| Orthogonal, Pt. 2 |

“Someone get that girl!”

Marsia pushed the ground further behind her with every step. Reflected in her eyes was the gate to freedom—at least the way she saw it. Bodyguards seized her left and right, blockading the path and stopping her in her tracks.

“Ah, youth,” her manager called, clicking her tongue. “Where were you trying to run?”

Forced to accept her inability to escape, Marsia turned around, restrained. She stomped the fake grass beneath her heels. “Anywhere but here!”

“I’ll not allow it. Your parents are much too strict for this foolishness—I could be fired.”

“Do you never wonder what’s out there? Have you no curiosity?” Marsia said, wriggling.

“I’ve seen it all. And I would know—what you’ve got here is far better than anywhere else on the Overside.”

“I’d believe you if you’d just let me see!”

The manager turned away and threw a signal to the bodyguards. “We’ve planned another concert for you. Come.”

The imposing guards released her, thrusting her forward toward the estate. She begrudgingly followed the manager inside, watched carefully by Locri, the head of the bodyguard unit. Responsibility weighed on her shoulders.

Her gaze drifted to the high ceilings, patterned like a mosaic with stained glass windows to match. It was a staple of Earthly architecture which they’d managed to replicate—and it put the value of the manor well into the millions.

“Marsia.”

She daydreamed of a future where she could roam the halls alone, unrestricted by bodyguards or by her wealth-obsessed parents. Rumor was, they were planning on selling the estate for an even larger property–

“Marsia!”

When she came back to, she found herself at a table with her manager. Locri had shouted her name to snap her out of her daze. Rubbing her eyes, she addressed the contracts on the table.

“So sorry, miss. Where’s the location again?”

“I wish you’d pay attention the first time,” the woman sneered. “You’ll be performing in the Briar Wells Amphitheater. We’ve paid a lot for security there, so you’ll be okay.”

“Hm? Why’s that? I’ve never performed there.”

“It’s on the Underside.”

Marsia’s face began to glow with excitement. Her eyes widened. “You’re letting me perform in Underside?!”

“I wouldn’t have. But the contractor was willing to pay so much, it didn’t even matter. The perimeter will be free of crime, we can assure you.”

“Does that mean I’ll get to explore?”

Locri snorted. “Don’t be stupid, Miss Lilia,” she said.

“Well, if it’s free of crime…” Marsia mumbled.

Her manager sighed and adjusted her shades. “You know what? As long as you have Locri with you, you can explore the perimeter. It won’t be as… active as you might want it to be. Most attendees will be Oversiders, anyways. The Callosum will be jam-packed.”

“The Callosum?” Marsia heard the name and somehow recalled it. Though she’d never used it, she knew it was the only legal transit between the two sides of X2. Her knowledge of this baffled her—when had she learned it?

“It’s a subway, essentially. We’ve rented out a time slot for you, so don’t be worried about people riding with you.”

“I’m just… confused,” Marsia said. “Why are you letting me do this?”

“Because it’s far away from the M– ahem, the crime near the central city.”

“Well, thank you for the opportunity. I certainly won’t waste it.”

“You’d better not. It is tonight, after all.”

“Bah! I didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”

The manager’s face remained stoic. Marsia’s laugh quieted, then turned into a look of disbelief. She glanced at Locri, who nodded solemnly.

“It’s actually tonight?!”

“Yes. You’d better get ready. Have Lonestar help you dress up—we’ll be leaving shortly. And sign those contracts, if you would. We’ve already checked over them all.”

With that, her manager stood up and left the room, patting Marsia on the shoulder as she passed. For some reason, it hurt; Marsia pressed there and discovered a bruise.

Locri pushed out her chair and stood, too. “Come on, Lady Marsia. We have to be fast.”

“Give me a moment.”

Marsia rose to her feet and followed Locri to the dressing room. She hated getting ready in there—the place was a maze of mirrors. No matter where she looked, she would always see herself. It was as disorienting as ever when she stepped in.

Locri started digging through silver drawers to find a proper outfit. “What color do you fancy today?”

“Any long dress is just fine. I don’t want to wear heels.”

“Your options are black and white, then.”

Marsia furrowed her brows. “Well, yes, I expected that, but–”

Locri immediately cut her off, shaking her head. “No, literally. Black or white?”

“Oh. I’ll take black. For Underside. It’s darker down there, I’ll fit in.”

As she stripped down, Marsia couldn’t ignore the several bruises on her shoulders, arms, and legs. She looked over to Locri, who was struggling to unfold the outfit—immediately she noticed why.

“Locri? When did you hurt your hand?”

Her right hand was wrapped in gauze and bandages, mostly unable to move. She looked up, almost embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing bad.”

“Why are you avoiding the question?”

“Because we have more important things to worry about. C’mon, put on your dress.”

“You don’t remember, do you?”

Locri stopped in her tracks. She blinked at Marsia, only wearing undergarments at the moment. “You’re right. I… don’t.”

“I don’t remember how I got these bruises, either.”

“Um… okay. We’ll talk about it later. Put this on real fast so I don’t have to see you naked anymore.”

“Ahem. I’m not naked. And I’m gorgeous.”

“Subjective.”

She slipped into her frilly black dress, tailored to her curves perfectly. As such, it made it very difficult to put on correctly. She always thought it was a little revealing, exposing the center of her chest completely.

She spun around in the mirror, the black sequins glittering and flowing around her feet. She gave herself a killer smile, which quickly faded when she saw it. She was missing a tooth.

And suddenly she remembered, in tiny snippets, how she’d lost it. And how she’d gotten those bruises. A fight, blurry in her mind, aboard a locomotive in the sky—and she’d tried to choke out her own manager.

Her manager—Agent White. Agent White, who planned never to let her cross paths with someone. Someone she’d met in Underside. Someone she’d met at the X2 Monument, far away from the amphitheater she was to perform at tonight.

She glanced in all the mirrors, every which way, hoping she was lying to herself. But right in the center of her exposed sternum was a sigil that told her it was all true. Five lines—three parallel, two perpendicular, all that same purple hue she knew so well.

And she could see them glowing from inside Locri’s uniform as well. A set of marks which made no sense, which shouldn’t have been there but were. She wanted to shout, to tell someone the truth.

But she knew it would all escape her if she ever let it leave her mouth. So she stayed silent.

Then the door opened. Her mother peeked inside. “Marsia, dear. Are you ready to depart?”

Marsia stared at her. Upon her chest there was no sigil. She began to understand.

“Yes. Locri, let’s leave.”

Locri seemed dismayed. “Wait, what about–”

“Come, quickly. You don’t want me to miss my performance, do you?”

Her mother walked away, satisfied. Marsia immediately changed demeanor, frantically looking around the room at her reflection.

In a harsh whisper, she spoke to Locri. “I’m not going to that concert.”

“Excuse me?”

“Listen. We’re going straight to the head coach of the Callosum. We’re going to run it to the Underside Monument and jump out as it passes.”

Locri raised a brow and grimaced. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“White can’t hear us right now. Look at my chest. I’ve got this tattoo thing here,” she said, patting her sternum. “You have it too.”

“You– what?”

“Your hand got shot in our fight with Agent White, when we tried to reroute the Callosum. We can get there again. We just can’t let White find out.”

For a moment, Locri looked like she was having a crisis. She blinked, and blinked again, and then everything became obvious to her.

“You’re saying she rewound time and scheduled this concert so we wouldn’t meet those street rats?”

“Exactly! The hyperbola, remember?” Marsia hissed.

“Right. So in order to mess with her plan, we just have to make it to the Underside Monument and meet them again. But… what difference does it make? Whatever drug crap happened with that handshake had nothing to do with it.”

Marsia smiled. “Oh my God, I think I get it.”

“Get what?” Locri asked.

“Those two, Arufa and Skyler. They had this same sigil on them, right?”

“Right.”

“And when we were all there together, something weird happened, right?”

“What’s your point?”

“I don’t know why the world slowed down. But it had something to do with all four of us. No one else has these things, Locri. It’s just us… and them.”

Locri nodded. “So whatever it was, it wasn’t that they drugged us. It was because we all met.”

“Yes! And it only happened when that kid Skyler started sneaking up on me, right? Not when I met Arufa beforehand.”

“Which means it really has to be all four of us.”

The door opened again, and Marsia very quickly straightened her posture. Behind her, as she could see through the mirror, was her manager, Agent White.

She gave them a fake cough. “What’s taking you two so long?”

“We tried on a few dresses, is all. We’re ready to leave,” Marsia said, lying off her tongue.

“Great. I won’t be on the same train as you, since management has a separate reservation. So we’ll meet up there and get you set, alright?”

Marsia nodded along. This would only make things easier. “Of course. Locri can still come with me, I assume?”

“If that would make you happy,” White said, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. “The limo is waiting for you two. Good day, Miss Lilia. And good riddance.”