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Astrid got down to business "I ca"

"The stain?"

"You’ve seen it?"

"Yeah, but we thought "

Astrid’s eyebrows rose "What is Sinder doing?"

"She’s developed a power She can arden right up against the barrier We’re experietables, seeing if there’s any kind of … you know, effect"

"Very scientific of you," Astrid said

He shrugged "Well, irlfriend was off in the woods I had to do irlfriend"?

"Sorry," he said quickly "I didn’t mean to…" He wasn’t sure what he hadn’t irlfriend,’" Astrid said "It was the possessive The ‘my’ But I realized that was stupid of me There’s no better way to say it It’s just that I haven’t been thinking of irl is an island"

"Seriously? You’reJohn Donne? Topoetry You don’t know"

Astrid laughed He loved that laugh Then she grew serious "The stain is everywhere I looked, Sa the barrier It’s everywhere, sometimes just a few inches visible, but I saw areas where it rose ?"

She shrugged "I know it’s growing; I just don’t kno fast I’d like to try to measure it"

"What do you think it is?" he asked

She shook her head slowly, side to side "I don’t know"

He felt as if a hand was squeezing his heart The FAYZ punished happiness He had an, but he couldn’t quite get the words out He changed it to, "What if it keeps growing?"

"The barrier has always been a kind of optical illusion Look straight at it in front of you and you see a blank, non-reflective gray surface A nullity Look higher up and you see an illusion of sky Day sky, night sky--but never a plane The moon waxes and wanes as it should It’s an illusion but it’s also our only source of light" She was thinking aloud The way she sometimes did The way he had missed

"I don’t know, but this seems like some kind of breakdown You kno sometimes a movie projector--like the one we had at school, reet di to see anything?"