's voice was calm, but Avea could see the fear in her eyes.“I'll hold Dolunay off long enough so he can't mark you for the claiming,” "Claiming?" The room darkened, the warmth of their home seeping out leaving only the chilling darkness.Avea gasped, her mother clasped her hand over Avea’s mouth holding her tightly against her. "Hold on tight" her mother said. Avea grabbed her mother's arm just as a blinding flash of white light erupted. Avea’s stomach lurched as the floor had dropped out from under her then, in an instant, she was flung backward, her feet skidding across the floor until she hit the far wall on the other side of the room. Gasping, disoriented, as though the air had been knocked out from her lungs.

Avea completely astounded watched her mother in front of her, as her hands begin a strange series of movements, in a slow, fluid sequence.Palms together, pulling them apart and then bringing them together, deliberate and yet controlled. Between them, delicate strands of light began to swirl together, dancing along her wrists. The light began pulling at the very air itself, distorting it like heat above a flame.The space between her mother's palms glowed, then her hand cut through the air creating rip through the air.

Not quite a gateway, but a rift. Forming right in front of her.

"It really was you" Avea whispered. Her mother looked at Avea, her eyes held a whirlpool of emotions, she pulled Avea into a tight hug. "Find Briggs, I love you my girl" she said, before shoving Avea and Bebop into the rift. Falling through the rift it truly felt gliding through water. On the other side there was nothing but a serene stillness, as she floated in limbo. The rift that she'd been tossed through, Avea turned seeing another rift appear a couple of paces away. "We have to go through that rift" Bebop said, the bots voice slow and slightly muted as though talking underwater. "I can't leave her" Avea said, staring back through the rift they'd fallen through. She could see her mother, her hands touched the veil, but didn't pass through, she was locked out. Her mother remained standing in the centre of her circle, muttering under her breath, before dropping her shawl allowing it to slide from her shoulders, pooling at her feet. Avea gasped, "I knew she had scars... but," she stared at the scarring which had no beginning and no end, each line wove into the next all intertwined.

They spiraled and looped across her shoulder blades, down the curve of her spine, and wrapped around her forearms into a spiral pattern resembled a script, like a secret language. Avea didn't dare breathe, too afraid that even a whisper might shatter the veil. The twin crescent daggers hung at her waist, their curved blades sleek and wickedly sharp. Avea peered in closer, seeing that each dagger etched with runes along the spine, which pulsed faintly, as if alive. Avea did not recognise this woman, any traces of her mother had vanished leaving only this stranger standing in her home.

Trapped behind the veil, Avea could only watch shadow spill outwards directly in front of her mother from the circle. The shadow wasn’t merely darkness, it was like cosmic smoke, tinged with hues of deep celestial blue. It flowed into the circle like a living nebula. It didn’t crawl it drifted, whispering across the floor with the silence of deep space. The walls frosted around her mother, and dark cosmic shadow lunging outwards, suddenly halted. Avea’s eyes instinctively shifted down to the circle her mother had drawn onto the wooden floor. The blue shadow surged against the circular ring, but couldn’t break its hold. It began to coil and twist, swirling like a storm. Gathering in the center of the circle, Avea felt a slight pain clutching around her wrists. Then, with a sickening crack, Dolunay emerged. The minotaur stood fully formed, his monstrous frame carved from the blue shadow. Jagged, glowing markings burned across his dark-blue flesh like searing brands. His horns, twisted and curled back like ancient roots of a tree.

"Araceli," Dolunay rumbled, his voice hoarse and jagged, like stone scraping over stone, detached and ancient, as though he hadn't used it in eons. "I see you've abandoned your true form."Avea’s mother flipped the twin crescent daggers in her hands, without taking her eyes off Dolunay, with the ease of someone who had rehearsed his death a thousand times in her mind. "Yes, well," she replied coldly, "this human shell wasn’t enough to keep you away, was it?"

There was no softness in her. No warmth, no trace of the mother Avea knew.

Dolunay tilted his head, his glowing eyes fixed on her with an eerie intensity, as if he were trying to peel away her disguise. To catch a glimpse of her true form, his lips curled into something almost fond. "No," he admitted, his tone disturbingly calm, "but then again, I’ve never been one to stop chasing you." The words hung between them like a suspended blade, too heavy to fall. Human form? The words crashed through Avea’s mind, threatening to fracture it completely. This wasn’t her mother’s true form? The woman who raised her, who laughed and danced, who rummaged through scrap piles to make bizarre sculptures, who came home every night weary and cranky, who held her through sleepless nights ... was only a mask? Avea could feel the rift behind her flickering like it was about to collapse. Her mother was buying her time to escape. But she couldn’t move, and no part of her could make her feet obey.

"I see you've met my daughter," her mother said nodding to Dolunay's left side where the twisted horn had been blown off. The minotaur's head cocked to the side and the blue flame blazed in its eyes in silent seething rage. "The uri inside her is strong, as is the Ancients will to claim it." That sound of that ancient voice sent a stab of terror into Avea’s heart. Her mother said nothing only the glowing scars spiralling her back answered, flaring with a blinding white light. "I don't know how you managed to conceal her for so long, but your interference of the Claiming is an act of treason Araceli," Dolunay spoke its voice edged with rage. Araceli? The name rattled through Avea’s mind. I don’t even know my mother’s real name. "You dare speak to me of treason Dolunay," her mother replied. Avea could feel the weight of unspoken words that passed between them, thick with old betrayal.

"She wasn’t marked you can’t take her."

"She will do as the lumos demands," Dolunay hissed. "You'll find that my daughter doesn't like to be told what to do." Dolunay's taloned claw slashed at the circles barrier, "like mother like daughter then." The minotaurs face remained impassive, refusing to show any emotion. "You would deny the girl her birthright?" Dolunay voice curled like smoke. "Birthright?" Her mother laughed, a sharp, bitter sound brimming with fury. "A life spent kneeling before false gods? That’s not a birthright. That’s a curse." The ferocity in her mother’s voice was unrecognisable, as her fingers brushed the hilts of her knives.

"Balance must be restored," Dolunay spoke. His cold, soulless eyes locked onto Araceli’s, not just looking, devouring, as if searching for a flicker of doubt to break her spirit."If you won’t surrender her, I’ll have no choice but to take her." Her mother bared her teeth. "Over my dead body." Dolunay's blue shadow coiled, "so be it," he replied. With that he dissolved into darkness and lunged. The ward sigil cracked, splintering. The circle ruptured. Avea screamed silently as the blue shadows rushed in to attack.

Her mother was ready.

Unsheathing her crescent daggers, she spun low, blades slicing through the air, deflecting Dolunay's attacks. She was a blinding ray of light fighting off the darkness, as she flashed across the room. Dolunay's shadows moved quickly, like a storm collapsing into itself and then surging outward, utterly silent just the hum of dark energy. Araceli leaped upward, those crescent daggers lethal in precision cut through the thick clouded wisps resembling phantom hands. Dolunay's phantom shadows lunged, twisting, clawing, but her mother met them head-on. Her daggers caught the moonlight with every swing, casting streaks of cold light across the room. Dolunay moved like vapor, vanishing and reappearing in bursts of dark blue smoke always just out of reach. His shadow tendrils morphing together and then whipping out with sudden speed, like lashes. Araceli twisted and soared, not fighting gravity, but rather letting it carry her. The light and shadow forces tore into each other with viciousness, their dual so fierce it made Avea's blood run cold. Radiance pulsed from her mother's eyes, from the glowing markings on her skin, and from her hair like a burning halo. She was light incarnate, and Dolunay, the void that sought to extinguish it.

"I need to help her" Avea whispered, her voice barely heard above the clash. "You promised your mother" Bebop responded, right behind her. Dolunay solidified into his form, his shadows erupting like dark flames, as his shadows lashed outwards like lassos trying to ensnare her mother. But Araceli was faster, deflecting the blue shadows, closing in to attack. The symbols her mother had drawn along the ring of the circle started to awaken again with a deep, pulsing glow.

"The Eighth Moon will be revived."

Dolunay's voice, hollow and primal, echoed through the room. Her mother, only fought Dolunay with a renewed fury. She vanished into the thin veil once again, in a blur of light, only to reappear above Dolunay. Avea glimpsed the flash of a crescent blade, and then heard the sickening crack.

"The Eighth is lost," her mother said, her voice devoid of mercy.

Dolunay unleashed an enraged roar, a guttural sound of rage as his severed wrist hit the ground with a wet thud, spraying blue blood across the floor. Smoke hissed from the wound as it writhed like something alive. "This is your final warning," Araceli growled, her daggers gleaming in her fists. The minotaur rose, clawed feet dug into the floor, cracking the wood beneath him. One of his twisted horns ignited with searing dark blue fire. Snarling, he flung the shadow flame toward her, but it missed firing against the wall, barely missing her. "You’re not as powerful as you once were, Araceli." Dolunay growled. He raised his arm and with a flick of his wrist, his severed hand reformed in a rush of blue shadow, reattaching with a hiss as the veins reformed, along with his severed horn.

Without hesitation, Araceli launched herself into the air, a blur of steel and speed, spinning her blades in a deadly motion before launching for Dolunay’s throat. Avea’s heart lurched. Wreathed in flickering blue, a coil of shadows and lunged, snatching Araceli midair. Yanking her violently to the ground. She hit with a horrifying thud and fell to her knees, gasping. "Mom!" Avea screamed, slamming her fists against the rift, the barrier between them hard as iron and cold as ice. Dolunay advanced, eyes glowing and horns erupted in blue fire. "Surrender the girl," he commanded, voice low and chilling. "I know you’ve hidden her in one of your little veils."On command Dolunay's spindly shadow bled out, creeping across the floor and slithered up walls, searching for something. For me. Avea realised that her mother's sorcery concealed her from Dolunay's vision. Avea held her breath, as one of the spindles of shadow hovered near the rift. It lingered, quivering, almost delayed for a brief moment as if sensing her in limbo.

Avea tried to not tremble with relief when it moved past her.

Shadows coiled like chains around Araceli's wrists, pinning her to the ground as the glow beneath her skin flickered, then faded."Balance must be restored," Dolunay said, stepping closer, his voice almost gentle now. "I tried to do this mercifully."Avea’s scream tore through her, as the panic rose inside her. Pounded against the rift, but it wouldn’t break. She was locked inside, trapped behind safety. Araceli lifted her chin, her stare meeting Dolunay’s with not a hint of fear on her face. A cold mask had settled over her face. Her mother knew she couldn't stay quiet, she’d made sure Avea didn’t recklessly run into danger. She'd made a choice to seal her fate to save her daughter’s.

Dolunay went still, he raised his head."The Lumos has summoned me," he intoned. The dark blue shadows surged back towards the minotaur snaking up his arms. He towered over her mother,"you got what you wished, Araceli. The Claiming is upon us."Her mother, Araceli, only lifted her chin in defiance. Steely determination flickering in her eyes."V we have to go" Bebop said, seeing the rift a couple of paces away start to stitch back together. "V, we have to go!" Bebop’s voice crackled from behind. The rift flickered, its edges beginning to closing fast. "No! I can’t leave her!" Avea cried, fighting as Bebop tried pulling her away across to the rift to the other side.

"Let me go! LET ME GO!"

She fought twisting violently, her eyes locked on her mother who was still shackled to the ground, refusing to look away from the minotaur."So be it… if you won't give up the girl, I’ll take you instead," Dolunay spoke to her mother, who remained shackled to the ground. Avea screamed and screamed thrashing against Bebop, trying to get to her mother. Araceli bowed her head and her voice somehow clear through the veil. "May the light side of the moon keep you safe" she spoke. Avea knew those words were meant for her. A sob broke from her throat. Tears poured freely down her face."No... Mum...please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...please!" she wailed, but it was too late. Her mother was gone, and it was entirely her fault. Only a sliver of light remained of the rift behind her. Bebop shoved her through, before it could close, forever trapping them in limbo. The rift sealed with a final whisper.

She fell out onto the other side, and there was nothing.

Just silence.