Eclipse: Time Thief (Romantasy)

16. Truth & Lies

I rose at the sound of the woman speaking. Piercey hopped off the table and moved beside me, grabbing my hand. I wasn't sure if it was for my sake or his.

After several seconds, the lights came back on. The other side of the room looked completely different. It was pale blue, like our hallway, and it was outfitted like a living room, complete with an ugly floral loveseat.

A woman sat there, watching me with sharp eyes. "My name is Dr. Henderson."

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"You have so many questions, Max." Her long black hair laid across one shoulder. "I'm afraid I don't have all the answers you want."

"Don't have them or won't give them?"

"Won't give them." Dr. Henderson smiled. "I've had my eye on you. You're not easily distracted." Her voice softened and she spoke to me the way I imagined my mother would have if I'd ever known her. "That's why I'm meeting with you and Piercey. You two have been struggling, haven't you?"

Piercey shook his head. "No, ma'am. We're fine."

I was only sixteen, but I was so tired. Tired like I'd lived decades and never got a break. "We're not fine. We're being held hostage at this school."

She simpered. "You'll be released when you can control your power well enough that you won't hurt people anymore."

Shame seared my heart. The Eclipse. Not the one that haunted my future, but from my childhood. It was as if the two eclipses were entangled, tethered in time, and my entire life existed as a tug-of-war between the two, even now. Dr. Henderson was talking about the people I hurt back then.

I couldn't let her distract me with my guilt. "I'm tired of hearing that excuse. Kelvin stabbed me today."

Dr. Henderson scooted forward. "I'm sorry that happened to you, Max. We give autonomy to the people in your world, including the Sacred School. That's very important. There isn't anything we can do."

"Why? Why do you have to silently watch?"

"There are many things I can't tell you."

Rage made my mouth taste bitter. "Yeah. Because you'd compromise your experiment by making your subjects aware."

She sat back, thrown, but only for a moment. Then she smoothed out a wrinkle in her pants. I imagined she had few wrinkles in her life. "My, my. Perhaps the library at the school is a little too robust for your needs."

"It would be much easier to control me if you denied me an education. You know, like you do with ninety-nine percent of the world."

"You're angry."

"I'm more than angry."

"It's fair. I would be too."

"This mountain has technology that the rest of our world won't hope to have for thousands of years. The people think you're gods because you come from a more advanced civilization. You let them pray to you while you watch them suffer in silence. I deserve to know why. Why are you running tests on me? What are you trying to learn?"

"Stop Max." Piercey's voice shook. "The gods won't tolerate dissent."

Dr. Henderson waited until we'd both fallen quiet. "There's worlds like yours all over the cosmos, Max. Young worlds with growing civilizations. We want to learn how to help them develop without having to suffer through all the war and chaos that comes with social evolution."