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)
—Dr. Clarence Holt, Post-Epoch University, address to the Global Forum on Dimensional Integrity, New Geneva Archive
21 - TYSE
“Are ya mad at me?”
Clara’s face is painful to watch. Because I can see it. I can see her attraction to him.
Finn Scott.
Lover Boy.
“No,” she says. “I’m not mad. Thank you for telling me. But… you do understand that I can’t go on.”
“What do ya mean?”
“What do I mean?” she laughs these words out. “I’m home, Tyse. In my own world—”
I stop listening, even though she keeps talkin’.
In her own world.
That’s what the train line is to her.
To me, it’s just some fuckin’ place where gods play games with people. Doin’ what, exactly, I’ve got no clue. I’ve got ideas, but I don’t know what Delta’s really doin’. I don’t know what any of them are doin’.
“I have to find him,” Clara says. I’m still lookin’ at her. Right in her blue fuckin’ eyes, when she says, “I have to—”
And even though I know how that sentence ends, and even though what happens next is a tragedy on all accounts, I am spared the hurt of actually hearin’ the words come out of her mouth—because she simply disappears.
Blinks right out of existence before my very eyes.
I just stare at the empty space in the cave. Dumb. Not panickin’, not frantically trying to figure things out, not taken aback by her sudden disappearance.
Just dumb. Staring stupidly into space. Thinkin’ about how she never said the words.
I feel like this moment of mute stupidity lasts for several years, but in reality, it’s literally two seconds. I know this because I’m actually lookin’ at a fuckin’ clock readout on my data display that keeps time in seconds and only two of them tick off.
Then I blink.
And I’m back.
And shit is real.
Before I can even think, I’m in the veil. I’ve crossed—but not literally. I’m just a visitor, like I was back in Delta City when I was stealin’ spark from strangers.
Because—and yeah, I’m a little slow here because I’m only just realizin’ this—but I can’t actually cross over without Clara. I can only steal spark.
At any rate, I’m lookin’ at dozens and dozens of worlds through the veil. Everything is just black space outlined in glowing cyan-blue. But unlike back in Delta City when I was just perusing the other worlds like a visitor, this time I know what I’m lookin’ at.
Frequency.
Apparently, they are stacked in order here in the sparkstone cave, because as I focus on one layer after another, one world after another, I’m watching the frequency change and it’s going up by tenths of a whole.
She’s not here. I already know she’s not here because I’ve already done this. I’ve already gone searching through the worlds for a safe place for her to breathe, and there are only three places that I found.
Only three places where we’ve been.
And only two of those three have people in them that know we can travel like this.
1440 and 702. And she’s not in 1440—there’s no one there lookin’ for her.
She’s back where we started.
On the train tracks being attacked by augments.
How that happened is a mystery. But I don’t wait to find out. I change the frequency on my data display to 702 and there she is.
Not whole, like I know her when we’re together. Just the glowing cyan-blue outline of her body, with one new development.
The symbols. They are lit up like a fuckin’ sun all across her body. Coverin’ every inch of her skin.
What are they trying to tell us?
I’m gonna figure it out.
But not right now.
Now I am watching about a dozen augments pull Clara to her feet. For a moment, I think the absolute worst. They crowd her, reachin’ for her. And maybe it would play out like my worst nightmares, but then all the men part. The crowd literally splits in half, and another man appears. Obviously augmented because his eyes are lit blue to indicate he’s workin’.
My heart is pounding in my chest as words are said. Words I can’t hear.
But then he turns, almost as if he can see me. His eyes are lookin’ for me. His face is—wrong. It looks like it’s melting, that’s how ugly it is. Like he was burned in a fire.
I don’t think he can see me, but he knows I’m here. Feels or something. Because he is very careful with his words. Enunciating each sound of each letter, making sure I can read his lips. Because he knows. Somehow, he knows I live in the veil. He knows I’m watchin’.
“Tyse Saaaaaaarinen,” he sings his words. “Come and geeeeeet her. Or she is mine foreeeeeever.”
Then somethin’ happens. The whole world flashes and glows bright blue. I stumble backwards, arm up to my eyes, because that flash is so bright, for a moment I’m blind.
When the light is gone, so is the world.