“Emmie?”

Emilia’s eyes fluttered open, the familiar sight of her school library greeting her. Fucking stars, how was it that no matter how hard she tried, she still somehow managed to fall asleep here Every. Single. Time. Must be something about the Virtuosi terminals, humming quietly in the background. They could to be upgraded to the new, silent models—it wasn’t like the school was lacking in donations—but the school was big on not being wasteful.

That was stupid: they could donate the terminals to a school in a less well-off area—not that schools in most parts of Baalphoria were underfunded. The government was pretty good at funding everyone equally, but most schools weren’t their school. The terminals they had were already light-years ahead of the ones found at the average school: a gift from the Drydens, back when their oldest had still been attending.

Luckily, that terrible, bitchy ass girl had graduated. Still didn’t stop the school from refusing to upgrade her parents' gift—read: bribery, so the school wouldn’t expel their abusive, bully of a daughter—and claiming it was because getting rid of the terminals would be wasteful. Everyone knew it was really because the school didn’t want to offend them.

The irony that they had a younger son attending now who Emilia knew would benefit from terminals that didn’t buzz being around. The Drydens didn’t care about their youngest child. He was an ECC dyad, and that meant they tolerated him for no reason other than that their friends would judge them for getting rid of him, whether through adoption when he was younger or a boarding school now.

Such things were done in the sub-50s, and they were not sub-50s.

Speaking of Simeon…

Emilia peeked up at her classmate. “Sorry,” she signed, her personal sign language quickly morphing into sloppy BSL when she spotted Simeon’s aide standing behind him. The grumpy old man narrowed his eyes but said nothing—they’d argued enough about the pros and cons of each sign language a few times, and neither of them of currently inclined to repeat the same points yet again. Later, perhaps, when they were in a room that didn’t echo quite as badly.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Emilia blinked up at Simeon. He could speak, yes, but it was rare and something was wrong. This wasn’t how this moment had gone—

How this moment had gone?

A moment from a memory.

Not real life.

A dream.

“A dream, yes,” Simeon agreed, eyes locked onto hers in a way they never did. Disturbing emerald orbs, intense and unblinking. “You shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.”

“Why not?” Emilia asked. Dream or not, other than once when they were thirteen, and she’d screamed at him for his own safety, she hadn’t verbally spoken to Simeon since she had found out he didn’t like speaking or listening.

Simeon’s head cocked, the blunt blonde bob he had sported since they were children shifting in a perfect, unnatural line. “I don’t know, but something is wrong. We shouldn’t be able to—”

Emilia gasped awake, her lungs seizing up as she fought against the tidal wave of power that had just bodily ejected her from her dream. Dream? Had it been a dream? She’d been assuming the things she saw while asleep here were dreams, and while she was certain some were dreams, others…

Others felt wrong, just as Simeon had said.

“Fucking platform,” she muttered as she rubbed at her eyes. They weren’t crushed with any sleep, at least, so hopefully they hadn’t been—

“V!” she cried, turning and finding him collapsed at the base of the heartcore a few feet away.

Her friend had obviously moved her, after she had stupidly touched the heartcore without thinking or planning or even properly discussing it! Fucking stars she was so—

She was so not riling herself up again. She’d been hyped up before passing out, but luckily, her nap seemed to have brought her back down. Overestimation could be fun, but at the moment, it wasn’t something anyone needed. Not her, not V, and certainly not the kids waiting for her…

Emilia glanced at V’s sleeping form before tugging the coat he had tucked under her head over to him and stuffing it under his instead. She popped up, glaring over the edge of the spire that housed the heartcore, looking for the exit.

Below, a barren world of muddy brown earth lay. Aside from the spire—also a terrible, muddy brown—there were two doors. One was… oozing, which was gross, but an easy indication that that way lay the horror of the flesh tunnel. On the other side of the room sat another, closed door. Exit.

Looking back at V, Emilia weighed her options. Presumably, V was the friend Honey had mentioned… maybe. He could be, or it could have been a coincidence. Annoyingly, in her excitement, she hadn’t had the sense to ask him whether anyone knew he was coming or if he’d left someone with the kids.

Who would he have left? Emilia had no idea, but they could have company out there—allies V had made over the last few days or the missing kids—or be alone. Either way, if V hadn’t been the one Honey was referring to…

Actually, fuck that. Even if V had been the friend coming for her, someone else could show up to hurt the kids. It was nice to hope V was the only one coming, but she couldn’t rely on that.

She had to go.

She had to get back to the kids.

“⸂Sorry, V,⸃” she whispered, leaning down to place a kiss to the unconscious man’s forehead. She wanted to wait, but without any knowledge of how long he had waited to touch the heartcore himself, she wasn’t going to risk it. “⸂Come find me, again.⸃” Emilia froze as her voice seemed to… echo. That was weird.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Shaking herself, Emilia bolted down the stairs, taking them two at a time—hey, she was short and couldn’t manage more than that without risking tripping and toppling over the edge, okay? She halted on one of the three landings that circled the spire, each a third of the way up. Something was wrong. Was she talking out loud? It felt like her thoughts were louder than usual. Smacking a hand to her lips, Emilia waited.

…

…

…

Okay, maybe she was losing it?

Except, there it was again. Thoughts to loud and—

“⸂Fuck,⸃” she growled as she continued on, cursing herself for being stupid.

⸂I’m so fucking stupid!⸃ she hissed as she vaulted over the edge a dozen or so feet from the bottom. ⸂I knew that all internal voices became aethervoices! Why didn’t I realize this was going to happen!⸃

A long stream of curses exploded out of Emilia's head and mouth as one. It was one thing to think bad things about yourself, it was another to hear them literally echoing through the universe!

“⸂This is so bad,⸃” she muttered, releasing a long sigh as she reached the door and pulled it open. Realistically, Emilia knew the reason she hadn’t thought about how bad being able to speak the local language would be was the same reason she’d entered the labyrinth with barely a second thought: the labyrinth had been affecting her mind before she even entered the thing. She still felt ridiculously stupid, and not being able to contain those thoughts wasn’t helping.

This was going to get old really fucking fast.

The world bent as Emilia stepped through the door, sound and light shifting and winding together until she was stepping into the world of the raid again. Thankfully, she stepped out right where she had entered—yet another thing she hadn’t thought of before her little adventure. Fucking stars.

⸂Emilia!⸃ Caro called, immediately appearing in front of her and wrapping thankfully—blessedly—unharmed arms around her, Astra smashing into her a second later as well. ⸂You’re back.⸃

“⸂I am,⸃” Emilia replied, cringing when her voice came through in an unfortunate echo. Not only did her normal and aethervoice overlap gracelessly, her aethervoice was also too loud.

⸂Well, looks like you’re having the same problem most of the visitors have when they acquire the gift of speech.⸃

Emilia’s eyes shot up, landing on a delicate looking woman, her fingers already itching to reach for one of her weapons.

⸂There’s no need for that,⸃ the woman said, her voice holding a calming quality that seemed less than genuine and only served to aggravate Emilia further. ⸂I’m no threat to you. Did your friend not reach you in time? V? He is a… friend of mine,” she said, voice just barely catching on the friend part, and making Emilia’s heart clench because she could be an enemy of V’s or his friend or something else to him and fucking everlasting stars!

The woman laughed, an edge of taunting in it, as Emilia groaned and tried to get her thoughts to either chill or stop leaking out of her.

⸂What does ‘something else to him’ mean?⸃ Caro asked, peeking curiously between Emilia, Gale and the mystery woman.

Gale looked unimpressed, shaking her head in barely contained disgust, although Emilia couldn’t be sure why and—

⸂Because that man is… weird. I think you could do better,⸃ the teenager supplied, her voice sliding privately through Emilia.

Gale attempting to keep her disparaging opinion of V to herself was kind, if also completely unhelpful when Emilia didn’t know how to quiet her internal voice, let alone direct it at Gale alone. What followed, flowing out of her brain in starts and stops as she attempted to drag her mind under control, was a mix of embarrassing and inappropriate statements that Astra thankfully cut off with a surge of energy through her. It hurt, having the girl’s energy forced through her meridians, but the pain was better than the embarrassment that she and everyone else had been experiencing.

⸂That’s one way to shut someone up,⸃ the mystery woman snorted, eyes locked onto the location of the labyrinth entrance, rather than Emilia or Astra, who was gently patting her back as she dry heaved.

“I did run into him,” Emilia managed to say between her attempts at throwing up the contents of her very empty stomach. “He was unconscious at the heartcore when I left. I didn’t want to leave the kids out here by themselves.”

⸂He didn’t tell you I was here?⸃

“It didn’t come up.”

⸂Ah,⸃ the woman said, although to Emilia, it sounded like she wanted to tell her—or perhaps V—off for her presence not coming up.

Given how little information Emilia had provided about what happened, that seemed a little unfair. V could have shown up moments before she touched the heartcore, after all! So rude. This lady was—

Emilia clamped all her willpower around her thoughts as her energy settled, and her thoughts began to once more leak forth like a torrent that would not be stopped.

⸂What are you doing?⸃ Gale asked as Emilia began counting rocks.

“⸂Trying to keep my brain occupied, so I don’t bury people in inappropriate thoughts,⸃” she grumbled before returning to counting, doing her best to focus on that while also listening to Gale and the mystery woman discuss the situation.

⸂We have to wait for V,⸃ the woman was saying over Gale’s complaints that she could wait while the rest of them got moving.

⸂You can catch up with us,⸃ the teenager shot back, chin high as she held her ground against the woman.

⸂And where do you think you’ll get to? Hm?⸃ The woman scoffed, her eyes dragging judgmentally over their group. ⸂Three children and a visitor who can’t control her mind any more than a toddler. Ridiculous.⸃

⸂We’ve managed without any local adults for most of our journey,⸃ Gale bit back, which Emilia didn’t think was the most helpful stance, given without Boundary showing up, that crazy Enclave lady probably would have killed her, Astra and Stephy, and who knew what Conrad’s brother would have done to the rest of them.

The woman’s aether vibrated, more words about to leak out over Gale—who really didn’t deserve to be talked to like she was stupid—when a disoriented and slightly panicked looking V stepped out of the labyrinth.

⸂Emilia!⸃ he called, eyes locking onto her with almost inhuman speed and accuracy. ⸂There you are— Why are you counting?⸃

⸂She can’t control her aethervoice,⸃ Caro supplied, patting her on the head because both they and Astra had taken to treating her like a child who needed comfort. That was fair. Emilia was very sad and needed all the comfort she could get.

⸂You didn’t have an aethervoice before you went in,⸃ Gale noted, taking the momentary distraction to get as far from the mystery woman as she could. In her hand, Gale had Emilia’s {Blood Dagger} out, looking like she very much wanted to use it on the woman. That was also fair, she hadn't made a great impression so far.

⸂Ah… no,⸃ V’s eyes flicked between the various members of their group. Annoyingly, he was almost completely silent as he assessed the situation, only occasional words and broken sounds leaking out of him.

“⸂So unfair,⸃” Emilia muttered, poking at a loose rock.

⸂Fran,⸃ V said, turning unhappy eyes onto his companion.

⸂Yes?⸃ the woman asked, tone suddenly syrupy sweet as she fluttered her fucking eyelashes at the man, and Emilia stomped down her growing suspicion that even if V wasn’t something else to this Fran, Fran herself certainly wished he was.

She didn’t do a particularly good job of keeping her suspicions out of her internal monologue, unfortunately. Fortunately, Astra’s attention was effectively glued to her, and the moment Emilia’s eyes widened in panic, another burst of the child’s energy was racing through her and temporarily wiping out her ability to use her aethervoice.

“Not that I don’t appreciate that, Astra, but man! That is some painful shit,” Emilia breathed out between more dry heaves.

“⸂Fran,⸃” V repeated, voice far darker than the first time. “⸂I know you can help her.⸃”

Fran’s weight shifted, her arms crossing and uncrossing before she muttered, ⸂Fine,⸃ and stomped over to temporarily remove Emilia’s ability to use her aethervoice.