“I’m sorry, Delenn. I… I just…”

Slowly she rose to her feet and glided towards him, placing her hands on his chest. “My place… my rightful place is here… with you. I told you that we were old souls… and I told you that we belong together. I… I have lost everything I ever thought I had, John. I know how you feel. I will not leave you. Through fire and darkness, I will not leave you again.”

“Delenn, I…” She was so close, so near to him now. He could feel her breath on his cheek, see into the beautiful green infinity of her eyes, see her pain and her loss. She was right. He was the only thing she had left. What was she to do when he left her too – to fire or darkness – as surely he must?

Slowly he inclined his head. She put her arms up around his neck. He had lost Anna because he hadn’t trusted her. She had lost Neroon because their destinies lay in different directions.

Slowly, hesitantly, their lips met…

Delenn suddenly shook and almost slid from his arms. He caught her as she fell. She was shaking, trembling, moaning softly.

He activated his link. “Sheridan to Medlab! Emergency! Get here now!”

He remembered the diagnosis after her transformation. She had left the chrysalis prematurely. Her human and Minbari DNA were not properly joined. Her body chemistry was too unstable. Sooner or later it would kill her. Sooner or later.

He held her hand. “Delenn! Delenn!”

She did not answer him…

“Look at me! Valen, look at me!”

There was no reply. The white mists of the Dreaming swirled all around Sinoval. This was the first time he had returned here since his vision of Valen.

“Look at me!”

The Whisper Gallery was silent. There was no guide, no protector. There was no one.

“Valen!”

All of Minbar was in mourning. The Grey Council dead, only three remaining. Hedronn had gone, vanished completely. Sinoval supposed that he was dead, but that hardly mattered now. The Council had been broken, as Valen had prophesied long ago.

“Answer me!”

Some of the more extreme members of the warrior caste had taken it upon themselves to avenge the murder of their representatives on the Council. Warrior had slain worker. For the first time in a thousand years, Minbari were killing Minbari. Kalain had returned to his clan’s stronghold, gathering support for his faction. That damned Centauri Ambassador was gone, returned to his homeworld. Sinoval still owed him a favour, one he had no intention of repaying.

“Valen! Is this my destiny? Is this what I would do? Break us apart? Be the leader who leads us into the abyss? Answer me!

“VALEN, ANSWER ME!”

Sinoval’s rage knew no bounds, but all his rage, all his anger and all his words… they could not get him a reply.

The Dreaming remained silent.

He stormed from the room and paused outside it, looking around at the empty Whisper Gallery, and then at the pike he held – one of Durhan’s nine. Slowly he extended it, and then he hurled it contemptuously to the floor.

Sinoval walked on alone, into the darkness.