38 - Syianne

"RED ALERT! RED ALERT! EVACUATE! ERRATIC FEILDS IN ALL LAYERS! EVACUATE!"

The voice of Control screams in my ear as Sagastus slaps my cheeks. He pulls me by my arm. His grip is powerful. He does not look worried, although I can't really read his expression through the goggles and the Lightsilver headdress. He pulls me up to my feet; his Jewel is glowing with black light.

Control room continues to boom in my ear. "The way up is faster," Sagastus's voice interrupts the transmission.

"Wait! Cello? Cello?!"

"I'm climbing up the hatch Syianne!"

I sigh, relieved and nod at Sagastus.

"Let the Zephyr push you out," he says.

Push me out? Yes. That's what it wanted all along. I had been falling in, but the Zephyr wants to spit me out. It took us a long time to get down here, but we spring up in seconds, practically flying through the open hatch.

Like coming out from a deep dive, all the color, light and life of the world floods me at once. My body feels unspeakably heavy; the noise is enough to make my head explode. The Undefined girl is already unbuckling the straps from me. I lift my goggles and push down the flap from over my mouth and nose. Sagastus is still holding onto my arm, while the Undefined girl stares at us. He pulls me along as a stream of people continues to empty out of all the hatches. We head towards the stairs. I feel extremely relieved and happy to be out of there, to be done with it. I feel different in ways I can't explain. The adrenaline is still rushing through my blood.

We're almost at the stairs when uproar makes me turn around. All the wires except two have been rolled back against the wall; all the Plungers but two have risen out of the hatches. The Undefined man next to the only occupied hatch begins rolling in the wire with a special machine, several of the other hatch workers crowd around him looking nervous.

Two empty harnesses connected by a wire burst out from the hatch.

I'm seized with panic, Cello, where's Cello? I talked to him, but he wasn't out yet. I'm shaking all over before I remember that it can't be him, his pair wire had been severed by the Scribbles. I sigh with relief, even though I know I'm horrible.

Two people have been seized by the Zephyr and I think I don't care, as long as it isn't anyone I know.

But I can't relax until I see Cello, Fellin, Dairyk and even Risa. I'm in the crowd moving up the stairs, we're like a herd of sheep, flocking up towards the surface. Most of the faces I see look grim, but some seem excited from the commotion. Sagastus is among the excited. He was successful in what he set out to achieve. He finally did it — he untapped the black energy.

What he made me do had cost the lives of two people.

No, not what he made me do: I could have said no. If I had refused to do it, there would have been no way to force me. It was my own actions that had brought peril to everyone.

"Is this happening because I broke the shell?" I ask him while we wait in line for the elevator.

"No one knows," he says. He lifts his chin, looking down the line. Sagastus isn't very tall, but I'm rather short, I can't see anything beyond the people pressed close to me. "Medrick, a word, if you please."

Risa moves up the line followed by Dairyk. I feel some relief by seeing them, but I guess they aren't enough. There was no actual danger of the Zephyr taking the precious black Jewels. "What a mess," Risa says to Sagastus.

"Did you manage to absorb anything?"

"We found a stray bead in R13. It was the craziest luck, it showed up seconds before the red alert."

"It can't be enough, take him to UD52 tomorrow."

Risa's eyes widen and she smiles, "Good work, Syianne."

I don't feel like I've done good work, I feel empty and sick, I feel like a selfish fool, a naïve child that had taken candy from a stranger. Maybe the Black Jewels are willing to go this far for more accessible power, but I feel my conscious is burning a hole in my heart.

"Do you know who was taken?"

Risa shakes her head, "not yet, we'll find out once we reach the Control room."

"What if it's Cello?" I nearly scream this.

Risa's face becomes grim but she shakes her head and points at a nearby screen. It's the Plunging radar; it shows two green dots hovering over the face. It can't be Cello then, he'd show up as a white dot. But Fellin...

Fellin!

"Lemonade!" I look up into Cello's eyes. My expression wipes the smile off his face. "What's the matter?"

"Where's Fellin? It's Fellin, he's —" my throat is clogged. I don't know how I know that it's him and his pair that have been taken. He would have found us by now had he come out.

"How do you know?" Cello asks quietly, his face becoming stoic, trying to control his emotions. I know this sort of expression; I wear it all the time. Around us, everyone has gone quiet, people stare at us, wondering who Fellin is.

"We don't know anything yet," Risa says loudly, "We'll know who it is once we reach the Control room."

"Fellin?" I suddenly shout over the crowd, "Fellin? Are you here?"

No one answers me. Maybe he's here but my voice isn't loud enough, Cello shoots me a glance and disappears inside the crowd calling Fellin's name.

Fellin isn't here.

The elevator arrives and leaves twice before it's our turn to go on. Maybe he's already gone up, he's probably waiting for us in the Portal hall. I latch on to this hope and will the elevator to go up quickly so I can feel the relief of knowing that he's here and that it wasn't him who was taken.

It was someone else, I tell myself, it wasn't Fellin. Someone else's friend is gone.

"The pairing system doesn't work after all," Dairyk muses as the elevator takes us up onto ground level, sounding like a miniature Sagastus.

The Portal hall is in chaos, with about a third of the Zephyr population crowding around, looking up at the screens. Risa Medrick tells us to stay put before going to the Control room with Sagastus. Cello, Dairyk and I loiter near the elevator, not quite sure what to do with ourselves.

We can't see Fellin anywhere — but that doesn't mean he isn't here.

I feel exhaustion overtake me, Cello touches my elbow and I look up at him, he's tense and worried, but I still see, by the way he scans the room, that he's looking for Fellin. There are so many people, perhaps he's somewhere hidden among them.

"Stop her!" someone yells as a blond girl rushes towards the elevator, pushing through the crowd. Cello lunges forward and grabs the girl around her torso with both his arms. The girl fights and kicks and Cello practically lifts her in the air to stop her. I edge closer when I notice that her face is red from crying. I can barely recognize that it is the pristine and perfectly groomed Kaitha Luegreen.

I cover my mouth with both my hands to prevent myself from screaming.

"No!" Kaitha wails, her voice high pitched and heartbreaking, "Fellin! It's Fellin! Let go of me! Oh God, it's him! My baby cousin! It's him!"

I wrap my arms around her; I've never been able to hug someone like this in the past. Everything inside me wants to scream and cry and tear the world apart. But all I can do is hold this girl feeling such disbelief and terror.

"Someone has to do something," she breaks down onto my shoulder, her body shaking with every sob. I have a clear view of the radar, of the two dots floating together over its face. I know how to read it now. On the screen next to the radar is a list of Jewels and the precise layer they are currently in. I assume that G6616 is Fellin, because that number is so close to mine and Cello's. The layer number keeps jumping erratically, one layer for every millisecond. He's falling quickly, will he fall forever? Does the Zephyr even have an end?

The green dot that is him flashes to his heartbeat, pattering quickly. I can imagine the different layers flashing before his eyes, nothing but an endless sequence of colors and thoughts and panic.

I shut my eyes tightly, trying to squeeze out tears, but they won't come.