The Colony

by RMGilmour

  It was a micro-second between heartbeats that stretched on for an eternity. Our souls, two halves of a whole, united, fulfilled, complete.

  I gasped when once more his lips found mine, and my body and mind were whole.

  Slowly, he released my hands, reaching his beneath me, one hand cradling the base of my neck, the other moving down to my lower back. His mouth released mine, but his eyes still held me.

  “Lydia,” he whispered, his lips grazing mine. “I love you,” he breathed into me. My chest arched upward, and my head tilted back as the final piece of us fit together.

  I lost sense of my body as it melted into his and the world disappeared. Our souls soared around one another again, entwining and merging, uniting in every way possible. We found our way inside each other, heard every thought, felt every feeling, filling in those final empty spaces that only awaited our counterpart to fill. Time had no meaning for us. There was no space between us. Just the one whole person we had become.

  19

  Painted Skies

  I awoke in the night to his touch and his kisses, gently caressing, arousing a smile deep within me. My soul was at ease, content with the proximity of its partner. I felt my way around his body, not needing the light to see the allure he held, my hands painted that picture for me.

  Though his movements soon stopped. He pulled away from me and I opened my eyes to see him standing in the darkness, staring down at me. His outline stirred butterflies inside me once more, and I reached for him.

  “Let’s go,” he whispered, clasping my fingers in his.

  “Where to?” I wasn’t ready to leave yet, and I knew he wasn’t either. Though I was intrigued by his smile.

  “You’ll see,” he said, releasing my hand.

  I watched him dress, coveting every inch of his bare skin. And when he was done I moved to stand, but before I could he wrapped the bedcovers around me and picked me up.

  He took me out through the trees, walking slowly, quietly. The night was still, the forest quiet, no breeze played through the leaves. Eventually, we came out at the forest edge, and as he sat against a tree, he pulled me into his embrace, with my back toward him. His arms encircled me, his body warming me, and I lay my head against his shoulder.

  It was still too dark to really see much, but I was sure there was only a minimal landscape before us. I remained still in his arms, feeling his chest rise and fall against my back, in unison with his warm breath brushing my neck.

  Eventually, the night sky began to lighten to shades of blue and the first hint of yellow-gold appeared upon the horizon, slowly moving up and across the eastern sky, pulling with it the golden edge of the sun.

  “Look familiar?” he asked.

  “It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “It looks very much like the dawn we watched over the river on Earth.”

  “That’s because it is the same dawn,” he said.

  “What?” I jumped, pulling away enough to face him. We couldn’t be back on Earth, we just left the tree-house!

  He smiled at my worried confusion.

  “This is what I created. Along with the sunsets we’ve been watching.”

  His explanation only puzzled me further.

  “What do you mean you created this? How is it in the sky?” The volume in my voice had failed to reach barely above a whisper.

  He sighed, pulling me back to him, placing his arms around me once more.

  “The city wall is like a lock box around the Central Unit, keeping it safe. But its power extends around the planet in a blanket protection throughout the atmosphere.”

  “Protection from what?”

  “Others, out there,” he said, pointing skyward. “Have already tried to take the Unit and the Spire from us. They see it as the ultimate weapon - unlimited storage and retrieval of their soldiers. And if they were to ever succeed and reverse what the Central Unit can do, sending them to other realms as opposed to only bringing others here…”

  He didn’t need to finish. I could see where he was leading me. The wards, the Guardian and the wall were necessary, but at our expense.

  “But I didn’t bring you here to discuss the dangers,” he continued. “I wanted to show you your dawn sky. So you would have another little piece of your home.”

  “Little?” I asked in disbelief, scanning the brightening sky. “You painted the entire sky; sunrise, sunset, evening, all different, changing colors, different days. How did you do all of this?” I turned back to him so I could see his face.

  “The first sunset we shared, that first night we spoke, moved me, you changed me. I needed you, and everything about you and your world with me,” he said, laying his cheek against my forehead, then planting a small kiss before resuming. “And then the Central Unit took what I’d created across my own ceiling and sent the images across its protective field.”

  “But what was there before?”

  “A similar sky, a Heart sky. Though not as colorful. It paled in comparison.”

  “Have you ever seen what your own sky holds?”

  “We have images,” he said, with a frown. “But when the Heart came, it was changed to what they needed. We weren’t supposed to be out here anyway, so it hardly mattered to us. But now it’s all for you, so you can feel at home.”

  I turned completely in his arms and placed my hands on either side of his face.

  “Thank you,” I smiled, releasing my soul to wrap around him. “I love that you think of me in every possible way. You’ve given me more than I need. And I love everything you’ve done and do for me. I just want you to know, that it doesn’t matter to me what is up in the sky, or what is on my bookshelves, wherever you are that is my home.”

  I slid my arms around his neck, breathing him in once more. “You are my home.”

  He held me tight against him a few moments longer, then picked me up once more and began the trek back through the trees.

  “I can walk you know.”

  “Well if we were walking side by side, then I wouldn’t get to hold you for these extra few minutes, now would I? And besides you’re not wearing any shoes.”

  I tightened my arms around him, laughing into his neck, it was after all, his fault that I wasn’t wearing shoes.

  Once back at the tree house, he made us breakfast while I dressed in fresh clothing that he’d generated for me. Afterward, we walked toward the south west, partially through the trees, until we found the river.

  We lay beside it facing each other, enjoying the woody scent of the forest, and the gentle rush of the water, and I slipped a hand inside his shirt, fingering the scar that traveled across his shoulder.

  “How did you get this?”

  “Guess,” he grinned.

  The Arena, it had to be, and he smiled confirming my first thought.

  “But why do you keep it?”

  “It was my first defeat. I thought it important to keep it. The others not so much.”

  “Others? How often do you fight?”

  “Whenever Mason drags me out there,” he laughed.

  “What level are you at?”

  “Across the board, eight.”

  I wasn’t expecting that. I was beside myself just thinking about the level of strength and speed he’d attained, and I couldn’t wait to join him out there.

  “You know,” he began. “We could just stay here, not go back.”

  “Not if the wards will come for you, we couldn’t.”

  “We could go further south.”

  “Would that stop them?”

  He didn’t answer. I was sure any distance we traveled from the city, would not matter. There had to be a way to compromise with the wards, or break the machine altogether.

  “How are you able to stay away this long?”

  “Mason has his ways.”

  “Of course, he does,” I laughed. “He is a man of many talents, I can’t wait to meet him.”

  “Really. You think he has
many talents, huh?” he said in a jealous, playful tone.

  “Clearly, not as many as you.”

  I pushed him backward into the grass and sat on him. He let me pin his hands to the ground while I tried to kiss him, but he kept moving his head away.

  “And you can’t wait to meet him,” he pouted.

  “Well, if you don’t want my kisses…” I released his hands and moved to stand, but he rolled me over, pinning both of mine above my head, and holding them there with one hand. His other slid down my arm, swiftly unbuttoned my shirt and slowly moved over my chest.

  “I want to paint you, just like this,” he whispered. “Not to share. Just for me,” and he stared down at me as though memorizing every line, every curve. He released my hands and lay beside me once more, propped up on one elbow.

  “Then you have a good reason for wanting to go back,” I told him.

  “A reason. Not a good enough reason to be away from you.”

  “Actually, you do have a good enough reason,” I said thinking of Castor. Even though I was sure Aleric would have spoken to Mason, I assured Phaedra I would make sure it happened. And I relayed this to him as carefully as I could.

  “His name is Connor, you have to find him, stop him before he brings her here.”

  “Connor,” he murmured. “I knew someone by that name a very long time ago.”

  I wanted to ask if maybe he was the same one, but I remembered the size of the city. There had to be millions of people in there and most likely a hundred or more Connors.

  During our conversation, he lost his smile and stared at me as though he had more to say on the topic, that would not be pleasant for me to hear.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I reached across to touch his cheek and he tilted his head into my palm. I smiled at the feeling - me holding his face in my hand and him cherishing my simple touch.

  “There is something I don’t want to say. I’ve been putting it off.”

  “What?”

  Normally at this point I would begin panicking, but that feeling was getting old. Bad news was just a part of my life.

  “I have news of Gia,” he sighed.

  I couldn’t respond. Partly because I’d forgotten to ask about her yet again, but also because I wanted to ask how bad the news was going to be before he gave it to me. But there was no point, it was coming anyway.

  “No one knows this. I practically had to beat it out of Mason. The information was kept from everyone in the city and the Colony. She knew she’d brought him here, but she didn’t mean to. She went looking for him. Outside of the city.”

  I shook my head. An involuntary action. The old me resurfacing not wanting to hear anymore. But I had to, Grid needed to know.

  “The wards caught her. She’s gone.”

  Gone. The word implied too many things, too painful to think about. I had hoped to bring Grid good news. I had hoped to reconcile them. But now, I wasn’t even sure if I should tell him at all. He’d spent years thinking she’d forgotten him and that maybe she didn’t care, or maybe she wasn’t real, as Aleric had suggested. Too much time had passed already. But I doubted even a century would be enough time to recover from that kind of pain. He deserved the truth. That she was real, that she loved him and died trying to get to him. And then another more obvious thought occurred to me.

  “Can’t she be… brought back out?” I asked, trying not to gag on the words.

  “She’s tried, many times, but the Guardian pulls her right back in, and now it won’t let her out at all, claiming it’s for her own protection.”

  I sighed. She most likely didn’t know Grid was waiting for her. And he didn’t know she’d tried to find him. And now there was no way to reunite them, unless he were to be inserted. But that was not an option.

  “We can’t let this happen to anyone else.”

  “I know,” he entwined one hand with mine. “I’ll do what I can to help Mason. This Connor can’t be too hard to find.”

  “We should really leave,” I whispered. It tore at me to say those words. But we couldn’t be selfish. Even if it meant saving only one.

  He groaned and rolled into a sitting position, then looked back at me, memorizing my face, as though he’d never see me again.

  “Not yet,” he whispered, stroking my cheek, and he lay back down beside me.

  ∞

  We stayed for another day, reluctant to part ways, but we both knew it was necessary. And once we agreed it was time to leave, we quietly worked side by side, neatening up our tree-house.

  I tried not to think about leaving him. I couldn’t, the feeling encompassed all the happiness inside as it collapsed in on me, threatening to drown me in its loss. Keeping my focus on Castor, Hera and the bad news I was going to be giving Grid, I forced away those feelings.

  We put all of the bed clothes back into the counter unit. I was glad to see them go - too much white. I asked him to generate new things for us in soft browns and greens to subtly blend in with the tree-house, and we readied the room for when we’d return. He handed my book of poems to me, but I decided to keep it in the tree-house; its grace belonging in that peaceful setting.

  As we were about to leave, I stopped, questioning what would happen if wild animals should get in, or if it rained. I was sure he’d said once that it rained outside of the city, although it hadn’t since I’d arrived.

  “Nothing will get in, not the rain, not even the sun. It’s protected. It will stay just as it is until we return to mess it up again,” he tried to smile, but it fell short of his eyes.

  I couldn’t stand to see his half smiles. I threw myself against him. Then holding on tight, I inhaled his scent.

  “What if we don’t get to come back,” I whispered.

  “We can’t think that way. We won’t accomplish anything if we do,” he whispered back. I loved his use of the word ‘we’. I already knew how he felt about me, but it was nice to hear it.

  I inched my face away to see his eyes once more, placing both of my hands upon his chest.

  “Jordan,” I began. It was the one thing I’d expressed in every way I knew. But the one thing I hadn’t yet said to him. “I l…” his hand clamped over my mouth, cutting off my words.

  “Don’t,” he breathed. “It makes it too final.” He pulled me back to him, crushing me against him. “And besides, you’ve had plenty of perfect moments, and you squandered them all.”

  Of course, he would find a way to make me laugh. He gave me reason to laugh at everything, most especially at myself. Though he was right, I had squandered perfect moments. But no more.

  “Let’s go,” he said, pulling away, firmly clasping my hand in his.

  We had plenty of time and so we walked back toward the Rathe hut, stopping just inside the tree-line, at my insistence. It was early afternoon, and there may still have been people in the hut, or in the fields. And even though I hated not being out in the open with him, and the colonists may all know about Jordan anyway, I wouldn’t do anything further to risk his safety while he was outside of the city.

  He kissed me for the longest time, slowly, gently, but we didn’t speak. I couldn’t speak. Not even when I watched him leave. And when I felt him enter the city, I grasped the tree to steady myself. Being cut off from him completely sent my soul churning, aching for his presence. In its place, loneliness was burning a hole within me.

  Once inside the tree-hut, I planted myself in a chair by the corner. I hadn’t checked to see if anyone was still working, but I didn’t really care. I needed the solitude. I would find Haize later.

  It was Lena that came in. She sat opposite me. Though she didn’t say a word until I looked up at her.

  “Resilient and nauseating,” she sneered.

  I wanted to laugh, but could barely manage a smile. Half of me was missing again.

  “Tell me everything,” I managed to say.

  “Thanks to you we caught twenty-four wards. Then y
ou died. Haize revived you. Then you disappeared and had non-stop sex for eight days.”

  This time I did laugh.

  “I’ve been gone eight days?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  I didn’t think it had been that long, but then again, I never bothered to ask how long I’d been out.

  “And no, if I’d had non-stop sex for eight days, I wouldn’t be walking.”

  “Fine then. Resilient and weak,” she teased. “And I didn’t need to know that about your boyfriend.”

  I stuck out my tongue at her.

  “What’s happening in the Colony? How is Castor?”

  “He’s at,” she paused, catching herself before saying the words and I knew she meant Tira-Mi. “The Arena. Remember the walls have ears and eyes,” she whispered. “Phaedra mentioned the conversation she had with you, before… Did you talk to him about Connor?”

  “I did. Are they still talking?”

  “Yes,” she hissed. “Incessantly.”

  I thought of Grid and the torment he must have suffered having to listen to them. I hoped he’d found a way to escape it.

  “Back so soon?” Haize teased from the doorway.

  “We need to make it permanent,” I told her.

  “The only way to do that is to eliminate the wards…” she said, repeating Jordan’s words. It seemed to be a much thought about subject that had only one conclusion.

  “And the Guardian,” Lena added.

  “Ok, so who exactly controls the Guardian? And don’t keep anything from me,” I told them. “I need to know what I’m up against.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I’m not going to live the next fifty years like this. Missing him, afraid for him, for us. I need to do something.”

  “And you will,” Haize responded. “But you are not going back inside that city. Jordan will have my head.”