Mari:

  She found it hard to describe how she felt about Kris having a deviation on her first session, reaching the second tier in a matter of hours. Deviations were dangerous, but surviving them made a person stronger. It made Kris’ foundation a stable, positive one. While it had been a risk to her life, it hadn’t been without benefits.

  Mari wanted to blame Anise. To complain and make it clear how she felt about the risks that had gone into what Anise had done. But she already knew the reply. That Kris was floundering, and that the outcome had been for the best. Better sooner rather than at a major breakthrough.

  Her own healing efforts had been entirely inconsequential. Anise had even been reinforcing her efforts with subtle assistance. Not that Mari had been focused on her work.

  Worries gnawed at her. Churned in her stomach more and more as they finished a shared meal of pan-fried vegetables and poultry mixed with something like rice, then tossed in a cream-based sauce.

  There were a lot of similarities to Earth on Sylpharia. Similar animals, similar foods. Based on the history of each, Mari had a sneaking suspicion that Earth could’ve been an ancient colony of the humans from her new home. Her ship had seeded their failed colony with things from Earth. If someone took things from Sylpharia and seeded Earth with them thousands of years prior, they’d probably adapt to Earth to reach the outcome she remembered through Marielle.

  And despite the stray thoughts, those weren’t her core worries.

  She had believed herself beyond panic and fear from her neighbors. The reaction at the Emerald that day had brought it all back in force. Mari had gotten by thanks to Kris being by her side at all times. Distracting her.

  The next day would be different.

  Quarantine was fully over, and school would be back in session. They’d be returning to ‘normal’ in whatever respect that implied. Cooling their nerves by letting themselves take up some typical lifestyle aspects they’d known before the world had grown complicated.

  Mari didn’t want to. She liked being strong! She liked having the right tools and experience to be powerful. School stripped away all of that, and Kris would be in a different class entirely. She had also missed two months of classes.

  Potentially, she could perform well in her post-operation assessments and skip the end of her educational program thanks to things she learned from Marielle’s memories. The limiting factor being that her teachers largely disregarded her, if they didn’t outright despise her just like everyone else seemed to.

  She did not, under any circumstances, want to go back to the sort of life that had been her ‘normal’ before the operation. Even Marielle wasn’t around to mute her emotions a bit.

  Thinking about that absence filled her next night’s nightmares. Nightmares of the man whose neck had snapped from the force of her gunshot.

  Anise:

  The house was soundproofed. It was excellent. If it weren’t for the fact that Anise had superhuman senses. Fully expecting another round of noise from her housemates, she left them to their business and hit the town.

  It was weird being the only one within miles to actually be properly immortal. Nobody to talk to. Nobody who’d get the sort of vastness that years could encompass.

  She flew. It was wonderful to be able to do so outside of a room that was ten by twenty by ten meters with a ceiling that was merely painted with stars.

  She loved the fresh air and the glow of a yellowed sulfuric moon overhead. One of the many that flowed by. Eventually, she touched down outside the Citadel, where finely engraved stone was interspersed with metallic shutters at even intervals. The building was beautiful to behold. The way the water cascaded between the two towers, and the way the stone was molded with countless decorative constellations.

  Kris had also spoken of the stars on occasion as if they were a core part of the culture. Yet the races of the world didn’t travel beyond their own atmosphere. She had a lot of questions, but she’d never been good at interviewing others. Or interrogating them.

  That was why she had chosen the destination she had. Anise hated being so close to her home—her prison. But she could follow Mari’s thread of light to the woman bustling about inside.

  “Excuse me, miss? Where are your parents?” The receptionist inside looked frazzled, like he’d been working without a break for over a day. His hair supported the idea, being all mussed and matted in places.

  She eyed the man, trying to decide if he would leave her be if she told the truth. He thought she was a child, which she could forgive, based on her appearance, but few would believe it if she said she was an ancient immortal and wanted to speak with their leader.

  Anise had better options anyway. With a flex of willpower, she gathered just enough energy to send a mental message.

  “Please call Councillor Karin. She will inform you to send me to her office. We have a meeting.” Her words struck him dumb, but none of her usual childish exuberance was in her tone, so she hoped it sounded sufficiently mature. Certainly for her apparent age.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The man opened his mouth, then closed it. Opened it again, and then finally held up his bracelet to his ear, turning beads without even looking.

  She tuned out his words as she felt the way the moons tugged on the world around her, imposing their forces on the tides.

  “Miss?” Anise opened her eyes to the receptionist. He was a sturdy, shorter man with the signature cragged skin of an Anvien. “You can go up. Third floor—”

  “I know where she is, no need to trouble yourself over directions.” Anise smiled as she headed for the nearest elevator. At least those were working properly. If she had needed to take the stairs, she was more likely to just fly.

  The box didn’t travel on cables, though. It was large and ran on geared tracks. More like a vertical conveyor than elevators on Earth. When she stepped off it, the windows facing her told her it was barely up the left tower at all.

  “I had a feeling I would be seeing you again soon. Just not this soon.” The mature voice pulled her attention to the hallway to her left.

  “From outside, the towers look like star-patterned stone and metalwork. The average person would have no idea these were windows.” Anise mused conversationally.

  “Actually, these are just screens that display the view outside in real-time.” Karin gestured for her to follow. “Shall we? My office is this way.”

  “You didn’t put your office at the top?”

  “I have no interest in looking down on my neighbors.”

  Anise smiled, unable to deny that she could respect that.

  “What brings you to my office at such a late hour?” Karin poured some glasses of water without asking, gesturing at the couches in the office, each flanking a small table.

  Anise sat down, smoothing her new floral-patterned robe. “I have questions and a few concerns.”

  Karin didn’t show any surprise, and placed a glass in front of each of them before settling opposite her. “Go on.”

  Anise frowned. “Is that how we’re going to handle this? No back and forth? I just ask my questions and you answer? I’m sure you’re curious about a lot of things.”

  “I am. But anything you say to me now might bias the results of my own investigations into who you are.”

  At that, Anise laughed, tickled by the very notion.

  “Entertained, are you?” Karin’s face remained placid, unshaken by anything.

  “Sorry, sorry. You’re not what I expected, and yet you’re exactly what I should expect. I mean, based on your connection to Mari, I had thought you’d be warm and endearing. Yet, instead you’re a cold, calculating politician. I wonder which of us is seeing the mask.”

  “And that amuses you?”

  “A little, yeah. But we aren’t here to tapdance around what we want. Cards on the table. I’m the biological daughter of Sylvia Locke and the original ‘Marielle’ that Mari gets her genetics and memories from. Sylvia is alive in the prison she let me escape from. I want to free her.” Anise shifted in her seat, leaning forward. “And I want to find Marielle. The original. Can you help me?”

  Karin didn’t even betray the slightest hint of surprise, and Anise expected a composed expression, but instead, she got the feeling Karin had already known every word that had just been spoken. “What would I receive in return?”

  “By my assessment, Mari isn’t the only clone in this city. You have hundreds, yes? All of them are students? I’ll teach them. About their home. I can tell you aren’t heartless. You really care, but you don’t want them to live in ignorance, do you? I can help give them some of the info they’re missing and if they decide at the end of the course to get their old lives back, they walk into things with all the preparation they need.”

  Karin remained silent, studying her intently. Anise could see the gears turning, sorting details and considering every word for a hidden meaning. It was time to cut the harsh edge off the deal.

  “They weren’t all soldiers. Colony ships are mostly professionals. Scientists, engineers, various workers. Most of them won’t be in Mari’s or the big man’s position. None of the trauma and pain. They have an opportunity to help your struggling civilization flourish. If nothing else, their planet had top tier information technology.”

  That got the desired reaction. Karin’s expression lost the harsher lines and signs of hesitation.

  “I may need to confirm that with Vilke myself. I do not detect falsehood, but I am nothing if not cautious. I hope you can understand that.”

  Anise nodded, expecting as much. “As for my questions. I must admit to being a little out of touch with your world and society. I’ll probably come up with questions at random to run by you. For now, though…”

  She took a deep breath.

  “Are you aware of the situation with Mari and her social experiences around the city? The way people glare at her or the way she flinches and pales when entering crowded places?”

  Karin sighed, long and exhausted. Her shoulders even slumped. “Yes, I am… I’m aware.” Her rigid speech slipped, and her voice noticeably softened. “It’s been something of an issue from the start. The revolution lost a lot of lives. While we tried to find homes for a lot of the population after the war was over, most of the despondent and broken families moved here.”

  “Why here?”

  “It was nearly deserted. Something went wrong with the neural interlinks all the Sylphariens used for communications, and ninety percent of the city population dropped dead at once. Only people who’d been disconnected at the time or were knocked out survived. This city died.”

  Anise narrowed her eyes. It wasn’t what she expected, but it explained there being so few people over the age of forty in her sensory range.

  “Anyway, all of the people here come from unfortunate circumstances. The children have all either lost someone close or know people who have. They blame the Sylphariens the most, but society relies on them to access systems we still can’t. Their anger is vented on the remaining humans. More than half of the remaining humans are like Mari, taken from the pods below. Nothing to do with the empire at all.” Karin regained her posture, letting out a sullen breath at the situation.

  “What have you done about it?”

  “Oversight, mostly. I cannot stop everything every person does to lash out. I cannot be everywhere. And children are the most volatile emotionally. I have asked a few close friends and family to keep an eye out and prevent things from escalating as best they can.”

  Anise huffed in annoyance. “You’ve never been on the receiving end of bullying, have you? I won’t claim I have firsthand experience, but the social trauma and pressure is very damaging to a child. It prevents them from making friends and can cripple them emotionally for life. Your approach? It isn’t enough. Especially knowing Mari had nothing to do with the fallen empire.”

  She was surprised by how cold she sounded. But she’d read the stories and watched the movies of how warped people became when isolated socially. She hadn’t offered to teach at the school without a reason. Anise bristled at the idea of how Mari felt towards the people around her, and she’d be damned if she didn’t do something about it. It would be best if she could handle her own issues, and within reason, the girl needed to push through some of life’s struggles herself.

  She’d just be there to step in if something happened that Mari couldn’t handle.

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