Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
But it’s just now occurring to me that this makes sense in only one context.
He is under the impression that I only have access to 702.
Why he has that impression, I’m not sure. But he doesn’t know I can see all these other worlds. He never asked me how I got Clara and Anneeta all the way across the sandy sea to Delta City alive. He doesn’t know I stole spark from that family who were riding in the train car with us and killed them. He was probably told that there were spent jumps all over the floor and assumed that’s what I used to feed Clara and Anneeta.
Interesting. But not important at the moment. What’s important is findin’ the tag that corresponds to this dimension. “There is a number here in the upper corner labeled ‘Frequency’,” I tell Clara.
“What’s a frequency?”
“It’s a rate of vibration.”
“I don’t know what that means, Tyse. It wasn’t part of my Spark Maiden conversation vocabulary.”
“Think of it like a tag. Or a name. You’re Clara and I’m Tyse. I don’t know why I’d need to know the frequency of anything unless it was for identification. Because it’s unique, right? The floor vibrates at a certain frequency based on what it’s made up of. Same with the wall, and the lights, and us.”
“Well, that sounds like a filing system.”
I smile. Because I like having Clara as a partner. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“What’s the frequency for this world?”
“1440.”
“I’ll make a note of it.”
“You do that. I’m gonna see if I can clear some of these worlds we don’t need.”
It takes a concerted effort on my part not to get lost in the data of the other worlds because it’s all pretty interesting. Luckily, there are no livin’ things in any of these worlds in this exact space because that would make it even more difficult to focus on clearing them out.
My internal clock tells me I’m twenty minutes in to this process when I see the number I’m looking for. “Found it.”
“You did!” Clara, who has been sitting on the ground with her back up against the wall, gets to her feet. “Now what?”
“Well. I hadn’t thought that far ahead, to be honest. We need a way to cross over.”
“Well the frequency must be important in regards to where we are, right? I mean, why else would it be on your screen?”
“That makes sense. It’s easy to take things out of other worlds. That feels intuitive. But I don’t know how to cross over.”
Her brows crinkle up with confusion. “What have you been taking out of other worlds?”
Oops. “I mean… well, the spark. It’s everywhere.” I already feel like I’m lying to her about Lover Boy being my target—which I’m not, I just haven’t told her yet. So I feel like she deserves to know that I can take spark from the other dimensions.
“And you’re taking it?”
I nod. “Yeah. That’s how I saved you and Anneeta. When I ran out of jumps, there were still five hours left to go on the trip. So… another world appeared and I just… grabbed the spark and gave it to you. And then you gave it to Anneeta. And you both lived.”
Clara just stares up at me for a few moments. And I’m almost positive she’s coming to the right conclusions. Who did you take the spark from, Tyse?
But she doesn’t ask. Instead, she says, “Well, that’s kind of handy.”
“It is,” I agree. “But takin’ things out and crossin’ over feels very different.” I allow myself a moment to think about this. Clara gives me this time. Hopefully not because she’s wondering who I took spark from, but there’s no going back now. “If the worlds are categorized by frequency, then perhaps resonance is how you thin them out to make… a door?”
“In my head, you just said, ‘Blah, blah, blah. Blah blah, blah.”
I laugh. “Resonance is an excitation of the frequency. And since spark seems to be what holds a world together, it makes sense that spark could tear it apart.” Which feels like a ‘duh’ moment, since I’m almost certain that a spark explosion on Lover Boy’s side of things is how we got away from Stayn and out of Tau City in the first place.
And… now that I think about it, it gave me a glimpse too.
I saw him. I saw Finn Scott carrying his ‘trashy woman’, as Delta calls her.
“All we have to do to make a door is match the frequency and give it a push. Like pushing a child in a swing. That’s how it was explained to me in school. Your initial push makes the swing move back and forth. That’s the frequency. But if you give it another push, right at the exact moment when it’s on the backside, and hanging in the air, you excite the frequency—making it stronger. That’s resonance.”