That…had happened with the kitsen too, hadn’t it? Hesho said their cytonics had vanished for some reason. As I was considering this, a woman appeared out of the wall. She was middle-aged, with tan skin and colorful robes. I followed her as she walked out of the building, then over to the nearby edge of the fragment. There she settled down, looking out at the expanse.
Time passed. Months, maybe years. And still she sat there, as if waiting for something. Finally she rose and walked past us.
“Who are you?” I asked.
And the impression returned, I am the only one who was not killed by the beast.
Wait. Wait. Had she replied?
I followed her back into the building as she walked up to the portal. There she rested her hand—and lines in the stone began to spiral and flourish out at her touch.
I feel your questions, the impression said. It is my talent. Though I do not know any of you, I leave my answers in the portal.
“What happened?” I asked. “To the cytonics?”
A beast. Raised by an alien species who had technological marvels.
I saw something in my mind then. An assembly of thousands of cytonics—of a hundred different races—gathering to fight…something dark, something rising from a blackness, but with a set of piercing white eyes.
It…destroyed them, the cytonic said. We fought. We won. But the price was so high…
“How?” I asked. “How did you win?”
We made it become real, she said. I do not know how. I survived…and those who did know how…were consumed. She lowered her hand. She’d…inscribed her memories into the portal, which…were now reaching me somehow?
Chet walked up behind me. “Time is unnatural in the nowhere, but this is strange even by its standards,” he said. “I…have no idea what to make of this.”
I felt the vision begin to fade. It was coming to the end of its memories.
“Wait,” I said to the woman. “You kept your memories while living in the nowhere. How?”
Why would I lose my memories? the impression returned.
“That’s an attribute of this place,” I said.
Not in our time. You face a beast, like ours.
“Not one beast,” I said. “Thousands. Millions of them.”
Then you are doomed.
“No. There has to be a way!”
Find the memories…of the man who will come… Find the memories…of the man named Jason Write.
Then a different sort of impression came upon me, as had happened during the previous vision. I understood it better because I was stronger in my powers, better at listening. It felt like dozens, maybe hundreds, of minds reaching to me from within the stone.
Further…they encouraged me. Even further…
They presented for me something like a wall. I forced my mind against it and could not get through.
Stronger. But not harder.
I don’t understand! I sent.
You are not a tool to strike. Not a rock to bludgeon.
What am I? I asked.
You are a star.
And a light kindled inside me. A pure white light, the power of the nowhere. I became a flaming sword, and when I shoved, my mind pierced the barrier.
Good… Good… Continue.
A location popped into my head. Another portal? It was in what appeared to be a large building, filled with boxes? I frowned.
“Scrud,” Chet said.
“You recognize the place?” I asked, turning toward him.
“Indeed I do, Spensa,” he said, then took a deep breath. “That, I’m afraid, is the portal in the middle of Surehold, seat of Superiority power in this region of the belt.”
There would be time later to think over what I’d seen. For now, I burst through the open doorway of the ruins, searching for Peg. I didn’t have to hunt for long; she was leaning against a crumbling wall just outside, arms held before her, claws out. Even when lounging, the tenasi looked predatory.
“You saw something,” she said. “You’re cytonic, aren’t you? Both of you.”
“I… Yes,” I said, glancing to Chet.
“Do you know about the Path of Elders?” he asked Peg.
“Never heard that term before,” she said, “but these old ruins…they have their own memories. Anyone can feel that. And I’ve been told about cytonics.” She pushed off the wall and stood upright. “This has to do with your mission? The one that’s so important that you two had to steal a ship from us?”
“Yes,” I told Peg. “And there’s more. Tell me about your plans to assault Surehold.”