Page 229 of Seer Prophet

That face looked so much like Revik’s––at least, the younger version of Revik I remembered from the Barrier––I grinned, squeezing her impulsively.

“I do?” I asked her. “I look different?”

Lily squinted at the empty space above my head.

“It’s different,” she agreed, talking mostly to Revik. She continued to look up, her small mouth pursed, jutting out her lips. “It’s more…colorsnow.”

Revik grunted. “Yes,” he said. “What else?”

“It’s more…” Lily paused, and I could see her thinking about words. “…More high up. More pictures in it.”

Revik nodded. “I see more pictures, too,” he told her.

I glanced at him, but he didn’t meet my gaze.

“Her eyes look different, too,” Lily said, her voice more confident now. She turned, staring up at my face. Her hands caught hold of my cheeks as she stared into my face. “Do you see that, Daddy? Mommy’s eyes are different…”

Revik nodded, settling his head back on the armrest. “Yes. I saw.”

I frowned, but I didn’t interrupt them.

“What happened to her?” Lily asked.

Revik clicked softly, under his breath. He made a vague motion with one hand, one that came off like a shrug, but had a more nuanced meaning in seer, something along the lines of,only the gods know for sure, from what Wreg taught me.

Lily continued to look at Revik where he was stretched out on the couch. As she stared, I felt a flush of pain off her light. That time, it felt aimed at Revik.

She’d missed Revik, too.

Not because he hadn’t been in here––I could feel from both of them that he had been, at every time increment they allowed him to be. I more got the sense Lily had remained aloof from him during those sessions. I glimpsed pieces of the last few times he’d been in here, and I could feel her avoiding him with her light.

I didn’t probe too deeply for specifics. It felt like it was between the two of them.

That said, I was pretty pissed off at Jon and Wreg.

From the couch, Revik clicked softly.

When I looked over, I saw relief in his light, along with love in his eyes.

“Don’t be, wife,” he said, his voice soft.

I nodded, noncommittal.

I was looking at Lily’s light again.

I could see everything now, including those fine, dark threads Balidor warned me and Revik about, the ones woven directly into heraleimiby Shadow. I could see where they spiderwebbed around the natural light structures over her head, like an infestation of micro-fine plant roots. Looking at them made me feel sick. I could see them structuring and re-channeling Lily’s light, even here, cut off from direct contact with the Dreng.

Those tiny threads were the reason Lily remained a prisoner inside her segment of the tank, unlike Revik and Maygar. We knew if we gave Shadow and the Dreng access to her light, they’d continue to warp her development, until eventually, she wouldn’t be able to function without them at all. She’d be like Revik was after Menlim broke and re-broke and regrew structures in his light. She’s be like that, only worse.

If we didn’t find a way to fix Lily’s light, she might not be able to live without them. Literally. She might be stuck living in the tank the rest of her life.

From what Balidor said, Revik’s dependency was never so biologically-based. He’d been older when Menlim kidnapped him, and, though young, he’d previously lived with parents who loved him, who cocooned him in protection and light.

For the same reason, he’d developed those most basic, primitive structures that tied him to the world without interference. It took repeated traumas to break Revik’s light enough to give Menlim the same level of control over him.

Menlim got to Lily as a tiny embryo.

I could feel now just how early he’d started planting and nurturing those metallic threads in her light. I could see her there, floating in a tank, surrounded by Menlim and his fucked up scientists. He’d started messing with her light the very first day he took her out of me.

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