Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
And the ocean is cyan-blue, like the canals from home. A different, lighter color than the sky.
Tyse walks up behind me, slipping his hand around my waist like we’ve done this a million times already.
Like it’s always been us. Like he’s always been my happily ever after.
Like he’s always been my dream.
“This so-called Godslayer, as well as his Courtesan, are inarguably the most hated figures in all of human history. Their violence is repulsive. Their complete lack of regard for the inhabitants of other worlds is revolting. And though the history books do not yet reflect it, they will spend eternity burning in Hell for their actions. Mark my word on that.”
—William Morton Smith, Department Chair, College of Historical Violence, Upsilon City
TYSE
It’s been more than three weeks since Clara, Anneeta, and I arrived in Delta City and so far the god hasn’t called me into the tower. It’s off-putting, in a way, because I know he wants to talk to me. There’s no way he doesn’t want to talk to me. How many boys leave here every year to be augmented? Two? Maybe three. Certainly never more than three a year.
And how many of them come back?
I don’t actually know the answer to that, but it’s got to be a rare thing. Why would they come back? If they lived through deployment, they would be thirty-four years old once they earned their pensions. Twenty years. Why would anyone come back after twenty years?
Unless, of course, all Delta’s augments are out there appropriating spark from across the veil, charming Spark Maidens into being their partners, and stealing baby gods.
Which might actually be a thing since Anneeta isn’t Delta’s only mini-sparkplug. He’s got quite the collection of little gods in a school down on the beach.
There’s definitely something going on here that I haven’t been filled in on. But it’s not bad being home. Clara and I have a nice place on the top floor of a building. It came furnished and it’s a thousand times better than what we were living in back in the tower ruin.
Clara says it reminds her of home. And it’s the same for me, obviously, since this place is literally my home.
I’m not exactly sure how the coin works here in Delta because I was a kid when I left and I didn’t pay for anything back then. I didn’t have parents, either. I was always in consideration for augmentation so as a child, I lived in a special home on the beach with other boys in the same situation.
Kinda like the school they have Anneeta in, now that I think about it.
I didn’t earn any money as a kid. That I know of, anyway. I wasn’t expected to pay for anything. And that’s kind of the vibe I’m getting here now.
That I am… kept.
Which is a familiar feeling since I was in Sweep. I was kept there, too. Didn’t pay for nothing. Not even when we went on leave. Both the whores and the booze were paid for with coin from the unit accounts.
So I’m not bothered about the money situation.
I’m bothered because Delta hasn’t called for me yet and I was expecting to see him on day one.
My gaze scans the room of people and lands on Clara. She’s talking to another woman who is about her age, so I get to stare at her unnoticed. There are a lot of pretty people here at this party. Clara started dragging me out for social engagements on day five. It’s her thing. She likes people. She likes being around them, and talking to them, and showing off her body, and her hair, and her clothes.
And why not? If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
But she’s still got that same self-possession she had back in Tau City. She’s very polite and easy to talk to. Our first day out after fully recovering from the train ride in, she made three friends standing in line for coffee. It’s like she was born to network.
She’s got a phone now and there are twenty-seven contacts in it.
How do you make twenty-seven friends in a new city in just three weeks?
I’ve got a new phone too and Clara is the only number in there. I don’t even have Anneeta’s number yet. But this woman, she’s got twenty-seven new friends.
The funny thing is, it’s got nothing to do with the people or the city. It’s just who she is. And these people like her. They don’t tolerate her. They don’t see her as the new shiny thing they need to get in on. They like her.
Clara finally feels my gaze and when those spark-colored eyes of hers meet mine, she smiles. She doesn’t display, though. It’s weird. Even though the air in Delta is filled with spark, she’s in control of it now. Like somewhere along the way she mastered the subtle art of spark-witching without even joining a cult, or whatever.