THE FIRST LIGHT

Ren'ō woke inside a chamber whose ceiling displayed a moving map of the cosmos.

He reacted before thought.

Golden energy filled the room. The bed disintegrated. Space folded around his hand as he reached for an enemy who was not there.

Izanara stood in the doorway, staff raised but not aimed at him.

"You are safe."

Ren'ō laughed without humor. "That phrase has a poor survival record."

He searched the room. One door. Three windows. No visible weapons. His pendant rested on a table beside him.

Izanara had repaired the casing.

His light dimmed.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Nine days."

"Wasteful."

"Your body was attempting to remember ordinary physics."

"It was never enthusiastic about rules."

Izanara entered. Up close, she looked less like a celestial statue and more like someone who had not slept since finding him. Silver hair fell past her waist, threaded with delicate chains and tiny blue crystals. Her gaze remained calm, but her fingers were tense around the staff.

"What year is it?" Ren'ō asked.

She answered.

The number meant nothing at first. Then his implant translated the difference.

Five thousand, two hundred and thirteen years.

Ren'ō stared at the wall.

"La-Sol 7?"

"Destroyed. The system is listed as a divine hazard zone."

"Survivors?"

"None recorded."

The expected pain did not come. It had been sharpened too many times. What remained was pressure behind his ribs.

"The man who destroyed it."

Izanara's expression changed. "He has many names. The War God is the most common. He is still active."

Golden light returned to Ren'ō's eyes.

The chamber windows cracked.

Izanara did not move.

"Where?" he asked.

"Unknown."

"Then find him."

"That is not why I released you."

Ren'ō stood. The borrowed robe around his body stirred in a wind generated by his power.

"You opened the door. That does not make you my commander."

"No. It makes me responsible for what came through it."

He crossed the room until they stood a step apart.

"You think I am a weapon."

"I think you are an impossibility."

"Better manners. Same cage."

Izanara looked directly into his golden eyes. "The records say the Divine Remnant should have overwritten your identity within seconds. Instead, you survived five millennia in a null realm and learned to create light where creation does not function. I need to know what you became."

Ren'ō's hand tightened.

Laana's voice moved through memory.

Remain a man.

He released the energy.

"I am hungry," he said.

Izanara blinked. "What?"

"Five thousand years. No dinner. Your interrogation can wait."

A pause.

"There is food in the lower hall."

"Noodles?"

"Possibly."

Ren'ō walked past her.

At the doorway he stopped.

"For the record," he said, "I am still deciding what I became."