Chapter 18 | Up to the Far Edge

Location: Agara, GAL1049

The parking bay held a suffocating density in the air. The collective sound of the crowd and the maneuvering aircraft filled the space.

Luriya crossed her arms, closing her eyes, attempting to ignore the inevitable drama about to unfold, while Fals3 and the maintenance drone watched Echa with quiet curiosity.

Jayya stood at the brink of the roof; her clothing fluttered slightly in the wind. She gazed down at the throng below.

Meanwhile, Echa took a hesitant step toward her. Her green eyes were fixed on the back of Jayya’s frame. She stopped a meter away. “What is she? Her influence is so strong,” she murmured to herself.

After taking a deep breath, Echa spoke: “What do you want from me?” Her tone was calm, though her face betrayed the uncertainty of what might happen. “Look at me pretending to be brave,” she whispered.

Jayya did not turn to look at Echa, but merely raised a hand and pointed to the spot beside her.

“At that distance, I would be within arm’s length of her,” Echa murmured, swallowing hard, and slowly strode to the brink.

Once she was near the edge, the full scale of GAL1049 opened up before her. She stared down at the swarming people and the sprawling merchant shops with awe. Her eyes tracked all the way up to the far edge of the infrastructure.

“There is no way I am looking at those eyes.” Echa intentionally avoided meeting Jayya’s gaze.

“Now what? You gonna push me down?” Echa asked, which caused Jayya to frown faintly. “Oh, I pissed her off once again,” she murmured to herself, shivering and sweating from the tense situation.

Jayya then leisurely turned her body toward Echa and looked down at her. She deliberately reached down to the Orynite fixed on her hip, pulled it off, and held it out in front of Echa with an expression of calm authority.

“Take,” Jayya commanded, her voice ferocious as her eyes precisely monitored every reaction of Echa’s.

“What? She isn’t gonna kill me?” Echa murmured, looking up at Jayya in surprise, then at the small, broken orynite fixed on the metal. She lifted her gloved hand and slowly wrapped her fingers around it, taking it from Jayya.

As the relic settled into Echa’s palm, she unwrapped her fingers before her chest and examined it. A flood of memories washed over her. A small smile tugged at the corner of Echa’s lips. “My Orynite. I thought I lost you forever,” she murmured.

Jayya remained quiet, lowering her hand. She slowly turned on her heel and prepared to leave, issuing one final command without looking back. “Now, get lost.” She continued walking towards her aircraft, which was beginning to stir to life.

Echa quickly lifted her head, looking at Jayya with surprise. “That’s it? She’s letting me go?” she murmured to herself. Ahead, Fals3 began loading the crates onto the deck.

“Why?” Echa asked in a low, bewildered tone. “I couldn’t understand her motivation at all.”

Jayya paused in her path, not answering immediately, but turning her head back just a fraction. She said, “Not all Anomalies are the same.” Her voice was utterly calm, which allowed Echa to realize whom she had dealt with all this time.

“She is an anomaly?” Echa whispered to herself in bewilderment.

With that, Jayya vanished into the cockpit. Echa was left to question the gravity of what had just occurred.

Behind Jayya, Luriya began walking toward the aircraft, but she turned to glance one last time at Echa, stuck her tongue out, flashed a middle finger, and disappeared into the cockpit.

“What is she even trying to say?” Echa muttered, standing there clueless.

She watched the aircraft door shut tight. As the engine ignited to maximum power, it violently expelled a gust of wind, forcing Echa to shield her eyes with her arms; her coat whipped around her.

When she looked up, the aircraft soared away, disappearing behind the jagged mountains, leaving Echa isolated on the roof of GAL1049.

Echa let out a heavy sigh, the weight of having been held finally lifting. “I have to get to Sid and Index,” she said to herself before turning to look for the elevator.

A few minutes later, the intensity of the chaos subsided.

“I thought anomalies would be outright, but Jayya seemed much more like a variable,” Echa murmured to herself. She finally found the elevator leading to the lower level. Stepping onto it, a huge glass window displaying a central performance stage that was now utterly empty. “So, that android’s name was Divbi, huh?” she muttered.

Echa walked down to the spot where Index had been parked and charging. It was gone. “Where are Index and Sid?” she murmured, standing with palpable tiredness.

Suddenly, she felt a hand placed lightly on her shoulder. Echa quickly jerked around to look behind her. “Oh, no! They came to take my orynite again.” But it was just Sid, holding a card, a slight edge of worry in his expression.

“Where were you? We’ve been searching for you for quite a long time, kid. Are you alright?” Sid asked, his eyes moving from the card to her face.

“Yeah, I’m alright. What happened?” Echa asked slowly, tucking the orynite beneath her coat. “I will just have to tell him about those anomalies when we get home.”

“We got a big clue; I’ll fill you in once we get back,” he replied, turning to head toward the parking bay. “Hurry up, kid.”

Echa didn’t protest. She quickly ran to catch up to him as they exited GAL1049 and made their way to Sid’s cabin.