He closed his eyes.
They were beautiful, in a terrible way. Made of auroras and static, their faces were the faces of everyone who had ever died in grief. His mother. His lover. His child. Pha-Pro 8 felt no grief—he had never loved—but he felt their hunger .
Before she could answer, he reached out and touched the obsidian. The lab screamed.
Outside, for the first time in a decade, a single shaft of sunlight pierced the ash-choked sky.
“ What are you so afraid of? ”