The words she sang were from the most ancient of tongues, words that had been forgotten before her people had ever colonized this world. Sara didn’t know where they came from, or how she was able to understand them, but she sang them. Or were they now singing her?

She was beginning to glow, at first faintly, then brighter as the song grew louder, reverberating through her entire body. She held her hand up to her face, looked at it—looked through it. The flesh and bone were gone; there was now only scintillating light contained by the exoskeleton.

Around her, she now saw what seemed like thousands of glowing strings, as if she were in the heart of a tapestry, or a great harp. She reached out her hands and gathered them to herself. And then Sara realized she now was the song. No longer singing now, she was instead being sung by the crowd around her.

Sara raised her eyes to the darkening sky, and finally understood.

The tower was a laser, and she would be its beam.