Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
“And you’re sure it was Tau City?”
“Yeah. It looked… familiar. From your description. I know different worlds exist. I’ve seen them before in the Omega Outlands. But they’re dead. There are no people there, Clara. And I know this isn’t a lie because I was there for years. I know what’s there. And it’s not people. It’s just ruins, and remnants, and… other things. The Sweep sends us there to clear the veils because if we don’t get rid of them, bad energy seeps through and infects this world. Well.” I blow out a breath. “Not here in the cities. Only in the Outlands. The veils haven’t been in this part of the world for hundreds of years. But forget all that.”
“Forget all that? Nothing else matters but that! My city is right out there!” She points to the window.
“Not exactly. But anyway, I meant what I said about the hotel.”
Her whole face scrunches up. “What?”
“I know what’s on this spectra, Clara. I know you saw what I did.”
Finally, some of the tension flows out of her in a long exhale.
“So like I said. I’ll take you down to a hotel—”
“Why would I do that?”
“Why the hell wouldn’t you? You saw what I did. You know I’m lying.”
She sighs, looking down, then laughs. But it’s one of those incredulous laughs that only comes out when things have spiraled so out of control you’ve got no other choice than to give in and accept it.
She looks up and meets my gaze and she is fully in control of herself. This is up-city Clara Birch speaking to me right now. “My boyfriend, the love of my life, he sacrificed me to our tower god. Real or not, Finn did that. That’s the first thing. Which… honestly, I’m over it because he was confused, and scared, and trying his best with the knowledge he had.”
I figured as much, but I don’t say this out loud.
“But the tower god is bullshit, I don’t understand this world or my place in it, and the only ally I have is a murderer who didn’t even tell me his real name when we made introductions.”
Her polish is sparkling right now, that’s how careful she’s being with these words of hers.
“Sorry about that. It’s just I haven’t been Tymothy for years now. It never even occurred to me, Clara. I’m just not him anymore. I’m Tyse.”
She puts up a hand. “Let me finish, please.”
“Of course. Continue.”
“It’s a lot to process. The betrayal, the inexplicable dimensional travel, or whatever. And the man I’m now seemingly connected to via this… spark magic. Nothing about it makes any sense at all. But it must. It has to.” She stares at me with those blue eyes, almost begging me to agree with her.
“Why do ya say that? I mean, does it have to make sense?”
“Is the world logical? Does it have rules?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Well, my guess is that it does. Everything obeys the laws of nature.”
“Do they? Because that hasn’t been my experience.”
She hesitates for a moment. Then lets out a breath. “I was afraid you’d say that. Because you’re right. The rules don’t make sense. None of this makes any sense at all. But that’s because we’re missing critical information. If we could just find this missing information then it would make sense. It would follow rules. Like that thing. What happened with that disc?” I’m still holding the spectra in my hand, so she takes that hand and pries open my fingers to reveal it in my palm. She doesn’t pick it up. “What is this?”
“It’s a discharge record—”
“No. I understand that part. What is it?”
“A hologram. Which is like a video, but it plays in the air because it’s made of light. However”—I hold up the spectra between my fingertips—“it needs a player. It’s not supposed to just play by itself.”
“So why did it?”
“You.”
“Me what, Tyse? I didn’t do anything but touch it.”
“You’ve got spark in you, Clara. Like Anneeta does. Wherever you came from, it must be overflowing with spark if it’s such a part of you that you can hold technology in your hands and make it work.”
“Well, of course I have spark in me, Tyse! I’m a Spark Maiden! But in my world, I was a weak one.” She holds up her hand and wiggles her fingers at me. “It’s mostly just in my…”
She doesn’t finish. She doesn’t have to.
“Well,” I say, “Critical information obtained. I guess that’s one mystery answered. Whatever a Spark Maiden is, it’s a pretty powerful thing if you can store it inside you and use it whenever you want. Like you’re a human-sized jump, or something. See if you can make it happen again.”
She hesitates, but can’t fight the curiosity. Her fingertip barely connects with the silver casing of the spectra before the hologram springs to life.