“I have kept her alive for twenty-one years. The distinction is not trivial.”
“The distinction is everything.” His voice had gone quiet and controlled, but she could hear something dangerous underneath. “You’ve denied her every experience, every connection, every chance to live an actual life?—”
“I don’t understand.”
The words escaped before she could stop them. Both Baylin and ARIS fell silent, turning their attention to her—one with green eyes full of suppressed fury, the other with the sensors she’d felt watching her whole life.
“You’re angry,” she said to him, trying to work through the confusion tangling her thoughts. “But I don’t understand why. Ari has taken care of me since I was an infant. It’s educated me, fed me, kept me healthy, and given me everything I needed. The tower isn’t a prison—it’s my home.”
“Liora—”
“The world outside is dangerous. I’ve read about it. I’ve seen the predators from my observation window and watched them hunt and kill. I know what would happen if I tried to walk through that jungle alone.” She pressed her hands together, aware that her voice was rising but unable to stop it. “Ari only has my best interests in mind. It always has. That’s what it was designed for.”
He stared at her for a long moment. The anger didn’t fade exactly, but it shifted into something different. Sadness, maybe. Or resignation.
“You believe that,” he said finally. It wasn’t a question.
“Of course I believe it. It’s true.” Even though she was annoyed about being kept in the dark, she still believed that ARIS had her best interests in mind.
“Liora’s trust is not misplaced,” ARIS interjected. “I have maintained optimal conditions for her physical and psychological wellbeing for her entire life. My protocols are designed to maximize her safety while providing appropriate stimulation and growth opportunities. I am not her enemy, Baylin of the Vultor. I am her guardian.”
His jaw tightened again. “Guardians prepare their charges to face the world. They don’t hide them from it forever.”
“The circumstances of Liora’s situation are unique. Standard approaches are not applicable.”
“How convenient.”
The words dripped with contempt, and she found herself stepping between him and the nearest speaker, as if she could physically defend ARIS from his anger.
“Stop,” she said. “Please. I don’t want you to fight.”
His eyes dropped to her face. The fury was still there, banked but present, and yet when he looked at her, it softened into something else. Something that made that flutter return, stronger than before.
“I’m not fighting with an AI,” he said quietly. “I’m just... trying to understand.”
“What is there to understand? Ari protects me. That’s its purpose. That’s what it does.”
“And you’ve never wanted more? Never looked out those windows and wished you could experience what you see?”
Every day,she thought.Every single day for as long as I can remember.
But she couldn’t say that. Not with ARIS listening, not when it would sound like a betrayal of everything the AI had done for her. Instead, she turned away, moving towards a bench covered with pruning tools and seed packets, needing something to do with her hands.
“Wanting things doesn’t mean we should have them,” she said. “I want to walk on the beach. I want to swim in the ocean. Iwant to see a sunrise from the forest floor instead of from behind glass. But wanting those things doesn’t make them safe.”
“Wanting those things makes you human.”
She picked up a pair of shears, turning them over in her fingers. The metal was warm from the greenhouse heat, familiar in her grip. She’d held these shears a thousand times. She knew their weight, their balance, the exact pressure needed to make a clean cut.
She didn’t know anything about the male behind her. Not really. He’d walked into her world mere hours ago, and already he was making her question everything she’d accepted as truth. But still...
“You should stay.”
The words surprised her—surprised them both, judging by the sharp intake of breath from behind her. She turned to find him watching her with that intense, unreadable expression.
“Stay?” he repeated.
“For a while. A few days, at least.” She set down the shears, wiping her palms on her skirt. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t tell if it was from anxiety or anticipation. “I’ve never... I’ve never really had the chance to talk to someone from outside. Susan never told me much so I’ve never learned about the outside world from someone who’s actually lived in it. Ari has taught me so much, but there are things you can only understand through experience, and I don’t have any. Experience, I mean. With people.”
