Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

Fifteen

Cynaline pointed to each of us. "This is Jackson, Dorothy, and Jamie. I told you about them yesterday morning."

Zinoray's nervousness stole his smile. He bounced his leg up and down in tension.

"Is it too dark?" he asked, concern in his voice. "I fell asleep late last night. Now where's the remote..."

He patted the underside of the desktop and grabbed a small remote. After pointing it to one of the huge windows, the curtains and blinds opened, revealing a beautiful green yard and blue sky. The light exposed the bags under his dull, bronze eyes.

He stood up and stretched his arms. "Are they helping you?"

"I hope so!" Cynaline grinned. "Sounds fun!"

"With the Incarnate?"

"Oh yeah. Nevermind. I think they're a little occupied. I don't want to stress them out."

"I'd be happy to explain if they chose to go," Jupitas said.

"No. I will," Zinoray dismissed. "You'll take eons."

"I'm a computer."

Cynaline looked over at us. "I'm gonna get something from my room. I'll be back in a minute."

"Me too," Zinoray said. "Gotta freshen up."

"I'll... minimize."

The window Jupitas was in disappeared.

⚝⚝⚝

Dorothy, Jamie, and I sat around one of the many tables. Even though I couldn't read any of the clocks, and my phone was completely dead, I knew it had been way longer than a minute. It had been half an hour-a half an hour consumed with muffled chatter from a distant hallway.

In the middle of the table was a small, leather book. Threads hung from the spine, and blots of white ink marked the cover. I picked it up and opened it.

"Oh no, they're Christians?" Jamie whined.

"I don't think this is a Bible," I said. "It has little pictures of swords in it. See?"

I quickly realized that they were photographs, not illustrations. The book itself looked brand new. Stuffed between two pages was a photograph of the display case of the weapons in the Mind library.

I slid the book between all of us. "Check these out. I saw these at the Mind library. I forgot what they were called. Incarnates?"

"Pretty!" Dorothy beamed. She leaned in closer and traced over the photo with her finger, until something happened: it... zoomed in, like on a phone.

She jumped back in her chair. Jamie tried it, and zoomed in and out of the picture, even panning around the parts that we didn't see originally.

"It's you again!"

The same brunette boy from the Mind lobby walked up to the table. He wore the same sweatshirt and pants, and rubbed his socked feet together. His face looked younger than I remembered. He held out his hand with a big grin. "I'm Mobi. I'm friends with Cynaline."

We introduced ourselves once again. Once that was done, Dorothy held the book up to him. "What is this made out of? It's like a screen or something."

"It's made from whatever photos are made of, I think." He shrugged. "Also, that's Zini's diary. You should put it down."

Finally, Zinoray reappeared. His hair was the same, and even his new clothes were just as drab and dark as before.

Out of nowhere, Cynaline ran across the cafeteria, opened the garage door, and picked up a cardboard tray of foam coffee cups.

He walked over and sat them on the table with a huge grin.

"This is my favorite breakfast drink." He opened one of the cups and put it under my nose. "Smells good right? I drink it all the time."

It smelled like hot vanilla ice cream and tasted like it too, but not as sweet. But I was still hungry for solid food, but I guess it was a cultural difference.

I noticed Cynaline was wearing a bookbag, which rested between his wings.

"Sorry, guys," he said. "Mobi and I have to go somewhere. I wish I told you earlier."

"Can we go with you?" I asked. "Please! I want to see more of the city! I want to see more of everything!"

"Hmm. That's a lot of people."

"Please!"

The three of us flooding him in "pleases", and begged him to let us go.

Mobi patted him on the back. "If they go, I'm staying here. The TV isn't gonna watch itself."

Cynaline smiled. "Alright! Let's go! Four people isn't that many."

"But the Kalypso..." Zinoray mused. "Wouldn't they be weirded out by four teenagers walking around a luxury hotel? It's weird enough with two."

"Who cares?"

"Fair, but won't they be able to tell they're Gaean?"

Jamie, Dorothy, and I all studied each other's faces, and looked back at the others. The only difference I saw were Cynaline's wings and golden eyes. Besides that, they all had slightly bigger, pointier ears, but nothing distinctly "alien". They saw something that we didn't.

"No offense," he clarified. "You look fine. I'm just worried. I don't want to mess this up."

"We can't mess up if we know what we're doing in the first place," Jamie said.

"Oh... Cynaline will tell you. It shouldn't take long. Maybe a day."

Zinoray Nikaledesh