She watched my discharge hearing. And she saw what I did to my team.
I upright the footstool then position it in front of Clara and take a seat, looking her in the eyes. “You can leave, if you want. I’ll still pay for a hotel. I’ll even walk you into the Canal District.”
Anneeta stands up, objecting. “She can’t leave! We’re gonna be friends! You said so!”
“You…” I point to her, annoyed. “Go home now. Wherever the fuck that is.”
“But you promised!”
“Tomorrow, Anneeta. OK?Tomorrow. I need to talk to Clara.”
Anneeta’s eyes find Clara’s now. “Don’t go anywhere. We’re friends now.”
Clara sighs, then forces a smile. “I won’t.”
“Promise you’ll be here tomorrow.Promise.” Anneeta is not convinced. But honestly, neither am I.
Clara nods, her body language more compelling this time. “I promise.”
“Fine.” Anneeta walks to the door, pulling it open. But before she walks through, she shoots us one more look over her shoulder, directing her words at me. “You’ll figure it out, you know. Probably soon.” She smiles at me, revealing that gap in her teeth.
Before I can ask a million more questions about what she just said, she’s gone, the door closing softly behind her.
I turn to Clara. “I’m serious about the hotel. I won’t make a big deal about it. And I’ll still help you. In whatever way I can, at least. I saw your city, Clara. It was just as you described. I saw your canal and everything. The towers with the domes. And people walking around in traditional desert clothes.”
“Oh, my god!” Clara jumps up. “What?” Then she goes back to the window and peeks out. “You saw it?”
“I did.” And now I know for sure that she’s not lying. I know I said I believed her, but that was just something you say when the only other choice is to call someone crazy. I didn’t wanna do that, so I said I believed her. There was even evidence. A bit of it, anyway.
But this? This is something else entirely.
“I don’t see anything, Tyse. Make it come back!”
“Didn’t ya hear? I’m not running this thing.” I point to the augments in my head. “Anneeta is. She’s a child of the spark. She was born in it. She’s not right. It affected her brain. But there’s no denying that I saw what I saw. She made my augments work. She’s not lying and neither are you.”
Clara peeks back out the window, still hopeful for a glimpse.
“Sit down, Clara. We need to talk.”
She keeps looking for a few moments, but finally sighs and sits back down in the chair so we’re facing one another. I’m struggling for words, my mind spinning with the idea that she saw me kill my team, and what she might think about that. Which is a stupid thing to worry about after what just happened, but there it is.
Clara finds her words just fine and starts asking questions. “What was it then? Can you tell me that? I mean, you said you believed me.”
“I did. Kinda. But the overlay”—I nod my head to the window—“that’s irrefutable evidence.”
“Evidence of what?”
“The veil.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
“It’s…” It’s hard to explain is what it is, but I think back to how it was explained to me the first time I saw it. “It’s like a mirror, only instead of seeing a reflection, you see past it. Into places that should stay hidden.”
“And you’re sure it was Tau City?”
“Yeah. It looked… familiar. From your description. I know different worlds exist. I’ve seen them before in the Omega Outlands. But they’re dead. There are no people there, Clara. And I know this isn’t a lie because I was there for years. I know what’s there. And it’s not people. It’s just ruins, and remnants,and… otherthings. The Sweep sends us there to clear the veils because if we don’t get rid of them, bad energy seeps through and infects this world. Well.” I blow out a breath. “Not here in the cities. Only in the Outlands. The veils haven’t been in this part of the world for hundreds of years. But forget all that.”
“Forget all that? Nothing else matters but that! My city is right out there!” She points to the window.
