Her experience with him was significant, and his mind was unique enough that she thought she could uncover it. The more she focused, the more she believed she could find him. Once she did, would she be able to reach him from a distance?
That was going to be the real challenge. Her time with him had taught her many things, but mostly that he had a way of protecting himself—and his thoughts.
She focused on the most recent connection to him. There were aspects to it that she thought she could reach, and by delving deeper into her mind, she thought she could reach deeper into his as well.
The touch was there.
She recognized it. How could she not when she’d felt it so many times before?
The Architect had a subtle touch, barely brushing along the surface of her mind, but it was enough that she was able to feel him and his influence.
Lucy used that, gaining familiarity with it, recognizing it.
A particularly loud peal of thunder shook her. She jerked, looking up at the sky.
Rain streaked down, slamming into the ocean, and the waves picked up, crashing violently.
She wasn’t going to be able to stay out here much longer. Soon she would have to go inside or risk getting drenched, and though she didn’t mind the water, she had no interest in getting soaked.
Using what she had detected of the Architect, she focused, stretching out her awareness, probing to see if she could find where he’d gone.
Would she be able to recognize those thoughts from a distance the same way she could with Daniel Elvraeth? His thoughts were familiar to her, and she was able to latch on to him, anchor for each of her Slides, but part of that came from knowing him for the entirety of her life. She hadn’t known the Architect that long.
But she had known him well.
More than that, his mind had mingled with hers, and with the way he had Pushed on her, forcing her thoughts, she had interacted with his mind far more than she had with some others.
And she knew what that felt like.
The sense of him was out there.
And she focused on it.
Lucy breathed out, holding focus, and reached for that awareness.
When she found it, she Slid.
She traveled a great distance, farther than she had expected, and emerged inside a small room.
Stone walls surrounded her. The portrait on one of the walls drew her attention, a painting of a pale-skinned woman with dark hair hanging to her shoulders. Eyes of a deep green caught Lucy’s notice, but there was something else about it. Had she seen her before?
She hesitated, looking around. This was where the Architect had brought her, but why? His mind was tied here, but he wasn’t here.
Had he known she was using his mind to anchor?
If he had, it suggested an even greater awareness of Lucy.
Something felt off.
It was a pressure upon her, an unfamiliarity. The more she thought about it, the more unpleasant it was.
She wanted to be somewhere else.
She thought about the tower and Ras and Slid.
Or attempted to.
She didn’t go anywhere.
Was it some sort of trap?
It was possible she’d made a mistake, though how would the Architect have known she was coming? He might’ve been aware of her presence within his mind, but he shouldn’t have been able to prepare a trap for her so quickly.
That suggested to her he was still here.
Only where was here?
Lucy found the door and tested it.
Finding it unlocked, she pushed it open, glancing along the hallway. It was narrow. Had she been with someone else, they would have a difficult time going side by side. She attempted to Slide, testing whether she could travel short distances, and found she could, which let her know this trap was either confined to that room, or it was confined to this building—wherever she was.
It intrigued her.
It was the kind of thing she once would have feared. Getting imprisoned like this should terrify her, and a part of her was nervous about getting stuck here. But the longer she was here, without finding anyone, the harder it was for her to believe she would be truly trapped. There had to be some way to escape if it came down to it.
She found no one. There were doors along the hall, and she tested each of them, finding them unlocked. She thought about Sliding beyond them but decided against it.
A staircase at the end of the hall circled around, and she took the stairs two at a time, moving carefully but wanting to travel quickly as well.
At the next landing, she paused. She focused on the Architect, searching for his mind, but didn’t find him anywhere near her. There had to be some way of picking him up.
Perhaps her pounding heartbeat meant she couldn’t focus on him as well as she wanted to. It could be that the threat of capture was so much that her ability to Read, to reach out beyond her own mind, was limited. There was also a rising curiosity in her about where she was.
She attempted to Slide again, and though she felt some resistance, there wasn’t as much.
What was strange was that she felt pressure upon her, the same sort of pressure she’d experienced ever since coming here.
It left her with nausea rolling through her and a slight headache.
It was almost as if the implant throbbed. In the time since she’d received the augmentation, it had throbbed often enough for her to recognize that sensation. It was unpleasant, but this was worse.
The stairs continued down, and Lucy hurried down them, no longer worried about the noise she made. As she focused all around her, she didn’t detect anyone else.
The Architect could Slide, but with a trap that restricted her from Sliding, he should be affected as well. Unless he was the one holding the trap, but if he were, he should be here.
Hurrying down to the bottom of the stairs, she focused, Reading.
There was nothing.
It was a strange absence of everything. While she felt that, there came the continuing pressure on her, the sense of her augmentation twisting.
Was there something happening to change it?
Maybe that was the nature of the prison that the Architect intended. He would know her augmentation from the time they had spent together, and if anyone would understand just how to harm her through it, it would be the Architect.
The throbbing began to intensify.
As it built throughout her, it left her head aching.
She attempted to Slide.
There was resistance, but now there was also pain.
If she didn’t get away from here soon, she doubted she’d be able to escape.
Lucy took a deep breath, looking around her, and focused. There had to be some way she could Slide away. As she locked on to the tower, she found it was slipping away from her.
It was almost as if her ability to Slide were being torn away.
What about Daniel Elvraeth?
When she anchored to him, she should be able to find him, but as she searched for his mind, it wasn’t there.
Panic set in.
Her heart hammered, and the nausea rolling through her intensified, a painful sensation, but more than that, it was terrifying.
What would happen if she were stuck here?
There didn’t appear to be anyone around, but whatever was happening seemed to be taking place without anyone else influencing her. Whoever was tormenting her managed to do so from a distance, and without her having any way of Reading them.
It was possible they were there and somehow masked their thoughts from her, the same way Ras did. The same way the strange man in that town had done.
And if they were able to conceal their thoughts from her, it was possible the entirety of the building she came through was filled with people—and all of them could be augmented in the same way.
More than anything, that sent her panicking.
If they were powered in some way, and if they did have those augmentations,
and some way of preventing her from Reading them, she wanted to be anywhere else.
Sliding was going to be difficult, but the more she focused, the more certain she was she was going to have to fight her way through this. She was going to have to force herself beyond what she could do. It would take all of her strength to escape.
And if she didn’t have the tower to lock on to, and if she couldn’t find Daniel Elvraeth, then she had to find some other anchor.
It wasn’t going to be Carth. It wasn’t going to be Ras.
The only other anchor she could consider using would be someplace in Elaeavn, but what would she use?
There were options within it, but she feared she wouldn’t be able to reach anyone effectively. The people she knew in Elaeavn were her parents, the caretakers within the library, and people within the forest.
If Haern were there, then she might be able to use him.
She had enough experience with Haern and his mind, she thought that she could reach him.
She pushed away everything else, the sense of anything beyond her, and found stirrings of thoughts. There was fear, but there was also something else. Something had changed.
Haern was muted.
Muted didn’t mean she couldn’t reach him at all.
He was there, and yet he was still far away from her.
As she focused on Haern, she grasped for his thoughts and held on to them. She anchored as tightly as she could and started to Slide.
There was pain.
It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, a ripping and tearing sense. It felt as if everything exploded within her.
The implant within her throbbed, pulsating, leaving her crying out.
Where was the Architect?
How had he managed to trap her like this?
She held on to Haern’s mind. She needed him, and she could feel herself moving, Sliding only a little. The pressure on her continued to build, squeezing her. It felt like she was going through a tight tunnel. The tearing threw her outward. The longer she went, the more she felt as if she were being stretched apart.
But she was Sliding. It was slow, painful, but she was moving.
She held on to her sense of Haern and could feel him there in the back of her mind.
She couldn’t Read anything about his thoughts, but they were there.
And it wasn’t anything that she needed to Read. All she required was to focus on him.
Gradually, she was torn free of this place.
The squeezing sensation eased, the throbbing receded, and she was left with an emptiness. Sliding remained a struggle but gradually became easier. The longer she held on to the Slide, the farther she felt herself going.
But fatigue set in.
Lucy burst through, tearing through whatever resistance was holding her here.
She lost control of the Slide.
A different sort of panic struck then.
She’d never lost control of the Slide, though she’d heard of others who had and knew it could be devastating. She switched the focus of her Slide, focusing on the tower, trying to find someplace she recognized.
Even that didn’t seem like it was going be enough. She changed her focus again, and rather than heading toward the tower, Lucy focused on moving toward the village. She had enough experience with the village that she thought she could find it more easily than she could the tower. The tower had some natural protections tied to the shadows that defended against her capacity to reach it.
And now, she had to think there would be some way for her to find the village, but what was it going to take?
Lucy didn’t know. The more she focused, the harder it was for her to reach where she intended to go.
She strained, scrambling for the different minds she knew were within the village.
Doing so involved pulling with every ounce of strength she had, focusing on the various minds, anchoring in a way she hadn’t before.
The sense of them was there.
The more Lucy focused, the more certain she was that she could reach them.
She managed to regain control of the Slide, emerging at the edge of the village, overlooking the water. Waves slammed into it, chaotic and violent, and she breathed out heavily.
Somehow, she’d have to figure out what had happened. If she couldn’t, then she’d have to fear the same thing happening again and again.
And she had to be careful. Searching for the Architect meant she was going after someone dangerous, someone who had a greater control over Sliding than what she possessed. She had to believe he would be able to overpower her, but she would be ready for it.
Not only did she need to train the women here in the village, she had to train herself, prepare for the next time something that dangerous took place.
37
Lucy
The wind whistled around her, and Lucy ignored it, focusing instead on what she could Read. She was determined to find the Architect. The more she focused on him, the harder it seemed for her to ensure nothing unfortunate happened again. When she had been trapped by him the last time, he’d somehow forced her into a place where he could confine her, but this time, she was determined to ensure he wouldn’t.
She reached deep into her mind, connecting to what she could uncover of the Architect. His mind was there, his touch on her mind giving her enough of a sense of him. The more she concentrated on him, the more certain she was that she could find him and piece together what he was up to.
She’d spent the last week working with the women in the village. That time had been well spent. She had been trying to help them reach their abilities, and the longer she spent with them, the more certain she was that she needed to return more frequently. There was value in it, not only for them, but for her.
She benefited just as much as the women did by her presence. In going to them, trying to understand the way they could use their abilities, she was able to try to better understand her own.
Though she might not have the capacity to Slide, she had aspects of each of the other abilities. Working with them made her better able to explain. The one she really wanted to understand was how to See, to have visions.
As far as she could tell, none of the women in the village had that ability, though it was possible none had yet developed it. It was rare enough within Elaeavn.
Lucy had no control over it, gaining only snippets of visions, certainly not enough to be useful.
To work through what was going to come, to plan what she would need to do, she thought she would need a better understanding of those abilities. If she could use them, then she had to hope that there might be something she could uncover, an aspect of what the Architect planned, a way to unravel his goals. As it stood, she had no idea what he intended.
Reaching for the sense of his mind, she focused on it. She was able to home in on it, using the sound of the waves crashing around her. It was something that Olivia had helped her find, the silence of the chaos.
Using that, she was able to put everything else away, to ignore all the other voices that threatened to intrude, all the other aspects of her abilities, and focus only on what she could Read within herself.
The more she did it, the easier it became.
She thought he was aware of what she was doing, which ran the risk of greater danger to her and the others. She would hide that from them, if she could. It was almost as if he knew she was looking.
His mind was there. The other advantage of the waves was that they crowded out everything else. Within that chaos, she could be anywhere. Because of the chaos, he couldn’t uncover anything about her—which meant he couldn’t influence anyone she cared about and had vowed to protect.
Lucy held on to it.
That sense filled her, and she reached for it, embracing it, drawing an awareness of the Architect to her.
In doing so, she could feel his mind.
It was time to uncover what he was doing. After learning everything else that was taking place, she
needed to understand him.
She Slid, emerging near a darkened shoreline. There was an energy upon her, similar to what she had felt before. Within that energy, she could practically feel the nature of the power, enough she thought there was something she needed to be cautious with.
She attempted to Slide, worried he might have tried to trap her again. There were times when she wondered if she should wait for Carth, but this was something she needed to do. She believed she could find the Architect. More than that, she believed she knew of some way of incapacitating him. She might be the only one capable of it. With her ability to Push, she could control him.
She looked all around and listened. There were strange sounds. That of hammering, of rumbling, and the chaotic waves that crashed along the shores. The air stank of a bitter ash, but there was something else mixed with that, an odor she didn’t fully recognize. Lucy focused on it, trying to better understand, but the more she did, the harder it was for her to know if what she was detecting was real.
It was dangerous for her to be here.
The longer she was here, the more the pressure continued to build, pressing upon her. Lucy tried to ignore it altogether but wasn’t sure if she was able to do so effectively. She strained against what she was able to uncover, but there was something mixed within it that made it difficult for her.
When she had Slid, she had been certain that she had detected the Architect, but there was no sign of him. It was the same way as the last time.
Would he be testing her?
She wouldn’t put it past him. So far, she had Slid toward him twice, and both times he’d managed to evade her.
Lucy Slid, emerging back near Asador, and then Slid again, emerging near Nyaesh, and then Slid again, emerging near Elaeavn, before taking one more Slide and returning to the village.
Each step came more quickly than the last. The first one had been the most difficult, almost as if she were nearly stepping into a trap, but she hadn’t lingered long enough to end up stuck as she had before.
Not only had he anticipated that she would come, but he had prepared some way of trying to hold her.
The Coming Chaos Page 36
