I’m pissed off, fuming—but then I hear it again… a voice. A sweet song of a voice compellin’ me to keep walkin’.
I do, and when I get to the edge of the platform, I just… float. Like a ghost.
This time, when I look behind me, there’s a group of mutants on the platform next to my body. I have a moment of panic that they might kill me, but this fear disappears as quick as it came because they pick me up, raising me over their heads, and carefully start lowering me down the cage maze.
I look up at the screen where Epsilon’s face is, and realize he’s takin’ care of it. So I turn back to the empty air holding me up and let that song draw me in.
Floating down, my feet feel nothin’ when they touch the ground. But they are walkin’ with purpose. Heading towards a section of yelling and raging mutants.
I don’t feel in control right now. It’s like I’m being guided. Or forced. Like a puppet. I slide right through the mutants, closing my eyes when it happens, holdin’ my breath.
It’s cold. Freezing. But when I come out, I’m no longer in the arena. I’m in a hallway. I laugh a little as I look over my shoulder. It’s not funny. It’s disturbin’, actually. Because not only did I just walk through men, I just walked through walls.
Again, the song snaps me back to my mission.
Is this a mission?
And my feet are walking. Well, not walking. Floatin’. I go through a few more walls, letting myself be carried on this current, so I can think about what’s happenin’.
I left my body. Something is calling me towards it.
No, not that part, you dumbass! The part about the monks!
Right. I killed them. Much like I’ve killed others to steal their spark. But I was never among them before. This is the first time I’ve crossed a dimension without Clara. Except, I didn’t actually cross. I was in two places at once.
Tyse, you idiot! You’re still in two places at once.
So what’s different?
Looking down at myself, seems pretty obvious. The spark is what’s different. The fact that I can see myself as a reservoir, number one. But also, thewayit happened.
I plucked a loose thread from each of those monks and I just… unraveled them. Like an old-timey spinnin’ wheel. Wool into yarn. Spark into thread.
What’s it mean though?
There’s no time to figure this out, because the next wall I walk through places me right in front of Clara. I stop, my insides sinking with dread. Fear. Panic. Rage. All of it hits at once as my eyes scan down her body. She’s captured inside a cage. It looks like an augmentation threader, similar to the one I was in earlier, but not exactly like it.
That’s not the worst part, though. The worst part is her coloring. She’s…gray. Dull blue. Sun-bleached blue.
And then, I hear her voice. A voice from the past. Another time, another dimension, another life, it seems.
“Our towers were tall too,” Clara is saying. “But not this tall.”
We’re back in Tau City, on our way to the health center to get her checked out. I still think she might be lying, she still thinks I’m a dick.
“And they were just made of plaster and stones, I think.” Clara looks up at me. “I don’t know how to make buildings. They just didn’t look likethat.” She points to the skyscrapers. “They looked… natural. Like the canal. Like they fit in with it. All of my city was covered in muted shades of beige and blue. And most of the towers had domes. Sun-bleached blue domes. Almost gray, some of them, because they were so old.”
Sun-bleached blue domes.
All right. Calm down, Tyse. Be rational. Think. You were made to think. You’re one of the smartest fuckers on this whole world. Do not overreact.
Sun-bleached blue…
I snap out of it and suddenly I’m me again. Not in my body, just in my mind. And that mind is workin’ now. Figurin’ shit out.
Tubes. Needle-thin tubes. A cage full of them. And this cage is over top of Clara’s body. Inside the tubes there is spark. But it’s not glowin’.
Sun-bleached blue…
