The lights went out.
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then Rowan whispered:
“I hate this.”
Elias raised his weapon.
“Quiet.”
A low vibration passed through the floor.
Not a tremor.
Something mechanical.
Something moving.
Mara watched through the camera feed, though the image was almost completely black.
“Elias.”
“I’m here.”
“Can you see anything?”
“No.”
Dr.
Vale’s voice came from somewhere ahead.
“Don’t move.”
Rowan whispered, “That’s not reassuring.”
“There’s a reason I said it.”
A faint blue light appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Five lights formed a circle around the floor.
Dr.
Vale stared at them.
“It’s searching.”
“For what?” Elias asked.
“Her.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Me?”
Dr.
Vale looked directly into the camera.
“The custodian.”
“I’m right here.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me what it wants.”
Dr.
Vale hesitated.
“We don’t know.”
Elias frowned.
“You built the system.”
“We built Meridian.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Dr.
Vale’s voice became quieter.
“Meridian was designed to connect worlds.”
She looked at the glowing circles.
“Whatever is beneath us was never part of Meridian.”
A metallic scrape echoed through the facility.
Rowan raised his rifle.
Something moved beyond the corridor.
Fast.
Too fast to see.
Elias stepped in front of Selene.
“Stay behind me.”
Mara watched the feed.
“Elias.”
“What?”
“Don’t shoot unless you have to.”
He glanced at the camera.
“Why?”
“Because it hasn’t attacked.”
A pause.
“Yet.”
Mara looked at Dr.
Vale.
“Can you communicate with it?”
Dr.
Vale laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“No.”
“Then what can we do?”
“Wait.”
Mara hated that answer.
The sound stopped.
Silence returned.
Then the floor opened.
A circular section of metal lowered into darkness.
Rowan stared.
“That wasn’t there before.”
Dr.
Vale nodded.
“It was.”
“That’s worse.”
She stepped toward the opening.
Elias caught her arm.
“Where are you going?”
“Down.”
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s my facility.”
“It’s also my people.”
Dr.
Vale looked at him.
“Then you understand.”
Elias didn’t answer.
Mara interrupted.
“Wait.”
Everyone stopped.
She had noticed something on the camera.
“Dr.
Vale.”
“Yes?”
“Look at the wall behind you.”
The scientist turned.
A faint symbol had appeared.
Four circles.
And one line extending beyond them.
Dr.
Vale’s face drained of color.
“Oh.”
Elias noticed.
“You know that symbol.”
“Yes.”
“What does it mean?”
Dr.
Vale whispered:
“Direction.”
Mara stared.
“The machine asked me to choose a direction.”
“That’s not a choice.”
“Then what is it?”
Dr.
Vale looked toward the opening. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“An instruction.”
Mara felt cold.
“To do what?”
“To point the network somewhere.”
“Where?”
Dr.
Vale looked at the five circles.
“That’s what the original experiment was trying to determine.”
Elias stepped closer.
“Where?”
Dr.
Vale finally answered.
“Home.”
Mara sat down.
Home.
The word sounded different now.
Aurelia.
Veyra.
Two worlds.
Two lives.
She had spent weeks thinking about trade.
Seeds.
Food.
Buildings.
A farm.
She had never considered that the mirror might not simply connect two places.
It might be trying to decide where the connection belonged.
“Elias.”
“Yes?”
“If the network stabilizes toward Aurelia…”
“Then Veyra could lose access.”
“And if it stabilizes toward Veyra?”
“You could lose the mirror.”
Mara frowned.
“Could?”
“We don’t know.”
Dr.
Vale answered.
“You could lose much more than that.”
Everyone looked at her.
She continued.
“The network doesn’t simply connect locations.”
“It connects states.”
“States?”
“Reality states.”
Mara stood.
“Explain.”
Dr.
Vale looked tired.
“Imagine two pieces of paper.”
She held up her hands.
“Separate.”
Then brought them together.
“Now overlap them.”
Mara nodded.
“The original Meridian system created temporary overlap.”
“And The Falling?”
“The overlap stopped being temporary.”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“You said Meridian failed.”
“It did.”
“Then why is it still operating?”
Dr.
Vale looked at Mara.
“Because someone kept it alive.”
Mara’s eyes widened.
“My grandfather?”
Dr.
Vale shook her head.
“No.”
“Who?”
Dr.
Vale looked toward the underground opening.
“The fourth.”
A sound came from below.
Four knocks.
Everyone froze.
Mara felt the same pressure she’d felt beneath Whitmore House.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Then— five.
The fifth knock was different.
It wasn’t mechanical.
It sounded almost like a hand.
Rowan whispered:
“Please tell me everyone heard that.”
“Everyone heard it,” Selene said.
Elias looked at Dr.
Vale.
“What is down there?”
Dr.
Vale didn’t answer.
“Mara,” Elias said.
“I’m here.”
“I need you to do something.”
“What?”
“Don’t activate anything.”
“That was already my plan.”
“Good.”
He looked toward the opening.
“Then we go down.”
The underground chamber was enormous.
Mara watched through Elias’s camera.
Rows of machines stretched into darkness.
Most were dead.
Some were waking.
At the center stood a circular platform.
Four columns surrounded it.
Each column bore a different symbol.
Biological.
Spatial.
Energy.
Connection.
Elias walked closer.
Dr.
Vale followed.
“This was the primary control chamber.”
Rowan looked around.
“Where are the people?” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Dr.
Vale stopped.
“What?”
“The four anchors.”
She swallowed.
“Dead.”
“All of them?”
“No.”
Rowan waited.
Dr.
Vale looked at Mara through the camera.
“Not all.”
The fourth column lit up.
Mara’s breath caught.
The symbol changed.
A name appeared.
THOMAS WHITMORE
Then:
STATUS: DECEASED
Then:
SUCCESSOR: MARA WHITMORE
Mara whispered:
“I don’t understand.”
Dr.
Vale answered.
“Neither did Thomas.”
The fourth column began glowing brighter.
Then a second name appeared.
MARA WHITMORE
Beneath it:
STATUS: ACTIVE
Then another line.
STABILIZATION COMPATIBILITY: 97.4%
Elias stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Dr.
Vale looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because she’s never been exposed to Aether.”
Dr.
Vale shook her head.
“Not intentionally.”
Mara’s stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
Dr.
Vale hesitated.
“Your grandfather didn’t simply find the Meridian station.”
“What did he do?”
“He used it.”
“For what?”
“To protect your family.”
Mara couldn’t breathe.
Elias stepped closer to the camera.
“From what?”
Dr.
Vale looked toward the fourth column.
“The Falling.”
The chamber shook.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
A warning appeared across every screen.
EXTERNAL SIGNAL DETECTED
APPROACHING
APPROACHING
APPROACHING
Rowan looked around.
“Something’s coming.”
Dr.
Vale nodded.
“Yes.”
Elias looked at the map.
The fifth point was moving.
It was no longer approaching the Meridian facility.
It was inside it.
The display changed.
ANCHOR FIVE
Then:
OBSERVER
Then:
DISTANCE: 0
The lights died.
A figure appeared at the far end of the chamber.
Human.
Tall.
Motionless.
Mara leaned toward the mirror.
“Who is that?”
Elias raised his weapon.
Dr.
Vale whispered:
“I don’t know.”
The figure took one step forward.
Then another.
Its face remained hidden.
Elias shouted:
“Stop!”
The figure stopped.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the figure lifted one hand.
Every Meridian machine in the chamber activated.
The four columns illuminated.
And the mirror in Whitmore House suddenly turned completely white.
Mara stepped back.
A voice came through the glass.
Not Elias.
Not Dr.
Vale.
Not human enough to identify.
Just one word.
“Mara.”
She froze.
The voice continued.
“Choose.”
The four symbols appeared on the mirror.
AURELIA
VEYRA
MERIDIAN
UNKNOWN
Mara stared.
She finally understood.
The machine had never been asking her where she wanted the connection to go.
It was asking her which reality she was willing to risk.
And there was no option marked BOTH.
END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN