Page 93 of Sparktopia
Finn’s hair was neither long nor short. It was just… hair. About shoulder length. And it’s blond, not a dark auburn brown. But it looked good against his desert-tanned skin.
Even though the city does appear to have the same climate—very warm during the day and cold at night—everyone looks less weathered. More sheltered from the sun. Which makes sense, I guess. Since the towers here are so tall, they block a lot of it out.
“The Alphas are like…”
I look up at Tyse as he tries to work out a way to explain the geography of whatever the Alphas are.
“I dunno, a few thousand miles away? Maybe more? Probably more. The Alphas are the ruins closest to the ocean.”
“The ocean?”
“Yeah. You don’t have one where you come from?”
“I’ve heard of them, the way I’ve heard of soldiers. But no. There’s no ocean by us. The water we have comes from the god. We have the canals and the lakes, but that’s about it.”
He lets out a breath. “I think I’d like to see your version. It would be kinda cool to compare it.”
“Well, if we find a doorway back, you can come for a visit.”
“Right.” He snickers a little. “Anyway. The Alphas are far. And Delta City is in that direction. It’s on the sea. Which is another word for ocean.”
“So youlivedby it?” I nearly stop walking, I’m so stunned at this development. An ocean, for me, at least, is just a concept. But to him it was a feature of his home.
“Yeah. Swam in it. It’s salt water, though. You can’t drink it.”
“What does Delta look like? Here?”
“No. It’s got a god. But it’s not the way you describe your home. Maybe something in between a very traditional village and this monstrosity of a place that is Tau City. We have a few skyscrapers, but nothing this wild. And we have beaches too. Not a canal, but a river that comes down from the mountains. It snows up there. You could ski down if you had the coin for that.”
“Snow.” Again, I know what it is, I’ve just never seen it. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like to live in a place that had snow. What is skiing?”
“You put these long, smooth boards on your feet and slide down the mountain on them.”
Just picturing this makes me laugh out loud. “Is it dangerous? Because it sounds dangerous.”
“Yeah. It can be. I’ve never done it. I didn’t have coin like that when I was growing up, so I never tried it.”
“Do you have coin like that now?”
“I have what I need. And if I wanted to bother with skiing, I could go somewhere and do that.”
“So, you’re successful.”
He laughs. Right out loud. “I live in the God’s Tower ruin. My augments failed, I’ve got no job, I live off a pension, and…” He pauses. Sighs. “And… I’m completely fucking satisfied with this. So, if that’s what you mean by successful, then sure. I’m fuckin’ flourishing.”
“Hm.” I hum this, amused at his self-deprecation.
Tyse stops and pans a hand to a building off to the right. “Here we are.”
The health center is a relatively short building when compared to the massive towers it’s situated between. The whole thing is made out of that hard-edged building material I can now identify as concrete. The doors open automatically when people enter and exit and there are a lot of people here.
“Ready?”
I’m not. But I nod my head to Tyse anyway. I know I’m not sick. I know I wasn’t injured. But I’m nervous. Because what if Iwasinjured? What if I’m completely crazy and all the things I think are true are lies? Or just a dream, or something? What if Finn never existed?
It hurts my heart to think that. I was angry when I left, but if I ever saw him again, I would not be. I would be thankful, and I would apologize for all the things I said as I was pulled into the God’s Tower, and I would beg him to forgive me.
“Come on.” Tyse wraps his hand around my forearm, like I might decide to run or something. And he’s not going to let me. Not after we made a deal.
