“Any news?” Death asked, sitting on the edge of the water hole, her fingers tracing the links on her chain.

Soul knelt before her. “I am sorry, but we haven’t had much luck. Not yet, anyway. We’ll pick up a lead for the Night Bringer soon, though. I’m certain of it.”

“What makes you say that?” Death replied.

“We’ve heard rumors of eternal night settling somewhere in the Supernatural Dimension,” Widow said. “The problem is we haven’t found anything concrete enough. No location. Not even a local legend or something to suggest that our brother took residence on a particular planet.”

Phantom nodded. “But we will keep searching. For now, however, we’d like to help you with some of those seals.”

Death looked downright disappointed—not that I could blame her. Bringing the First Ten back together had been a high-priority mission for her, taking precedence over the removal of Spirit’s seals. She lowered her gaze, staring at the runes still covering her pearlescent skin, and let a deep sigh roll out of her chest.

“What is it, Mother?” Time asked, his brows pulled into a deep frown.

“I only have more questions. No answers. I don’t like it,” she said. “These seals are holding me back, and I feel rather useless. Incomplete. Paralyzed.”

Time glanced my way. “What is she talking about?”

“Seeley,” I replied. “He’s on Visio with a group of GASP people, and there’s something weird going on there. According to him, there wasn’t a single Reaper in sight. I’ve asked my superiors about this, but they’ve yet to get back to me with an answer.”

“What is Seeley doing there? With the living, out of all people?” Soul grumbled.

“They don’t know he’s there,” Dream said. “He’s just shadowing them, though we don’t know why. Our maker refuses to tell us.”

All eyes were on Death again, who, in turn, shot us all a cold grin. “It’s on a need-to-know basis, for the time being.”

“Typical.” Soul scoffed. He smiled at me. “Heard you knocked one of the seals off. Nicely done, rookie!”

“Rookie?” I replied, my back stiffening.

“Can’t you just take a compliment?”

“Not when it comes from you, because it’s never really a compliment, is it?” I asked, albeit rhetorically. Soul chuckled, sitting with his legs crossed next to Death.

“Cheer up,” he said to her. “We’ll figure it all out. We’re just a little handicapped, for the time being.”

“Our missing siblings aren’t making it any easier,” Phantom replied.

“Do any of you know about Visio?” I asked, my gaze wandering from one First Tenner to the next. Time was the first to nod.

“In the Earthly Dimension, if I’m not mistaken.”

“That’s right,” I said.

“I passed by that solar system a very long time ago,” he replied. “I don’t remember when, exactly, but I know there weren’t any signs of life at the time.”

“It’s inhabited by a species that call themselves Aeternae,” I said.

Soul smirked. “That’s a bit on the nose. Let me guess, they live forever?”

“Linguistics, huh? The same everywhere.” Phantom giggled.

“Apparently they’re a lot like the vampires,” I replied. “Essentially immortal. Unless you cut their heads off or tear their hearts out. They’re day-walkers, though. Apparently that’s where Derek got his ability from. The issue isn’t with who lives there. It’s with who isn’t there. Specifically, Reapers. Not a single one in sight, which is bizarre.”

“And we know nothing of this world?” Soul asked, looking at Death.

“I don’t remember much,” she said. “There should be agents of mine there, though. Without my full powers, I’m unable to investigate, as you all know. So, for the time being, assume I am as ignorant as you.”

Widow scratched the back of his head, and I could hear the subtle squeaking of his gloved fingers against the leather of his gimp suit. “Do you want us to go there and check things out?”

Death shook her head. “No. I need you all to go back to your search. Bring your siblings back. Don’t worry about the seals’ we’ll crack them all, eventually. As you can see, Reaperhood goes on without my direct involvement, at least for now. Finding the Night Bringer, the Morning Star, and the Unending is paramount.”

Time checked his pocket watch, narrowing his eyes. “I think it’s time you stop dodging our questions,” he said. “We want to know why you want us back together. The real reason.”

Death’s expression gathered dark shadows as she glowered at him. The air thickened around us, as the others gave me nervous glances. But Time didn’t seem all that impressed.

“You can pout and huff and puff all you want,” he continued. “You’re not scaring me. There’s nothing you can do to me now, and by the time you will be able to punish me, I’ll already have the information I need. So why not just tell us? Why do you want us all back together, Mother?”

Death got up, prompting the others to take a couple of steps back, as a measure of precaution. It made her smile, knowing that they still feared her, despite what the Time Master had just said. “Okay. You want the truth?”

“Yeah, we do,” Phantom murmured. The others nodded in agreement.

“I’m lonely. I’ve been limited in my powers and isolated for too long,” Death replied. “And it’s because we were all so happy, so good, when we were all together. I miss those days. All the spirits I gathered on Mortis were not enough to make me as happy as the First Ten.”

“Technically speaking, there’s nine of us now,” Widow mumbled.

“And it still hurts me!” Death said, her lower lip trembling. “Watching Spirit die tore me apart on the inside. He deserved it. He deserved so much worse, too, but… at the same time, it pained me deeply to watch his demise. So… that’s it. Really. The truth. The whole truth. I miss my children.”

For a moment, none of us dared to speak. Dream and Nightmare were practically mush, warmed and softened by Death’s emotional statement. I wasn’t sure about Widow, but Soul and Phantom were also relaxing under her gaze, understanding the significance of her heartfelt words.

I found it beautiful, too, watching them all together, like the weirdest and most dysfunctional family I had ever come across. But there was love here. The kind that transcended time and space and every other dimension of this universe and beyond. And for the first time in millions of years, I assumed, Death was finally opening up to her “children.”

The Time Master, however, didn’t seem convinced, and I was inclined to believe he suspected something. Nevertheless, he didn’t pursue the matter further, choosing to give Death a soft smile instead. “I understand,” he said. “We’ll do our best. I promise. We’ll bring them all back to you.”

He didn’t take his galaxy eyes off Death as she relaxed and took deep breaths, her feet dipping in the ice-cold water. A flurry of foreign thoughts shot through my head, like arrows that pierced my brain and made me crumble. I dropped to my knees, crying out in pain, trying to make sense of the words.

“What’s wrong?” Soul asked, genuinely alarmed.

“Messages… I’m getting messages from too many Reapers at once!” I grunted, struggling to register as much as I could, given the speed with which the information was being projected directly into my mind.

“Oh, I hate the overloads,” Phantom said, her lips twisted with displeasure. “It’s one of the things I don’t miss about being an active Reaper.”

I had never gotten so many messages at once, but it had to be important, since so many of them were basically telling me the same thing. A cold chill ran through me as I managed to look up.

“We have a problem,” I breathed, my arms suddenly heavy, as if made of lead. I dared not stand, worried my knees might not be able to hold me upright. “No one knows who was assigned to Visio. They’ve checked the records, everything. It’s like it just slipped through the cracks, somehow.”

“For how long has it been like this, unattended?” Death asked, deeply concerned.

I went through the many thoughts still swirling through my head, until I got a vague answer from one of my superiors. “At least a couple million years. The Reapers who last handled Visio are gone, but we don’t know why.”