Supernova

Chapter Ninety Eight - Something Explosive This Way Comes

It was a risk I needed to take.

I wrote a note to Kiri in place of my homework notes, which I'd also started taking following the whole marriage thing, and folded it up real small. I hadn't exactly figured how I'd get it to him, but I knew I needed to.

Inside, I'd written: There is a book of mine underneath his dresser. I need it back.

Obvious enough for Kiri to get the message, but vague enough that nobody, well, mostly nobody, would have any idea what it was about if they should find it. Unless the fact that it was written in English tipped them off, but fuck it. As mentioned above, it was a risk worth taking.

I'd gotten lucky. He was fiddling with the zipper on his backpack just as most of the class was trickling out to go to lunch without him. A few people lingered, but nobody that was going to call me out on approaching him. Especially when I was doing something nice. Or rather, now that most people avoided talking to me altogether.

"Need help?" I asked him sweetly, but not suspiciously.

"The damn thing's stuck," he muttered, before looking up and realizing who'd asked. He looked terrified for a second, but then caught himself. "Actually, Stronghold, could you? I need this fabric pulled free without ripping the thing."

"Sure," I told him. I was still holding the note in my fist. "Just let me set this down."

I made sure he saw when I dropped it into the side compartment. When I caught his eye afterward, I knew he understood. The fabric and the zipper itself was an easy fix, and I took care of it quickly. Then, I headed home and thought about how to waste as much time as possible until I got my book the next day.

What else did I have to do but spend time with Elias? I was both more and less annoyed than usual as I got into my yoga attire and headed down to the lounge. More annoyed because I just wanted it to be tomorrow already, because Kiri had never failed me, and I was ready to search that book cover to cover for clues. Less annoyed because I felt some compassion for Elias now, even this one.

"Hello, my love," Elias greeted me, almost banishing the sympathy I was trying to hold for him. "Would you prefer the beach or the rainforest today?"

"Let's do yoga in heaven," I suggested.

"As you wish," Elias said, pressing the Mind Worlds tablets onto either side of his head.

Mind Worlds really didn't have any limits. We found ourselves both on and inside a cloud, surrounded by hints of blue sky and utopian light, gates just as golden a little ways away. The cloud formed thick patches beneath us as mats, and as I stepped onto mine, I decided I did very much enjoy the change of scenery.

"This was an excellent choice, my love," Elias told me, his voice and eyes both full of admiration.

"Inspired by you, my angel," I told him.

He laughed. "You're so silly sometimes, my Queen."

It had really been a waste of breath putting all of these hints in towards his brainwashing. How could I have not figured it out? Even the barest bones of our inside jokes, our make believe fantasies, our entire relationship, had dissipated into thin air with the rest of him.

As we moved through the postures we'd been doing every single day for the past few weeks, the urge to kick myself was suddenly upon me. I'd thought Elias was just a helpless victim, someone I thought highly of but could still be bested just like I was. Or if not bested, threatened into submission. But for the first time, I started listening to the instructor's voice rather than just focusing in on how annoying it was. Most of it was grassroots bullshit I did tend to just write off, but the wording was very strange.