By the time the noise cut to silence and darkness returned, breakfast was wasted and even the vasithryn was hunched miserably over the dash. Outside lights illuminated the entire expanse of the underground room. After some heavy breathing, Keiyron was first to regain his composure.
“Keep the bag to your mouth. You’re the source of enough foreign bacteria as it is,” he said. I gave a hoarse laugh. My huffing rustled the white plastic.
“Back at the dorm, you said you were gonna ‘collect something of yours.’ Did you forget? Because I am not doubling back.” The man’s eyes glittered in the dashboard light.
“I was referring to you,” he said as he touched the controls.
“Okay, English tip. Something refers to inanimate objects. Also, I’m not some stray puppy you picked up in an alley and put a collar on. I’ve got a home and a family.”
“You are my moral responsibility to care for. I suppose it was foolish to expect an Earth-born child to understand things like gratitude, no matter how much I risk for her sake.” Put so plainly, I realized that I may have been overly rude.
“...Sorry. And thank you.” The words were strangely hard to get out. It was so much easier to blame him for introducing all the insanity into my life rather than think of him as my savior. There was no response from up front, but I thought his posture loosened a little.
The car started moving again, zooming up a ramp wide enough to host a fleet of tanks. The opening in the wall was spaced just wide enough for us to squeeze through, as if a dial somewhere was set to citizen vehicle instead of invading army. It made me nervous to see Keiyron fold his arms against his chest, doing nothing to affect control.
We accelerated onto ground level, emerging in a football field–sized lot etched with a grid of lines and circles. Black buildings cut a sharp horizon against the edges, and I recognized the portal’s rooftop needle at one corner.
“Why is this place so large yet so empty?” I mused with my head resting on a window.
“All portals are built for mass transportation regardless of their regular use. This one serves local exo-verse researchers,” said Keiyron. Imagining the portal’s full capacity for alien militia was a nightmarish thought. I clenched my sweaty arms to slow their jitters. Taking shallow breaths, I tried to calm myself. The car drifted through an open gate of inwardly curved stone arms that were as tall as the nearby rooftops. A faint crackling buzz teased my eardrums as we passed between them, so low as to possibly be in my imagination.
After a short drive down the road we’d walked before, the car turned before one of the identically cut mansions and approached an enormous rounded door. The hatch opened like an expanding pupil to swallow us inside. As the car parked, I was surprised to see its doors contract into the vehicle body rather than open normally as they had back on Earth.
Plastic stuck to my fingers as I tried to remove them from the bag. I massaged the wrinkled imprints from my palms and stumbled into the garage, tasting new air. Faintness rose again. My body swayed back against the car frame.
“For order’s sake, your symptoms are accelerating. Come this way.” Keiyron led me into the hall. I was barely able to notice my surroundings as he pulled me into a room and let me collapse on a bed. I curled up in a shivering fetal position. “Drink this.” He placed glass of blue-tinted liquid at my side. Without question I drank the whole cup. It mostly tasted like water, but with a bitter aftertaste.
Within the minute, all my symptoms were dormant. Hardly daring to believe it, I sat up, finally with a clear head.
“Better?” Keiyron asked with a raised eyebrow. He had removed his human guise and watched me now with sharply pale eyes.
“Yeah, thanks.” Now that I wasn’t preoccupied, I could take a look around—and immediately wished that I hadn’t. The place I found myself in was a thing of nightmares. Mom had fostered a fear of hospitals in me, and this room brought that phobia to life. Keiyron’s hint that they had performed surgery the first time I was here was actually believable, looking at this apparatus. Some nausea started to well up, so I contained my gaze to my own lap. Seeing my hands reminded me—
“What’s this bracelet for?” I dangled my wrist.
“It’s a shkieroth. Its main function is a vitals monitor, but it also serves as a private communicator.”
“How do I take it off?”
“You can’t. Unlocking a shkieroth requires a registered DNA signature. The shkieroth is our only method of safe communication, so there is no need to remove it.”
“Look, I don’t mind wearing a bracelet, but I do mind when the bracelet melds with my arm. Pierced ears is as far as I go with invasive jewelry. Nothing should attach itself to my body without my permission.”
“I’m not going to remove an essential device just to assuage your particularities.”
“Particu—” I bit off. Many mouthfuls of retorts came to mind, none of them diplomatic. Were all vasithryn this arrogant? Either way, my patience was paper against his acid.
“It is late enough; go to sleep. We’ll speak in the morning when you have better strength.” He made an odd gesture that I first thought was directed at me, but I realized its purpose as the light in the room dimmed in response. The door sealed shut behind him, and I was alone in the dark. I expected sleep would be difficult after what I’d been through. However, as soon as I lay back down, lethargy shut my eyes. I pinned my spinning worries like bugs to the wall of my mind to be examined later, and slept.
258Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKZTxndeuQH
I drifted for a while in sleepy, blissful ignorance. Heavy silence started to intrude on my thoughts. Something was wrong. Mornings were never this quiet, not when the adjacent room was a bathroom shared with two girls.
My eyes opened to a pure white ceiling. Then I remembered.
“…Well shit.” I didn’t usually swear, but this occasion more than called for it. I was alone in an alien infirmary. I was in a situation heavier than what most superheroes have to deal with in the movies. The wringing panic I’d felt before was a matchstick next to this raging fire. My chest felt like it was being crushed. I’m just an unusually weak eighteen-year-old girl. Why me why me why me!? I cupped my hands to my face and tried to breathe.
It took a minute to get the gagging, drowning feeling under control. Finally I lowered my hands and dragged myself from the bed, getting a rude shock when I passed outside the bed’s invisible bubble of heat. This bed was different from the one in the upstairs bedroom. It was shaped like a fully reclined chair, and had an obtrusive metal strip between the back mattress and pillow. I’d curled beneath it during the night to avoid the chill metal against my neck.
While avoiding eye contact with the medical machinery folded against the walls, I crept to the door. Just like the one upstairs, there was no apparent way to open it. If I hadn’t seen Keiyron come and go this way I might have missed the door’s outline. With spread palms I pushed. Nothing happened. Rubbing, tapping, and kicking all had no effect either. Was it locked?
Breathe. No point in getting claustrophobic. I was not going to be trapped in this room. Time for emergency plan B.
“Hey! Let me out of here!”I yelled and pounded the doorframe. “If you don’t open the door I’ll start breaking your instruments!” I cast a nervous look behind me, half afraid that the “instruments” were self-aware and would preemptively attack. “Is anybody listening? Hey, I want—” Without warning the door vanished from under my arms, and I fell through the frame into something soft.
“You called?” a sarcastic voice asked. Through the curtain of my hair Keiyron’s face came into view, and I broke from his arms with a start.
“I, uh, c-couldn’t open the door…” I blurted. Keiyron tilted his head in thought.
“The sensor is probably having trouble reading your shiin. Narthin, the chemical we used to disguise you as human, suppresses shiin radiation.” He paused, staring so intently that I shrank into myself. “Although the effect should have faded by now. Are you using cosmetics to change your eye color?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m wearing contacts.”
“That explains it. I will have Hiarou demonstrate how to use your shiin’s radiation after you have had nourishment. This way,” he finished with a turn. I followed demurely. After yesterday’s ordeal, I was ready to eat about anything.
Beyond the sharp rectangle of a dining table, a glass wall viewed a backyard. A metallic fence bordered a tidy expanse of blue lawn and nothing else. Nonetheless, as the only clear window I’d seen so far, the view was welcome. I sat facing it while dipping a spoon into a bowl of steaming…something.
“Um…can I ask what this is?” I spoke up. The vasithryn paused with a hand on the door frame.
“Ha’an, a mixed grain cereal eaten after illness, infused with extra nutrients. It should be easy to digest.”
“Maybe my stomach can digest it easily, but my tongue, not so much,” I mumbled as my eyes watered. Hungry as I was, the shock of aspirin-flavored porridge was a challenge to swallow. “Can I put something on it to cover the taste? Milk, honey, ketchup, anything?” Keiyron’s face soured.
“Did yesterday teach you nothing? If you don’t want another episode, I suggest you resign yourself to what is served.”
“I’ve eaten bland and healthy foods most of my life. If I hadn’t resorted to doing other kids’ homework in return for snacks, I’d’ve never known the pleasure of eating. College was the junk food holy grail until you interfered.”
“Would you rather I let you collapse from malnutrition? When you are finished eating come into the study; follow the hall to the last door. Hiarou will wait for you.”
Hitting the cereal with a pitiable look didn’t turn it into a stack of French toast, so I choked down as many spoonfuls as I could manage without gagging. Still hungry and disoriented, I ventured into the long white hallway. Uniform lighting made the whole house gleam with impossible sterility. I tread lightly down the carpeted hall toward an open archway at the end. The room beyond was excessively large, the architectural equivalent to an artist’s negative space. The entire back wall was again made of glass. In front of the window, a glossy desk curved across a quarter of the room. There were no drawers or legs underneath; its entire surface seemed to be floating. It looked thin enough to be broken with a single amateur karate chop.
I jerked behind the doorframe at the sight of the woman seated at the desk’s end. She didn’t notice me; Xsiani’s long brushstroke eyebrows were pinched in a staring contest with the desk.
“Are you going to enter or just hover?” Keiyron asked from behind with a tap on my shoulder. I jumped through the doorway as though a spider had fallen on my neck.
“Don’t touch me!” I hissed. Keiyron followed my steps looking puzzled.
“My fingers weren’t charged,” he said.
“Personal space doesn’t just mean refraining from electrocuting people, it means giving them a few feet of breathing room. I don’t like strangers touching me, let alone…” I tried to find words for the seven-foot man with alien eyes in front of me, and failed. The slam of hands on the far desk made both of us turn.
“If you do not be quiet, when I touch you my hands will be charged!” Xsiani exclaimed in their language. “Keiyron, can you please take the xie’nya somewhere else!? If this report isn’t sent in fifteen minutes I’ll have to explain its delay—” Keiyron raised a hand to quiet Xsiani’s complaints. There was that word again, “xie’nya”; she’d called me that the first time I was here. Why didn’t my internal translator work on it? Maybe it had no English equivalent.
“Hiarou will show her to the backyard. That way she won’t be burning our house while learning to expel vaii,” Keiyron said with a sharp sideways beckon. I twisted to see what he was gesturing at. The young vasithryn whom I had seen only briefly in my first visit rose from a corner behind us and strode smartly forward. Their dark grey clothes and long hair were just as beautifully androgynous as before. Only now their eyes had a coldness to them. They hadn’t looked at me with those mean eyes the first time. I felt my muscles tense in a defensive cringe.
“Just get her out,” said Xsiani. Hiarou’s attention slid toward Xsiani with a frown, feet shifting slightly. It was without doubt a fearful expression.
“Hiarou-se,” Keiyron interjected. The vasithryn turned back to finish their paces to the door.
“Follow me,” they said softly as they passed.
The back exit was just across from the study. Keiyron trailed us onto the spongy grass yard. The outside air was freezing under a steely sky. I hadn’t yet seen any sign of a Shaianese sun.
“What’s a xie’nya?” I murmured to Keiyron.
“A vasithryn brought up by humans outside of our education system.” His voice was clipped as though the topic were uncomfortable for him. So, it was basically a way of calling me an uncultured outsider. I decided to drop it for now. “How is Hiarou supposed to teach me anything if they don’t understand English and I can’t speak your language well?”
“You will be listening, not speaking,” he answered. “I will be at hand, but most of my attention must be on communicating with work. Follow Hiarou’s instructions. Be careful and keep your palms directed away from living organisms.” He nodded to Hiarou before stepping away, leaving us standing awkwardly together in the center of the field.
Hoping to erase the unearned coolness of Hiarou’s regard, I worked a smile.
“Hello,” I carefully enunciated in their language. “I am Erin. Eh-er-in.” Hiarou blinked.
“If it’s not relevant to our task, let’s not waste time,” they replied. Annoyed now, I asked, “Do I call you Hiarou or Hiarou-se?” Far from breaking the ice, their expression turned colder than ever.
“You don’t need to address me, all you need to do is listen. Let’s get this over with, I have studying to do,” they said moodily. I gave up with a shrug, ejecting the smile from my face. “I am to teach you how to use shiin. It is usually an instinctive reflex for anyone over ten…” Hiarou drew a breath. “Shiin is a circulatory system. Its veins contain a fluid called sriva. The heart, aiin, is located here,” they related with a hand touch to the back of their neck, “and a gland in the palm contains the chemical urmenia. Urmenia reacts with sriva to generate radiation. Understand?” Their tone doubted my ability to take in even this much information. I gave another shrug. Whether they knew what the gesture meant or not, they kept talking. “The resulting radiation is called either vaii or yrvaii depending on the radiation’s frequency. Vaii is low frequency, yrvaii high. Respectively harmless and harmful.” Their arm extended in a halting pose. “Activating the radiation is simply flexing a muscle. How much you stretch determines the radiation’s frequency. Thus if I pull firmly…” Their hand tensed until their bones pressed through skin. Despite standing five feet away, the invisible and soundless blast made me stumble back. Something like an acidic burn splashed over my skin and vanished just as quickly. Goosebumps erupted down my arms as their fist closed. If I were a goose, my feathers would be so puffed you couldn’t tell me from a throw pillow. “…it becomes yrvaii,” the vasithryn continued. They glanced toward Keiyron, but our referee was ignoring us in favor of a series of projected screens.
When Hiarou turned back, a smirk appeared on their face at my dumbstruck countenance. There was no denying my amazement, a mix of horror and fascination. Out of all the things I’d been shown so far, this one captured the belief that vasithryn were more than just decorated humans. Inside and out, they were something other.
“Radiation can be controlled to a very fine degree, with practice. Low frequency, vaii, is most easily felt by other vasithryn, because the energy is picked up and amplified by their own shiin system.” They made a sudden grab for my wrist.
“Hey! Why are vasithryn so anti–personal space!?”
“Do you want me to teach you, or don’t you?” Hiarou voiced grumpily. “And if you can’t speak Sathrian, don’t speak, xie’nya.” In their tone the word definitely sounded like a curse.“I can’t fathom Keiyron-arshir’s rationalization for harboring you. It’s as if he cares more for spoiling a strange child than protecting his own family. Just give me your arm!” They recaptured my wrist, which I allowed warily. “This is vaii,” they said. Without further preamble a wave of pins-and-needles exploded from their fingertips up my arm.
“Ow ow ow leggo!” Twisting in their grip broke us apart, but trickles of energy still raced over and under my skin. The haughty smirk was back on Hiarou’s face. “You’re worse than my sadistic cousin! He at least asked me to hold out my hand before dropping a worm in it,” I panted. “How about I take that smile off your face?” I thrust my hand toward the vasithryn with a fencing lunge.
Somehow in the next second I was on the ground with my arms pulled behind my back and Hiarou’s breath on my neck. Grass spit from my lips in a curse of pain. It tasted metallic, not at all how grass should taste. Steps thundered from behind us, and Keiyron shouted at Hiarou to stop.
“For order’s sake, is this the sort of behavior you want to show her? She came from an ungoverned world, she does not need more demonstrations of violence!” Weight disappeared from my back as Hiarou was hauled off.
“Keiyron-arshir, I thought she was going to attack me,” Hiarou spluttered. On my knees I looked up to see Hiarou cowering under Keiyron’s glare. The blatant lack of composure was scary.
“Whether she could have or not, your behavior was excessive. Go upstairs, I have a moment to finish her lesson,” Keiyron ordered with a go away hand wave. “You will apologize later.”
After a jerky bow, Hiarou spun on their heels and went inside. Still shaken, I stood up and wiped off the metallic taste by licking the back of my hand. “As for you,” Keiyron continued as his glare swiveled around, “Hiarou was right to be afraid. Because you haven’t yet learned control, you might have unintentionally released yrvaii. Hiarou’s action was inappropriate, but that doesn’t excuse your maneuver.” If the man’s eyes could have pulled any further they looked as if they might snap. Vasithryn features had evolved to look angry.
“So it’s cool for them to Taser my arm, but it’s not cool for me to retaliate?” I said with a backward step.
“Hiarou was demonstrating. Vaii is harmless. If you are done complaining, hold out your arm.”
“Like this?” I raised my arm like Hiarou had.
“Underneath your skin here,” he instructed as his thumb rubbed my palm, “is your urmenia gland. We healed the tendons when you first came here, so you should have no trouble flexing. All you must do is find the correct muscle, and the rest should come naturally.”
“I’ll be able to zap people?” I watched in fascination as his eyebrows plunged.
“Yrvaii is a serious weapon. Respect it as such.”
“Okay, okay. Just flex, right?”
“So long as you find the correct muscle.” The gray sky remained cold and empty as for twenty seconds I wriggled my hand.
“It’s not working,” I said. My nerves were going numb in the misty air. Two sweaters weren’t enough to keep me warm in this atmosphere. Keiyron looked up from a conjured screen.
“Stop moving your fingers, they have nothing to do with it. Like I showed you, the gland is in the base of your palm—”
“Ow!” Heat flashed from neck to arm as energy jolted through my hand. Surprise made my arm swerve, forcing Keiyron to grab my wrist before I turned it toward him. Clenching my hand ended the flow. “S-sorry,” I offered weakly.
“That,” Keiyron sighed, “is why Hiarou panicked when you aimed for him.” He gazed through the glass wall to where Xsiani sat with her back to us. “Your presence will at least give us some excitement. It may do the household some good, so long as you don’t tempt Xsiani to murder.
“Are you ready to try again?” Long eyes gave me a once over. “Or perhaps you need to rest.”
“No, no, I’m jolly good. I think I found what muscle to pull,” I said.
“Then the next step is to learn control.” Keiyron’s fingers wrapped cautiously about my elbow. Somewhere beside my wrist was a muscle I hadn’t known existed until that moment. Now that I had pulled on it once I could feel a tickle under my skin, grossing me out with a second pulse in my neck. When my palm tensed here…
This time the bolt carried through my arm with a warm vibration. Heat washed back against my skin while my brain wired itself to its new toy. Just like Hiarou had said, I found I could temper the intensity as I pleased.
“Alright, I take back some of my resentment about being infected by your virus. This is pretty awesome,” I admitted as I closed my hand. “Not worth it, but still awesome.” If eye-rolling had been in Keiyron’s gesture vocabulary, I’m sure he would have done so.
“I’m glad you are coming to terms.” His face was still stern, but at least it had marginally softened. That gave me courage to ask,
“If I inquire what this lawn is made of, will I regret it?” Where before there had been footprints and marks of Hiarou’s and my tussle, the lawn had regrown into a seamless green carpet. My teeth slid over my taste buds. Keiyron gave the grass a cursory glance.
“Just nanomachines. They’re what most things are made of, since they can imitate infinite fabrics. They’re also clean and take zero maintenance,” he said. A creepy feeling instantly crawled up my legs, and I gagged.
“And if…if I accidentally swallowed some?” Keiyron spread his palms in a sign I took to be a shrug.
“Harmless. They will pass straight through.” Another heavier gag pulled on my chest. Keiyron took no notice. He beckoned and began moving back toward the house. It took a few jumps to keep up with his long legs. “Unfortunately, I must return you to Earth within the hour. This visit was short, but it served its purpose,” he announced as we stepped inside. Warm air twitched my arms as they relaxed.
“That purpose being getting on Hiarou’s bad side?” I hadn’t intended him to hear that quiet remark, but he answered,
“You own that consequence. Of course I meant stabilizing your condition and learning vaii control. This way.” Keiyron led up the front hall staircase and stopped at the nearest right-hand door. “Try opening it,” he gestured. Carefully I braced a hand against the metal. For a split-second I had the odd sensation of sinking my fingers into wet cement before the door melted outwards faster than I could see. A flat silver door frame left no clue as to where it had gone. “Good, the sensors are working now,” Keiyron nodded. He strode into the room, beckoning me in.
This bedroom was on a much smaller scale than the previous one. A foamy white mattress fused into the corner walls, extending in a slight oval curve. It was large enough that I could have stretched in all directions without rolling off. An empty shelf extended from the bed frame, and a transparent desk framed the bottom of a window. I hoped the room was for guests, because otherwise the lack of personal effects would be depressing. There wasn’t even a mote of dust.
Keiyron had disappeared into a side room. After training my eyes to pick out the metallic indents of doors, I saw that there were two side rooms, one still shut. Moments later Keiyron emerged with some kind of dark bedsheet draped over an arm.
“Remove your outer clothing and I will help you dress,” he said unblinkingly. I looked from his face to the folded cloth. It was a robe, not a bedsheet; leggings and sleeves split from a heavy overcoat. I cleared my throat.
“I’ll, ah, figure out how to dress myself, thanks,” I coughed.
“Very well. Come down to the front hall when you are ready. And be sure to fix your hair.” He passed me the robe and turned out the doorway.
“Finger-combing wasn’t good enough?” I said as I peeked into the open side room…and immediately recoiled at the sight of several people shifting about inside. Light snapped on, and my eyes recognized my own reflection in a multi-paneled mirror. The panels were arranged in a semi-circle against the room’s corner. It took a second to pinpoint my confusion. Moving closer confirmed that it was a mirror, and yet each panel showed a different angle of my body in no way related to the direction I faced. I walked up to a pane showing a view of my back, waved a hand to be sure. I was facing myself backwards. The mirror didn’t show anything besides me; no crazy double-mirror reflections, just a perfectly lit off-white background. Chel would be ecstatic to have such a super mirror.
Not even this mirror was magical enough to make dressing easy. The robe appeared simple, but its underside was a puzzle of magnetic fasteners and layers. Five minutes of wriggling got me inside. Leggings lay abandoned on the floor. Their slick fabric had felt like amphibian skin oozing up my legs, and I’d shaken them off with a chorus of nope. My jeans went back on instead. Lastly, my feet sank into boots that made all the shoes I’ve had until now as cozy as blocks of wood.
Scrounging in my jean pockets turned up a hair tie I used for a ponytail. A final look in the mirror made me frown. Vasithryn had faces that belonged on Vogue magazines, yet they clothed themselves like every day was a funeral.
“Erin. You’ve been in here so long I began to wonder if you’d trussed yourself with the robe.” Keiyron appeared in the closet door frame with crossed arms and a cross face. As soon as I faced him his expression dropped into a snicker. I flushed.
“What? Do I have something on backwards?”
“No, but your human demeanor paired with those clothes is a ridiculous sight. They failed to make you look any smarter.”
“Are all vasithryn this rude?” I coughed.
“We are blunt in our criticism, but not rude.” Keiyron eyed my discarded clothes with a look of a mom peeking into a teenager’s bathroom.
“Make sure Xsiani doesn’t see your organization habits. Gather your things and come.”
“I see how it is. Xsiani’s the no-nonsense general of the house, and I’m the adopted puppy peeing on her rug,” I said as I trailed behind him.
“Xsiani-arshir, to you. Don’t take her attitude personally. Xsiani is scared—we all are. I’ve sworn to take responsibility for your upbringing, and in turn she promised to have no hand in it herself,” he said as we left the mansion through the front door. Cold wind jetted up my legs and numbed my exposed hands. I began to regret tossing the outfit’s gloves.
“Wait, upbringing? My mom’s already accomplished that. The only umbilical cord left is the money string; I’m practically an adult. No offense, but I don’t want to join your family, and it seems I'm not really wanted here either. If you bring zei vitamin and narthin during your Earth business trips, I won’t trouble you any further. We can set up an inter-dimensional drug export.”
“Your physical welfare is only half the issue. We can’t let your intelligence fester either. I’ll fetch you once a week for training. That’s as often as I can naturally manage.”
“I’m not going to college just to eat and make merry. I’m studying for an English Bachelors, and I certainly don’t need more homework. Besides, I prefer carsickness to the portal trip. The last journey home nearly killed me when I landed on a road.” Keiyron blanched.
“That shouldn’t have—!” he lowered his voice with a glance to nearby windows, “Shouldn’t have happened. The system should have locked off roads as possible landing sites. Forcing a new path must have widened the margin of error. If so, I should use the car to return with you—”
“Hold on,” I injected. Having Keiyron follow me home was not a desirable outcome to my complaint. “When I said on a road, I meant I wandered into the road after landing on the sidewalk. My senses were still confused. I’ll be fine now that I know what to expect.” Keiyron gave me a long considering look, but started moving forward again.
“So long as you’re sure. If you find yourself in danger again, call me with your shkieroth. Hold a fingertip anywhere on the band for five seconds to initiate a call.” I nodded, making a mental note to take precaution against accidental dials. “As for your education,” he continued, “you are already irreparably far behind your vasithryn peers. In the best scenario, we have another decade before you will be forced into our society. Use that time wisely.” His reminder made the fears I’d pinned down last night break free. There was nothing I alone could do to stop the future he’d described. And it was impossible to convincingly tell anyone on Earth until it was too late.
Chilly silence fell. I watched the horizon over clouds of my own breath. Distant towers cut through a haze of city glow, their peaks obscured by high fog. The skyscrapers’ violently sharp and reflective edges were like glaciers shorn by wind. I couldn’t decide if the architecture was beautiful or scary.
Movement from around the corner of a nearby house drew my attention. A human-shaped reflection ghosted over a wall, the caster hidden by a pillar. A few steps later and I was sure of it: someone was there. Someone small wrapped in grey. I glanced at Keiyron, but he clearly hadn't noticed. My steps slowed. From around the pillar a face peeked after us. I got a snapshot glimpse of round green eyes and sickly pallid skin. An unmistakably human girl met my eyes with alarm. She shuffled from the pillar to the side of a garage ramp like a spooked raccoon.
“Erin,” Keiyron prodded. I moved to catch up, resisting the urge to look back.
“Do, uh, humans live around here too?” I asked.
“No. They dwell in a different city sector several miles west.”
“Ah...” Although my curiosity was aroused, I couldn't bring myself to mention the girl. Not after seeing the fear in her face. For the remainder of the walk I listened for footsteps, but didn't hear any outside our own.
At the portal, Keiyron paused to work the door's security. I took a last glance down the long street. It was quiet and empty. But then―two residences down, a shape bulged from around a low wall. It was her. This time she didn't flinch when our eyes met. Her gaze seemed to be asking a question, begging for something. A second later she withdrew. Dry heat exhaled over my back as I stared at the place she'd vanished. The portal door was open. There was no time to think about what the girl wanted. At Keiyron's urging I hurried into the sloping tunnel, leaving the frigid world behind. Clearly she didn't want to draw Keiyron's attention, I thought as we descended. So why follow me? By appearance, I was a child vasithryn, not another human.
It wasn’t my problem. Shaian’s humans were still aliens, and I had no insight to read their behavior. She could be dangerous. All I wanted to do was go home. When we reached the underground chamber, Keiyron led us both through the invisible barrier. He strode confidently into the dim recess beyond. A holographic screen was conjured from his finger, which he hung in the air above us to form a rectangle of illumination.
“Since I trust you to control your shiin, you can use topical narthin in place of your colored contacts. Place one drop in each eye,” he said as he handed me a soft vial. I felt its shape with my fingers. “Take this as well,” he added. With my left hand I took an unmarked silver box. “That’s a month supply of zei vitamin. Remember to add a few drops to your meals whenever possible.”
“…Thanks.” That won’t look suspicious at all, I thought sarcastically. Maybe I could swap out the contents of a drugstore bottle of liquid vitamin. Light sprung before us as we reached the wall of controls. Keiyron immediately set to work while I stared out across the massive floor. Not being able to see beneath the grate made my toes curl with vertigo.
“When you are ready, press this button,” Keiyron instructed with a point. “Don’t touch it until I’m outside the barrier. If you have any issues on Earth, contact me—even if it’s not related to being vasithryn. You’ve done well surviving on your own in a world with such a high danger rating. I will help where I can.”
“I grew up in a pretty safe and privileged area, but, thanks,” I returned awkwardly. “Oh…this Thursday is Thanksgiving. My mom will drive me home Wednesday afternoon, and I’ll be away until Monday. Since I have these,” I held up the vial and box, “we don’t need to meet again for a while.”
“Then I’ll check on you the following week. Goodbye Erin.” He started back before I opened my mouth to reply. The rhythmic clacking of his boots held me in a kind of trance. His silhouette merged with the port of light in the distance, and then blinked out.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
