Osirius: judge and god of the dead. From the ancient Earth-That-Was civilization that settled on the banks of the Nile.

If he hadn't known better, he might have thought someone at the Blue Sun Corporation had a sense of humour.

When the mega-conglomerate moved its headquarters from Sihnon decades before, it had generated widespread panic. Blue Sun is the Alliance, many argued, and without help from the government, the entire economy might have collapsed. The public never quite realized the extent of the truth. Several unusually honest and astute members of Parliament ended up mysteriously dead, and the scandal they had uncovered, precipitating the exodus, was conveniently forgotten.

Little more than five years ago, a middling to high level Blue Sun manager from the wealthy, respected Tam family found out his employers had a dark side. He was black-mailed into secrecy, generally terrorized, and forced to enroll his daughter into a special school to ensure his compliance.

The family estate on the outskirts of Capital City was vacant, the parents taken into custody. Papers and glass strewn over the imported hardwood. A capture in the master bedroom of a girl, twirling in a pale yellow dress, was eternally frozen behind a broken picture frame. Lives interrupted.

The labs underneath the headquarters were similarly emptied. But he knew where they were now, and he would find them, and all the others who had disappeared just like them, no matter how often they were moved. He would deal their tormentors the fate they deserved.

All he needed was the right weapon.

- - - - -

The silence of his absence was a balm, inevitable and disappointing, but a relief all the same. A few deep breaths and the diffuse light gentle on her eyelids were almost enough to convince Inara through the frustration. Sometimes she longed for indifference, for a day when he could no longer affect her, when they would no longer fight.

Or better yet, the day he was completely dumbstruck by her. That was a cheering thought, t