I strolled down the winding paths of Redbank, taking in the pristine sights and smells of a potential world that could’ve been. Had every adversity zone been like this, there’d likely never have been all that growing resentment, plotting, and scheming to lead people like General Markus into a paranoid quest to rule the world with an iron fist. Ironic, that this was his home zone. What would he have thought to see it like this now? After all, it sounded so much different when he was here. A constant fight for survival. Now, some cultist’s utopia.

Then again, remembering Markus after his reeducation, this place would be right up his alley now. He could fish and admire the marine life to his heart’s content. Though, after PanTech stripped him of all this fighting spirit and military thinking, the chances of him surviving the initial chaos and the machine attacks was probably close to zero. Same as it was for most everyone else. Even someone strong, and heroic… like Frelya.

“Everything alright, Taylor?” Ghost asked, perched on my shoulder.

“Ghost, why do you reveal your intellect to everyone on this island except the people of Redbank?”

“Ah, clever misdirection. Don’t you remember how the people in your zone viewed me?”

“You mean as some kind symbol or omen from the gods?”

“Exactly,” he said.

“Oh, so you’re afraid you’ll be worshiped as some kind of star falcon, huh? You wouldn’t enjoy that?”

“I’m not sure I can think of anything I’d enjoy less.”

I sighed, deciding it best to just get my thoughts out of my head. Ghost was a good listener, at least.

“No, I won’t dodge your question. I was just wondering what Markus would think about everything going on here, and about becoming such a legend in this place after he left.”

“Considering the state he was in when we last saw him, I doubt he was capable of thinking about much beyond his aquariums. They’d taken the ability to think about much else away from him.”

I shuddered, remembering the vague feeling of what it was like after I’d gone through the reeducation process. Thanks to Frelya, I was the only person to ever have it reversed. My thoughts from that time weren’t hard to recall, but they were impossible to understand. I’d been given this deep, genuine love for PanTech and an unbreakable devotion to its president. Feelings that were the opposite of what they’d been before.

The term ‘reeducation’ made it sounds like a series of classes, designed to encourage you to think differently. Instead, it was an invasive procedure that took weeks to complete. The brain was literally reprogrammed, exactly the way you’d expect it to be done on a machine. The whole experience was jarring, and I’d have chosen death a thousand times over. It could even lead me to pity a man like Markus.

“I think about Frelya often,” I said, taking another deep breath.

“We don’t know for certain she’s dead,” Ghost said, in his usual, deadpan way.

“Don’t, Ghost.”

“We don’t.”

“If I allow myself that hope, and it turns out to be wrong… it’ll be so much harder.”

Ghost perched silently for a moment, before sensing this was a good time to change the topic again.

“We’re approaching a residential area. You don’t actually plan to announce yourself as Chief Investigator Taylor of Rockport, do you?”

“Very funny. I’m not that stupid. No, I’m just going to look for someone old enough to know Luna from her younger days and see if I can get something resembling a straight story about her.”

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“You have done dumber things, Taylor.”

“Thank you, Ghost, for that vote of confidence.”

I spotted an elderly woman tending to a modest garden and took the opportunity to approach her.

“Hello there. My name’s Taylor. If you have some time, would you mind if I asked you some questions about the island?”

The woman stopped, slowly standing up straight to look at me. She must’ve been at least in her eighties.

“Oh, you’re the young lady Lunaria said was a good omen. Seems she was right. My husband had just started showing signs of being sick and this morning he’s back home. Resting, but home. Oh, and I’m Mira.”

I smiled and nodded. I resisted the urge to explain how this vaccine worked, and that her husband may or may not get better. But they believed this was divine intervention, and how does one go about explaining the nuances of divine intervention?

“I’m really happy to hear about your husband, Mira. I hope he’s back to his old self in no time.”

She offered a warm smile, pulling off her gloves.

“Thank you, dear. Go ahead and ask your questions. I’ll answer them as best I can.”

Had to be careful here. I couldn’t jump straight into what I was most curious about, or it would arouse suspicion.

“You probably know that I’m an outsider, so I don’t know much about this place. I’m a professor from PanTech and I’ve visited multiple adversity zones to evaluate the rising sickness. Your zone is very unique. Have you always lived here?”

This was an easy one, almost rhetorical.

“Yes, I’ve always lived here.”

“How do you feel the island has changed from when you were a kid growing up here?”

“The difference is night and day. Things were very difficult here when I was a small girl. They always told stories about Captain Markus, but because of him things were much more restrictive here. We have very little freedom to do much of anything.”

“Was it Lunaria who changed that?”

“Ever since she started speaking with the stars, things have changed dramatically for the better. PanTech rarely visits. Our trade is done through fishermen, and there haven’t been any conflicts for as long as I remember.”

“What was Lunaria like before she started communicating with the stars?”

The big smile felt somewhat force, for reasons I couldn’t quite pick up on.

“She was always a sweet girl. She and her former husband, Jeremy, were intent on improving the island. They both revered nature. Luna planned and planted the original orchard herself, you know. Jeremy changed the way fishermen did their work, and designated different areas of the water for protected species. They were quite the pair.”

“I’ve met Jeremy, and it’s hard to imagine him being like that. I know it’s probably a hard topic, but what changed?”

The woman sighed, and her expression darkened. She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. After a moment, she gestured for me to follow her.

“We should probably go inside,” she said.

Once inside, we sat at a small table, though she didn’t seem much more comfortable.

“We don’t have to discuss it if you don’t want to,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. I was eager to hear this part of the story, since no one had felt comfortable sharing it since I got here. Even Bereth was leaving out details.

“They had three children. The first was a miscarriage. The second was stillborn. The third was a healthy baby girl. I remember being there and seeing how happy they were. But then…”

The woman stopped speaking, looking down at the table as though it might scold her for what she was about to say. She took a deep breath.

“One night, Lunaria took their child to the temple to pray. The next morning, their child was gone. Lunaria was behaving strangely, and it was at that point the stars began speaking to her. Not in some vague way, but telling her things that were true, or predicting things that would become true. Your visit is just one example. There have been countless over the years.”

This was a frustrating thing to listen to. Her child disappears under her care, and everyone just turns a blind eye because now she can talk to gods?

“Guess Jeremy wasn’t as willing to move on,” I said. It was the nicest way I could think of phrasing it.

“No. He did not. The more she gave him explanations, or avoided the conversation, the less satisfied he became. He got worse and worse. He began drinking heavily and causing trouble for everyone. Many were suspicious of the changing culture here, and exiled themselves to Rockport. We all assumed they’d grow tired of the hard living there and return but… they never did. They found a way to build and create a livable environment there. Looking back, it should not have surprised us, given Jeremy had overseen the building of the temple. Many of the men who fled with him were his friends and workers who had built it alongside him. There was always an expression that Jeremy was so good of a builder that he could make a stone house float on water. I suppose that wasn’t too far from the truth.”

“Thank you,” I said, patting her arm gently. This conversation had clearly taken a lot out of her, and I’d learned everything I needed to know. For now. “Have a good day, Mira.”

As I began walking back the way I came, Ghost finally broke his silence. I’d almost forgotten he was there.

“Where to now?”

“The temple.”

“I doubt they’ll be more honest there.”

“I plan to look at the temple itself on the way, Ghost. I have a feeling there’s a secret or two hidden in those stones. That, and Lunaria did say we had things to learn from one another. Perhaps she was right.”