“Let’s get some food in you, then we’ll figure it out together,” she said. “Clem, Eric, and Abi are already at a table. Let me get you to it and bring you a plate.”
“I can walk,” I said.
“You can, but it’ll be easier if I help you.” Hagar took my arm, cleverly making it look like she was leaning on me while actually supporting me. She really was a good friend. “You need calories and rest. I’ll get you both.”
We crossed the room without incident, and I didn’t feel too many eyes staring at us. I couldn’t have been the first person to get sick in class, and I certainly wouldn’t be the last.
“He lives.” Abi scooted his chair away from the table and pulled one out for me with an exaggerated flourish. “The way Eric and Clem were talking, I thought you’d look like a zombie.”
“Nah.” Hagar slipped her arm away from mine, and I dropped into the chair. “He pulled through all right. I’ll be back in a minute.”
She squeezed my shoulder and then headed off to grab my food. I didn’t know what she’d bring me, especially since she didn’t eat much herself. Hopefully there’d be more on my plate than ham and burned hash browns.
“How are you really doing?” Clem asked quietly.
“Better.” I explained as much about my condition as I could and laid out my options. Going to Bogotá might get me fixed up and back on my feet, at the cost of being away from my friends and the hollow initiates for weeks or months. If I stayed at the School, though, there was a risk my core would delaminate and kick me back to having a hollow core. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Go to Bogotá,” Clem said without hesitation. “You have to get on top of this, Jace.”
“Maybe,” Eric said. “But the hollows need him. If he’s not around, what will happen to them?”
“Jace did all right on his own,” Abi interjected. “The hollows will find their own path if it is meant to be. The Grand Design will guide them as it wills.”
Abi’s words sent a chill down my spine. This could be the convergence that Brother Harlan had told me about. If it was, then he’d want me to go to Bogotá and let the chips fall where they may.
“Your core seems stable enough.” Hahen had materialized in the center of the table. He deftly snaked his tail between the plates without disturbing any of them. His finger jabbed me in the chest, and a pulse of jinsei washed through my channels. My core tingled at the sacred energy’s touch, and I braced myself for a wave of pain that didn’t come. “Perhaps if we work together, we can figure out what others have failed to discover on their own. There’s no one living with more experience in this area than you and me, my friend.”
It was great to talk to everyone. It would have been even greater if they didn’t all have contradictory advice to give me. I was just as confused now as I had been when I’d left the recovery room. Abi and Clem thought I should go to Bogotá. Hahen and Eric both thought I should stay at the School.
“Thanks,” I said with a rueful chuckle. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Maybe I should have stayed at the Temple and let the inquisitors poke me for a while longer.”
“That’s probably not a great idea,” Clem grumbled. “They shouldn’t have taken you in the first place. If you’d broken any laws, that’s a job for the Adjudicators. The priests had no jurisdiction over you.”
“The priests have jurisdiction over the Grand Design.” Abi leaned back in his chair. “Jace has already played an important part in that.”
Clem bristled at Abi’s defense of the Inquisition. She was about to tear into him when Hagar arrived with a plate mounded high with crispy French fries, a juicy hamburger that looked as big as my head, and a trio of apples, each the size of my fist.
“Eat up.” She put the tray in front of me and took the seat to my right. She lifted a mug of coffee off my tray and took a sip. That left me with only a glass of water to drink.
I really wanted that coffee.“Nope,” she said when she caught my longing gaze on her cup. “No caffeine. Eat, then march yourself up to bed and get some rest.”
“I’m dying, though.” I gave her my most pitiful sad face. “I think the coffee would make me feel better.”
“And I think you should eat your burger.” Hagar rolled her eyes. “What were you talking about before I interrupted?”
“About whether I should stay here or go to Bogotá.” I took a big bite of the burger and found it tasted even better than it looked.
“That’s easy,” Hagar said. “Go to Bogotá before your core splits in half.”
“It’s not going to split in half,” Hahen said. “It will come apart in layers, like an onion.”
Eric laughed. “Because that sounds so much more pleasant than splitting in half. What happens when all the layers come apart?”
“No one knows,” Hahen said. “At least, I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone before. Perhaps once the delamination is complete, you could fuse with another core. We just can’t predict the outcome.”
“Which is why he should go,” Clem snapped. “The experts should handle this.”
“There are no experts,” Hahen said calmly. “The last...”
The conversation swirled around me while I devoured my burger. My friends had all made excellent points, and they all conflicted with one another. At the end of the day, none of them could help me make this decision.
I let them talk while I gulped down the calories. The burger was juicy and savory, seasoned just right, with crispy strips of bacon layered
