Act IV, Connection LostChapter 38
Chapter 38: Think Again
Guinevere drops between her friend and the light, and will not let her carry it alone.
Guinevere came over the last rail at the speed of light. Her wings were thin, but both her drones were burning again.
Below her the platform was black glass and cracked stone. Vexana knelt in the middle of it, one arm tucked against her ribs, the staff in her other hand. A dark pink knot burned in its orb.
Over her stood the Mother Matrix. Its chest was full of white light.
Now, thought Guinevere.
She dropped between them and crossed her arms. Her two drones flung themselves in front of her. The light came down.
It hit the drones first and her second. Her boots slid back across the stone and stopped. Both drones fell out of the air, dark and smoking. She held.
“There you go again,” she said through her teeth. “Taking on everything by yourself.”
Behind her, Vexana’s fingers dug into the stone.
The light thinned and died. The Matrix’s chest went dark. It would need time to gather again, and Guinevere meant to use that time.
She turned around.
Vexana’s robe was torn. Her left arm was raw from wrist to elbow, the sleeve gone. Behind her, against the wall, a suit of purple plate edged in gold knelt dead, its chest cracked open.
She turned the staff aside, thought Guinevere. At the last meter. She had felt it pass her ear and had not let herself think about it.
She thought about it now.
“You’re the one who needs my protection!”
“Guinevere.” Vexana’s voice was flat. “Go. I’ve seen the end that awaits us. There is no other choice...”
“Vexana, if you think I’m going to let you sacrifice yourself for some greater good, think again!”
It rang off the stone. Then she said the rest in a low voice, because it was all she had left.
“This destiny is something the two of us should bear together.”
Vexana looked at her for a long time. Her eyes went somewhere far off and came back wet. Guinevere did not know where they had been. She hoped it was a lawn, and a tree.
She crouched and held out her hand, palm up, as someone had once done to her on a ruined street.
“Stay with me, Vexana.”
Vexana took it. The knot in her staff went out, and their two gold stars blazed together.
“You pulled me out of the dark once.”
“So I’m good at it.”
“There may be no going back this time.”
She smiled. It was small. Guinevere had not seen it since the fireworks.
“As long as we’re together!” said Guinevere, and smiled back.
Boots rang on the stairs. Fanny came over the rail first, blades out, and Layla, Ruby and Angela behind her.
Fanny saw the Ender robe and the black staff. Her blades stayed up.
Layla looked at the burned arm. Then at the dead suit, and the scorched stone. “It’s not a trap,” she said. “Nobody burns their own arm for a trap.”
Fanny said nothing. Her blades did not lower.
Guinevere stood, still holding Vexana’s hand. “This morning I left without a word,” she said. “I’m asking now. I can’t do this alone. Cover us.”
Behind the Matrix’s crown, white light was gathering again. She lifted her chin at it, as she once had at two whisperers by a fountain. Then she turned to her team.
“Aspirants! Today, our light shall pierce the Singularity!”
“Hope never dies!” said Vexana. Minutes ago she had told Guinevere that hope was an illusion.
“The Aspirants always stand united!”
Everyone said it, Fanny too, with her blades still raised.
Guinevere’s wings opened, thin and bright. Vexana’s opened beside hers. They rose side by side.