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“You’re certain. Not a hint. Not an implication.”
“I swear. They suspect nothing. They only got told what Hekon had already approved. Which was a lot more than I expected.”
“You’recertain.”
“Yes, I am absolutely certain I left my family to die in a massive global catastrophe,”
Dekka kept walking. “We’ve had to tell Lemuria about Maren. There were too many questions about abandoning her and leaving her for dead. Why we did not make an effort to find her.”
“Did you have to mention Jahlim too?”
Dekka gave me the side-eye. “Yes. We disclosed everything. In short, Lemuria is now very aware of what a busy and chaotic little human you are.”
“Except for that wholehumanpart, sounds like.”
“We have not revealed that, no.”
“Have you told the other three Wyrms the other detail?”
“No.”
“Dekka, look, I’m not telling you how to do your job, but don’t you think they’re going to lose theirshit? Especially now?”
“Dragons do not take finding out information after the fact very well. It is necessary, of course, but is best done when there is a very firm underlying reason for why the information was originally withheld. Revealing your Affinity would only prompt questions ofwhyand there is no good answer forwhy.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“No, it is not obvious. It is easy to be caught up in the chaos of your day-to-day existence. But when I ask myself if you had not shown up a year ago, where would Lemuria betoday?”
I stopped walking.
“Exactlywhere it is today.”
“But Jahlim might still be alive, and—”
She folded her arms under her breasts. “Entropic collision, Jahlim, Maren, you, Akoni, Keon, Auryn, Atlantis, the ship, the power core? Those are all distractions. The greatest problems that faced Lemuria before your arrival still face us. The magnetar, the O2concentration issues in the ocean and topside atmosphere, a Gate that is closed. Our options have not changed. Our situation has not changed. We arepreciselywhere Mayriel’s projects said we would be, simply slightly delayed on account of your O2battery. Jahlim’s death was expected, and Maren’s death of limited impact so far. All that begs the question: why doyouexist when you have accomplished nothing? My last hope for a tolerable answer is in the archives. I will wait until that hope is wrung dry before I contemplate more horrifying possibilities.”
I swallowed the cotton ball I’d suddenly ingested. Fissures shot through my heart, cracks opened.
She resumed walking. “There is fear of Maren, obviously. There are many who want us to act immediately to prevent humanity from making any use of the body. On the other hand, we’ve seen no indications that humanity feels threatened by the discovery of a mythological beast. There are, however, many religious groups saying the end is coming.”
“They’re not wrong.” Even if the dragons didn’t zap Earth, human civilization was just twenty years from the same O2concentration issue (and microplastic apocalypse) that had the dragons wanting off the ride.
Dekka sighed. “What an unpleasant observation.”
“Yep.”
“To change the subject, your visit with your family. Was it good?”
“Aside from Maren crashing the party? It was really nice. My family got a Hekon-approved version of why Auryn left, which didn’t satisfy anyone, but I think helped people heal. Akoni played with the herd of children, Keon talked physics with my sister, Auryn became a medical consultant. Guess Maren did me a favor from beyond the grave. Everyone is so busy being boggled bydragons are realthatHelena has three husbandsceased to be the most interesting topic.”
Dekka nodded. “And they suspected nothing?”
“No. They suspect I’m pregnant, but that’s about it.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“Dekka, if I was pregnant, I’d bepanicked. You’d know.”
