The Greatest Discovery

Books

To Pattis' surprise, he finished all his chores with time to spare. He even had a quarter of an hour to sit down and write a list of things he needed to bring to the makeshift lab in addition to what he had left tucked in the railing cubby. Fortunately, the cubby turned out to be large enough to fit even the storm simulator, so he only had to carry back a few books and equipment that he didn't have room for the day before.

The spare time would be a welcome change from the day before if not for the fact that most of it were saved in the food distribution line. There was significantly less produce given away and he felt guilty for the wishes he had in the morning. There may very well be no lavis left in Dumadari soon. Too soon. He got half the usual portion today but gave half of that to a woman who arrived too late and found nothing but empty boxes. She represented the majority. He had never seen such a number of the tiny brown specks of hungerspren zipping up and down the streets.

He expected to find the soulcaster running the length of the stairs when he got to its base, but he was the first to arrive this time. That troubled him. He was sure Juliyah would not miss her workout for anything rather than an emergency. Storms! I hope they didn't make her practice bi-focus. It was one thing to know that some unknown soulcaster would die if he didn't succeed, but knowing that someone so full of life and fond of 'math, languages, reading fiction and daydreaming' would have to... that was more than he could easily contemplate.

To his relief, just when another minute would mark her as being late, Juliyah scrambled up, panting, to the east stairway. She must have sprinted all the way from the soulcaster wing to make her breathe this heavily. She let her hood fall back when she reached him and put her hands on her hips, as if to keep them from running further.

"I hope I am not late," she said between gasps for air. "It takes me on average fifteen minutes to get here in a full sprint, but the corridors that are usually empty are now stuffed with people that have absolutely no idea how to step out of the way. If the tower itself was crumbling on top of them, they would still not move an inch!"

Pattis smiled at her and she smiled back, though none of the levity he saw in those twin emeralds of eyes pranced there today. Her face seemed drawn, as if she slept even less than he managed to, and pale, like someone who had looked through a magnifying lens at ladybug and saw a voidbringer instead.

"Is everything alright?" he asked as Juliyah stormed past him to her place by the railing in a cloud of rippling robes, loose hair, and swaying leaves.

"Of course," she said and tugged on her freehand sleeve unconsciously. Out of habit, Pattis guessed. "Just a very busy morning. Did you get enough hours of sleep?"

From the way she studied his face, Pattis thought she knew the answer. Just mentioning sleeping made him want to curl up on one of the wide steps and doze off. He managed to keep himself from yawning.

"Got a few," he said. If she could play an optimist, so could he.

"That is one article too many to be true," she replied, some of the old mischief returning to her expression. The moment didn't last long, though. "Let's get to it," she said evenly, "before we both start sleepwalking."

Pattis was already calibrating the voltage level on the energy fabrial. They settled into the work routine they established the day before. Juliyah helped him readily and proactively with everything she could, but between those moments, he noticed her looking shakily around, as if wary of someone watching. Alone as they were at the staircase, he wasn't sure what or who that could be. Once, he even thought he heard her mumble "What do you want from me?" and shudder as if in response to an inaudible answer.

That brought back Jasuio's warning but Pattis shooed it away. If he judged the soulcaster correctly, whatever was happening to her must not only be real but documented and statistically analyzed. That thought made him even less comfortable. Twice, he looked over his shoulder himself.