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My Official didn’t knoho put Ky into the Matching pool

But I do know that part of it At least, I can sort through the data and guess

It wasAnd then someone--myself, or one of the others in the room--paired him, and Xander, with me

Did my Official ever find out? Could she have predicted this as the final outcoue and the mutation?

Out of all the people in the Society, were Ky and Xander really the two I fit best with? Wouldn’t the Society have noticed that I had two Matches, or have some fail-safe to catch such an occurrence? Or did the Society not even have a procedure in place for so that it would never happen, trusting in their own data and their belief that there could be only one perfect Match for each person?

So many questions, and I may never have the answers

I don’t want to ask too much ofSo was e it takes to choose the life you want, whatever it ht be

"Grandfather," I say "He was aHe stole from the Society"

My mother takes the plant from me and nods "Yes," she says "He took artifacts from the Restoration sites where he worked But he didn’t steal fro That was his own personal mission"

"Was he an Archivist?" I ask,

"No," my mother says, "but he did trade with them"

"Why?" I ask "What did he want?"

"Nothing for hie for Anomalies and Aberrations out of the Provinces"

No wonder Grandfather seemed so surprised when I told him about the microcard and how I’d been Matched with an Aberration He hoped they’d all been saved

The irony is i to help those people by getting the pool We both thought ere doing the right thing

The Society and the Rising used me when they needed me, dropped , always believed in reen tablet, that I could get my memories back from the red I wonder what he’d think if he knew that I also walked through the blue

CHAPTER 57

KY

We have a lead," the Pilot says

I don’t need to ask On what? The lead is always for the sa--a potential location for the flower that provides the cure

"Where?" I ask

"I’ you the coordinates now," the Pilot says The printer onout information "It’s a small town in Sonoma"

That’s the Province where Indie was from "Is it near the sea?" I ask

"No," the Pilot says, "the desert But our source was sure of the location She remembered the name of the town"

"And the source of the inforh I think I already know

"Cassia’s mother," the Pilot says "She ca stretch of fields, away fro There is dew on the dirt of the fields, so they shine a little like a sea when the sun hits just right

Don’t get your hopes up, I tell ht we had curefields before, and then there were only a feers

The lines from the Thomas poem co how bright

Their frail deeds ainst the dying of the light

This ht be the last wave by, the last chance we have to cure a significant ao too far under These deeds--our flying, Cassia’s sorting, Xander’s curing--will either be frail or bright

Two ships sit near the field

On the outside, I don’t hesitate--I start to bring the ship down But inside I always have a catch when I see other ships waiting Who’s piloting theht now the Society seee, thanks to the cure he brought back from the mountains His people keep order; under their supervision, workers distribute the last of the food stockpiles People who aren’t sick stay in their homes, the immune help tend the still, and a tenuous and ih respect from all the pilots and the officers to keep control, and the Society has drawn back fro more flowers for the cure But so to have to decide what it is that they want

We just have to cure enough of the deserted road where the others landed

The Pilot co in from the direction of the city