The monitors began to glow with the outline of Vesperin’s body as the old vampire doctor hooked her up to the monitoring leads. A steady line marked her heart, as well as a bunch of other shit Rhyden didn’t really understand—that was why he employed the doctor.
Nessen and Lucien both read the numbers and lines with ease, while Rhyden, Cyrus, and Auren stared in perplexity.
"You—you said she experienced a sudden arrhythmic episode?" Nessen waited for Lucien to assent. The doctor’s feeble hand raised and pointed to the glowing shape of the feminine body on the monitor. "Her heart rate is remarkably steady. Strong, even. Vesperin doesn’t need the level of care you outlined."
Lucien cleared his throat. "Then why is she still unconscious?"
"She is resting. Whatever happened to her appeared to have taken a lot of energy. When she awakens, she will feel weak andtired. Her heart will need to be continuously monitored until its rhythm evens out—well, I thought so." Nessen shook his head, puffing out a breath. "But her readings are exceptional, considering they match the onset profile of a Pulse…"
"What’s a Pulse?" Cyrus murmured from his spot near Vesperin.
"A Pulse is usually associated with Nova. It refers to a rapid, spontaneous surge in Nova density—seemingly originating from no fixed locus. It—it propagates outward, similar to a shockwave. Unreaped Souls within its radius will undergo Rogue conversion. And the very nature of a Pulse sees acute Nova oversaturation—italwaysconstitutes a mass casualty event. The way her"—he gesticulated—"Stella pushed outward resembled the onset profile of a Pulse. But it’s not really Stella, is it?" Nessen hurried around the leather chair, swinging the large circular piece until it hovered over Vesperin’s steadily breathing chest.
Lucien tensed immediately.
Rhyden lifted a hand. "Let him work. He’s done it to her before."
Lucien opened his mouth, but whatever he wanted to say died as Nessen centered the device over Vesperin’s heart. It whirred faintly as he pressed a control on the side. On the monitor, the outline of her body localized on the center of her chest—where the empty mass hovering in the middle was lightless and bleak. Still no Stella. Rhyden knew that much.
"Her Aether signature is missing. Well, not entirely. Itisthere. See this shape. That is where one’s Stella is harbored. The anatomical locus and biochemical components are entirely absent. That absence traces back to this." Nessen tapped against the monitor—and the strange, undulating mass of purplish-blue light.
Nessen’s red eyes met Rhyden’s. "While you were away, I ran some tests. Your associates, Miro and Daryk, brought back a Rogue for me to study. A lowlevel. Strange, that the same structural markers that make up the Nova inside the Rogue are also showing in her." He nodded toward Vesperin. "And yet, it is entirely different. As if someone tried to mimic the Nova inside her, because what I found in the Rogue is almost synthetic…engineered."
Rhyden heard the telltale rustle of fabric from the trying-to-be-stealthy Soul Searcher as he reached for his scythe.
"You have pieced together, then, that she is not ordinary?" Auren inquired lowly, gloved fingers tight around the handle of his scythe.
Nessen tensed, stammering, "I-I will not tell anyone—I swear it. You have to understand. This type of scientific phenomenon is nothing like I’ve ever seen in the Aetherborns I have studied before."
At Rhyden’s sharp look, Nessen promptly bit his tongue.
That didn’t stop the others from catching on.
Lucien, who had been silently listening to the doctor, eyes tracking over the tubes and wires leading up to the ceiling, said with precision, "What do you mean, Aetherborns you have studied before? These wires, I know them—I haveseenthem. You are siphoning Aether here"—his keen green eyes swung to Rhyden’s—"aren’t you, Valkar?"
God fucking dammit.
Rin woke to a calm heart.As she slowly turned her head on whatever soft thing she was lying on, the first thing she saw wasdeep red eyes, and darker red blood crusted around a cut on the vampire’s lower lip.
"What—" Rin said groggily. "Rhyden?"
The lights were too bright. She weakly moved a hand, then froze when she realized she couldn’t move her arms. Panic flared as she glanced down at the soft cuffs around her wrists.
Voices came to her then, hushed like they were trying to be careful around her.
Her eyes watered from the offending light. Rhyden’s lips moved as he ordered the light to be dimmed, and suddenly the pounding in her skull relented as the whole room was bathed in a dim, blue-tinted glow from the monitors and large cylindrical pipes flowing up to the ceiling.
"What happened? The last I remember is the—the Rogue!" Rin tried to sit up, the haunting image of Auren tumbling to the ground, the roars of the Rogue, the trembling exhaustion on her arms as she’d tried to?—
Lucien hushed her, and she turned her head, finding him sitting at her other side. "Don’t try to move yet. Your body is still healing from what happened. We’re at Rhyden’s base in Lunar City."
She could barely see him in the dim light. "What happened?"
Lucien removed his glasses and shifted back, the wheels of his rolling chair squeaking. He scrubbed his eyes. "You had an episode—a Pulse. The Nova inside you lashed out and killed the Rogue. What do you remember?"
"Not much."
"You used your Echosword. We believe it acted as a conduit for the Pulse, killing the Rogue directly from that point of contact. It took a toll on you. Your heart started to fail. We had to—I had to…" Lucien trailed off.
