“Only if you want to,” he said.
She approached it cautiously in her bare feet, figuring she didn’t have a choice. She could fight this, but he’d just get his way in the end. She stepped in and Heather shut the panel door behind her. Magus stepped to a control panel and pushed a few buttons. Nothing happened. Heather opened the door.
“Nothing happened,” Skylar said, stepping out.
“On the contrary,” Magus said. “Everything happened.”
Skylar listened. The voices were gone. “You owe me an explanation.”
“Sound waves,” he said. “They can do just about anything, including stun the part of your brain receiving those transmissions. It won’t last, so you’ll have to go back in once a day or so.”
“Why did you need me in there?” she asked. She didn’t remember anything about this place, though all her other memories seemed to be returning. Argan, Suki, Ocean … everyone she loved rushed into her mind.
“For this,” he motioned to a holographic screen that now showed her complete self in slices. Her life-size body, including her internal structure, appeared before her. Everything was shown in vivid detail, layer by layer. And at her core, her green heart light, right in the middle of her chest cavity.
She wasn’t terribly impressed with the technology. She knew it existed back home. But she was captivated to see her insides on the outside. “You cloned me?” she asked, horrified.
“Not completely,” he said. “But it gives me an internal makeup to work with.”
Clearly, she was a science experiment on multiple levels and needed to get the hell out of there.
“I’ll give you a few minutes to compose yourself, and then we’ll give you a tour,” Magus said, almost congenial. He turned and walked out the door with Heather, leaving Skylar alone in the room.
She felt the sting of tears stir behind her eyes. But she would not cry today. Instead, she directed her energy into the anger that sat in her belly. Her last moments at the Quine crystalized in her mind. All she’d wanted to do was give the Book of Sophia to Milicent. Everything had turned upside down so fast. She thought of the book. Where is it now? Hopefully Milicent has it. And Argan? Does he know I’m gone? Is time passing? Will I return to the Quine, to my waiting book, and pick up the pieces? She couldn’t answer these questions. She sat back in the bed for just a moment.
She got out of bed with renewed energy. The room was quiet, not even a hum from any of the machines. She snuck out the door to a long, bright hallway. “I know this place,” she said. She hurried down the corridor straightaway and stopped in front of a familiar door. Her heart swelled. “This is it.” This was the fourth floor. She took a deep breath and opened the door to the cheerful waiting room. Plush animals and toys littered the floor. Toddler-size chairs every color of the rainbow lined equally bright wooden play tables.
“Pamela?” she called.
“Welcome back,” Pamela said. She wore her same drab gray suit. Her clipboard had gotten an upgrade to a holographic tablet, as best as Skylar could make out. “I had you down for next week, but that’s all right. We’ll squeeze you in.”
“In to what?” Skylar asked. She had her head on a swivel, hoping to see her baby again.
“The schedule,” Pamela said. “You came here to meet your baby, right?”
“Yes, yes I did,” Skylar said assuredly.
“Which one?” Pamela asked, and the wall opened up to a vast room of cribs lined in perfect rows. Terror overtook Skylar’s heart. This factorylike setting was far from idyllic.
She started running between the rows of cribs, sure she would be able to know her son. A mother would know her child. She ran up and down a dozen rows. When she got to the last baby, sound asleep in the last row, Pamela was there to meet her.
Skylar put her hand on the back of the sleeping child, his little bottom high in the air. He was perfection; she felt his energy. He was pure love, pulsing like one coherent cell of love and purity. As much as she was amazed, she was still disappointed. This bundle of love wasn’t hers.
“I don’t know which one,” Skylar said. “I didn’t see him.”
Pamela paused. “Him?”
“My son that I met last time I was here.”
“Ahh, no.” Pamela shook her head. “You won’t see him here. This is the next batch, ready to get their souls. Your son had his chance on earth, but due to certain circumstances, his time there is over.” She looked at Skylar with a scornful look.
A physical pain as real as an arrow shot through Skylar’s heart.
“Mama,” a little voice said.
She looked down and found that the voice was attached to a boy who was tugging on her pant leg. He was about six now. She kneeled on the floor and he gave her a huge hug. She wept big tears of love, love that came from the core of her whole being. She knew this love was all that truly existed in the world.
He nuzzled her. “It’s all right,” he said. “I just wanted you to know I’m still with you, you just can’t see me. I will never leave you until it is your time to leave the planet. Then we can be together like this all the time.”
He was so happy and effervescent. Skylar didn’t want to ever leave him.
“Just remember I am in your imagination, Mama. You created me, and as long as you hold me in your heart, I exist.” He looked out at the sea of children, asleep in their cribs. “They exist in your heart too. As pure potential. You can’t have them all,” he said playfully. “But your heart is big enough to love them all.”
Skylar sprang out of bed from the adrenaline running through her system. She had returned to the nursery of souls. She didn’t think it was possible. She had always thought it was a dream but it’s here. Wherever here was.
“I’m glad you’re up. There are some things you need to see,” Magus said, entering without knocking. “You can put these on.” He handed her simple leggings and a T-shirt, both white. They were made of the most comfortable material, like the softest cashmere. He, on the other hand, was dressed elegantly in a maroon suit that matched his hair. Skylar thought of Milicent and wondered if she’d ever considered dying her hair purple. Nuggets of gold studded Magus’s collar and cuffs.
She quickly dressed behind a curtain, thankful to be more covered up. She knew better than to try to read her captor’s energy, but she didn’t get the impression that her life was in danger at the moment.
Outside the door, Heather took the opportunity to speak candidly with Magus.
“How could you bring her here?” she asked cautiously, treading lightly with her mentor.
“We need the heart stone,” Magus said.
“I understand that, but it’s only a matter of time before she remembers all of it.”
“She’s already remembering. I should have the stone soon. I’m not worried about it,” he said confidently.
Skylar emerged from her room, ready to take action. “What did you want to show me?”
Magus got close to Skylar, and lifted his hand as if to touch her face. She reared her arm back to punch him, but he backed off, chuckling.
“I see so much in your eyes,” he said. “I see your grandmother. I see our vision, what we had desired to create in the First Age. We were gods then.” Skylar sensed regret in his voice. “But it was short-lived. I am sorry it didn’t work out the way we planned.”