Cassie shook her head. Nothing about the words she was able to speak was real. “My supervisor manages all interactions. Please wait while I contact them.” She crossed her arms over herchest, using the familiar words as armor against her churning emotions. The Aviarist kept them happy and careless. Pretty birds in his collection. Cared for and used at his will. If the IA hadn’t come to free them, Cassie would have spent her entire life not knowing she could have an existence beyond the walls of the Aviary.
Örim’s demeanor shifted as he tapped pensively at the node at the center of his chest. “Someone really wanted to keep you silent. I wonder why. Sorry, that’s probably a rude thing to speculate about.”
“Can I help you with something else?” Cassie bared her neck to give him a better view of the voicelock. There was no point in continuing this conversation, so a distraction might redirect his attention. It was a cheap trick, maybe, but she didn’t want to discuss anything else with him unless it was about learning her letters or trying to answer any of his technical questions about her voicelock. Besides, she wanted to ensure he would give her another reading lesson, so she expected payment was due on her part.
It finally seemed to register with him what she was offering. “Are you sure? I won’t deny I’m curious.”
“My role is to help you have a positive experience.”
Letting people touch her was of little consequence. Someone examining her voicelock wouldn’t harm her. However, her words seemed to make him pause, judging from the way he pressed hard against the node on the center of his chest for a long moment.
“I’ll look then.”
Cassie sat back. He was helping her, so she had to make sure the exchange was balanced. She didn’t have anything else to offer him. But she needed the reading lessons, so whatever it took to keep them going, she would do.
“I do just want to clarify that I would still teach you to read regardless of whether you let me look at your voicelock.”
“I’m sorry, I think I missed that,” Cassie said, desperate to find a way to communicate to him how much she needed these lessons. Örim rubbed a thumb over the node on his left palm.
“It’s true, I am interested in looking at your voicelock, but it’s not payment. Only if you want to share, and only because I think I might be able to help.”
Cassie’s stare grew blank. She didn’t know what to do with this. He was offering her a real choice. He would keep giving her reading lessons even if she said no. She didn’t mind if he looked at her voicelock, but she found herself frozen by all the options. It had never been up to her whether someone did something to her or not. Some of the tension eased out of her shoulders as she lifted her chin again, offering permission. He could look.
“If you want me to stop, just tap on the worktable.” His hands were soft on her neck as he ran a fingertip over the device embedded just below her jawline. Cassie shivered under the unexpectedly gentle touch.
“It’s really impressive craftsmanship.” He tapped softly against the device, and the metal resonated against his crystalline fingers. “I know that’s not helpful to you though.” Örim dropped his hands from her throat. “If you would let me, I would like to investigate the mechanism here.” He paused. “I think I might be able to remove it or at least disable it.” Örim stood then. “We might have to coordinate with a surgeon. Someone discreet. Maybe a higher-tier research hospital.” He started to pace. “Getting ahead of myself. Disable first. Remove second.” With a bright ping of his elbow nodes connecting, Örim turned back to her. “So, what do you say?”
He'd rattled off so many different things, Cassie wasn’t sure what she should be responding to. The Aviarist had always told them removing the voicelock would trigger a death sequence.Even tampering could be fatal. But what did she have to lose? Cassie placed her hands flat on her thighs. She was willing to let him try.
“It would be my pleasure!” she finally said.
“Right! Excellent. Excellent.” He clasped his hands around hers, catching her by surprise. There was something kind of sweet about his awkward social fumbling. “You won’t regret it. We’ll find a solution for this. I’m counting on it. And we’ll continue with your reading lessons. I have so many preparations to make. Do you mind if we restart in three days instead of tomorrow?”
She nodded. It was hard to share his optimism. But as long as the reading lessons continued, she was satisfied.
“Do you want to borrow the datapad for practice in the meantime?” He offered her the device, and it took all of her manners not to snatch it away from him.
“I’m so grateful!” she exclaimed, and for once she actually meant it.
“It’s one of the school’s datapads, so I’m pretty sure it’s mostly waveblocked, but it should be totally fine for writing practice. Here, let me show you how to run the program.”
Cassie watched rapt, making sure she didn’t miss a single detail as he showed her how to load up the letter templates and then reset the practice holo. Once he’d finished, she showed him another hand sign. The one for “thank you”. It was a small gesture, but it made her feel a little bit less alone knowing someone else knew a few words in her language.
CHAPTER 10
Örim
Cassie. Something about Cassie stuck in his mind beyond just fascination with her voicelock. He didn’t recognize the feeling, but it was new and uncomfortable. It would be better to focus his energy on trying to solve the puzzle in front of him. Whatever strangeness he was dealing with wasn’t going to help him get reinstated on Teös.
Örim knew he was being obsessive, but he couldn’t help but check to see if Raptor had responded to his last message on the board. There it was. A new message from Raptor. He took a moment to read. If he was understanding the subtext correctly, Raptor was implying the desire for a less coded conversation. He wanted more details about Cassie’s voicelock and Örim’s level of access to her. Something about it rubbed him the wrong way, but it would also be remiss to pass up on an opportunity for more information if it could help unravel the mystery of disabling Cassie’s voicelock.
He thought for a moment before typing a response, taking a calculated risk at revealing additional information regarding hisinterest in removing or disabling the voicelock. Whatever he said would have to be a lie anyway. He technically wasn’t affiliated with any institution, not since leaving Teös.
My research operates through academic consortium rather than single institutional framework—collaborative theoretical analysis across multiple jurisdictions.
The subject access remains variable based on scheduling constraints and facility availability. Remote monitoring limitations you mentioned are precisely why I'm seeking alternative diagnostic approaches.
Based on Raptor’s message, it sounded like he was going to have to get access to Cassie’s hardware eventually. There was no way around it. He definitely didn’t want to ask Raptor about the best way to do it because it would be an enormous reveal about his proximity to the device. It would likely also put Cassie in danger, which defeated the purpose of what he was trying to do. He didn’t know much of anything about her backstory, but he would be an idiot to believe she ended up with a voicelock under positive circumstances. No one ended up with a voicelock unless they were in a reallysöktsituation.
