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Chapter 22

The time could not be more perfect. Daydri is grown and can look after herself. She will hate me for leaving, but I have never been the best mother. Besides, the future of avatar kind is more important than personal needs.

Daydri's personal transport was not big enough for two avatars, but they were both small, so they made it work. Even so, they were both pressed against the hatches on either side. She had learned the transport Daydri used to get her and Kimoe back to the apartment was a paid taxi. Daydri's personal on demand transport, POD as she called it, had one seat and was only about as long as Sanya was tall. Thankfully, the POD didn't mind the extra weight; it zipped along at speeds far too fast for how close Sanya felt to the pavement below. It didn't even slow down when the road climbed up a steep hill toward Onnex Heights.

The skyrises shrank as they made their way to the outer city. Fifty-five story behemoths dropped to twenty stories, then ten, then two. The space between structures increased as well. As they sped up the hill, Sanya gaped open-mouthed at houses with sprawling yards of green. What looked like purple and blue statues rose from the ground on a thin trunk. Their boney branches spread through the air in all directions.

"Aren't they worried the moss will eat away the houses?" Sanya asked.

Daydri laughed. "That isn't moss. It's estheria grass. Safe for stone. Otherwise, those coral trees would already be covered in it."

"Coral trees?"

"Those purple and blue things. They are over-land coral plants."

Coral? "They look like stone."

"The mosses think so, too. A coral tree can be completely consumed by moss in a single day."

"Are you sure Kimoe's okay without us?"

"I set an alert to ping my wireless if her vitals change. She is stable and should sleep through the night."

Sanya nodded to her own reflection in the window. They passed a few more unfamiliar mansions before the POD pulled over to the curb. Discomfort forgotten, she froze in her seat. She was almost there. She was almost home!

"Sanya?" Daydri's voice was warm, comforting.

"What if this isn't the right place?" She looked over at her friend, waiting.

Daydri smiled and opened the hatch. "It is. Come on. I'll show you."

Sanya slipped out behind her instead of opening the other hatch. She was fairly certain that she would have simply tumbled out onto the sidewalk if she'd tried. Daydri led her to the opposite side of the street where pavement ended in a thirty-foot drop. There were houses below, but, from where they stood, the view of the city was perfect. Sanya stopped and looked out over the thousands of buildings. Their twinkling lights rose into the sky and connected with the stars. She could see dark patches, too, where the moss-eaten structures produced no lights, but there was still more light than dark in the valley.

"I forget sometimes," Daydri said, "how beautiful the city is at night. Seeing it this way almost makes me forget how broken it is."

Sanya kept silent. Broken. She was as broken as the city was, maybe more. She had to find her Lifebook!

"Can you tell where the house might be?" Daydri asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Your memory. Are we too low? Too high?"

She gave herself a mental shake and focused. The bridges, the tallest buildings, and the river were all there. She considered their angles in her perspective. The view wasn't quite right.