It was over relatively quickly, though, and we listened to them discussing what sounded like another malachite marble. The Cruzatch had apparently vanished through it much like I can use the platforms. For the short term the two squads used fallen rubble to block the entrance, then came back down to stand in the central circle.
"We’ll report in and move on to phase two," Maze said, but then paused, looking up, and they all gazed up with him – not at any threat, but at Kalasa. Damaged, but still the city of the Lantarens. No-one said a word, they all just took a moment and looked.
I then spent the rest of the day playing taxi. Maze reported in, and I brought through a mixed bag of greensuits and greysuits. The Setari took the drone up to the highest point of the city, while the greysuits tried to decide where to start, and just before we called it a day a satellite finally succeeded in detecting it – it’s on the other side of the world from Pandora and slightly south, on an island in one of the biggest lakes. The Diodel is on its way there now, stuffed with technicians, and Second Squad along for safety. They’re going to start a settlement and try to work out how to get through the city’s shield from the outside while another bunch chip away at it from within. The malachite marble/power stone doesn’t seem to turn it off like at the Arenrhon installation.
No-one’s allowed to stay inside Kalasa overnight (night in this case being when I’m off-duty), although there’s half a dozen drones there, particularly around the re-sealed Cruzatch escape hatch. It was a long day of tentative exploration, though we did get a break for lunch – whereupon I was hugged by an awful lot of people (Nils blew in my ear for good measure, and laughed very wickedly at my reaction). I gather from something Eeli let slip that the Setari had been under strict orders to not worry me with discussions of how little they wanted me to get on any platforms. I’m back in medical again, but this time because they want to monitor me for aftereffects of being of taxi. I don’t much like sleeping in medical because the greysuits insist on popping in and out of the room. I can track their movements, though they’re still not as clear to me as the Setari.
There were crystal web traps on every single platform. I don’t think standing on the platform would have been easier than last time, if I’d come through alone.
Friday, June 13
Wake up
I outdid myself last night.
It started out unremarkable. I focused on sheep going to sleep, dreamed predictably of sheep and woke myself up almost immediately. Zee was designated babysitter, sitting in the waiting room next door, but later she left and Ruuel came and sat next to me. And then two Cruzatch rose up at the end of the bed, grabbed an ankle each, and hauled.
There’s no way to know where I would have ended up if Ruuel hadn’t been there. The room’s scanner shows him sitting in the half-lit room, relaxed in his chair, then straightening and looking intently at me, and then hurling himself forward and grabbing me as I abruptly upended. He only just managed a hold under my arms, and was almost pulled off his feet. The Cruzatch I was dreaming were very strong.
In my dream I screamed, but I make no sound on the log as blood spatters down over both of us and the sheet tangled with my legs catches alight. A panicking greysuit runs in as Ruuel uses telekinesis to pull the sheet away. Fortunately the second greysuit was less panicky and dropped a silver tinfoil sheet over it. But that was later. First Ruuel said, very clear and urgent into my ear: "It’s a dream, Cassandra. Wake up."
I hadn’t known. Or, on some level I had, but all this happened in the first few moments of my dream, so I’d barely had time to do more than process shock and pain. And then I made myself wake up and if Ruuel hadn’t had incredible reflexes I probably would have face-planted into the floor.
Although I won’t have the blood poisoning and chill and exhaustion this time around, I managed to injure myself worse than the real Cruzatch had. I’ve moved well beyond temporary marks that fade away, anyway, and now have a fine collection of inch-deep gouges, burns and bruises and a dislocated ankle along with hairline fractures. I remember very distinctly one of the greysuits saying in complete disbelief: "She dislocated her own ankle?" and suspect from the indrawn breath which followed that Ruuel must have said something particularly curt over the interface. That’s the only thing I have any real recollection of for the first few minutes after breaking out of the dream, beyond feeling rigidly frozen, and absolutely determined not to let go of Ruuel. He just said: "Deep breaths," to me whenever I started to shake, and shifted me about as necessary so the medics could stop me from bleeding everywhere.
By the time they’d pumped me full of painkillers and put my ankle back the way it’s supposed to be, both Maze and Mara had arrived. Mara took over the clutchee role for a change of clothes and room: necessary given the blood-spattered and charred state of both. All that and a really horrible drink made me calm down enough for my brain to start working.
Maze and Ruuel came to my new room after the greysuit had finished telling me exactly what I’d done to myself and how long it would take to fix. She was still wide-eyed about it all, and looked a bit regretful when Maze dismissed her with a word of thanks. Mara stayed helping me sit up at the top of the bed, resting me against her shoulder with an arm around my waist. I think I’d quite happily sleep that way if I didn’t think it would drive her mad having to stay still half the night.
"Did you know that I was going to dream badly tonight?" I asked Ruuel. My voice gets so little-girl and small when I’m upset. I hate it. At least me speaking made Maze look slightly less concerned – I hadn’t managed to do more than nod and shake my head before that.
"I considered it likely," Ruuel said, sounding as correct as usual, but I think he was relieved too. "You dealt with the need to return to Kalasa by facing it, by attempting to take a level of control preparing for it. Because it was necessary for you to not be afraid, you weren’t. There was always a high chance that after the hurdle was past, and you were no longer steeled against it, the nightmare of your first visit would recur. Add to that cages, around every platform at Kalasa. After a day thinking through the implications, a nightmare about being kidnapped by Cruzatch."
That little speech put paid to any doubts I had left about Ruuel knowing I’m obsessed with him. He can see right through me. But I wasn’t feeling very focused on romance at that moment.
"Cruzatch ever tried to capture Setari?"
"No. Their interest is almost certainly you."
Mara rubbed my arm, but Ruuel was right about me having thought most of this through yesterday. "If Cruzatch show up and offer to rescue me from evil and misguided Tarens, absolutely will set off alert straight away." I allowed myself to enjoy Maze’s expression, then sighed. "Not so sure won’t accidentally kidnap myself. Thought I was getting better at this."
"You were able to break out of this dream, though," Maze pointed out. "You’ve consistently broken out of every dream since your dream of the insect creatures in your room, yes?"
I glanced down at my legs, which are very decoratively encased in varying thicknesses of blueish nanocloth.