Page 108 of Primal Mirror

“Just as well I’m here then,” Auden said.

—how long this brain will function—

—integration—

—a pristine canvas—

—telepathic interlock—

—destabilizing—

Her gaze met Remi’s, and in the feral green-gold of his eyes, she saw the same realization as her own.

The doors opened in front of them.

When Auden stepped out, the nurse hesitated. “Should I fetch the doctor? He’s the only one you taught to oversee the mechanics of the integration—and he needs to be on standby in case of heart failure, as happened the first time you attempted a full transfer to this brain as a stopgap measure.”

Heart failure. And they wanted to do the same thing to her tiny, fragile, cherished baby?

Auden would murder each and every one.

The other part of her surged to the surface before she gave in to maternal rage—because that part had merged with her core nature, was her now. And that part loved Liberty, but could keep a cool head at the same time even in its murderous rage.

“Verhoeven can do nothing,” she said, frigid contempt in her tone. “His job was to maintain the pattern and the fetus—both tasks at which he has failed.” Her tone of voice made it clear that the doctor would not appreciate the cost of failure.

The nurse went pale.

Silent or not, everyone valued their skin.

“Yes, sir.” The nurse stepped out. “Should I come…?”

“Yes,” Auden said, as the other part of her faded out, a wave surging in and out. “You may as well give me a full update while we walk. I haven’t had a chance to read the latest report.”

She was aware of Remi falling into step behind them.

When the nurse glanced back and hesitated, Auden said, “He’s mine,” and the words felt right in the purest sense, with no connection to power or control. He was hers…as she was his. And Liberty was theirs. A symbiosis of love. “You can speak freely.”

“Yes, sir,” the nurse said with compliant obedience, and led her into a long and scrupulously clean tunnel before beginning a rundown using complex medical terminology that went right over Auden’s head.

But one thing was clear: the nurse was talking about a person.

A person whose brain patterns had begun to falter.

A person who needed a new brain.

A person who everyone in this household was doing everything they could to assist in what was, quite frankly, an insane endeavor. Because even the most powerful Psy in the world couldn’t just move their consciousness into another brain.

She felt no surprise at all when they emerged into a large chamber with white walls, two hospital beds, and masses of complex medical machinery to see the emaciated form of her dead mother.

Chapter 42

Auden will never be my first choice for transference, but her brain injury provided me with perfect access to test my idea of telepathic mesh. She was a malleable doll as far as her mind was concerned—and though attempts at psychic control failed as they always do because of the energy requirements, I was able to overlay a mesh over her mind that permits me to hook into it. Into her.

It’s nowhere near as smooth a transition as with my Scarabs, but those transitions are temporary and any such transition wouldn’t give me access to my web. It would also leave me stuck in the mind of a being without power, without wealth, just another weak pawn on the chessboard.

It’s possible Auden has a dormant ability to web that I can uncover. But I’m not relying on that. Neither do I have any intention of being stuck in a damaged brain. I will create the brain I need for the next phase of my evolution, and this time, I’ll begin to build the mesh from the moment of my host’s birth.

—Private journal of Shoshanna Scott (personal archive, address unknown)

---