Page 88 of Primal Mirror

“I gave up on them after they did nothing to protect me during pregnancy,” Auden said. “Finn’s already ordered me a couple of new sets now that my sensitivity’s settled back down to normal levels. The thin layer generally blunts the impact of unknown imprints.”

“I’ve never thought myself ignorant on Psy abilities,” Zaira said, “but I realize I know next to nothing about psychometrics.”

“Not many people do. Can you show me what you saw in my mind?”

Zaira nodded. “I’ll project the information.”

The images were crystalline. “Your telepathy is beautiful,” Auden whispered, astonished. “Even Shoshanna didn’t send with such clarity.”

“Let’s not bring up your parents.” Zaira’s voice held ice for the first time.

Auden’s entire being went still. “I’m sorry.” For all that her family had done, the atrocities they’d helped commit.

“Nothing for you to be sorry about.” Zaira shoved a hand through her soft curls. “I apologize for snapping at you. You had nothing to do with their actions.”

Auden wasn’t sure quite how to take that.

Zaira held her gaze. “We, all of us Arrows, are learning to believe that we are not how we were brought up, that now we have a choice, we can choose to be better. So for me to accuse you of evil simply because of your parents goes against our very ethos. I was wrong. Simple as that.”

No one had ever apologized to Auden. Not that way. Not so real and honest.

“I accept the apology,” she said past the lump in her throat. “Thank you for giving me those words.”

Zaira kept on looking at her with eyes that were too incisive. “Did you grow up like us?”

“I don’t know what growing up as an Arrow is like,” Auden said, “but no, I don’t think so. My father wanted me, you see. He didn’t even care that I had a passive ability. He treated me well.”

Zaira’s expression held a quiet intensity. “I’m learning subtlety and nuance,” she said. “And how people can have different faces. I suppose I never expected Councilor Henry Scott to ever wear the face of a doting father.” The Arrow waved a hand in a slicing motion. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

Auden was glad to move past the topic of her parents. “How bad are my shields?”

“Not bad at all,” Zaira told her, to her surprise. “Who taught you shield construction?”

“My father.”

“I thought as much. He was good. But you have an erratic crack through your psychic pattern at the foundation—it’s destabilized things at the very start so that the error runs outward.”

Auden could’ve made excuses, hidden the truth, but if she was going to do that, she might as well end this session now. “I was implanted with an experimental biograft. It did permanent damage.”

Zaira’s eyes had gone gleaming obsidian at Auden’s first words. “So,” she said after a pregnant pause, “you were brought up like us after all.”

“No,” Auden said, “I had sixteen years of a life where I felt safe and protected.”

Though Zaira didn’t push the point, Auden could follow the line of her thoughts: that Auden didn’t want to believe she’d suffered because to do that would be to destroy everything she’d believed about her childhood.

“I wasn’t raised as a sacrificial lamb,” she whispered, wondering who she was trying to convince. “Until the brain damage, I was meant to be his genetic legacy. I’m almost certain Shoshanna was the one who decided to implant me.”

“All those things can be true,” Zaira said and the words weren’t harsh, just straightforward. “That your father cherished you in whatever way a Councilor born in Silence could cherish a child, and that he saw you as a tool that, once broken, was no longer worthy of his attention.”

Except the latter cancels out the former, Auden thought, but didn’t say aloud. “Can I fix the crack?” she asked instead, her voice rough with all the emotions she couldn’t release, all the things she couldn’t say.

“Yes,” Zaira said, “but we’ll have to rebuild from scratch. That means a purposeful destruction of your current shield. I realize that’s asking a lot. You don’t know me and it’ll leave you vulnerable, but it is the best possible option to ensure we don’t leave the error behind at some level of the psychic code.”

“Remi trusts you,” Auden said without hesitation. “And I trust him.” She took a deep breath, exhaled. “Please make sure my baby is protected from any psychic shock waves.”

Zaira nodded. “You know she’s a strong telepath?”

“The squad can’t have her.”

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