Long Paradise by James Murdo

Author:James Murdo [Murdo, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-08T22:00:00+00:00

31

UNIMPEDED CERTAINTY

The hatch door slid open.

Tolren smiled at Seremend. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’m not sure.” She turned and walked back into the main section of the side-room, followed by Tolren. They sat down next to each other.

“I don’t understand it,” she said, simply. “Why has all this time passed for me, but for you it’s like no time at all? Do you even believe me?”

He reached for her hand. “I do. But… I don’t know. Maybe whoever controls this place sent you back to me? Sent us back to each other.”

She leaned away from him in frustration. “It’s much more than you think.” She paused, struggling to find the right words. “It’s not just these individual spires… it encompasses so much… the Construct…” She shook her head. “But I’m back here.”

Tolren looked concerned. “Look… what happened, I wish I hadn’t done it. I’m sorry.”

“It’s done.” Her head snapped up and she stared at him, although her expression quickly softened. “We can’t change what happened.”

He exhaled loudly. “Before I came here… when I was running, I lied to you about it. I was on my own, there was no one I could trust–”

“I know,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I know who you are. You’re Gerstial II, aren’t you?”

His hand flinched, although he kept it on top of hers. “How… how did you find out?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think.”

His eyes glazed as though he was looking into the distance. “I’ve grown so used to being Tolren. I almost persuaded myself that I was him… that he wasn’t dead.”

Seremend placed her other hand on top of his as well and shifted her body towards him. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you did it. What the reports said.”

He smiled thinly. “Thank you. Although I did wonder for a time if there was more I could have done. I didn’t do what they said, but… after Philsima died, everything became so confusing.”

“Did she do it herself?”

“A latent psychological condition… not her fault. That was the problem with the Alexis technology.” He tapped his naval where his own implant was. “Modifications have effects. Obvious in the aftermath, but at the time, less so.” He looked down, sadly. “I never even got to see her body… never got to say goodbye.”

“What happened?” Seremend asked. “To the rest of your family?”

“I haven’t said their names for so long.” He hung his head. “I shouldn’t have stopped saying them. And I should have told you.”

“Tell me now.” Seremend looked surprised at herself. “I want to know,” she added softly.

“After Phils died, well… Trict couldn’t handle it. I think she wanted to look after Phils, to be with her. I don’t know how she died, I wasn’t allowed to see her body either. But when they were both gone… I wanted to join them too.” He stopped to clear his throat. “But I couldn’t… my parents had no one left. But then…”

“Go on.”

“I think my parents were killed. There’s no way they would have left me. The lady who took over the meld… Quesimone, I think she did it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.