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"Tread carefully, Aria And try to stay off your feet"

Chapter 24

ARIA

Aria stepped into the hallway, Rose’s words still echoing in heron s up the rich threads that wove an ancient battle scene A lighted alcove to one end housed a life-size marble statue of a le or a passionate embrace It was hard to tell To the other end of the hall, stairs with a gilt-leafed banister swept doard Aria s in Delphi came fro in a dozen Realms at once

Perry’s voice drifted up the stairs For a moment, she closed her eyes and listened to his deep drawl Even a He spoke of his home, the Tide Valley Of his worries about Aether storms and raids by other tribes For so speaker Concise but sure After a few

The stairs took her back down to the room with the couches Roar sat on one, Perry sprawled across another Marron perched by Roar, one rounded leg bouncing over the other She didn’t see Cinder but that didn’t surprise her Perry stopped speaking and sat up when he saw her She tried not to think of what that meant, that he didn’t want to continue in her presence

He wore new clothes like she did A shirt the color of sand Leather pants that were closer to black than brown and weren’t patched and re-patched His hair had been pulled back and it gleaood hand against his cast He was also pointedly not looking her way

Marron came over and took her hands into his, the action so full of affection Aria couldn’t bring herself to pull away He hat Aria could only call a sundy velvet affair, trimmed and belted with black satin sashes

"Ah," he said, his cheeks plu with a smile "You received the readied for you, ?"

"Good Thank you for these And for the rose," she added, realizing it had co with the clothes

Marron leaned in, giving her hands a squeeze "A shed nervously In Reverie, she wasn’t anything unusual Only her voice set her apart fro she’d had no say in seemed odd, but it also felt nice

"Shall we eat?" Marron asked "We have ht as well fill our story"

They followed hi room as lavishly decorated as the rest of Delphi The walls were covered in cri with oil portraits Candlelight caught on crystal and silver, filling the roo of sorrow through her It reminded her of the Opera House

"I’ve traded over my lifetime for these treasures," Marron said at her side "But meals should be revered, don’t you think?"

Roar pulled out a chair for her as Perry headed to the far side of the rectangular table They’d hardly sat dohen people arrived to pour theroo to see what Marron had done in his coe for safety But the people who served him didn’t appear distressed Everyone she had seen within Marron’s walls seemed healthy and content And loyal, like Rose

Marron lifted his glass, his soft bejeweled fingers fanning like a peacock’s feathers Aria locked onto a flash of blue Marron earing the ring with the blue stone that Perry had stashed away Aria s assus

"To the return of old friends and to an unexpected but ht out, the san to eat, but she set down her spoon It was dizzying, going from the harsh outside world, fro feast She should have adjusted faster, having fractioned through Realms her entire life But she savored theall that she saw before her

They were safe They arain, welcoht of it in her hand When she took her first sip, tastes burst like tiny fireworks over her tongue It had been so long since she’d eaten anything rich The soup, a crealanced at Perry He sat at the head of the table, opposite Marron She’d expected to find hied in the woods; she knew that with every certainty But he looked coles of his jaw and nose see as ht as the chandelier above

He motioned for one of the servants "Where did you find row theood"

Aria’s gaze fell to the soup He knew there were morels in it She’d tasted mushroom but he identified them exactly Smell and taste were related senses She re her that once They were the last senses to be incorporated into the Realht, sound, and touch Smell was the hardest sense to replicate virtually

She looked back at Perry, watching as his lips closed over the spoon If his sense of shtened too? For sohther face with the crystal

"Marron has been working on your S it a Smarteye Not a device Not the eyepiece

"Since the ed, fro power to it, touchy without setting off a locating signal, but we’ll get it I’ll kno long that should take soon"

"There should be two files," Aria said "A recording and a e from my mother"

"If they can be found, we’ll find them"

For the first time, Aria felt hope Real hope that she’d reach Lumina That Perry would find Talon Perry met her eyes and smiled He felt it too

"I don’t kno I can thank you," she said to Marron