Sil

Sil is a central member of the Blade family and the original owner of the body first known publicly through Vorden. His inherited ability makes him an exceptionally versatile power user, but his story is defined as much by the childhood trauma that caused him to retreat from that body as by his later decision to reclaim it, restore Vorden and Raten as separate people, and use his strength to protect the family and friends he chose.

Biography

Awakening and Military Academy

Sil's first appearance occurs after Vorden is knocked unconscious during the military academy's portal expedition. Inside the shared mental “black room,” Vorden and Raten remain separate consciousnesses who argue about whether Sil should take control. Sil emerges when Raten tells him that Berg is hiding Quinn Talen, and his fear of losing Quinn becomes immediate anger. He overwhelms Berg with three copied abilities before Vorden convinces him that Quinn is safe, at which point Sil voluntarily withdraws and Vorden resumes control. To the students watching, the change merely makes “Vorden” seem inexplicably stronger; the later account establishes that they had seen a different person controlling Sil's original body. (Chapter 120)

Vorden and Raten deliberately limit Sil's later academy involvement. Vorden refuses to call on him for an operation even when Raten's two-ability control is riskier, and both worry that learning Vorden acted against Quinn might cause Sil to seize control. Their caution is partly protective and partly fearful: Sil is emotionally dependent on a small number of trusted people, while his greater access to the Blade ability makes a distressed takeover dangerous. Sil consequently spends most of this period in the black room, present within the body but not equivalent to the Vorden identity his classmates know. (Chapters 200 and 287)

The reason for that arrangement is revealed much later through Sil's childhood on Blade Island. Hilston's Temple forces children into a lethal selection contest, and Sil initially hides in the council room crying because he refuses to kill anyone. Vorden and Raten find him, promise that the three will escape together, and bind themselves to a shared vow to kill Hilston. Sil nevertheless remains torn because Hilston has made him believe that winning may save Caser, another child he loves. His reluctance is therefore not simple cowardice: he is trapped between refusing the tournament's violence and trusting an abusive guardian's promise that violence can restore his friends. (Chapters 629–631)

Caser had temporarily copied a consciousness-transfer ability and touched Sil before dying. During the contest, Sil kills Vorden and Raten after Hilston promises to resurrect them and Caser, only for Hilston to admit afterward that he has no resurrection power. Caser's borrowed ability transfers Vorden's and Raten's consciousnesses into Sil's body instead. The lie and Sil's guilt cause him to retreat into the black room while Vorden becomes the usual controller and Raten sometimes takes over. This revelation reverses the apparent academy relationship: Vorden is not Sil's alternate name, nor is Sil an unusually violent mode of Vorden; they are distinct people sharing Sil's body because of a transfer Sil neither understood nor intended. (Chapters 632–633)

Vampire World and the Cursed Faction

Sil initially remains in the black room as the group is drawn into vampire affairs, but he speaks up when Fex proposes obtaining Quinn's blood: if cooperating will stop “bad people” from taking Quinn away, Sil is willing even to help overpower him without causing serious harm. The decision shows improving awareness without erasing the identity boundary—Vorden still prepares and controls the body. The return to Blade Island then forces Sil to confront the institution that broke the three friends. After seeing a child named Deal suffer under the same Temple system, Sil insists that the children must be rescued before another death selection begins. His motivation has shifted from hiding from the tournament's memory to preventing its repetition. (Chapters 322 and 633–636)

Their escape reaches a crisis when the Blade family's pursuit threatens the ship carrying the children. Vorden and Raten choose to let their consciousnesses fade so Sil can regain more of his original capacity. Sil protests because the decision feels like losing them a second time, but they insist that saving everyone requires the stronger controller. The black room disappears, Sil uses five abilities to weaken the twins' enormous waterspout, and the ship escapes. When survivors call him Vorden afterward, he corrects them—“I'm Sil”—claiming his own identity even as the cost of doing so leaves him alone in the body. (Chapters 664–668)

Sil tells Quinn the childhood story and admits that he does not know how to live without the two people who had protected him for years. Quinn promises to help recover them, and Sil joins the Cursed faction as himself rather than continuing Vorden's public identity. He remains socially anxious and childlike in unfamiliar situations, depends heavily on Quinn and Borden, and is sent to school partly to meet people and collect useful abilities. These efforts do not immediately make him independent, but they turn his extraordinary power into a role within a chosen community rather than a weapon controlled by Hilston. (Chapters 669–701 and 934–953)

As the faction's responsibilities expand, Sil becomes one of its principal defenders. Quinn trusts Sil's strength alongside Sam's judgment when deciding whether others should search for him, and Sil fights major human leaders when Hilston attacks. That confrontation exposes the difference between flexibility and inexhaustibility: Sil's performance depends on which powers he has copied, the quality of their MC cells, and his remaining reserve, while Hilston has prepared high-quality abilities through Chained prisoners and greater experience combining them. Sil survives because allies intervene, but the failure confirms that raw potential does not by itself free him from the Blade patriarch's shadow. (Chapters 681, 790, and 798–803)

Dalki War and Vampire Kingship

The Dalki war places Sil's personal recovery inside a wider struggle over the Blade legacy. Richard Eno offers to restore Vorden and Raten only in exchange for Sil's help moving a demon-tier beast. Sil distrusts Eno but agrees immediately, saying that he will go through anything to bring them back. Quinn rejects the most troubling versions of Eno's proposal and instead helps Shiro acquire a consciousness-transfer ability, then searches for humanoid beast bodies capable of holding Vorden and Raten without displacing unwilling humans. Sil's willingness to cooperate is driven less by Eno's authority than by his unresolved responsibility to the two friends sacrificed because of Hilston's lie. (Chapters 1034–1035, 1118, and 1127)

The transfers eventually place Vorden and Raten in separate humanoid beast bodies. They retain their own consciousnesses while the resident beasts remain distinguishable, and all three former occupants of Sil's body can stand together as separate people. Sil is visibly relieved by their return, while Vorden and Raten resume independent relationships and decisions rather than serving as voices or combat modes inside him. Later transfers alter the bodies they use again, but the identity separation remains: references to Vorden or Raten after this point should not be treated as actions performed by Sil. (Chapters 1127–1183 and 1540)

Learning the fuller history of Hilston and the Blade ability gives Sil a framework for powers that had previously been inseparable from fear. He learns that copied abilities ordinarily expire after twenty-four hours and that Hilston extended his reign through consciousness transfer, replacement bodies, and prepared Chained ability users. Sil confronts the remnants of that abuse without confusing a body with its former identity: when Peter raises Hilston's corpse as a Lesser Wight, Sil accepts the evidence that the creature is not Hilston and that the patriarch cannot return through it. The distinction helps close the threat that had governed Sil, Vorden, and Raten since childhood. (Chapters 1250–1256 and 1266–1272)

Sil then applies his abilities as part of Quinn's war effort rather than as a private answer to Hilston. Against Graham, he layers weight enhancement and acceleration onto Layla's arrow, accepts Qi she transfers through her soul weapon even though he has not yet learned to control it fully, and helps create an opening against a stronger Dalki. When Helen remains behind, Sil chooses to extract Layla rather than spend everyone on a rescue that can no longer succeed. The decision contrasts with his childhood paralysis: he still hates abandoning people, but can now make a painful tactical choice and carry another person to safety. (Chapters 1397–1398)

Celestial Conflict and the Millennial Return

After Hilston's fall, Sil helps Vorden and Raten hunt and rebuild their strength on Blade Island but holds back enough to let them develop in their own bodies. By the end of the Dalki war, he can operate six powerful abilities in combination and is treated as one of the Cursed side's decisive fighters. When Quinn enters eternal slumber, Sil does not remain fixed beside the tomb; over the following millennium he trains Qi, awakens an item-type soul weapon, and travels through space seeking other god slayers and powers that could threaten Earth. He also records an ability that reverses the user's aging through MC cells. Because the effect works only on its user, Blade members who copy it must activate it for themselves, allowing Sil and willing family members to survive while others choose a natural end. (Chapters 1268, 1428, 1572, and 1706)

Sil's long absence is protective rather than a rejection of Earth. Logan Green receives occasional reports of his battles and explains that Sil is intercepting dangers beyond the planet. When Sil encounters the newly awakened Quinn on a distant world, he mistakes him for an impostor using his friend's face and attacks to avenge that insult. The confrontation shows how deeply Quinn still anchors him: Sil deploys future sight, teleportation, elemental powers, Qi, and more than a thousand clones, yet stops once their shared memories convince him that Quinn is real. Their reunion joins two survivors who have grown into god-slayer-level figures through very different centuries of isolation. (Chapters 1706 and 1765–1766)

On the Amra world, Sil's years of fighting celestials let him give Quinn tactical direction rather than wait to be protected. He warns Quinn not to hold back against Athos's force, divides the battlefield with him, and cycles super speed, teleportation, phasing, clones, and prepared weapons against opponents whose attacks threaten the planet around them. His confidence is earned, but the fight still requires Quinn and the Amra rather than proving that Sil can resolve a celestial invasion alone. (Chapters 1799–1803)

Sil then travels with Quinn through alien conflicts and investigations. His soul-weapon book supplies concealment, environmental survival, movement, and rescue options as circumstances change: he can hide people or objects, adapt to underwater conditions, phase or teleport past barriers, and leave clones with prepared functions while the real Sil retains the book. The partnership establishes his mature role. He is no longer the hidden child brought out only when overwhelming force is needed, but an independent protector whose versatility complements Quinn while still depending on allies, time to switch sets, and a finite MC reserve. (Chapters 1813–1834, 1867, and 1921)

Reawakened World and the Demon War

The later Blade crisis exploits Sil's loyalty to the family he has spent centuries rebuilding. When Jack and Jim Eno attack the Blades with ability-bearing Dalki and the fighter H, Sil uses foresight and changing ability sets to contest H while shielding the others. After Borden is killed, Sil decides that protecting the surviving Blades matters more than preserving his chance to win. He spends a vast quantity of MC cells teleporting the entire family far away, remains alone, and is defeated and captured. The choice transforms his earlier promise to protect the family into a conscious sacrifice: he does not lose because H simply proves stronger, but because he gives up the resources that might have kept the fight even. (Chapters 2109–2117)

His captors exploit both the copied memory ability and his extraordinary reserve. They keep him inside a machine that drains his MC cells and pair him with Malik's power to alter memories across a wide area, using the result to erase or rewrite knowledge of Quinn and earlier events. Logan's record does not establish every coercive mechanism, but it explicitly identifies Sil as a captive used against his will. After his rescue, Sil chooses to reverse the damage: he gathers enough energy to enter the same device and sends a painful pulse across the cruise ships and nearby planets, restoring the affected population's true memories in that region. The corpus notes that more distant areas would require later correction rather than claiming one pulse repaired the entire universe. (Chapters 2117, 2293, and 2299–2300)

Sil also defeats H after accepting Russ's copied transformation power and the Qi contributed by allies. He adopts Quinn's perceived body and abilities, then combines that image with his own cloning and Blade powers, producing multiple transformed fighters able to layer shadow, blood, lightning, fire, and Qi. The victory is both personal and collective: Sil avenges Borden and overcomes the opponent who captured him, but succeeds through abilities and energy supplied by people around him. The transformation drains even his enormous reserve and leaves his ordinary body frail and exhausted, preventing the feat from becoming a permanent, consequence-free form. (Chapters 2277–2279)

In the demon war, Sil uses his book as a strategic network as much as a weapon. He plants clones as relays and return points, listens across planetary distances, scans terrain, teleports groups, and changes a clone's appearance to draw danger away from allies. When Immortui begins destroying those clones, Sil leaves the planned operation and confronts him directly to buy Quinn time. His clones' fixed ability sets and vulnerability to a sufficiently hard blow become serious weaknesses against Immortui's colourless suppression, but Sil continues switching his own powers, mixing foresight, teleportation, hardening, elemental attacks, weapons, and telepathy to delay an opponent no single prepared set can contain. (Chapters 2405, 2460–2474, and 2484)

Sil's last major act is support rather than victory in his own name. After spending most of his reserve against Immortui, he summons Arthur from Quinn's mental image, accepting that the creation will consume nearly all his remaining MC cells. Because Quinn remembers Arthur as overwhelmingly strong, the summoned version is stronger than the original, though still bounded by the energy Sil can supply. Sil orders Arthur to do everything possible to bring Quinn back, then lets Peter help him through the closing portal instead of staying for a battle he can no longer affect. The corpus later states that Sil lost his powers on the day of the Immortui fight but does not fully explain the immediate mechanism in the reviewed passages. Sil makes no attempt to regain them: after centuries of reversing age and guarding the world, he chooses mortality, natural aging, family life, and an eventual end. (Chapters 2530–2531 and 2541–2543)

Appearance and personality

Sil is the original owner of the tall, blond, good-looking body that other characters initially identify as Vorden's. Peter's temporary disguise changes only parts of his face and turns his blond hair light brown, underscoring that the underlying body remains Sil's. After centuries of Qi training he has a muscular, energy-reinforced physique, although extreme use of Russ's transformation power later returns him to a visibly frail and exhausted state. One year after the final war, he is beginning the ordinary aging process he chose when he declined to recover his powers. (Chapters 953, 1765, 2277–2278, and 2543)

Sil is gentle, emotionally direct, and deeply attached to a small circle of protectors. Childhood abuse leaves him prone to crying, withdrawal, fear of abandonment, and sudden anger when Quinn, Borden, Vorden, or Raten appears threatened. These traits do not remain static. Saving the Blade children, traveling without his former co-occupants, protecting the family from H, and confronting Immortui show growing independence and an ability to make costly decisions under pressure. His final refusal of renewed power is consistent with that development: rather than let fear of loss keep him alive forever, he trusts others to inherit the work of protecting the world. (Chapters 630–633, 668–670, 1034, 2116, and 2543)

Powers and abilities

At his peak, Sil combines the inherited Blade ability, a record-like item soul weapon, extensive Qi training, copied utility and combat abilities, and a very large MC-cell reserve. His god-slayer standing reflects the scale and adaptability demonstrated after a millennium of training, not a separate innate “god-slayer ability.” The breadth of his powers always depends on access, stored records, energy, preparation, and his ability to choose the right combination before an opponent counters it. (Chapters 1706 and 1765–1766)

Blade ability copying and MC-cell conversion

The Blade ability lets Sil copy a human ability by touching its user. Copying also reproduces MC cells configured for that power, and Sil can convert stored MC cells between the types required by his copied abilities. This permits effects far beyond the original user's output: after copying Layla's low-level sand power alongside stronger fire and ice abilities, he converts the larger reserves into sand-compatible cells and raises enough material to extinguish Berg's flames. He can likewise redistribute energy among selected powers rather than treating every copied reserve as isolated. (Chapter 120)

Ordinarily, a copied ability lasts twenty-four hours. Touch is an activation requirement, so distance, restraint, inaccessible targets, or an opponent who prevents contact can deny him a new power. The ability is described as copying humans and can include a human god slayer such as Malik, but it does not automatically reproduce every intrinsic non-human power; Hilston, for example, cannot simply copy Arthur's vampire power. Sil's later soul weapon broadens retention of abilities he has encountered, yet the source does not establish that it removes every compatibility restriction. (Chapters 633, 701, 802, 1256, and 2117)

Quality matters as much as quantity. A low-grade or unfamiliar power remains limited by its mechanics, while a strong ability can still exhaust Sil if its application is large enough. Hilston prepares Chained users with high-quality abilities and combines them with greater experience, exposing Sil's dependence on whatever useful people he can reach within the current twenty-four-hour period. At his mature level, the record in his book greatly improves preparation, but choosing, switching, and powering an answer still consumes time or MC cells. (Chapters 798–803, 1256, and 1921)

Shared-body capacity and identity effects

Sil originally demonstrates capacity for as many as six abilities, but control of his body once changes that practical limit. During the academy shared-body period, Vorden can control one copied ability, Raten two, and Sil three. These are not three forms Sil activates; they are separate consciousnesses with different access to the same inherited system. After Vorden and Raten let their consciousnesses fade, Sil immediately regains five simultaneous ability slots for the escape, and later demonstrations again give him six. The exact reason for the temporary five rather than the original six is not fully explained in the cited escape scene. (Chapters 120, 200, 633, 668, and 1428)

Once Shiro transfers Vorden and Raten into other bodies, Sil no longer changes identity to use those access levels. Vorden's and Raten's later powers, bodies, actions, and relationships belong to them, even when another transfer eventually places both alongside Shiro in a shared vessel. Sil remains physically and mentally distinct throughout those later arrangements. (Chapters 1127–1183, 1540, and 1706)

Item-type soul weapon and recorded abilities

Over the millennium after the Dalki war, Sil becomes the first Blade stated to awaken an item-type soul weapon. It manifests as a floating open book and preserves a record of abilities he has encountered, allowing him to replace the temporary set available through ordinary copying with selected abilities from that record. In battle he uses the book to exchange foresight, teleportation, elemental control, physical reinforcement, concealment, environmental survival, and other powers according to the current problem. This makes the soul weapon an ability manifestation, not a separate personal inventory item in the generated item scope. (Chapters 1706, 1765, and 1813–1834)

The book's flexibility has an operating delay. Sil needs time to change abilities, and only the real Sil carries the soul weapon and can revise a set during combat. An opponent who suppresses abilities, attacks during a switch, or forces him to spend MC cells faster than he can reorganize them can narrow the advantage. The source shows broad retention—described as every ability he has come across—but does not enumerate an exhaustive catalog or establish that every recorded ability can be active at once. (Chapters 1765–1766, 1921, and 2474–2484)

Cloning and coordinated ability sets

Sil can create more than a thousand clones. Once the cloning ability has produced them, their continued existence no longer drains MC cells through that ability, allowing the real Sil to switch to another power while the group remains. Each clone begins with the MC-cell reserve and ability set Sil has at creation and can use those powers independently; only the original can use the book to change later. Sil uses this interaction to create elemental armies, teleporting scouts, telepathic relays, and distributed warning points across planets. (Chapters 1765–1766, 1921, and 2405)

Clones are powerful but expendable. A sufficiently hard strike destroys one, and ability suppression can erase them before their stored powers matter. Their fixed loadouts also create a planning risk: powers useful for scouting may fail against an unexpected close-range enemy, while combat clones cannot acquire the original's new counter without being replaced. Immortui exploits these weaknesses with colourless power and overwhelming blows, forcing Sil to bring many clones together and expose the real body. (Chapters 2474 and 2484)

Qi, physical reinforcement, and combinations

Sil has no trained Qi control during the battle with Graham. Layla can transfer Qi into him through her soul weapon, but he uses only part of its potential while combining weight and acceleration abilities around her arrow. During the following millennium he trains Qi to a high level, reinforcing his human body enough to survive god-slayer combat and layering it with copied movement, elemental, and striking abilities. Quinn recognizes the energy reinforcing Sil's muscular body during their reunion. (Chapters 1397–1398, 1706, and 1765)

His greatest strength is combination rather than a single fixed attack. He pairs future sight with teleportation to evade Quinn, uses weight and acceleration to amplify another person's projectile, gives clones stable sets before switching the original, and mixes copied forms with allies' Qi. These interactions demand knowledge as well as energy. Early Sil possesses enormous MC potential without the experience to match Hilston; mature Sil plans counters, delegates functions among clones, and changes physical and elemental powers in response to an opponent's defence. (Chapters 798–803, 1397–1398, 1765–1766, and 2484)

Foresight, movement, concealment, and support

Sil's copied foresight shows likely outcomes far enough ahead to evade attacks and plan counters, but it is neither perfect certainty nor complete awareness. Distant visions can be difficult to place in time, and focusing on the projected results of individual attacks contributes to his failure to prevent Borden's death during the battle with H. He can see that an approach fails without necessarily noticing a different event outside that focus. (Chapters 1765, 2109, and 2116)

Teleportation ranges from personal combat movement to mass transport, but scale determines cost. Sil can blink around attacks, move companions, and use prepared clones as remote relays; transporting the entire Blade family over a great distance consumes so many MC cells that it turns an even fight against him. Other recorded powers supply flight, super hearing, invisibility, phasing, underwater adaptation, ground scanning, telepathy, hardening, and transformation. Their individual origins are usually the people Sil copied rather than separate powers he independently learned, and their current availability after Chapter 2543 is not established. (Chapters 683, 1813–1834, 2116, 2405, and 2460–2474)

Memory alteration and large-scale machinery

Sil can copy Malik's human memory ability despite its god-slayer status. Used through the Marpo Cruise machine, the ability can alter memories across ships and nearby planets, with Sil's immense MC reserve powering the broadcast. Jim and Jack use the captive Sil for this purpose, and the machine continually drains him; the reviewed chapters leave the exact method by which they compel each activation uncertain. (Chapter 2117)

After being freed, Sil willingly uses the same system to reverse the alterations. He must pause to restore enough MC cells, suffers severe pain as the device drains them, and sends a pulse that restores true memories in the surrounding region. The pulse does not erase the actions people took while deceived, nor does it initially reach Earth or every distant beast planet. The ability therefore changes remembered information rather than undoing material consequences, and its widest use requires both machinery and exceptional energy. (Chapters 2293 and 2299–2300)

Transformation, summons, and latest state

Russ's copied power lets Sil draw on images held in surrounding minds and reproduce perceived bodies and abilities. With allies' memories and Qi, he takes on a version of Quinn, uses shadow and blood powers, and combines that image with his own cloning. The result can exceed the ordinary model because it reflects perception, but it remains dependent on available observers, the clarity of their mental image, Sil's MC cells, and the copied transformation's heavy drain. (Chapters 2277–2278)

The same principle allows Sil to summon a version of Arthur from Quinn's mental image. Quinn's lasting perception of Arthur as overwhelmingly powerful produces a summon stronger than the original, but the construct still has limits set by Sil's remaining energy. Creating it after the Immortui battle consumes nearly all of his MC cells and leaves him unable to continue alongside Quinn. (Chapters 2530–2531)

The latest corpus says Sil lost his powers on the day of the Immortui fight and did not attempt to recover them. It does not establish in the reviewed passages whether the loss came from exhaustion, suppression, removal, or another final mechanism, so his precise former-power state should not be inferred. One year later he is alive, has stopped reversing his age, and explicitly wants a mortal lifespan rather than renewed god-slayer duty. (Chapters 2541–2543)

Power progression

Relationships

• Quinn Talen: Quinn is Sil's first major bond outside the Blade children and the person whose safety can draw Sil out of the black room. Quinn helps him escape Blade Island, promises to restore Vorden and Raten, and later becomes his partner in god-slayer conflicts; Sil's final summon of Arthur is meant to give Quinn one more chance to return. (Chapters 120, 668–670, 1034–1127, 1765–1766, and 2530–2531)
• Vorden: Vorden is Sil's childhood friend and protector, then the usual controller of Sil's body after the Temple trauma. His sacrifice during the escape restores Sil's control, and his later transfer into other vessels makes their relationship one between distinct people again. (Chapters 630–633, 668, and 1127–1183)
• Raten: Raten protects Sil through aggression where Vorden uses reassurance. He shares Sil's body as a separate consciousness, relinquishes that place to save the Blade children, and later returns in an independent humanoid beast body. (Chapters 629–633, 668, and 1127–1183)
• Borden: Sil regards Borden as a brother and one of the few people he can trust while learning to live without Vorden and Raten inside him. Borden's death causes Sil to prioritize the Blade family's survival over victory against H and later drives his determination to destroy that opponent. (Chapters 668–701, 1034, 2116, and 2277–2279)
• Peter: Peter is a blunt but dependable Cursed companion who helps Sil with disguises, supplies battlefield support, and ultimately guides the exhausted Sil through the final portal after the Arthur summon. (Chapters 953, 1266–1272, and 2531)
• Shiro: Shiro acquires the consciousness-transfer ability used to restore Vorden and Raten to separate vessels. Sil's willingness to endure Eno's bargain and Shiro's testing grows from their shared goal of repairing the harm done on Blade Island. (Chapters 1118–1183)
• Hilston: Hilston is Sil's abusive grandfather and the architect of the Temple selection that destroys his childhood. Hilston's false promise causes Sil to kill Vorden and Raten, and overcoming the fear that Hilston could return is essential to Sil's later independence. (Chapters 629–633, 798–803, and 1250–1272)
• Logan Green: Logan helps plan the restoration of Vorden and Raten, tracks Sil's millennium of off-world protection, and leaves the evidence that allows Quinn's group to find the captive Sil and understand the memory machine. (Chapters 1034–1127, 1706, and 2117)
• Immortui: Immortui is the final opponent Sil chooses to delay when the demon threatens Quinn's preparation. Sil's clone network, direct battle, and last summon buy time at the cost of nearly all his remaining power, after which he chooses not to reclaim his former abilities. (Chapters 2474–2484 and 2530–2543)

Items

No notable personal item page is configured for Sil in the generated scope. His floating book is an item-type soul weapon manifested by his ability rather than a separately cataloged possession. (Chapters 1706 and 1765)