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)
There’s so much spark in the air here in Delta City, even I can see it. I don’t even need the overlays anymore. I just concentrate a little and kinda feel for it, and then… there it is. Floating all around me. Like I’m standing in a whole sea of spark.
People walk through it like they don’t even know it’s there.
I haven’t asked anyone yet, but I’m pretty sure they don’t know it’s there.
It’s like a secret world just under the one we live in.
My augments have come back online, little by little, ever since the train came roaring out of that tunnel and at three weeks out, I’m fully functional. Like I’m nineteen again. Which is crazy, because even if I didn’t lose my capabilities ten years ago, at thirty years old I’d still be nearing operational termination.
Nothing lasts forever, after all.
Except me, apparently. I seem to get better with age.
This makes me smile and I hold up my glass of champagne to Clara. She holds hers up back, duplicating the gesture from across the room, then turns back to her friends so she doesn’t come off as rude.
She’s such a fuckin’ kitten.
“Excuse me, are you Captain Tymothy Jarvinen?”
I turn, annoyed, and look at the man who’s askin’. “I might be. Why?”
“The god would like to meet with you.”
“Hmm. Tonight, of all nights?”
The messenger just shrugs. He’s got no idea of the subtleties playing out here. He doesn’t care, either. “Who can explain the whims of gods.”
I feel like this is his standard answer. Something he has learned to say without even thinking. So I just let it go, down my champagne, set the glass down, and invite him to lead the way with a wave of my hand.
He leads and as I follow, I text Clara and let her know I’ll come back to walk her home once my meeting is over.
She sends me a kissing smiley face as a response. A month ago, she didn’t even know emojis existed. Today, she sends me text kisses.
Life, man. It’s a fuckin’ trip.
It has been sixteen years since I last took this walk to the God’s Tower at the edge of Delta City and it just now occurs to me that I’ve lived away from him two years longer than I lived with him.
I got augmented. I got deployed. I worked in Sweep. I saw between worlds. I killed people. I saved people. I got kicked out. Brand-new name that came with a pension and a brand-new life.
And still, I’m back here. Right where I started.
Did your god plan this?
Of course he did. Was it from birth? Dunno. But there’s no way that the set of circumstances that put me through all those things lands me right back here without some kind of divine intervention.
Did Delta get me accepted for augmentation?
Certainly. Yes. There’s no way I’d be one of the chosen if my god wasn’t on board. So that’s a given.
But did he kill my career just when it was taking off?
Did he infect my unit so I was forced to kill them?
Did he feed me secret information so I could use it against Sweep command and demand a new name and a pension after I was discharged?
This one feels like it should also be an obvious yes. I mean, it shouldn’t have happened that way. I was court-martialed and found guilty. Dishonorably discharged with the fuckin’ spectra to prove it.
So, maybe it wasn’t Delta. But it was someone, that’s for sure.
There’s a war, Tyse. The Game of Gods. Ever hear of it?
No. I hadn’t heard of it actually. When Stayn said those words to me I had no idea what he was talking about.
Of course, three weeks on and maybe I don’t understand much, but I think I might be in this game.
My god lives on the top floor of his tower. The rest of it is empty, as far as I can tell. I mean, I’ve never been given a map or anything, but once you enter it’s very clear that this building is really nothing but empty space.
It’s just a hollow shell that contains one thing—a massive, winding staircase that leads to the top. The messenger leaves me at the front door, closing it behind me as I enter.
I look up, trying to see the top. Already tired and the climb hasn’t even started yet.
But this is what I wanted. This is what I’ve been waiting for. So I start the journey.
I go slow because pacing is everything. And while I had been living on the tenth floor of another god’s tower, and I did carry Clara up a million flights of stairs when I saved her, the trip out of Tau City was draining, to say the least, and I just don’t have the stamina I did the day I left.