by Ava Jae
But I have never been happier to be wrong about something so huge.
“Perfect.” I turn to Deimos. “Do you think we could set that up?”
Deimos hesitates and glances at Ven. “Probably …” But he’s got this uneasy look, like something’s wrong, something he’s not saying. Before I can ask what’s burning at him, the windowless room goes completely and utterly black.
41
Kora
“Have you seen the feed this morning?” Uljen waltzes into the dining hall with an urgent pace that makes my stomach swoop. Nearly every set there’s some new huge information that throws everything else into a whirlwind. I’d checked the feed before walking to the dining hall with Lira for our morning meal and I’d been relieved not to see any new terrible information but perhaps that relief wasn’t meant to last.
I sip my moonflower tea and sigh. “I did, sha, but judging by your expression, I’d guess there’s been an update since then.”
Uljen drops onto a cushion across the table and slides his glass to me. It’s just a black screen. I glance up at him. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“You’re looking at Asheron’s feed right now. According to the reports it only just happened.”
I frown and tap the screen, as if that would do something. “The feed just … shut off?”
“Abruptly, sha. No one knows why yet, and it seems no one’s been able to contact anyone inside the city, either. It’s only been a few moments but people are getting nervous.”
Unease nips at the edges of my lungs as I look at the glass. I’m not entirely sure what the feed turning off could signify—the feed never turns off, not for anything. Could it be some sort of malfunction? Maybe, but given the way the Remnant hacked the world feed less than a term ago, it seems a rather enormous coincidence for this to happen like this.
“But before the feed turned off, nothing seemed unusual?”
“There wasn’t an attack or any messages, as far as I know, naï,” Uljen says. “It was a fairly uneventful morning.”
I bite my lip and slip my fingers over my earring. I don’t want to overreact and panic when it might be something harmless, something easily explained and forgotten. But what if it isn’t? What if Eros and the people of Asheron are in trouble? What if the Remnant are acting out once more?
“What do you want to do?” Lira asks me.
I choose my words carefully. “I don’t want anyone to be alarmed unnecessarily. Let’s take a cautious approach and monitor the situation for the next few segments. If nothing has changed by noon, I want to send some men over there to investigate and make sure it isn’t something serious.”
Uljen nods. “I’ll relay the message to the guard.”
“Thank you.” I lean back on my hands, no longer hungry. It’s too soon to say what this is, too soon to know if I should worry.
But that doesn’t stop me from imagining all the horrible things that might be happening, and all the ways I can do absolutely nothing to help.
42
Eros
It takes all of half a mo for the door to open and the room to fill with sounds of boots and guards to enter with torches. Actual torches. With fire, like the ancient ages.
“What’s going on?” I ask as Lijdo and Fejn near. “Why did the lights turn off?”
“It seems we’ve lost power,” Lijdo says. “But not just the lights and central power—none of the portable units are working either. No glasses or solar-powered torches and I’d wager those aren’t the only things not working.”
“Is this the Remnant?” Deimos asks.
“Probably,” I mutter the same time Lijdo says, “We don’t know yet.”
Which is about the mo it hits me all the guards are eying the glass, which is now off.
“It seems rather suspicious, don’t you think?” Fejn says. “This stranger demands to speak to you, does so, and suddenly the palace complex loses power?”
Deimos grimaces.
“What?” I shake my head. “I don’t think Ven had anything to do with this, especially given we still have Shaw and Rani did tell us she’d retaliate.”
“But it is odd,” Deimos says. “It’d be a rather grand coincidence.”
“Until someone comes up with proof what’s happening here is remotely related to Ven contacting me, no one is going to bother them,” I say firmly. “In fact, I’ve just invited Ven to stay as a guest at the complex for after Asheron is plague-free. We may have lost connection, but I intend to keep that promise if they’d like to visit.”
Lijdo frowns. “Are you sure—”
“Sha. I’m positive.” I look at some of the other guards who aren’t specifically assigned to Deimos and me. “But more importantly right now, I want extra security posted around Shaw’s cell immediately.”
The guards nod and leave.
I sigh and rub my thumb over the markings on my hand. “Let’s get out of this windowless room. I feel like I’m standing in a tomb.”
“You know you can’t trust Ven just because they’re a half-blood, right?” Deimos says. “I’m glad you’ve found someone you can relate to, Eros, truly, I do. But don’t be fooled into thinking they’re safe just because they aren’t human or Sepharon.”
“Are we seriously back to this again?” I ask. “They proved they’re a half-blood. And it’s not like Ven asked for anything unreasonable.”
“Maybe not, but you did just offer them clearance to visit the palace—”
“They couldn’t have known I was going to do that—”
“Perhaps, and perhaps not, but they could know you’d immediately want to trust them simply because they claim to be a half-blood, like you. You have to think, Eros. You’re the most powerful person on the planet. You can’t just take people at their word, not anymore.”
I scowl. He’s right, I know that—I shouldn’t trust anyone so easily, not anymore. But something about Ven felt genuine. I really don’t think they were lying to me.
But then again, that could be exactly what they want. And if they’re any good at—at manipulating, then I suppose I wouldn’t suspect anything anyway.
I sigh. “Okay, you’re right. Look, we can keep talking about this later and I’m going to keep thinking about it. But for now, we really need to focus on figuring out what’s blazing going on, shae? And I also want to check on Mal. He was sleeping when we left for the morning meal, right?”
Deimos’s shoulders relax a little and he nods. “I’m sure Mal is still in his room, but we can check first.” He glances at Fejn. “I take it your communications aren’t working, either?”
Fejn grimaces. “Unfortunately not.”
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s go check on Mal and talk to the techies before people start to panic.”
They nod and we start walking, but Deimos grabs my wrist and stops me. “Hold on,” he says quietly. “I just want to thank you. For listening to me.”
I smile weakly. “Even if you weren’t my advisor, I trust you more than anyone. I’ll always listen to you, okay?”
Deimos smiles and gives me a quick kiss. And as he laces his fingers in mine, we walk into the darkness together.
Mal and Varo aren’t in his bedroom, but before worrying, we figure he might be down in the lab, which is where we’re going anyway, seeing how he seems to like to hang out with the techies there. I don’t really get the appeal of hanging out leagues underground when you don’t have to, but whatever makes him happy, I guess.
Of course, getting down to the lab when there isn’t any power to, say, run the lift thing means taking a painfully long trip down the stairs.
“Climbing back up is going to be a workout,” Deimos says with a sigh. “My incredible legs don’t really need more toning but I suppose I won’t complain.”
I roll my eyes but yeah, I’m smiling as Deimos grins at me.
The once well-lit warehouse of a room looks like a cavern without the lights. Everyone’s got torches down here, which feels weird ne
xt to all the high-tech stuff floating around, though it’s all off. Kinduv got to wonder if they had the torches ready as a backup or if someone had to bring them down for them.
“El Sira! It’s good to see you.” Dara comes over, holding a torch and smiling in the warm orange light. “Before you ask, Mal is down here with Varo and they’re both fine.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” I answer. “Thank you.”
She nods. “Your nephew is very intelligent. I’d be happy to apprentice him when he comes of age.”
While I’m not surprised to hear she thinks Mal is smart, that second part does catch me off. “You would?”
“He means ‘thank you.’” Deimos smirks.
She laughs lightly. “You don’t have to thank me. He’d be a great addition to the team. If he’s interested, we’d be more than happy to take him.”
“I’ll talk to him about it,” I say. “Mal’s not the only reason we came over, though.”
“Naï, I’d imagine not. This power loss is serious. If you’d come with me, we have made some early determinations.” She brings us over to a cluster of people sitting on the floor around a flat surface I’m pretty sure was a floating table before the power outage. Which isn’t surprising—we saw a lot of broken shattered glasses on our way out of the complex. Come to think of it, our beds are probably on the floor now, too.
Mal is sitting at the edge of the group with Varo next to him. Mal’s darkening glasses—which he carries everywhere—are propped on top of his head, seeing how he obviously doesn’t need them right now, and his stick is next to him on the floor. I’m not sure if he’s noticed me yet—in the dim light, he probably can’t see a damn thing—plus he’s talking quietly to Varo, so I don’t interrupt them. But it’s good to see him. Like Dara said, he seems totally fine, and as long as Varo is keeping an eye on him, I’m not worried.
On the floored table is what I’m pretty sure is a map of Asheron. They’ve written notes on it in red that I can’t read.
“We’ve sent a team out and our early assessment is the outage seems to be affecting much, if not all of the city. It could possibly go beyond Asheron—we’re not sure yet, but it’s going to be difficult to determine as our transports aren’t working either. And as I’m sure you’ve guessed by our set-up here, our backup generators are also not functioning. Whatever knocked out our power seems to be affecting all tech that relies on power of any kind—not just those connected to our main solar grid.”
“Any guesses what’s causing this?” I ask. “Or how to fix it?”
“Given we haven’t been able to recharge any of our portable devices—which, remember, are solar-powered and thus should be easy to recharge—it seems to be something that’s actively disrupting the tech’s ability to access a power source. We think it’s some kind of pulse device, possibly solarmagnetic, that’s blocking our access to power. If that’s the case, the device would need to be turned off for us to be able to restore the power.” She gestures to the map. “Unfortunately we have no way of tracking down the source with all of our tech powered down.”
“The timing is terrible, too,” a guy from the group around the table adds. “We were just testing the first batch of restored nanites in the medical wing. The results were promising before the outage killed them again.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Nanites in the medical wing? You mean …”
“Given the spread of the disease, we focused the first batch on a cure.” Dara smiles. “We didn’t want to alert you until we finished our testing, but as my colleague said, the signs were positive until the power went out. Once we get the power back, we’ll be able to finish our testing and hopefully release the nanites and end this plague nightmare.”
Thank the fucken stars. “Good. That’s really good news.”
She nods. “We’re rather helpless without power, though.”
“If it’s a device causing the outage, do you think it’d be in the city?” Deimos asks.
Dara hesitates. “If this outage is localized to Asheron, then sha. If it goes beyond Asheron … it may be harder to say. So first I would send someone outside the city with a glass or communication unit—something small—and see if they can recharge it outside the city, and if so, how far outside the city they need to go before they can access power again. Assuming it’s localized here—and my guess is that it is, because this isn’t an easy feat for a city the size of Asheron, and the resources it would take to knock out an entire territory or more would be immense—then sha, I’d say more likely than not, the device is somewhere in the city.”
“We’ll talk to the military about sending some guys out to investigate,” I say. “Wherever the device is, we’ll find it.”
“I’m sure you will. In the meantime, we’ll do everything we can to prepare to act quickly once the power is restored.”
“Thank you.” I look at Mal, who by now I’m assuming has recognized my voice because he’s facing us and seems to be listening. “Mal, do you want to stay here or come with us?”
“I’m good here,” he says.
“I’ll bring him back to the palace when he’s ready,” Varo adds.
I nod and we turn back to the leagues of stairs waiting for us to get back to the surface. Deimos stretches his arms over his head and smacks his lips together. “Ready to make your legs look even more amazing?”
I snort. “Whatever you say.”
Deimos winks at me, and we start the climb.
43
Kora
I wake, gasping, with a hand on my shoulder and a shadow standing over me. My heart races as I jerk up, reaching for the knife under my—
“I’m sorry!” Lira squeaks. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Oh. I slide my hand away from my pillow and take a deep breath. I glance at Uljen, still somehow fast asleep beside me. Evidently, he sleeps more deeply than I anticipate.
I turn back to Lira. “It’s … fine. I’m just a bit—forget it. What’s wrong? Is it Eros? Are the people of Asheron all right?”
As my eyes adjust to the darkness, Lira’s guilty smile becomes easier to make out in the light of the moons. “Nothing’s wrong—I don’t have any news on ken Sira or Asheron. I just thought … maybe this was a bad idea. I apologize.”
I rub the sleep from my eyes. “You’ve already woken me, so you might as well tell me what you had in mind.”
Lira bites her lip. “I want to show you something. But it requires getting dressed because it’s in the city, outside the complex.”
“Outside the complex? What is it?”
“It’s … a surprise.”
A surprise? At this time of set? I grimace through the darkness. “What time is it?”
“Nearly night’s center … like I said, maybe this was a bad idea. I’m sorry for waking you.” She starts to turn away, but I reach out and gently grab her wrist.
“It’s okay. I’ll get dressed.”
Lira blinks and smiles a little. “Sha?”
“Sha.” I smirk. “Not like I’d be able to sleep now that you have me curious, anyway.”
Lira laughs lightly as I slide out of bed. Fifteen or so moments later, we’re walking over the white pathways, petal-soft sand sliding into our sandals, two guards trailing several paces behind us. The night is warm, but nowhere near the oppressive heat of the set at the time of the cycle. And to think we haven’t even reached the hottest set of the cycle yet.
“The nights are always so much more pleasant,” Lira says. “I’ve always preferred them to the sets.”
“Really? That’s interesting. I was never really permitted to go out at night on my own—though Dima and I did so anyway as we got a little older, especially during the festivals. It worried our parents ill but … some of my fondest memories are of those nights.” I smile softly, but it feels—wrong, almost, to speak so airily when I don’t know if Eros is in danger. When it’s inevitable Asheron going dark for an extended period like this will have repercussions globally�
��after all, how is the rest of the world supposed to have confidence in our world leader if the capitol appears endangered? And if there hasn’t been any news yet, that means the men I sent to investigate the situation still haven’t returned, which means … what, exactly?
Whatever it is, it can’t be good.
But Lira is oblivious to my concern, because she just nods with a smile. “I worked most of my life during the sets, so the nights were when my friends and I could claim segments for ourselves. Plus the weather is just always better at night anyway.”
“Sha, that’s true.” I pause. “What of your friends now? Do you get to see them much?”
“Mmm … my ex-girlfriend took most of my friends with our separation.” She rolls her eyes. “Oh well. I suppose she did me a favor—I can see now they weren’t really my friends anyway.”
“Ah … sorry to hear that.”
“I’m not. I’m making better friends now.” She smiles at me.
I nod at the guards as we reach the gates of the complex. They open them for us and we continue on into greater Vejla.
The streets are nearly empty at this time of night. Come to think of it, it’s … probably somewhat dangerous for us to be walking around by ourselves. Not that Vejla is particularly dangerous—and especially not now, with the heavy guard presence on the streets, even at this time of night. But we are rather alone, and if Lira wanted to kill me, this would be the way to do it. The guards behind us are distant enough that she could probably get away with it if she moved quickly.
Granted, she could have easily just killed me in my sleep, given how she snuck up on me like that.
Okay. This is paranoid thinking brought on by too many betrayals and near-death experiences and worry for Eros. I need to stop. This is ridiculous.
I take a deep, steadying breath and Lira glances at me. “Are you all right?”
“Sha,” I say. “Just … have a lot in my thoughts at the moment.”