Some Desperate Glory

by Emily Tesh

After the hell-din of the Wisdom, the single shot had a strangely muted sound. Mags’s body fell awkwardly sideways between Avi and Kyr. Somewhere unimportant Yiso was still keening for the deaths of thousands of worlds. Kyr went on her knees. She turned Mags over. He was heavy. She thought of the Medical sergeant with tired eyes. First aid. The entry wound was a small hole in her brother’s temple, and the exit wound had torn away a good chunk of the side of his face. He was dead, of course. Of course he was dead. On Gaea Kyr hadn’t even known he was unhappy. It was bizarre that she hadn’t known. She could see the shape of Mags’s unhappiness now cloaked in everything he’d said to her for years. She pulled him into her lap. He was still dead. No use being childish about it. A person with that much of their head missing was certainly dead.