Reclamation

She felt it cringe. But it was not done. It threw to her the memory of struggle in the wreckage of a world under a pair of suns that scorched the Realm with light that couldn't even be seen. The surviving Hands and Eyes pulled together with the others bred for service for a time. The Mind was busy, but grimmer, for that was how the service was. New life had to be bred. The World's Wall had to be built to create a livable place in the deepest trenches of the old ocean before the last of the atmosphere was gone. A home had to be grown and shaped there. The people had to be shaped, too. Too much of the technology had been lost to do that totally microscopically. People had to be culled. They had to.

But they did not want to do what was needed, and there was a war. The Hands and the Eyes died or fled, one by one, until the Mind was left alone in stillness and darkness. Because it's service was refused, because what had to be done was not done.

You can't want that again! the Mind cried.

Aria didn't. She felt a shame as dark and deep as any that had ever forced her to her knees.

…the others are trying to tell you that your genetics are the final determinant of your existence…I find it hard to believe that somebody so carefully constructed has no idea of their function…they told us as long as we kept the Words and the bloodlines true…

No, please, begged the Mind. Do not do this to us. Let us work. Let us have life again! She saw Eric and Heart wading through the rubble inside the dome. Show him! We can show him!

And she saw Eric again. Heart stood a nervous watch while Eric knelt in front of the hatchway and laid his hands on top of it. She felt his power gift reach out across her skin, and the hatchway opened.

"No."

She watched Jay raise the gun. "I won't kill you, but by the blood of my ancestors, I will hurt you until you beg me to stop, Aunorante Sangh!"

Instantly, the memory of Basq making the same threat flashed through her to the Mind. It seemed to be all they knew how to do in the end. She couldn't be bought, or rearranged, or done without. She could be hurt. Whoever had made her, the Nameless Powers, or Jay's Ancestors, whoever or whatever they had been, had left themselves that final option.

Aria's body gripped the stone. "You see?" she said. "You see what service brings us?" Eric must have heard her voice. He dropped to the floor and ran toward the lighted well, leaving Heart dangling from the rope ladder. "In the end the masters will decide to dispose of us, of me, of Eric, of Teacher Heart. They already took away a whole city." She focused her sight on the crater that had been Narroways.

NO!

The room began to bleed. Blue-grey viscous liquid seeped out of the floor and down the walls. Jay started and looked down. The thick stuff welled up over the tips of his boots and, defying gravity, ran in rivulets up his legs. He screamed and tried to run, but he toppled over, landing heavily against her surface. She felt her skin, the room's floor, her skin, sizzle. A wave of gel rose up and enveloped him, pressing him into the floor. She felt him writhe, and then fall still. She felt him melt slowly away like ice against her skin.

Eric sprinted down the hallway. Heart followed more slowly, with his hands held flat at his sides, a Teacher's first defensive posture.

"Eric!" shouted Aria. "Stop!"

Eric froze. With her distant eyes, Aria watched the gel pull itself back down into the floor, into herself.

There was nothing left behind.

"What did you do?" Aria asked the Mind softly.

I have maintenance functions that I can operate without aHand. I used one of those. The voice was miserable, tiny and lost. What will we do now?

"Aria?" called Eric down the corridor.

"In here!" Slowly, she drew back, bringing her whole self back to her body.

No! cried the Mind. Don't go!

"I'll be back, I swear. Tell me how I can bring a Hand with me."

And she knew, had always known, would always know.

She lifted her hand away from the stone and staggered from the weight of the sudden, appalling loneliness.

"What is this place?"

Eric's voice startled her, because she couldn't see him. She turned carefully around, holding herself up by sheer force of will. Her knees seemed to have turned to rubber, and her eyes did not want to focus.

"I think," she said, with difficulty, "it's where the Servant brought my ancestress."