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Chapter 5

ARIA

Aria woke in a rooainst the throbbing at her temples Heavy fabric crinkled over her arms She peered down A white suit covered her froloves Whose clothes was she wearing?

She sucked in a breath as she recognized the Medsuit Luarments like this How could she be sick? Reverie’s sterile environineers like her ht now Gingerly she turned her head left and right Even the s aches

She sat up slowly, gasping at the sharp pinch in the crook of her elbow A tube filled with clear liquid poked out of a patch in the suit by her arm and disappeared into the thick base of the bed Her head pounded and her tongue was stuck to the roof of her e Lu on Mo one side of the rooress screen sat on top, two-dio Aria saw a series of lines on it, the vital signals her suit trans to respond?

Time and location, she requested from her Smarteye Neither came up Where was her Smartscreen?

Paisley? Caleb? Where are you?

Aria tried cruising to a beach Reales streaked through hertrees Smoke that moved like waves Paisley’s wide-eyed terror Soren on top of her

She reached toward her left eye and poked herself, jerking back as she blinked Nothing but a useless eyeball She flattened her palm over her naked eye just as a slender man in a doctor’s smock entered the room

"Hello, Aria You’re awake"

"Doctor Ward," she said, ues, a quiet 5th Gen with a serious, square face It wasn’t unusual to only have one parent, but a few years earlier Aria had wondered if he was her father Ward and Lumina were similar, both reserved and consumed by their work But when Aria asked, Lu we need

"Careful," Ward said "You have a laceration along your brow that’s not fully healed, but that’s the worst of it Your tests cae to your lungs Reh"

Aria didn’t move her hand She kne horrible she et to the Realms I’m stuck here With no one" She bit her lip to keep fro

"Your S 6 dome I’ve ordered a new one for you It should be ready in a few hours In the e of sedative--"

"No," she said quickly "No sedatives" She understood nohy her thoughts felt scraether "Where’s my mother?"

"Lumina is in Bliss The link has been down for a week"

Aria stared at hi from the monitor announced the spike in her heartbeat How could she have forgotten? She’d gone into Ag 6 because of Lumina But how could Lu the Sbird" file

"That can’t be right," she said "My e"

Ward’s eyebrows drew together "She did? How do you knoas frobird’ Only Lue?"

"No, I didn’t have a chance Where’s Paisley?"

Ward drew a slow breath before he spoke "Aria, I am sorry to have to tell you this Only you and Soren survived I know you and Paisley were quite close"

Aria gripped the edges of the bed "What are you saying?" she heard herself ask "Are you saying Paisley’s dead?" It wasn’t possible No one died at seventeen They easily lived into their second centuries

The monitor beeped This ti "You left the secure zonewith disabled SmarteyesBy the time we responded"

All she heard was beep-beep-beep-beep

Ward trailed off and looked at thelines and soaring nu sensation inside her chest

"I’ as it puffed around her lied into her arh the tube and disappeared into her Medsuit Into her He had ordered the sedative through his Smarteye Ward stepped closer "Lay back now before you fall"

Aria wanted to tell hiue becaht in herslowed abruptly Aria fell back, hitting the mattress with a thud

Dr Ward appeared above her, his face anxious "I’ for you now" Then he left, closing the door soundly behind hihted and pulled, like aher hand toward her face She scared herself, not recognizing the gloves over her fingers or the emptiness around her left eye

She let her hand fall away, unable to control it any longer Her are of the bed She saw it, but she couldn’t bring it back

She closed her eyes Had so happened to Lu sound, like a tuning fork deep within her skull Soon she didn’t have a clue what had saddened her