After discovering that human minds are created by creatures living in the atmosphere Tonya must discover the truth of who she really is before it's too late.
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Fifteen-year-old Tonya is a neglected teenager from London who...
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Tamashi floated up to the transport cables and travelled via the zip line across the city to Zarni's home. Visions of Salvo stabbing her father had haunted her mind all night.
Despite promising herself that she would never see Rupa again, she couldn't help herself thinking of her sitting up on the cliffs all alone, wondering where she was.
To distract herself she found herself going to see her best friends house where she lived with her fathers. Zarni wasn't unique to have parents of the same gender, in fact it was very common in Baadal.
When two Samsara's were ready to have a child, they caught the meteorite debris from space rocks. Samsara's were formed inside this mysterious debris, hatching from inside the dense rock.
Once they found their young, each one no bigger than a worm, they injected a miniscule fragment of a Lucid – or, for the Incubus, a piece of Akumu – taken from their own bodies inside the newborn's ear, one in the left and one in the right. This was what bonded them to their young and gave their young the identity of the parents.
When Samsara and Incubus touched and kissed each other it was for pleasure, a way to create a spiritual bond, and not for reproduction.
Tamashi threw her rope down and looped it expertly to a hook on Zarni's porch before pulling herself down from the zip-line.
Like all Samsara homes, it looked like it belonged to a skilled architect. Zarni's fathers prided themselves on the beautiful angles and delicate structure of their home and had spent years perfecting it, moulding a huge box out of the creamy meteoroid clay.
The house sat on twenty very thin concrete legs around the outside. Samsara homes were suspended in the air, so the legs were not necessary – they were just there for the aesthetic.
The house had large windows, made from glassy rock that became transparent with the heat of the sun. The windows surrounded all the sides of the box, reflecting the sky, making it camouflage into the blue. Every Samsara who saw this house agreed it was a sophisticated accomplishment.
She knocked gingerly at the huge front door. Zarni opened the door and Tamashi noticed she looked shocked to see her.
"Tamashi. Hi."
Tamashi hated how awkward she felt with Zarni now. She never used her full name, it was always Tam. She knew she'd been distant, spending all her time with Rupa and she felt desperately guilty.
"Do you want to go catching together today, Zar?"
She noticed how Zarni accepted the invitation with a formality that was strange for these once best friends.
The two girls zipped their way across the city to a popular High Line they often went to. It was an impressive Samsara made walkway that lay suspended in the air across the east side of the city and gave a beautiful view of Baadal's skyline.
