Act IV, Connection LostChapter 35
Chapter 35: Connection Lost
The city platforms. Still morning.
Alone on the platforms above the bay, Guinevere finally sees the face she was chasing.
The figure had dropped out of sight behind the towers. The Enders had risen to fill the gap.
Guinevere landed on a cracked stone platform above the bay, her back to a pillar. Two gray drones snapped up at her shoulders, yellow eyes burning.
“Fine,” she said. “Come on.”
She went in fists first, as Hester had taught her, and the drones took what her hands left. Enders went down in heaps. Below the platform half the district was rubble, and smoke stood up from it in columns.
She counted without meaning to. Nine. Ten.
“Eleven,” she said aloud.
Nobody said, Then be faster.
A woman walked down from the upper platform. She wore heeled boots, white stockings and a long robe, and she carried a staff whose orb was as dark as a hole in the world. She walked slowly, as if she owned the place. The Enders ran beside her and did not touch her.
Something hummed above Guinevere. She looked up.
A huge arrow of violet light was falling out of the storm. There was no time to dodge. It struck and burst.
When the smoke tore, she was still on her feet. The woman had stopped at the rail above, near enough now to see. Blue-lavender hair, fading to magenta. Violet eyes. A small mole beside the mouth.
Her hair is black, Guinevere had told the briefing hall. You can’t see a face. Hair can be changed, the teacher had said. Not hers, she had answered. She had held to that for weeks, like a rail in the dark. It came away in her hand.
“No...”
Vexana raised the staff and fired. Guinevere dodged, and dodged again, and tried to close the gap. She never raised a hand against the woman. She only tried to reach her. Enders gathered at Vexana’s back.
“It can’t be.”
The Enders charged.
“You would never betray us.”
Guinevere threw out both arms.
“Light of the stars, tear through the darkness.”
Light burst out of her and swept the platform clean. Every Ender in reach went down. The way to the rail was open, and there was no doubt left in it. This was Vexana.
Vexana looked down at her. Her face did not change.
“You haven’t changed at all.”
A great spell had been gathering in the staff. She let it go. It hit Guinevere like a wall and threw her far down onto a lower platform. She skidded across the stone and stopped. On her arm guard the black-haired chibi swung from its clip.
She got up anyway.
“Have you really forgotten everything, Vexana!”
“We made a promise to protect this world.”
The memories came in pieces. The hall under five stars, two little dolls swinging at their belts. A sunny rooftop, two gold stars in her palm. A battlefield, and a hand held out to her.
“You were always there to pick me up.”
On the upper platform Vexana’s head had turned. For one breath her eyes were not cold.
“The one I could always count on.”
“Enough!”
Vexana’s scream rang off the stone. She came down the stairs to the lower platform, and the Enders filled in behind her. Now they stood face to face, Guinevere alone, Vexana with an army at her back.
The placeThe lower platform
A sleeve had torn in the blast. At Vexana’s right wrist, a small gold star was lit. Guinevere’s hand went to her own. It was blazing.
“Why, Vexana...” Her voice broke. “Your emblem is still...”
She did not finish. Overhead, the sky was tearing.
Over the half-ruined city the clouds split in the shape of a star. The Singularity was widening. One of its points ran down the sky and tore open over their heads, much lower than before, and much nearer.