The Lost Voice

by V. St. Clair

  “Take care of yourself,” she said.

  “You too. I’ll send you my comm info so you don’t have to call the main line again. Let me know if anything happens that I should know about, and be careful at night until we root out all the traitors.”

  Risa smiled and watched him walk to a nearby ground-car, hopping into the driver’s seat and pulling away quickly.

  Walking back to her room, she felt strangely light. She had never noticed the weight of the feelings she’d carried all these years until she felt their absence. For the first time in a long time she felt hope for the future, for a time when things would be better for her people and the fighting was over and she could have a normal friendship with Topher and maybe even something more with Carl…

  She didn’t think she could face another heart-to-heart today. Talking to Topher was profoundly relieving, but also emotionally draining, and she was tempted to lie down in bed and take a nap.

  Instead she sat back down at her desk and finished the practice test.

  16

  Topher Augen

  ~

  You were too slow.

  I tried to tell you, but you did not understand.

  Now it is too late and she is gone.

  I am sorry.

  ~

  Topher would be glad when Jessamine’s wedding was over, if only so all of the extra people residing in the capital would leave. Silveria felt like it was bursting at the seams with people these days, with hotels fully-booked and the locals renting out space in their houses to accommodate the sudden influx of visitors. People clogged the streets, and public transportation was a nightmare to navigate, causing Assemblyman Howard to rant at length in their meetings about necessary infrastructure upgrades while Lavesh and Freeman boasted about the positive effect on local businesses.

  The Augenspire saw a surge in visitors as well, as select military personnel returned from their postings for the event and chose to take up guest quarters in the capitol building itself. Topher tried not to descend past level two-hundred these days, eager to avoid the crowds.

  Unfortunately, there was another Gifted murder, and Jessamine had gone against the General Assembly’s wishes and released details of the murders to the media outlets to share with the general public. Her argument had been that the Gifted deserved to know about the danger of walking through the city alone so they could take measures to protect themselves until the killer was caught.

  After the unpleasant meeting, she’d pulled Topher aside.

  “I’ve had an idea, but I want you to tell me—honestly—what you think of it. What if I got Ana to interview each of the Provo-Major with me? She could look at them and know if they were lying or plotting something treasonous, and they wouldn’t be able to avoid it.”

  Topher had grimaced visibly at the thought.

  “I would advise against it, for now,” he said truthfully. “Most of the Majors come from affluent families and have a slightly archaic view of the Gifted and their place in society. If you subject them to having their minds raided by a Gifted, you might alienate most of the people who actually do support you and give a huge boon to the traitors. Not only that, but you risk alienating their families as well, and you need the support of everyone you can get.”

  He had recently applauded her for naming Shellina as her social ambassador, because Jessamine’s sister was already well-known in most circles and was making excellent headway in her new role to help sell her sister’s agenda.

  Jessamine frowned.

  “I don’t want to drive away people who are still loyal to me, but I’m tired of walking on eggshells trying to figure out which one of them is waiting to stab me in the back.”

  “We don’t have definitive confirmation yet that a Major is behind the attacks on the Gifted, though it’s not unlikely,” he conceded. “I know you’re frustrated, and I will support whatever decision you make, but I think it would be a mistake to interrogate them with the Gifted at this point. And as skittish as Ana is every time I speak to her, I’m not at all sure she would be willing to volunteer for such an assignment, and we don’t even know if her Gift has limitations with the Majors. We have had our brains rewired, after all, to accommodate the Talent technology.”

  “It worked with Fox, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, but she had the element of surprise on her side, and Fox was intoxicated. With one of us in peak mental form, who can say whether her Gift will still function properly?”

  The two of them exchanged a long look, and Topher knew they were thinking the same thing in that moment.

  The only way to be certain is to have her test her ability to read minds on a Major she trusts. Topher had absolutely no desire to have a woman he barely knew try to break through his mental barriers and pull his private thoughts out of his head.

  “I will if you ask me to,” he said aloud.

  “You hate invasions of your privacy.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  Jessamine sighed and abandoned the idea, though Topher could tell it was still in the back of her mind.

  He was moving towards the elevators when Shellina caught up to him.

  “Topher, there you are!” She looked pleased with herself for finding him. “Where are you headed?”

  “I was going to do some extra conditioning, as I find myself with a rare window of free time,” he replied truthfully.

  Shellina brightened and said, “Oh, well I just had the final fitting of my dress for Jessa’s wedding. If you want, I can show it to you and you can plan your attire accordingly.” She looked quite eager to go change into it for him.

  Topher suppressed an inward groan at the reminder of how close they were to a day he had been dreading for quite a while now.

  “I thought you were wearing gold to complement Jessamine’s dress in some way,” he scoured his memory for the details.

  “Well, yes, it is,” she admitted, looking slightly crestfallen at him already knowing this critical detail.

  “I should be able to find something suitable to match,” he explained, stepping into the elevator as the doors opened.

  “Oh, well…alright then…” Shellina trailed off, clearly trying to find something else to say to keep him there.

  Fortunately the elevator doors closed and Topher punched the button for level two-fifty, making a snap-decision to change his plans in case Shellina followed him to the training area.

  He exited the lift right into the lobby of the medical facilities, approaching the receptionist and saying, “Autopsy,” to explain his presence before walking past her and turning the corner.

  Due to the previously-classified information about the Gifted murders, the bodies were being kept on the restricted levels while the investigation was ongoing. Topher had no idea what he hoped to glean from seeing the newest one for himself, but continued along his trajectory all the same.

  When he scanned into Autopsy and entered the room, it was to find himself completely alone. He waved to activate the lighting and approached the nearest table, which still had the recent murder victim lying on it beneath a sheet.

  The room was unpleasantly cold, so Topher lifted the sheet and scanned the body quickly, reading through the coroner’s notes and agreeing with them based on his preliminary review. He replaced the sheet and walked around the table, where he saw evidence bags of personal effects that had been found on the victim at the time of death.

  Clothing in one bag, shoes, jewelry…all routine. Topher paused only when he saw the emblem, which had been placed in a bag by itself.

  He hesitated for a fraction of a second before moving back to the doorway to check the electronic sign-in history for the room. The coroner had scanned out fifteen minutes ago, probably to eat lunch, and would likely be gone for another twenty minutes at least.

  Topher drummed his fingers lightly on the desk, contemplating his own stupid idea. There was a chance the coroner would return early, or that someone else would come in here and wonder what was going o
n, but the temptation was overwhelming.

  He quickly returned to the evidence bag with the emblem in it, holding it in one hand. If someone walked in while he was lost in thought, how in the world would he explain it? Would he even have to, or was he sufficiently high-ranking to get away with handling evidence?

  The latter, probably. But word might still reach Jessamine about what he had done, and she alone would understand what it meant for him to touch an emblem.

  She would be upset with him for doing this without her, but her time was at a premium with her wedding at the end of the week and he doubted she would be able to help him with this until things settled down.

  But I’m still getting warnings that something horrible is going to happen. I may not be able to wait a week.

  He opened the evidence bag and removed the emblem by the chain, hovering at the edge of indecision for a moment longer before touching the imbued elarium itself.

  He blinked and looked around in confusion.

  Topher found himself standing in a place he had been before—a place he had been before in his own lifetime.

  Why am I in the clock-tower at the Academy?

  The place was unmistakable. He was standing at the very top of the stairs, nearing the absurdly heavy double-doors concealing the testing room. He hadn’t been here since he was thirteen years old, waiting to be tested to determine whether he was Gifted.

  As soon as he had the realization, the stairwell became instantly populated with a line of teenagers streaming down the stairs and out of his line of sight. Topher blinked, startled by the sudden appearance of all these people, as though filling in some gap in his memory.

  Yes, the voice inside his head nearly caused him to jump. Remember…

  Topher frowned and looked at the teenager standing nearest him, eyes widening in recognition.

  It’s me. I’m watching my own memory of the day I was tested.

  Now he was even more confused. Why was the voice showing him his own memory? Wasn’t this entity supposed to be showing him memories from its own time? But if it was really an early colonizer of Elaria, it definitely wouldn’t have been standing in the stairwell of the clock-tower with him over a decade ago.

  The heavy doors were dragged open by two Minors, allowing one relieved-looking child to leave and the one directly in front of Topher to enter the room beyond. As soon as she was inside, the doors closed again.

  Topher studied his younger self. Others around him had made friends in the line and were talking quietly to each other, trying to relieve their nerves and shooting terrified glances at the doors every few moments. Topher had kept to himself for the duration of his time here, he remembered with sudden clarity. Where nervousness made others chatty, it had the opposite effect on him, causing him to turn inward.

  “Why am I here?” Present-day Topher asked aloud.

  Unsurprisingly, no one in the line acknowledged or answered him. He wasn’t actually here, after all. He hoped the voice would chime in with something helpful, since he was wasting time here going through his own memories instead of learning something new from whoever was in his head.

  Remember…

  Topher looked upwards reflexively, though the voice had come from inside rather than above.

  “Is there something important about this day for me?” he asked curiously, straining his memory. Admittedly, he didn’t think of this day often—well, ever, really—so his recollection was a bit foggy.

  Yes.

  “What could possibly be important about today, other than I was tested, found to be not-Gifted, and sent home?”

  There was no response.

  Maybe the important part of the memory had nothing to do with him at all? Maybe he was supposed to watch the people around him and see if something strange happened to one of them—or maybe one of them grew up to be someone important and he should be trying to recognize their younger self…

  The sound of the double-doors being dragged open captured his attention once more. Whatever he was supposed to be gleaning from his time on the stairwell he was about to miss, because his younger self walked forward into the testing chamber and his present-day self was forced to follow.

  Topher from the memory was standing still and staring straight ahead, determined to appear calm and unafraid. Present-day Topher allowed himself to walk around the room and examine things more fully.

  Three Provo-Minor were in the room with him, two of which were currently working the door. The other was sitting in a padded chair at a long table, fidgeting with his chrono and clearly bored. A locked cabinet was behind him and to the side, though Topher wasn’t sure what it contained. This was one of the few areas where select members of the Provo-Minor had more knowledge than the Majors, as the testing process for the Gifted was carefully controlled and had always been the task of the Minors. Topher was thankful to be exempt from sitting in a stuffy tower for fourteen hours straight, twice a year, and had never envied the Minors their task, though the select few on the testing panels always acted haughty about it.

  The primary item of interest, and presumably the reason for all the security on the room, was the large ball of imbued elarium hovering over a stone dais in the center of the space. At three-feet in diameter, it was the largest single unit of imbued elarium on the entire planet, glowing faintly as though radiating power.

  The Minors returning from the door took their seats at the table and gave him instructions without asking any questions about who he was.

  “Remove any jewelry from your person, including rings, earrings, and other piercings. Place both hands on the orb and leave them there until instructed otherwise.”

  Topher watched his younger self nod curtly and approach the imbued elarium as instructed, his hands shaking only slightly as he laid them on the orb with everyone watching.

  Now nothing happens and they dismiss me, he recalled. He still had no idea why he had been sent back to this place, of all the things he could have seen, and was growing frustrated.

  The orb flared a bright, sickening green color, and present-day Topher froze in place with his eyes wide.

  This isn’t right…that never happened!

  If he had been Gifted he would be wearing an emblem right now. Elarium-based technology wouldn’t work properly for him; he would never be able to use his Talents. He would have been forced to live in the Academy. He never would have been permitted to join the Provo-Major.

  His younger self also clearly saw the color change, but only betrayed his shock by tensing slightly and glancing at the Minors to see what they would do.

  “This isn’t right!” Present-day Topher insisted, angry with the voice for deceiving him with whatever farce this was. If the orb had turned green his entire life would be different.

  “Congratulations. It seems you are not one of the unlucky few,” one of the Minors stood, still looking bored. “You can remove your hands from the orb now. Make sure you scan your credentials before leaving to document your results.”

  Young-Topher’s mouth opened slightly in surprise, clearly confused about why no one else had noticed the unmistakable change in the elarium.

  Topher watched his younger self remove his hands from the elarium, preparing to say something, but both Tophers were overcome with a sudden wave of heat that seemed to pass through their heads, scorching and burning. His younger self blinked several times as the wave passed, looked momentarily confused, and then said, “Thank you.” He walked calmly over to the scanner and pressed his biochip against it, registering the negative results, and waited for the two women to open the door for him to exit.

  “What the hell was that?” Present-day Topher demanded hotly.

  You were going to tell them. I had to stop you.

  “You were already in my head, before I even got the enhancers?” Topher asked in alarm.

  Sometimes, the voice admitted. I did not mean to burn you so hard. You were not supposed to forget.

  He shook his head, trying to make sens
e of all of this and feeling strangely ill.

  “What—what does this all mean? Are you saying the orb really turned green for me that day? But why could no one else see it? Or was it only green because you were trying to tell me something and it threw off my eyesight? Why did you—”

  A wave of nausea overcame him and the world dropped away all around him. He felt himself falling down a well of black nothingness, fearing the eventual impact with the ground. As the bottom drew near, he braced himself for the pain and—

  Topher’s eyes flew open and he gasped for air, lurching upright and trying to orient himself.

  He was on the floor inside of a cold medical room—Autopsy! He was back on level two-fifty, sweating profusely in his light armor and feeling weak and shaky. He must have released the emblem when he fell to the floor, because it was laying a few inches to his left.

  Falling to the floor in light armor probably made a hell of a noise…

  Topher jumped to his feet, shivering as his sweat met the cold air of the autopsy room. He grabbed the emblem carefully by the chain, returned it to the evidence bag and replaced the seal on it just as the door opened behind him.

  “Major Augen—what are you doing here?” the coroner blurted out in surprise.

  Topher set the bag down and turned to face the woman, hoping he looked calm and not unbalanced.

  “I was informed of another Gifted murder, and wanted to examine the evidence myself.”

  She relaxed slightly.

  “Of course, my apologies. Your visit surprised me, and I thought I heard a noise when I was walking back from lunch.”

  “I accidentally struck the table with my armor as I moved around it. I apologize if it startled you.”

  “No, not at all!” she insisted. “I would have postponed my lunch if I knew to expect you—”

  “I was unaware of the opportunity in advance, or I would have notified you.” Topher held up a hand before she could continue to apologize needlessly. “What are your findings so far?”

  The coroner slipped back into business mode right away and approached.