Act III, Vexana: AbsentChapter 32
Chapter 32: Vexana: Absent
Selrick Academy. Before dawn, the same day.
A small star flashes above the storm. Guinevere is sure it means Vexana, and nobody else will say so.
The storm that began at dusk had not stopped. Rain streaked the glass walls of the observation lab at the top of the tower, and lightning split the clouds above it. Not one screen flickered.
Guinevere had the telescope again. For weeks she had come up here after midnight to sweep the sky for any sign of Vexana. Ruby and Angela kept the tower’s sensor array running. They had stopped asking her to leave.
Angela knelt at an open panel of the array, a tool in her hand. “Ruby, the energy readings here are still unstable. The repair process is going slowly.”
“Keep going,” said Ruby from the console.
Guinevere’s eye was at the lens. High above the storm, in the black, a tiny magenta light came and went. It had four points, like a star. It was a rift, a crack in the sky.
“It’s flashing...” She did not look away. “Could it be Vexana?”
Ruby bent over the screen linked to the telescope. A trace spiked across it.
“Based on the energy waveform, it’s likely an Ender. The energy fluctuation from the chest area... is exceptionally powerful. I think it’s trying to lure us in.”
Guinevere touched her collar. The Emblem glowed gold and did not flicker.
“Guinevere. I said lure.”
“I heard you.”
“Then you know what it is.”
“I know what you read.” She kept her eye on the little star. “I don’t know what it is.”
Ruby looked at her a moment longer. Then she went back to her console.
By morning the storm had thinned to gray. Guinevere sat in the second row. Vexana’s desk beside hers was empty. Nobody sat in it.
In the front row, Selena stared at her phone, held sideways. Her pen dropped. Her papers flew.
“If the world ends now, what about my graduation?!”
The class laughed. Even the teacher’s mouth twitched. Guinevere did not laugh. She was watching the window.
In the corridor, students crowded under the hologram wall. A boy read from his tablet.
“Detecting an abnormal signal from the Singularity. Energy fluctuations are highly unstable. It could be an Ender invasion.”
The Academy’s name for the rift in the sky was the Singularity.
“Wonder what the Aspirants plan to do...” said a girl, and glanced at Guinevere.
The wall showed the attendance record. Vexana’s name was still on it, as it had been every morning. Vexana: Absent, in red.
At Guinevere’s collar the Emblem began to flash, bright and brighter, over and over. Her hand went to it.
“The emblem... it’s flashing. It’s Vexana... she must be at the Singularity. I have to go find her.”
Nobody answered. The students looked at the star at her collar, and then looked away.
She went to the corridor window. Far above the city, in the thinning storm, the small magenta star flashed in time with the one at her collar. As she watched, its four points began to pull apart.