Chapter Fourteen - Part One

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As soon as the door closed, Seruya said, "Get out."

"I am not able to."

Of course not. So her trust had been betrayed after all. "You know I will force you."

"You must try to understand. This place is protected by a field of energy that drives away my kind. I can only be here clothed in your flesh. You cannot eject me, because there is nowhere for me to go."

"How convenient for you."

"I would be able to scout this location much more quickly were I free to move around. I had intended to explain this before entry, but circumstances made that impossible. As soon as we leave, or manage to disable the field, I will vacate your body."

Seruya felt Sage's presence as a constant, inaccessible awareness. It felt like a violation, and having agreed to it initially didn't make it any better, but she could endure it a while longer.

She slowly scanned her new surroundings, so unlike anything she had seen before. She stood in a short corridor with white walls and a grey floor that felt cold to her feet, with a single door leading further into the structure. A bright part of the ceiling lit the space. "Since you're going to be here, guide me. How do I open that door?"

"There is a knob on the wall to the right. Pushing it should open the door."

She followed the instructions and the door slid sideways to disappear into the wall. Light spilling out from the corridor revealed only vague shapes, but as soon as she stepped through, glowing rectangles in the ceiling blinked to life. She stood at a crossroads of three corridors. The two to either side featured doors on one side, spaced regularly apart, and terminated at corners leading further into the building. Ahead, the third corridor led to another intersection, but a section of the wall to the right had been cut down to chest height, creating a separate, square space that contained many small doors and things she had no words for.

Nothing she saw existed in her world, and the sour, dry air added to her sense of displacement. She couldn't begin to grasp how this place had been created, or what purpose all these things served. Her reflexes and experience were useless. She wouldn't even know how to detect a threat, let alone deal with it.

"I suggest you go into the enclosed area ahead. We may be able to access information there."

Somewhere inside, she would find the way out of this place. As much as she detested relying on the spirit, she would use it to learn everything she could. A Sharyukin was nothing if not adaptable. She approached the low wall.

A stool sat behind it. Bones lay scattered on the seat and the floor around it, along with a skull and a shiny round object. The confirmation that someone had been here before sparked a sense of relief and reassurance, that she hadn't accidentally passed into some demonic underworld. "This one will be of little help."

"Perhaps. Do you see the small square object lying among the bones?"

She'd assumed it was debris. "What of it?"

"It is a device that contains information. Its placement on the floor suggests this individual held it in their hand when they died, which might mean they wanted it to be found."

She picked it up and held it up to her eye. A black square the size of her thumbnail, as thin as a flake of flint. "This contains information?"

"Additional devices are needed to access it. If you turn to your right, you will see a desk. Towards the―"

"What's a desk?" she snapped. "Speak plainly!"

"A horizontal surface used for work. Do you see the hand-shaped objects on top? Just below the one on the right, there is a small opening that should fit the device."

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