“I wanted to tell you when it happened, but the CGB shut down our link with other Pods. They don’t want panic spreading. But I found a way, I hope, to get this message to you. I know you must be worried.”
Aria’s heart had stopped beating. Lumina sat back. Her hands were offscreen but Aria knew they’d be folded in her lap.
“I need to tell you something else, Aria. Something you’ve wanted to know about for so long. My work.” She sent a fleeting smile toward the camera. “You must be happy to hear that.
“I have to begin with the Realms. The CGB created them to give us the illusion of space when we were forced into Pods during the Unity. They were only meant to be copies of the world we left behind, as you know, but the possibilities proved to be too enticing. So we gave ourselves the ability to fly. To travel from a snowcap to a beach with a single thought. And why feel pain if you don’t have to? Why feel the brunt of real fear if there’s no danger of becoming hurt? We increased what we deemed good and removed the bad. Those are the Realms as you know them. Better than Real, as they say.”
Lumina stared at the camera a few moments. Then she reached forward, pressing something beyond the camera’s view. A colorful scan of the human brain appeared in a quadrant over her left shoulder.
“The central area in blue is the oldest portion of the brain, Aria. It’s called the limbic system. It controls many of our most basic processes. Our drive to mate. Our comprehension of stress and fear and reaction to it. Our quick decision-making capability. We say a gut reaction, but actually these reflexes come from here. Simply put, this is our animal mind. Over generations in the Realms, the usefulness of this part of our brain has vastly diminished. What do you think, Daughter, happens to something that goes unused for time too long?”
Aria let out a sob, because this was her mother. This was how she’d always taught her, asking her questions. Letting her form her own answers.
“It’s lost,” Aria said.
Lumina nodded as though she’d heard her. “It degenerates. This has catastrophic consequences when we do need to rely on instinct. Pleasure and pain become confused. Fear can become thrilling. Rather than avoid stress, we seek it and even revel in it. The will to give life becomes the need to take it. The result is a collapse of reason and cognition. Put simply, it results in a psychotic break.”
Lumina paused. “I have spent my life studying this disorder, Degenerative Limbic Syndrome. When I began my work two decades ago, incidents of DLS were isolated and minor. No one believed it would amount to a real threat. But in the past three years the Aether storms have intensified at an alarming rate. They damage our Pods and cut off our link to the Realms. Generators fail. Backups fail. . . . We’re left in dire situations that we’re incapable of handling. Entire Pods have fallen to DLS. I think you can imagine, Aria, the anarchy of six thousand trapped people who have come under this syndrome. I see it around me now.”
She looked away from the camera for a moment, hiding her face.
“You will hate me for what I will say next, but I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again. And I can’t hold this knowledge from you anymore. My work has led me to research Outsiders in search of genetic solutions. They don’t have the dangerous response we do to stress and fear. In fact, what I’ve seen is the reverse effect. The CGB makes arrangements for us to bring them into our facility. That’s how I met your father. I work with Outsider children now. It’s easier for me after what happened.”
Aria’s heart tightened and tightened, twisting, the pain unbearable.
This couldn’t be happening.
She was not an Outsider.
It couldn’t be true.
Lumina reached up, pressing her fingers to her lips as if she couldn’t believe what she’d said. Then she brought her hands back down. When she spoke again, her voice was hurried and raw with emotion.
“I never viewed you as being inferior in any way. The Outsider half of you is the part I love most. It’s your tenacity. Your curiosity about my research and the Realms. I know your fire comes from that part of you.
“You’ll have a thousand questions, I’m sure. What I haven’t shared is for your own protection.” She paused, giving the camera a teary smile. “And it’s always better, isn’t it, when you discover answers on your own?”
Lumina reached forward, ready to shut off the recording. Her pained expression filled the screen. She hesitated and sat back, her small shoulders shifting nervously, her petite frame rocking, like she couldn’t stop herself. Seeing her that way, tears streamed from Aria’s eyes.
“Do me a favor, Songbird? Sing the aria for me? You know which one. You sing it so beautifully. Wherever I am, I know I’ll hear it. Good-bye, Aria. I love you.”
The screen went dark.
Aria had no limbs.
No heart.
No thoughts.
Perry appeared in front of her, his eyes flashing with rage and hurt. What had just happened? What had Lumina just said? She studied Outsider children?
Like Talon?
Perry picked up the small coffee table, upending the vase of roses. With a guttural cry, he hurled the table at the wallscreen. The vase broke first with a hollow pop at her feet. Then the screen shattered with a terrible explosion of glass.
Long after he’d left, shards still rained on the floor.
She watched her mother’s message three more times in the upstairs common room. Marron stayed with her, patting her knee and making soft comforting sounds.
She looked down at the handkerchief wadded in her hand. Her heart ached, like it was ripping inside of her. The pain only seemed to get worse.
“It happened in Ag 6,” she said to Marron. “This thing. DLS.” Aria remembered Soren’s wide, glazed eyes as he’d stared at the fire. How intent Bane and Echo had been. How even Paisley had been afraid the trees might fall on her. “The only difference is that we shut off on purpose that night.”
Aria pressed her eyes closed, fighting the image of the chaos in Ag 6 on a grand scale. A Pod-wide riot where her mother was. A thousand Sorens starting fires and ripping off Smarteyes. What chance did Lumina have, between the Aether and DLS?
Marron’s eyes were full of compassion. He looked worn from the day, his hair mussed, his shirt wrinkled and damp from when he’d held her and let her cry. “Your mother knew about this condition. She sent you this message. She had to have been prepared for something like this.”
“You’re right. She would have. She’s always prepared.”
“Aria, we can try the Smarteye now. If you’re ready, we can try getting you into the Realms. We might be able to reach her.”
She nodded to Marron quickly, her eyes filling again. She wanted to see her mother. To know she was alive, but what would she say? Lumina had kept so much from her. She’d kept Aria from knowing herself.
She was half Outsider.
Half.
She felt that way. Like half of her had just disappeared.
Marron brought her the Smarteye. Aria’s hands shook as she held it. “What if there’s nothing? What if I can’t get her?”
“You can stay here as long as you like.”
He said it so quickly, so readily. Aria looked into his round, kind face. “Thank you.” She couldn’t speak the next question that came to her mind.
What if I find out she took Talon?
She needed to know. Aria placed the Smarteye over her left eye. The device pulled uncomfortably tight on her skin. She saw the two local files on her Smartscreen. Soren’s recording. Her mother’s message.
She ran through the mental commands to bring up the Realms as Marron monitored everything on the palette on his lap.
WELCOME TO THE REALMS! flashed across her Smartscreen, followed by BETTER THAN REAL!
After a few moments, another message appeared.
ACCESS DENIED
She took the Eye off quickly, not wanting to see those words. “Marron, we failed. I’m not going to go home. Perry’s not getting Ta
lon back.”
He squeezed her hand. “It’s not the end of the road yet. It didn’t work for you, but I have something else in mind.”
Chapter 28
PEREGRINE
The Croven were chanting when Perry strode out to the roof. He braced the rail with his good hand and looked out across the pine forest, listening to the distant ringing of their bells. His legs twitched with the need to run. To escape. Even now, with nothing between him and the sky, he felt trapped.
It couldn’t be true. He had blamed himself for Talon’s kidnapping. He’d taken the Smarteye, and the Dwellers had come after him. Now he wondered—was it possible the Dwellers had Talon for an experiment? Was he suffering at the hands of Aria’s mother? A woman who stole innocent children?
He yanked an arrow from his quiver and fired it toward the Croven, not caring that he was too far. That he couldn’t even see them. Cursing, he loosed one arrow after another, letting them sail over the wall and past the treetops. Then he slumped against the elevator box, cradling his throbbing hand.
He spent the rest of the night staring at the Aether, thinking of Talon and Cinder and Roar and Liv. How everything was about searching and missing. How none of it was coming together the way it should. By dawn, with daylight creeping to meet the Aether, all he could think about was Aria’s face as her world had shifted around her. It had torn her open to learn she was like him. He’d scented it. Her temper had slammed into him, fire and ice, shooting into his nose. Straight to his gut.
He couldn’t have slept more than an hour when Roar came up to the roof. He perched on the rail with the cat’s balance of an Aud, no trace of fear at the huge drop behind him. He crossed his arms, a cold edge in his eyes.
“She didn’t know about the work her mother does, Perry. You saw her. She was just as stunned as you.”
Perry sat up and rubbed his tired eyes. His muscles were stiff and sore from sleeping on cement. “What do you want, Roar?” he asked.
“I’m delivering a message. Aria said to come down if you want to see Talon.”
Aria and Marron were in the common room when he and Roar got there.
She rose from the couch when she saw him. Purple shadows darkened the skin beneath her eyes. Perry couldn’t help but breathe in deeply, searching the room for her temper. He found it. The hurt she felt. A deep, raw thing. Anger and shame at being an Outsider. At being a Savage, like him.
“This is working now,” she said, holding out her Smarteye. “I tried it but I couldn’t get into the Realms. My signature didn’t work. They’ve blocked me.”
Perry’s knees almost buckled. That was it. He’d lost his chance to find Talon. Then why had they brought him down here? Confused, he turned to Roar and found him fighting a smile.
“I can’t,” Aria said, “but you might be able to, Perry.”
“Me?”
“Yes. They’ve only blocked me. The Eye still works. I can’t go in. But you might be able to.”
Marron nodded. “The device reads a signature in two ways. DNA and brain pattern recognition. Aria’s signature was denied right away. But with you, I can try to create some static, some noise in the authentication process. We ran some tests overnight. I think we could steal some time before you’re identified as an unauthorized user. It could work.”
It made no sense to him. All he heard was the last bit. It could work.
“My mother’s file had the security codes to her research,” Aria said. “If Talon’s there, we might be able to find him.”
Perry swallowed hard. “I can find Talon?”
“We can try.”
“When?”
Marron raised his eyebrows. “Now.”
Perry headed to the elevator, suddenly weightless on his legs, until Marron held his hand up. “Wait, Peregrine. It’s better if we do this up here.”
Perry froze. He’d forgotten about what he did downstairs. Shamed, he had to force himself to hold Marron’s gaze. “I can’t fix it. But I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
Marron didn’t answer for a long moment. Then he tipped his head. “No need to, Peregrine. One day I think I’ll be glad you owe me a favor.”
Perry nodded, accepting the agreement, and strode to one of the display cases on the rear wall. He pretended to observe a painting of a lone boat moored on a gray beach as he tried to collect himself. He’d made more than a few promises lately. I’ll find Talon. I’ll get Aria home. What had he done but bring a tribe of cannibals to Marron’s door and then break a valuable piece of equipment? How could Marron have faith in him?
Behind him, Aria and Marron talked about the problems of presenting him with the task of gliding through something he wasn’t even sure he understood. Perry had begun to sweat. It rolled down his spine, along his ribs.
“You all right, Perry?” Roar said.
“Hand hurts,” he said, lifting his arm. It wasn’t entirely a lie. They all looked at him, then at the dirty cast like they’d forgotten about it. Perry couldn’t blame them. If it didn’t hurt so badly, he’d probably have forgotten about it too.
Within a few minutes, Rose arrived and pulled Aria aside, speaking with her quietly. Rose handed Aria a metal case and left.
Aria sat next to Perry on one of the couches. He watched her cut through the cast on his left hand, her fingers trembling slightly. He drew in her temper. She was just as scared as he was about what they’d find in the Realms. And he knew Roar was right. She hadn’t known anything. Not the truth about herself, or about her mother’s work.
Perry remembered what she’d said in her room.
We could miss them together.
She’d been right. It had been easier with her. Perry placed his right hand on hers.
“Are you all right?” he whispered. It wasn’t what he wanted to know. Of course she wasn’t all right. What he wanted to know was if the together part still mattered to her. Because even though he was confused and sorry and angry, it still mattered to him.
She looked up and nodded, and he knew she agreed. Whatever else came, they’d face it together.
His hand looked more like a hand. The swelling had gone down. The blisters had flattened. The patches that looked wrinkled and dark worried him most, but he could move his fingers and that was all he’d hoped for. He sneezed at the caustic scent of the gel Aria spread over the charred skin, and then he sweat even more at the cool burn that seeped deep into his knuckles. It was a strange thing, sitting on a silk couch and sweating in place. Not something he liked.
Marron came over as Aria rewrapped his hand with a soft bandage. He moved to put the Smarteye on him and then handed it to Aria. “Perhaps you can do it.”
First Rose. Now Marron. Perry could no longer deny that it was common knowledge. Aria was the safest path to him. He wondered what he had done that sent that message so loudly. Wondered how after a lifetime of scenting others’ feelings, he could be so poor at shielding his own.
Aria took the device. “We’re going to do the biotech first—just applying the device. You’ll feel pressure, like it’s sucking up your skin. But it lets up and then the inner membrane will soften. You’ll be able to blink again when that happens.”
Perry nodded stiffly. “Right. Pressure. Can’t be that bad.”
Could it?
He held his breath as Aria brought the clear patch to his left eye, digging his fingers into the soft arm of the couch as he struggled to keep from blinking.
“You can close your eyes. It might help,” Aria said. He did and saw a shimmer of stars telling him he was about to pass out.
“Peregrine.” Aria placed her hand on his forearm. “It’s all right.”
He focused on her cool touch. Imagined her delicate, pale fingers. When the pressure came, he sucked in a breath through his teeth. The force reminded him of an undertow. How it felt bearable at first, but then came stronger and stronger until you feared being carried off. On the edge of pain, it let up suddenly, leaving him panting.
Perry
opened his eyes, blinked a few times. It felt similar to walking with one shoe. Feeling and movement on one side. On the other, a heavy sense of protection. He could see clearly through the eyepiece, but he noticed differences. Colors were too bright. The depth of things seemed off. He shook his head, clenching his teeth at the added weight on his face. “Now what?”
“A moment, a moment.” Marron fuddled with the palette as Roar watched over his shoulder.
“We’ll go to a forested Realm first,” Aria told him. “There won’t be anyone else there and it’ll give you a few seconds to adjust. We can’t have you calling attention to yourself once you’re in the CGB’s research Realms, and we’ll have to move fast. While you’re getting used to fractioning, Marron will check to see if the link with Bliss is back. He’ll do all the navigating for you. Everything you see, we’ll see on the wallscreen.”
Ten different questions popped into his mind. He forgot them all when Aria smiled and said, “You look handsome.”
“What?” He couldn’t think about a comment like that now.
“Ready, Peregrine?” Marron said.
“Yes,” he answered, though everything in his body said No.
A hot sting ran up his spine and over his scalp, ending with a burst in the back of his nose. On his right, he saw the common room. Aria staring at him with concern. Roar close over her shoulder, bracing the back of the couch. Marron saying, “Easy, Peregrine,” over and over. On his left a wooded evergreen forest appeared. The scent of pine burned deep into his nostrils. The images blurred and flashed before his eyes. Perry looked one way and the other, but he couldn’t make anything stick. Dizziness came hard and fast.
Aria squeezed his hand. “Calm down, Perry.”
“What’s going on? What am I doing wrong?”
“Nothing. Just try to relax.”
The images shook before his eyes. Trees. Aria’s hand grasping his. Pine branches swaying. Roar leaping over the couch to stand in front of him. Nothing was still. Everything moved.
Under the Never Sky: The Complete Series Collection Page 20
