We all wait impatiently until, eventually, a lifetime later, Zila nods. It looks like everything is okay for us to enter. Kal punches the door control, and we move cautiously inside, crowding around it, pulling out our uniglasses. The thing is giving off zero energy. Apart from the fact that it’s physically present, there’s no way to tell if it’s broadcasting, if it has a power source internally, or what it’s for. Still, it’s a place to start, so we begin our analysis.
Except for Aurora. She doesn’t pull out Magellan. Instead, she stares at the thing as if she’s in a trance. And then, unblinking, but with a faint hint of a smile, she reaches out to curve her hand across its surface.
“I’M NOT SURE THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA, BOSS … ,” Magellan says.
“Aurora?” Kal asks.
Her fingers touch the surface.
Her uniglass makes a spitting, popping sound.
And she collapses at my feet.
18
AURI
I’ve never seen a view this beautiful in my life.
Back on Earth, there were no stretches of green like this left. On Octavia, there were endless swaths of wild land, but I never saw them in person—not until they were covered by the creeping Ra’haam. But this place is different to both of them.
Almost as far as the eye can see, it’s lush, flawless garden. Waterfalls of flowers tumble down gentle hills. Sprays of red blossoms hang from the trees. It’s an endless parade of blooms and plants, each more exquisite than the last, each different from those that went before.
As the landscape stretches—no, soars—away from me, my eyes don’t know where to settle. This place would make Eden look dull. Everything is brilliantly clear, the air crisp, the temperature perfect. On the horizon is some sort of city, tall spires of crystal stretching up toward a glorious, golden sky.
But the thing that strikes me most is the incredible sense of well-being. It’s like I’m drunk on the sunshine, on the purest air I’ve ever breathed. I don’t think I’ve spent a moment since I woke up on Aurora Station feeling anything less than tired and scared, and the lifting of that weight makes me feel like I could leap one of those distant crystal spires in a single bound.
Lacking anything else to do, I set out toward them. They’re a landmark, after all—maybe I’ll find something there that will explain to me where I am. I know I should be more worried, but it’s somehow impossible to muster any concern.
There are no paths, but the grass is short and easy to walk across. I make my way down into a valley with a spring in my step, walking along a field of waist-high blue flowers. I trail one hand along them as I move past, and they bob and bow, turning their faces to follow me.
It’s a little hard to judge time, but it feels like I’ve been walking for hours when I spot the figure. It’s quite close—I wonder how I didn’t see it sooner—and although it’s human-shaped, it’s most certainly not a human.
It doesn’t hurt my eyes, but I can’t quite look directly at it. It’s a creature of light and crystal, a golden glow and a myriad of refracting rainbows inside its shape. It has three fingers on each hand, and I realize that its right eye is white and aglow, just like mine. But though it’s one of the strangest creatures I’ve ever seen—and I’ve been to a Casseldon Bianchi party—I feel no fear at all. Instead, I continue on my way to meet it, and I’m not surprised when it greets me.
The words are like music, but I don’t think I hear them out loud. They just sort of … arrive in my head.
Greetings, it says. Welcome to the Echo. I am the Eshvaren.
“The Eshvaren?” I parrot back at it, like an idiot. “I thought you were a whole species, not just one, uh …” I look its shimmering body up and down. “Person?”
It gives me a tiny bow.
I am a gathering of wisdom. A memory of many. Just as this place is the memory of our homeworld. An echo of a place that once was.
I have no idea of the proper response to that, but I figure I can’t go wrong returning the greeting. “It’s good to meet you. I’m Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley.”
You are a Trigger, it replies, with a hint of ceremony.
“Yes, that’s right!” Eagerness wells up inside me, and I step closer. “And if you’re the Eshvaren, you