17

Evazee sat in the dark with her back against a rock. Around her were snoring bodies, shapeless lumps breathing loudly as they slept. Being in the dark wasn’t her favourite thing, but she was grateful the drums had stopped. She would take the dark over the hypnotic drums any day.

Praying seemed useless, but she shaped the nameless longings of her heart and sent them heavenward anyway. Jesus, protect Peta. Help us find Bree. Help us to shake off this dark Affinity. She waited for some sign that her prayers had been heard. Nothing.

She wriggled her toes, feeling the soft canvas of her sneakers. Bending her mind and thoughts, she willed her shoes to be gone. Nothing changed. Maybe Bible verses would help. There was one she memorized when she was little. Something about faith. Now faith is being confident of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Evazee’s heart popped in response to the words.

Just then, someone spoke. Evazee held her breath. She couldn’t tell if the voice had been out loud, from someone next to her, or just an echo thrown up by her sight-deprived conscience. She waited. Nothing.

“Awakened One. Come walk with me.”

Evazee bit back a laugh. Yip, she was losing it. Now she was hearing voices in the dark. A small patch of rock began glowing under her feet.

“Come to me. All you need do is follow.”

A spike of fear shot through Evazee.

“Don’t be scared. Just come.”

I’m not scared. I’m just...cautious.

“You’re safe here with me.”

Evazee’s mind spun. She tried to remember what normal life felt like—what safe felt like. Belonging. The feelings eluded her. Another glowing dot lit up on the floor.

~*~

Bree sat cross-legged on the floor, chewing on a fingernail. Every now and then she’d rub the silvery imprint on her palm as if trying to make up her mind. Her shoulders set as if she’d decided, and then she slowly pushed herself to her feet. As she stepped toward the cubicle, a symbol lit up above the archway—a twisted infinity sign. It pulsed as Bree drew closer until Kai couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Wait!” He threw himself down the stairs, tripped, and rolled toward her like a human bowling ball, coming to rest at her feet.

“You. What are you doing here?”

“Bree, I’ve been looking for you. You’re alive.” Questions fought over his lips, but he swallowed them all and let the sight of her wash over him. He reached for her cheek with fingers that trembled, stopped short of touching. Instead he waved toward the arched booth. “What is this thing?”

“Why are you here?”

“I wasn’t meant to leave you in the desert. You were supposed to come back with me. It all went wrong. I thought you were dead.”

Bree blinked, her normally responsive features completely calm. Kai didn’t know what to make of it.

“Your hair. You straightened it.” Her wild auburn mop had been tamed, combed back into a single pony tail that hung straight down her back without a single curl.

“It’s just hair.” Her eyes dropped to her hand, and she fiddled with her imprint, rubbing at it as if she hoped it would come off.

So many things Kai wanted to ask, but he got the feeling that his questions would be left hanging. Now was not the time for him to whip out the inquisition. He reached for the booth and ran his fingers across the intricate carving in the stone work. “What is this for?”

Bree’s nose wrinkled, and she held out her arm. Her silvery imprint was clearly visible. “It’s to get rid of this thing.”

“Your imprint? Why would you want to do that?”

“It’s holding me back.”

Kai reached for his own, horrified at the thought of losing them. They weren’t much use at the moment thanks to the dark Affinity enhancer, but he hoped it was only a temporary setback. He was quite fond of his silvery marks. Why someone would want to get rid of theirs didn’t make sense to him.

He reached for her arm, holding gently and rubbing his thumb over the flat, silvery mark. She kept her eyes on his thumb. He led her to the wall and slid down with his back resting against it, drawing her down with him.

Bree sat but pulled away from his touch. “I shouldn’t be here alone with you.”

“Holding you back from what?”

“I have hopes of working in the Temple of Tau. They are very strict there. I can’t get in until this thing is dealt with.”

“They have a temple for Tau here?” Kai’s heart pumped in his chest. If he could get to Tau, Tau would know how to fix all this. He would know how to stop the dark Affinity enhancer, help Bree, and find Evazee and Peta. He could help them with everything.

“Of course there’s a temple.”

“Could you take me? Will it be open now?”

Bree rested her head on the wall holding them up. “I could take you, but you can’t go in. Nobody goes in. It’s too sacred. Only the selected ones. That’s why I want to get rid of this. Maybe then I could stand a chance of being chosen.” She waved over her arm.

The blood drained from Kai’s face. Bree must be wrong. The Tau he’d met before would never stop anyone coming close to him. If he could get there himself, they would let him in for sure. Bree had been terrified of the Healing Stream. That would be enough reason for her to convince herself she wasn’t allowed in. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s not that complicated. There are tiers, right? The first three are for those who are fresh in from outside. They get split according to whether they are: Contaminated, Broken, or Unlit. Contaminated go through De-Contamination; Broken go through Mending and Unlit need Conversion. The next three tiers are focussed on sorting you out in your mind and spirit. The last three are training for giving out what you’ve been given.”

“And you can’t mix with people from other tiers?”

“You make it sound like a bad thing. It’s really not. It’s for our protection. It helps people not to get confused. That’s all.”

Kai frowned but chose not to push the issue. He gestured toward the archways. “Have you been in one of these?”

Bree nodded, but her lips remained a tight line. Whatever happened in the arches was not something she was excited to talk about.

~*~

A third rock lit up, a good ten paces farther away than the second. As it lit, the first one faded. So there was a time limit to her response. If Evazee waited much longer, the pathway would be gone. Her heart pounded in her chest as she pushed off the floor and followed the light path. The light itself warmed her after being in the dark for so long. It wasn’t tinged purple like the mushroom light, yet it wasn’t the crystal blue of the Healing Stream other. It was just ordinary rock colour but lit up from inside. No clues there.

As she walked, the pace of the lights picked up. Whatever was causing the light was fully aware of her movements. A chill slipped down her spine, but she kept following. She was being drawn deeper into the cave like a dog on a leash, and she was allowing it to happen.

The passage was wide and tall. Evazee looked around as she walked, but the glowing floor cast strange shadows on the holey walls, and the play of light made ghoulish faces dance in the rock. She shuddered and focussed on the light spots on the floor. Praying usually calmed her, but her mind was spinning. She couldn’t string two prayerful words together. Sweat beaded on her palms, her forehead.

The lights took a sharp turn to the left into a smaller passage with smooth walls of midnight-black shot through with sparkling, diamond-like shards. As she progressed down the passage, Evazee ran her fingers along the wall. The sparkles in the deep, dark surface gave her the impression of being under a starry sky. With each step her hesitance faded, replaced by wonder.

At the end of the passage, she stepped out into a huge circular chamber under a glass dome of real night sky. In the centre of the room glowed a hologram image of earth, taller than Evazee, suspended midway between the floor and the ceiling. A low, circular fountain danced just below the image of earth, filling the room with gentle water noise. The midnight marble walls continued from the passage and circled the vast room, scooping outward in deep shadowed recesses every few paces. Evazee breathed in the beauty of it all as if she’d seen nothing but ugliness for weeks.

A control panel mounted on a pole sat off to one side. Evazee crossed to it, curiosity overcoming her natural hesitance. A single row of flat buttons ran down the right side of the touch screen panel, next to a circular dial in the centre. The temptation to push one and see what happened was overwhelming.

The whispery hiss of a door sliding open made Evazee jump. She dashed across the room and threw herself into one of the recesses, crouching low and wishing she were invisible. Or smaller. Or still back in the bony caves.

A man walked in, whistling softly. His silvery hair was drawn back and his grey eyes glowed softly in the gloom. He moved with casual grace, and in an instant she knew him. Shasta. The pale man who had healed Peta’s broken ankle, a healing that had left her moody and sad. Changed.

The hairs stood all along Evazee’s arms.

He moved to the hologram and turned it with a wrist flick. He stopped it and tapped. The image shifted and zoomed in, homing in on the outside of the OS. A double tap and the roof and walls receded. Shasta’s fingers trailed from room to room. Evazee shoved her hand in her mouth. All through the OS people lay on the floor, passed out or dead—she couldn’t be sure. Shasta walked his fingers and zoomed in close. The image pixelated and then cleared. Evazee saw herself tucked up in bed, skin pale with dark circles below her eyes. Shasta traced the line of jaw with the back of his hand. He leaned in close and whispered. Evazee heard every word. Not with her ears, but in her mind.

Her teeth broke skin.

Shasta flicked his fingers, the way one would flick water off their hands, and the image zoomed out. The OS glowed as a green pulsing dot. Another flick, further out. Evazee counted eight pulsing dots. Again, flick. This time there were too many to count. A final zoom took the hologram back to the ball of the earth, awash with flashing green. It seemed the OS was one school of many.