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Chapter 7

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Jayce followed Maru deeper into the ship. He glanced at the taller alien every few steps, his eyes lingering on the pair of weapon hilts attached to Maru’s belt and the harness incorporated into his body armor.

“You need not be so silent,” Maru said. “I’m happy to answer your questions.”

“’Bout that . . . why didn’t I die when I was sucked out of the ship? I’ve never left my planet before, but I’ve seen enough vids to know—”

“Your Veil harness enveloped you in a force field strong enough to keep you from depressurizing and causing a lung embolism. The air tank Dastin had the foresight to install fed you oxygen, and the field prevented most high-energy particles from damaging you. You would have survived for maybe half an hour if you remained calm.”

“Calm? Oh, totally.” Maru looked at him. “Not at all, actually. Thanks for using . . . pulling . . . what did you do to me?”

“I am a Paragon of the Sodality.” Maru tapped the stone on his harness. “I wield the Light of the Veil for the benefit of all. Have you heard of us?”

“That’s real?” Jayce frowned at him. “You’re real? I thought it was a bunch of rumors cooked up by Governance rebels before the Tyrant was killed.”

Maru stopped and held up a hand. He pinched three fingers together, then flicked Jayce’s earlobe.

“What? Ow!” Jayce rubbed his ear.

“If I’m not real, then where did that come from?” Maru asked. “And I apologize for inflicting pain. Sometimes it can convey a message far better than words.”

“I didn’t doubt that you were real. I meant the whole Paragon part.” Jayce was caught flat-footed as Maru began walking again.

“I fell from the sky in a dimensional slide, fought off one of the Tyrant’s Blades, and pulled you back from the void using a graviton well I projected from my hand. Would you like to play with my Prestor Hilts to satisfy your curiosity?” Maru asked.

“Can I?” Jayce reached for one of the hilts on Maru’s belt and got his hand slapped.

“No. I was attempting human sarcasm. Sarai is rather fond of it. As you’ve never been in a ship’s soul before, let me give you some critical instructions: Do not touch the stone.” Maru stopped at a vault door and brandished a finger at Jayce.

“You understand?” the alien asked.

“Don’t touch the stone. I just saw someone get turned into dust from one of these things. If this one hadn’t saved my life, I wouldn’t want it at all,” Jayce said.

“Then you’re aware of the risk.” Maru raised a hand and pale blue flames danced through his fingers. The vault door slid open.

Inside, a Veil stone the size of Jayce’s head hung at the center of an hourglass-shaped force field. Energy flowed out of the stone in motes of light like sand in an hourglass, but it originated at the stone and flowed up and down. The chamber was brightly lit, but Jayce couldn’t pinpoint the light source.

Sarai sat on a small bench, the cat that woke him after his shunt aboard the Iron Soul on her lap.

“Ah-ha! He is here at last,” a reedy voice said from the other side of the stone. “Come . . . let me learn of him.”

“No touching,” Maru said to Jayce.

“No touching.” Jayce put his hands into his pockets and realized his pants had a long gash down one leg that hadn’t been there before all the excitement.

“Nemal didn’t make it,” Sarai said. She scratched the cat’s ear. “Dastin requests you perform the rites.”

“I shall. We are less without him.” Maru brought the back of his knuckles to the chin of his helmet, then placed his palm over his harness stone. Sarai did the same.

Jayce copied them both and got a mean look from Sarai.

“Come, come . . . a soul leaves us. A new soul arrives. Such is the cycle,” the reedy voice said. Jayce kept his distance from the large stone and followed Maru around it.

A being with spindly limbs and a long neck sat in a crystalline throne built into the vault wall. A tunic of silver thread covered most of its body; its gray skin looked dry. Large, all-black eyes fixed on Jayce. It raised a hand to Jayce and the digits twisted in ways Jayce’s human joints never could.

“This is Uusanar,” Maru said by way of introduction.

“Ah . . . he’s new,” Uusanar said.

“I did . . . just get here.” Jayce looked down at his feet.

“No, no, fresh soul, you are new to the Veil. I see it clinging to your aura, probing for the right fit to merge with you. But are you young enough to be of greater service to the Sodality? Sarai? How far beyond his first maturity is he? You two seem matched.” Uusanar leaned forward slightly. Wires attached to the back of his skull stretched from the throne.

“That’s not how it works for humans.” Sarai rolled her eyes. “How many years standard are you, new guy?” she asked.

“Standard? Almost . . . twenty-two, I think. My mother came from a Core world where that was used. Age wasn’t that important on Hemenway. All that matters is if you can work or not.”

“Then he’s able.” Uusanar flicked his fingernails against his thumb. “What a boon for the Governance. What a find for the Cycle.”

“What are we talking about, exactly?” Jayce inched away from the crystal throne.

“He’s lived under a rock his whole life.” Sarai shook her head.

“No one lives on land back home. It’s boats. All boats,” Jayce said.

Sarai put a hand to her face.

Jayce rubbed an itch away from his nose.

“Jayce,” Maru said. “You were exposed to a Shrine. That’s where your stone came through from the Veil itself. Such exposure leaves an imprint on your aura and Shrines—at this time in the Cycle—direct the penitent to a greater, more stable rift into the Veil. Uusanar needs to see the map you found. It’s of vital importance to the Governance and to the war against the Tyrant. Would you let him read you? It won’t hurt.”

“About that . . .” Jayce looked over his shoulder to the exit. “I saw a woman get turned into dust when she used one of those Shrines. So this stuff definitely hurt her.”

“A charlatan,” Sarai said. “Let me guess? She had some Veil stone flecks and used them to scry? Read the future? They’re always on fringe worlds. Some may be Attuned, but they’re untrained. Or they follow the Path that’s been passed down through generations and the proper rituals have been corrupted through time. Was she old? Likely midtwenties standard or older?”

Jayce thought for a moment.

“OK, everything you said described her,” he said.

“The powers of the Veil are not to be trifled with,” Maru said. “Attuned require many years of training before they can wield it properly and become a Paragon. Less time for Shrine tenders. Uusanar is well versed in aura reading. There is no danger to you. You have my word.”

“We don’t need his permission, Master.” Sarai tried to push the cat off her lap, but it dug claws into her pants. “If the nexus is on Illara, then we don’t have time to waste. There’s too much at stake.”

“If you make your path with pain and deception, you will carry that through the Veil,” Maru said. “Besides, the signs point to Besh VIII.”

“I’m close to the junction.” Uusanar raised a hand and a star chart projected from the stone floating in the center of the vault. “If I have to make a radical course change . . . there’s risk to me. To the ship.”

“What are you looking for? Is there time to tell me?” Jayce asked.

“Let me show you,” Uusanar said. “Behold . . .”

The holo changed to a map of the entire galaxy. Beacons lit up within each spiral arm, fewer on the fringe and none in the center. Ley lines spread from the beacons and extended from star to star.

“Before recorded history, there was a galactic civilization that included most of the races we know now,” Maru said. “Travel between the stars was nearly instantaneous and it is believed that every world that could support intelligent life as we know it . . . did. The Ancients had peace and prosperity for uncounted years until . . .”

The beacons failed and the links between the stars vanished.

“We don’t know how the collapse happened, but from what fragmented stories remain it seems that artificial intelligences were to blame,” Maru said. “AI were destroyed or dismantled across the galaxy at the same time as the collapse. We’re not sure if that happened before or just after all faster-than-light travel ended. For over six thousand years, star systems were largely cut off from each other. Civilization at the galactic level collapsed and populated systems survived on their own. We still find dead worlds in the Deep.”

“The Deep?” Jayce asked.

Maru held up a hand.

“Not long after the Collapse,” Maru said, “the first Attuned were found. Sentients connected to the Light beyond the Veil. They called the first Veil stones to them from the Shrines that appeared at the same time the Attuned were born. These smaller stones could power a ship into the brane between our reality and the Veil where faster-than-light travel is possible, and the Governance began.”

“That’s what I am?” Jayce said. “What all of us in this room are? ‘Attuned’ to this Light?”

“Correct,” Maru nodded. “It is not a biological mutation, rather it is something innate to the Attuned when they’re born. Most Attuned never know what they are, but they’re known to be particularly lucky and are more spiritually inclined. It is not an inherited trait, but the children of the Attuned have a statistically higher chance of being born with the gift.” He glanced at Sarai, who looked away.

“You no doubt had quite the experience when you went to the Shrine,” Maru said.

“But I’d been there before. No crazy visions or anything that time,” Jayce said.

“Your earlier visit must have been while it was dormant. The Veil thins when a Breaking nears,” Uusanar said.

“It is not a Breaking,” Maru shook his head. “The Veil wanes and ebbs on a cycle. Do not use that word lightly.”

“My apologies, Paragon,” Uusanar said.

“Paragons and other trained Adepts can sense the Attuned,” Maru continued quickly. “We do our best to give them the opportunity to serve the Governance as best they can. Some choose to tend Shrines and call forth stones, which is the only option for those we find too far into adulthood. Some choose to become Paragons or shipmasters, but that is a difficult path for anyone to take.”

“What is it Paragons like you do?” Jayce asked him.

Sarai cleared her throat loudly.

“Paragons serve the Cycle and maintain the balance between our reality and the Veil,” Maru said. “For millennia we were scholars and explorers. In recent decades we’ve adopted the warrior’s role to—”

“To fight the Tyrant, right? Didn’t you Paragons kill him and bring back the Governance?” Jayce asked.

“He’s never heard of you.” Sarai raised an eyebrow. “This is new.”

“What does she mean?” Jayce looked from Maru to Sarai and back to Maru.

“Quite refreshing that I am not living up to someone’s expectations or hearsay. Jayce has the opportunity to know me as me, and not from any media nonsense,” the Paragon said. “You are correct, young man, the Paragons did defeat the Tyrant. At great cost.”

“And you’re still fighting the remnants? Why did I ask? I just saw you do it back home. Let me join you. I hate the Tyrant and—”

Maru held up a hand. “You do not know what you’re asking.”

“I’ve been training since before I could even walk,” Sarai said. “You think you can just waltz in here and expect Maru and the rest of us to take you beyond the Veil?”

“I’m Attuned and I’m young enough, aren’t I? The Tyrant took my father from me. Those bastards back on the dock killed my friend. Let me fight back!”

The light in the vault went crimson. Uusanar pressed his palms together and lowered his head.

“Aggression has consequences,” Maru said. “Please, do not let your emotions flare.”

“I’m not sorry. I’m sick of being under any tyrant’s boot—Syndicate or otherwise,” Jayce said. “I’ve worked deep-water boats for years and fought in the pits. What’s out there to be scared of?”

“He has no idea.” Sarai shook her head. “Can we stop wasting our time? Just get the path from him and we’ll dump him on a Governance world with enough quanta in his pocket to get him to a military recruiter station. The Marines always need cannon fodder.”

“Is that what Gunney Dastin is to you?” Maru asked her. “An expendable hero?”

“Well . . . no,” she demurred.

“Jayce, most Paragons go through years of training in the academy on Primus,” Maru said to him. “Most. If I enrolled you there, you would be too old to claim a stone beyond the Veil by the time you’re trained well enough to plausibly survive the journey. If I do take you with Sarai and the rest of the team . . . you will likely perish.”

“I’ve been dodging death from predators, the Syndicate, and now the Tyrant. How bad can this Veil place be? Take me with you . . . please,” Jayce said.

“You really don’t know what you’re asking,” Sarai said.

“If I regret it, then that’s my responsibility. My problem,” Jayce said.

“Very well, I will take you through the Veil to claim a suitable stone, and train you to become a Paragon,” Maru said.

What? No!” Sarai’s fists shook at her side. “He just got here!”

“Our options are limited. If the Tyrant’s loyalists are bold enough to venture this far from their sanctuary, then the Governance will need all the Paragons it can find to finish the war,” Maru said. “Now, Jayce, in order for you and Sarai to become actual Paragons, we need to know where we can enter the Veil. You have that knowledge.”

“I . . . do?” Jayce pursed his lips.

“You saw the path at the Shrine. Active Shrines point to where we can cross into the Veil. Every decade or so, the Veil thins in certain places and we can travel to the Veil itself.” He noted Jayce’s blank expression. “Some call it the Foundation. The reality connected to our own. That’s where we get the finest Veil stones from.”

“I see.” Jayce put his hands on his hips and nodded slowly. “I mean, I don’t see. Why go there when you can just call them out from a Shrine?”

“Flawed. Imperfect,” Uusanar said, pointing to the one in Jayce’s harness. “Useful for personal shields, perhaps as an energy source, but to ply the star ways you must travel to the Veil and bring forth more perfect samples. Whoever attunes to a stone like mine can grow it like a seed into something wonderful.”

The lanky alien clicked his tongue and opened a small tin holding morsels of food. Clubby leapt off Sarai’s lap and snuggled up to Uusanar.

“Little mercenary.” Sarai brushed loose hair from her clothes.

“We are close to losing our chance,” Maru said. “Word reached the Governance of a possible access point in this sector, and I brought Sarai with me to investigate. Shrines point the way, but we didn’t get the last part of the map from your world. There are several possible gate worlds in the Deep, but we have only have enough time left to go to one of them. We can take a chance . . . or we can read your aura and know for sure.”

“Governance can pay you,” Sarai said, “if that’s what you’re holding out for. The navy needs Veil stones like Uusanar has for larger ships.”

“Additionally”—Maru put a hand on Jayce’s shoulder—“Attuned can only claim an empowered stone beyond the Veil within a single cellular regeneration cycle after puberty. Perhaps ten years for most humans. The stones reject any who are too old.”

“What? That seems weird.” Jayce’s brow furrowed.

“Despite nearly nine thousand years of regular journeys through the Veil, we don’t have all the answers.” Maru took his hand back. “But this is Sarai’s only opportunity to claim a stone . . . yours as well.”

“Master, you can’t be serious!” Sarai stood up. “He has no training. He barely knows what planet he’s from and you think he can survive beyond the Veil?”

“And how many expeditions have you led, young one?” Maru asked her. “How many times have you crossed the Veil?”

“Well . . . none.” She crossed her arms.

“I took your father and half a dozen other Attuned through the Veil and all lived to tell the tale. Jayce—as he’s chosen to join us—will be fine,” Maru said. “Probably. If he listens to me.”

“Wait, so I go with you and get one of those?” Jayce pointed to the Veil stone. “But then I don’t—”

“Once you claim a stone from beyond the Veil, you can use it to create a hilt.” Maru detached his from his belt. “It is only by creating your own link to the Veil that a Paragon can achieve his full potential. Using another’s stone hobbles your abilities. If you can use it at all,” Maru said.

“You’re not trying to convince him to become a shipmaster? It may look boring”—Uusanar leaned back in his throne—“but I love my job.”

Maru bowed slightly and lowered his helmet’s eye slit to be even with Jayce’s face.

“If you change your mind,” he said, “I will not abandon you. Help us find the next step on the path and I will help you make your next steps. No matter where you choose to tread.”

“Then . . . let’s do this. What do I need to do? Meditate in front of that stone or—”

Maru slapped his hand onto Jayce’s forehead and squeezed his temples. Jayce gasped as his vision went white. He felt like he was floating as memories from his childhood rose and fell like bits of a broken ship surfacing during a storm. There was a glimpse of his father in the Tyrant’s colors, his mother playing with him in their hovel when he was a child. Moments with Kay that brought a fresh ache to his heart. Then his mother’s hand as she slipped into the dark waters all those years ago.

The vault returned and Jayce stumbled into Sarai. She gave him a not-so-gentle push to the bench as his vision swam. He grabbed the bottom of the seat, then slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Do not vomit in my sanctum!” Uusanar hissed as his head undulated from side to side. “I don’t even let Clubby have his litter box in here.”

“I have it.” Maru held his palm up to the Veil stone and constellations appeared against the energy field, then swirled around it as the coordinates melded into the stone.

“The Gate is on . . . Illara,” Uusanar said. “I’ll redirect at the next lay junction.”

“I knew it!” Sarai shook her fists next to her face.

“Mmm . . . I may be losing my touch,” Maru said.

“Peanut gloves sad barnacles.” Jayce tried to wipe drool from his mouth and bonked his nose.

“An aura reading can be a bit dissociative.” Maru waggled his fingertips in front of one of Jayce’s eyes, then the other. He snapped his fingers and Jayce reared back like he’d been shoved. “Better?”

“Can I have some water, please?” Jayce asked.

“He can share a berth with Sarai,” Uusanar said.

“Oh no, he cannot,” Sarai snapped.

“That’s not appropriate. Sarai, take him to Holden’s quarters and see that he’s comfortable.” Maru went to the vault door. “I must attend to Nemal’s service.”

“But I want to be there. He was my friend too.” Sarai looked away.

“I will wait for you. Now go.” Maru tapped a control and left the vault.

“When do I start my training? Can I have a gun now?” Jayce asked Sarai.

“By the Path of Light.” Sarai motioned for him to stand. “You’re still pissing planet water and you think you’re going to be Paragon Mathas the Great. Let’s see if you can get to your bunk without throwing up everywhere first, yeah?”

“I . . .” Jayce swallowed hard and made a face. “I promise nothing.”


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