Page 84 of Godslayer
“What do ya mean?”
“What do Imean?” she laughs these words out. “I’mhome, Tyse. In my own world?—”
I stop listening, even though she keeps talkin’.
In her own world.
That’s what the train line is to her.
To me, it’s just some fuckin’ place where gods play games with people. Doin’ what, exactly, I’ve got no clue. I’ve got ideas, but I don’t know what Delta’s really doin’. I don’t know what any of them are doin’.
“I have to find him,” Clara says. I’m still lookin’ at her. Right in her blue fuckin’ eyes, when she says, “I have to?—”
And even though I know how that sentence ends, and even though what happens next is a tragedy on all accounts, I amspared the hurt of actually hearin’ the words come out of her mouth—because she simply disappears.
Blinks right out of existence before my very eyes.
I just stare at the empty space in the cave. Dumb. Not panickin’, not frantically trying to figure things out, not taken aback by her sudden disappearance.
Just dumb. Staring stupidly into space. Thinkin’ about how she never said the words.
I feel like this moment of mute stupidity lasts for several years, but in reality, it’s literally two seconds. I know this because I’m actually lookin’ at a fuckin’ clock readout on my data display that keeps time in seconds and only two of them tick off.
Then I blink.
And I’m back.
And shit is real.
Before I can even think, I’m in the veil. I’ve crossed—but not literally. I’m just a visitor, like I was back in Delta City when I was stealin’ spark from strangers.
Because—and yeah, I’m a little slow here because I’m only just realizin’ this—but I can’t actually cross over without Clara. I can only steal spark.
At any rate, I’m lookin’ at dozens and dozens of worlds through the veil. Everything is just black space outlined in glowing cyan-blue. But unlike back in Delta City when I was just perusing the other worlds like a visitor, this time I know what I’m lookin’ at.
Frequency.
Apparently, they are stacked in order here in the sparkstone cave, because as I focus on one layer after another, one world after another, I’m watching the frequency change and it’s going up by tenths of a whole.
She’s not here. I already know she’s not here because I’ve already done this. I’ve already gone searching through theworlds for a safe place for her to breathe, and there are only three places that I found.
Only three places where we’ve been.
And only two of those three have people in them that know we can travel like this.
1440 and 702. And she’s not in 1440—there’s no one there lookin’ for her.
She’s back where we started.
On the train tracks being attacked by augments.
How that happened is a mystery. But I don’t wait to find out. I change the frequency on my data display to 702 and there she is.
Not whole, like I know her when we’re together. Just the glowing cyan-blue outline of her body, with one new development.
The symbols. They are lit up like a fuckin’ sun all across her body. Coverin’ every inch of her skin.
What are they trying to tell us?
