Page 141 of Love, Nemesis
It had been three long days since The Great Light had broken.
Ana listened patiently. Lethe had to have retreated. He wouldn’t have stayed as a Strike, would he? But then again, would he have just left her in that field? She had decided not to mention Lethe’s actual identity to anyone. It was only natural Diane and any other would just assume that he, too, was an illusion.
“Diane,” Ana said when her friend was done. “Have we recovered any other blue shells still intact?”
“No. We crushed them all.”
Ana fell back against the bed, staring at the ceiling now before her hands rested over her eyes. She exhaled deeply.
How am I still here?she thought, but the world didn’t seem keen on giving her too much time to think.
After Diane had been with her for a while, new visitors became frequent, and as soon as Ana was on her feet, she couldn’t resist wanting to see what the world had become.
* * *
Ana watched every day as the State healed and transformed into something else. Rooms of the mostly dismantled government buildings were full of discussion, what remained of the government debating and evaluating the construction of something else, a nameless entity that spurred a sense ofrenewal and excitement, a collaboration between the State, En Sanctus, and the Mystics.
The days turned into weeks. Diane was swept into leadership positions in the State. Cal started spending more time with a farmer girl from town but brought her often to any of their gatherings. When Rule, Diane and Ana’s friend from the science unit, arrived back from the border, Diane introduced him to the others and the group expanded. The new friendships, tentative as they were, became a sign of healing. One of the subtle signs of a growing lightheartedness was a moment of laughter, drawing Ana to one office when she returned from an open discussion on the State’s new structure.
She peered in to see Diane sitting on a couch. Rule was standing across the room near the fire. His dark brown hair hung in dreadlocks down his back, ruffled State uniform and large coat hiding a slender, nimble build.
They noticed her quickly, Rule greeting her with a smile as she walked in.
“You look chipper,” he said, offering her a glass, exposing the multitude of rings on his hand. She nearly startled when she saw Cal sitting near Ares’s desk. Cal immediately looked suspicious, grinning widely as Ana approached and set a stack of papers on the desk. Ares, still bandaged heavily, was writing in a focused manner at the desk. Evening light streamed in sharply from a nearby window, causing him to squint as he wrote.
“They’ve agreed on the new Var…if that’s what we’ll call it,” Ana said, smiling at Ares as Rule and Diane closed the space in the room on either side of her. She glanced over at Cal, Diane and Rule, “Though the fact that you’re all here tells me this isn’tnews, somehow? How did you all find out so fast? I just came from that meeting.”
“It hurts, you know,” Ares said, lifting a hand to hide his face from the light. “The real light. It kind of burns.”
Ana chuckled. “Ares. Did you hear me?”
“Yes. Yes.” He reached for a glass of water before tapping the bandages around his waist.
“They’ve picked you,” Ana pushed.
Ares scoffed and then looked up at her. His smile faded. “You aren’t kidding.” He lowered his head. He sat his pen down and leaned back in his chair, surveying his audience. “Hmm. So, this is it then?”
They sat there for a long moment.
“I’ll be the Var ushering in world peace.”
Ana nodded.
They waited in silence.
“We beat The Great Light and the Strike,” he said. “You’re Chronos now. Why don’t we plan to hunt down The Eating Ocean next?”
Ana laughed. “Oh yeah, after we rebuild the entire city and unite all the nations. You’re already talking like a Var.”
“With the right people, I think we’re capable of anything,” he said, offering a knowing glance to everyone else standing by.
Ana looked among them as if there was an inside joke that she didn’t understand.
“You all never answered why you were all here,” she said.
Cal looked like he was bursting to say something. She focused her eyes on him. The weak link. He didn’t speak. She looked at Diane next, Ares, and then Rule.
“We were all waiting for you,” Ares said, with a genuine smile.
