Chapter 52 The Second Heart
The cup fell before Ren had even registered that he had released it.
The small thing fell to the stony ground and broke into three. Cool water spread out around his feet. For a moment Ren considered the pieces as if their arrangement held vital information.
His hands were not shaking.
Immediately, Kael, who was standing next to his bed, stepped toward him. "Sit." "Standing." Then stop beating that dead donkey whose learning manners.
Ren tried to move.
And his left foot did what he said to do. His right foot, a half second too late.
A little movement. Almost unnoticeable.
But half a second was a long time for a man who had survived merely by the fact that his body moved quicker than his mind. Enough to kill.
Ren stopped.
A second beat echoed in his chest.
Slow.
Deep.
Be patient.
(Lyra indicated, "Do not have your body move as it was." She still sounded thin, as if from behind a wall. Nor are you recovering and healing from your injuries either. Your energy structure is changing.
"Very comforting words."
"I'm sure I could have written any range of lies and you would pay through the nose for those as well, but I knew there was an interesting thread to that speculation:
Ren looked at his left hand. The black skin didn't move. But when the healer in the hallway cast a recovery skill, blue light flared from wrist to elbow.
Ren's fingers stopped being clenched.
He quickly closed them.
Kael looked.
Nothing was said.
It got worse.
That's right, the isolation chamber was constructed in the former academy training hall, which has half its roof gone. Three thin layers of wards closed the opening like a curtain, and Aela used a Dravorn artifact she found in the ruins to help her do it. It felt strange, like an aura on the ground, little runes swirling to form a pale circle around Ren.
Aela was standing outside the circle with one of her control crystals in hand. The wound was too near her face, and the porcelain white of it reflected in her eyes, yet not once did she lose track. It was almost an excessive discipline of ignoring the complaints of her body.
Kael was on the other end prepping to heal. Sera was at the stone table, reading through some Accord papers. The paper was still like smoke. Nyx, like a precipitate shadow with a knife on the door, was silent.
We're experimenting looking down at the circle below his feet. As Ren picked it up "So, I'm seeing if I'm going to blow up.
She didn't look at him. "The energy from the outside and how Nexus responds to that.
"A nicer way to say 'blow up.'"
If you blow up, I will record it.
Nyx's voice was just outside, "I'll go first.
"Your concern is heartwarming."
That leaves me where I lie, which is alright with my heart.
Sera lifted her head above the paperwork. Because the Nexus isn't always a harmful positive response. Sometimes, it simply creates a template.
"Sometimes?"
Sera stopped for a second. "The records that were preserved did not result from successful experiments."
No one said anything.
Aela turned on the crystal.
Something that resembled a hand shield blocked Ren. It was like thin sheets of glass, clean and organized energy. Ren looked at it. This went on for a little while and then nothing.
Then his chest hurt.
Not his heart.
The other one.
The barrier shook.
Aela narrowed her eyes. "Ren?"
"I didn't do anything."
The blue line on Ren's left arm glowed.
Aela's barrier moved toward him.
Not broken. Not broken.
Pulled.
To sew up the easiest of blemishes.
Aela responded quickly to cut the power—but alas. Golden flashes surged from the runes all over the ground. And the air pressed into Ren's breast. Kael felt a glow on the palm of his hand as if there were the map of the stars, and then he gasped.
"Kael, get back!" Sera yelled.
Kael attempted to pull away, but its mana had already seized his hand. The green light interest from the healing seal looked wider than a thread, and it pulled Ren towards it.
Ren saw Kael's face go pale.
Not being scared of the loss of control.
He was too afraid to watch his body eat the first person who always came back for him.
"Make up your mind!" Ren growled.
"Void," Lyra said quickly. "Now. Do not consume it. Eliminate the path.
"I can't—"
"Either. Or Kael will die. Choose already before you bore your audience with this drama.
Ren shut his eyes.
There was no door in the void. It wasn't a talent. Not a dark shadow you could summon on command like in a bad stage show. You were falling into the void, cursing all through time, hoping, praying that some FAR SOME PART of you still knew how to stop.
He let the coldness in.
In a blink of an eye, the light in the room went out.
Kael broke the green thread that he was using.
The wall Aela had constructed crumbled to fragments of light.
The runes on the floor died one at a time.
Ren collapsed to his knees and vomited black blood on stone.
Kael dropped but managed to remain standing. "You are really an idiot."
He found himself standing in the middle of a forest that he had never been to.
See.
The trunks of the trees ravved up like towers, and their leaves burned a silver-green. Roots of giants that emerged from the earth and rock, even from the heavens, as if something far older than mankind had stitched reality into place.
In the distance, there was a tree larger than the others.
Somebody—under it— stood there.
A lady. Long and greenish-silver. Her voice was clear, her face not so much. "Take her to the first tree," she said.
Ren tried to get up. His body didn't move.
The woman turned her face, as if she heard something from long time ago. Before the second heart comes to life.
He was split on the hall floor. Kael placed a hand on his shoulder. Aela kneeled beside him, her control crystal in pieces. Sera fell still, her face preparing bills too.
Sera opened one of the files, her hands shaking. "I've seen that pattern before."
Aela looked away. "What?"
"Nexus Bloom." Sera's voice was very quiet. Step 1: The Nexus begins to form an energy network near the host.
Ren cleaned his lips of the blood. "A network for what?"
Sera didn't answer right away.
That was bad enough.
Inside his head, Lyra stayed quiet far too long.
There is a forest I see. Ren said slowly
Lyra didn't say anything.
"A forest with silver-green leaves. Big roots. A lady told me about the first tree to go.
Aela gave Sera a hard stare.
Kael held on to Ren's shoulders even tighter.
Lyra finally spoke.
She spoke with an air of authority that neither sounded sarcastic nor jocular.
"That's not the right place."
A second heartbeat surged in Ren's throat.
"What now?"
"Something that should have died."