Ashes of Candesce: Book Five of Virga

A gentle knock came from the doorway. He wanted nothing more than to tell whoever it was to go away, but instead he heard himself say, 'Come.' Maerta stepped in, in her second body, and came to sit on the bed next to him. Her scry was muted, only a few faint glyphs twirling near her ears. She was carrying something heavy, and now she moved to set it on the floor by the bed.

It was the brick--the Mighty Brick, now stripped of its agencies and protective devices. 'Ah,' said Keir, gazing at it mournfully. 'You killed it.'

'We found it near a rather grouchy ornithopter. That one claimed you were starving it to death.'

He shrugged, but he couldn't look her in the eye. He'd drawn his own scry all the way in, leaving him bare of context.

'Keir,' she said softly, 'what were you doing with these things?'

His restless fingers tangled together. 'I--I don't know.' Now he did look at her directly. 'I mean that. I know I made this,' he pointed at the brick, 'but I don't know what it is.'

'That I can answer,' she said. 'You and Gallard were studying embodiment a few weeks back. To have a body is, well, almost a sacred thing, no? --To us, I mean. It's what separates us, and our allies like the oaks and the morphonts, from things like the creature that was chasing Leal Maspeth and her friends.' She nudged the brick with her toe. 'Having a body, even if it's a block of dumb stone, anchors the mind and its values. We're fighting to keep our anchors, all of us, and none more so than the people who live in Virga. Even if they don't know it.

'I'm pretty sure you made the Mighty Brick to remind yourself of these things.'

'Then why did I forget?'

She shook her head. 'I don't--'

'Stop lying to me! You do know.'

She was silent for a moment, and he felt a small sense of triumph at having scored a point in their ongoing argument--because, before today, he hadn't even been sure himself that something was wrong. Now he had proof, in the form of those lines scratched next to the door a kilometer below the Hall.

'Keir,' she said slowly, 'why did you grow that aircraft?' He looked away, but she put a hand on his shoulder. 'Where were you going to go?'

'I don't know.'

'You didn't have someone in specific you were going to look for?'

That was an odd question; he looked at her for the first time. 'No. Who would I have to look for?'

'Sita?'

He didn't recognize the name, and shook his head, confused. Scry gave no hint as to who this Sita might be, either. Somehow his incomprehension satisfied Maerta, who took away her hand and sighed.

'I'm not a real boy, am I?' he asked her. 'The other kids are growing up, but I'm growing down. Getting shorter, stupider. Forgetting things--like, like this Sita whoever. Why? What's happening to me?'

She looked him in the eye. 'Keir, you have to trust me when I say I can't tell you.'

'Can't tell me? Or won't?'

'Can't. Because I made a promise that I wouldn't.'

'To who? You're the leader here, aren't you? Who could you possibly have to make a promise to that you'd have to keep?'

Maerta stood up, clasped her hands, and walked to the door. Then she turned and said, 'I can't betray my promise, Keir; and I'm sorry, but for now, that's how it has to be.'

He just stared at her, tears starting in the corners of his eyes. Maerta came back, her hands hovering over him. 'Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, Keir. It's for the best. You'll understand when it's all over and it'll be fine, fine. You'll see. We would never do this to hurt you, we love you.'

'Do what?' He was crying as much from frustration as disappointment or fear. 'What did you do?'

'You'll see in time, and it'll be all right, I promise.' Briskly, she went on: 'Now I have to ask you something, and it's very important. Can you be honest with me? Did you tell the Virgans anything about what we're doing here? --In Brink? Anything about who the Renaissance are?'

He shook his head bitterly. Now he wished he had.

'Good. Good. We don't know them, Keir. They might be spies. They might be dangerous, do you understand?'

He nodded sullenly.

'And Keir, the flying machine...' She was silent so long that finally he was forced to look at her.

'When the time comes,' she said, 'you'll be able to leave Brink, and go anywhere in the universe that you want to go. But just hang on a little longer. Your time's not yet, Keir.

'Not yet.'

* * *

'MA'AM?'

Leal turned to find Piero Harper at the doorway; there was concern written on his wind- and labor-aged features. She smiled warmly at Hayden Griffin's loyal crewman, and raised her hands to show off the room. 'Isn't this nice? It has a roof! I'd forgotten what those were like.'