He could die. He really could die.
I see what the woman shows me, too. His light is broken somehow, ensnared by a thousand crisscrossing strands, holding him in place with a hundred tiny walls. His attackers are not doing this to him. The walls I see are old...they strangle his light, cutting him off from whole parts of himself, leaving pieces of his aleimi dark from lack of use.
I see the imprint of the Seven on those walls.
A soft memory flickers, dies.
Who did this to him? My heart hurts more, and my head. Vash? Did Vash do this?
The female’s bright eyes remain motionless.
Why? Tears sting my own. Why would they do this?
They fear him, she says simply. That fear will kill him now, if you do not intervene, Esteemed Bridge. Help him, Alyson. Set him free. He is not one of the lost ones. He needs only to remember who he truly is...
But I am already looking at the structure encasing him, using the myriad eyes of the Barrier seers who surround me. Focusing on where those dense walls meet, I touch him with my light, trying to soften the intersection.
I feel Revik react. I feel his fear.
I send reassurance, and when he realizes who it is, he lets me in.
His relief is palpable, his warmth overwhelming as he floods my light. Affection comes with his presence, longing...for a moment it is all I can see. He wants to know where I am, how I am, but I am focused on keeping him alive, so I extract myself, looking for how I can help him. I zero in on the part of the structure that holds all the rest in place...
...and crack it easily with my light.
The walls around him begin to dissolve.
Very good, Alyson.
I barely hear her. Smiling, I watch Revik’s light shift. Inexplicably, tears come, blurring everything I can see outside the Barrier.
Gods, he is so beautiful.
He rises as I watch, his light flooding structures I’ve never seen in him, twisting around his head, around his whole body, expanding in high, white flames. His whole being flares, shaking the Barrier, trembling the nonphysical space with a burst of light.
Without knowing I am doing it, I rise with him.
For a breath at the top, we are together, really together.
I break free of the finely-woven silver light the woman has shared with me, and instantly I feel lighter; a pressure evaporates from around my heart. From this height, the metallic strands that seemed so fascinating and dense now look fake. More than fake...they look clouded, dirty, rigid and small. I see the rotating Pyramid below my feet, with thousands of beings chained to its immovable lines. Leeched of light, they dance like frail puppets made of wire.#p#分页标题#e#
I am still staring at it all in bewilderment when Revik falters.
Something jerks at him, hard, pulling him down, bringing me with him. I fight back...fight to stay above the smoke and silver clouds. My own light recovers and I try to catch his, grappling with him in the Barrier’s waves. I can’t hold him. His light curls sideways. As it does, a dark mass lights up around his head, turning that portion of his aleimi solid black.
He falls inside the Pyramid and disappears.
NO! I scream. REVIK!
Around me, humans mill in the casino. No one looks up at my screams. No one hears me as they hang over tables, drinking foul-looking cocktails with colored umbrellas and fruit dipped in formaldehyde. They all look dead to me, like corpses going through the motions of life. I scream again, and the image ripples like a pool after someone throws in a stone.
NO! REVIK! COME BACK! REVIK...!
I can’t feel him anymore. I look for him, like a diver feeling blind through pitch dark water, looking for something they can no longer see, but my hands and light come up with nothing.
No one. He is gone.
He will adjust.
I turn, sweating, gripping something in my hands.
He will live now, Alyson. You have saved his life.
I feel the silvery light creep back around mine, pulling me into its complicated strands. I am still above it, but only just. From where I am, those metallic clouds look like filth. Mirrors and death, stolen power...a lie that coats the Barrier like an oil slick. I focus on the woman’s opaque eyes, and they no longer look wise. They look dead to me. Cold.
My vision clicks into focus.
...and I found myself staring at Ivy.
Ivy. The same girl who bandaged Revik’s shoulder in Seattle, who I laughed with while she dyed my hair, who arranged for all of my IDs and passports along with Yarli. But instead of the young, happy person I remembered, Ivy looked gaunt to me now, her head too large, her skin too thin, making her appear skull-like. Her platinum-blond hair stuck up on her head, making her look more like a goblin than an elf.
She smiled at me, her eyes studying my face as she touched my arm.
Sister. Do not be afraid. Do not doubt that we are your friends.
I looked around at the physical world.
The casino, the crowds, none of that had been real, either. I stood on a deserted piece of the ship’s top deck, buffeted by a cutting wind. My hair whipped my cheeks as I looked up, where a rock face cut the sky, dark and still as it passed the port side of the ship.