The Edge

Luca: Part Twelve

The story took a bit longer to tell than he'd anticipated. Tola showed up halfway through, so he had to start over to give her context. Luca felt himself getting more and more self-conscious the longer he talked. It must have sounded like exaggeration, or just straight up unbelievable. But by the time he was done, neither Tola nor Arian looked like they didn't believe him. Tola looked fascinated. Arian looked ready to jump out a window.

"I am picking a planet as close to the core as possible and staying there when this is over," Arian said. "Space is stupid. I hate it out here."

"She was definitely here, though," Tola pointed out. "We have more proof of that now. That means we're going the right way. That's really good, right?"

"I mean, yeah, obviously! This place is still bullshit, though!"

"He has a point," said a new voice from the doorway.

All three of them jumped, and the cat at Luca's side hissed. Adoette peered around the doorframe. "Sorry, sorry..."

Of all the people who could've been eavesdropping, Adoette was probably one of the better ones. That didn't make Luca's heart any faster to slow down, though. "How long have you been there?!" Arian demanded.

"Long enough to know that the rocks hold memories or something like that," Adoette replied, "including Cassandra's." She stepped into the kitchen and started making herself a glass of water. "I wasn't trying to spy or anything, promise. I was stalling on going back to the ship after I dropped off Tola."

"That bad, huh?" Luca asked with a grimace.

"Oh, the vibes are awful." Tola suddenly looked very interested in Luca's ankle again, in a I'm not going to take sides on this one sort of way. That was all the confirmation Luca needed. "I mean, I get why, but that doesn't make it any easier to be around."

"Super," Arian said nervously. "Helen's not gonna kill me the second I get on board, is she?"

"She's pretty deep in her head, so I doubt it. I'd keep a low profile, though." Adoette chugged down the water and refilled the glass immediately. "Did she ask about the journal?"

Luca shook his head. "No. She didn't say anything to me about it." He hadn't hidden the fact that he had it, either; he'd only put it under his sweater to keep it safe on their way out. She'd seen him carrying it before. "You don't think I upset her or anything, do you?"

"I mean...not on purpose. But if—and I am somewhat saying this against my will—if Arian had a point about her and Cass having argued before..." Adoette glared at Arian, as if daring him to look even a little bit smug. To his credit, he didn't. "...she might be reacting to that, and whether or not the journal confirms or denies it. Self-blame and all."

Adoette didn't directly ask about the journal, nor did Arian. Tola was never going to, so her silence wasn't too shocking. Still, Luca could see the curiosity in his siblings' expressions as they looked at him. It wasn't the kind of nosy curiosity that was inevitable when you lived in close quarters with other people, though. It felt like the same kind of curiosity that had led him to read from the journal in the first place. The feeling that if they just had all the pieces, if they could just figure this out, then maybe, maybe, everything would work out when they finally found Cassandra.

Maybe.

"She was...depressed, I think." Luca said quietly. He pulled the journal out from under his sweater and looked down at it. "She felt like she couldn't talk to anyone, even us. She felt disconnected from everything, and she started bilocating more as that got worse." He carefully set it down on a nearby table. "I don't know why. She didn't know either. I think that's why she came out here. She wanted answers."

The room went silent. Adoette suddenly became very interested in the layout of the kitchen. Arian stared at the journal as if he could somehow intimidate it into giving up more secrets. Tola sat down next to Luca and leaned against him. She was careful not to touch any exposed skin, but her powers still made her radiate sadness and worry.

"So, what I'm hearing is that we're going to have to work cut out for us when we find her," Adoette said. "Awesome. Do you think we can get a tranquilizer anywhere around here?"

"We won't need to knock her out. That's what Gideon is for." Arian fidgeted in place for a moment before muttering fuck it and grabbing the journal out of Luca's hands. "If she gets mad at me, I'm saying you read it first," he added to Luca.

Usually, a comment like that would've made Luca feel anxious. Today, he started laughing weakly. It wasn't funny, of course; none of it was. He was laughing out of relief and gratitude. That his family was still there with him, that they had come back for him, that he was safe again with them. The voices in his head, the ones reflected back to him in those caves, had tried to tell him otherwise, but they had been wrong. They were wrong for Cassandra, too. She just didn't know it yet.

If Luca could find the truth, he was sure Cassandra could, too. Especially when she'd have all of them to help her.

Arian sat at the table and skim-read through the journal. It didn't take Adoette long to start hovering over his shoulder, taking in every word in the blink of an eye. Tola was the only one who stayed by his side. She resumed tending to his ankle as if the others weren't digging into Cassandra's secrets not too far away. "Gideon said he'd find you a crutch," she said. "Which is good, because you should be careful about putting weight on it, at least for a little while. It might take him a bit longer to get back here. I know Helen needed help with a lot of stuff."

"Makes sense. Are you holding up okay?" It suddenly occurred to Luca that this place might interact with Tola's powers the same way it interacted with his. "I know this has been a lot and this place is..."

"Weird? I noticed." She adjusted his ankle bandage again, even though it looked perfect and tidy. "It's better when I'm inside. It'd probably be a lot worse if I was in the caves like you were. I'm sorry that happened to you."

"I lived. And it was...insightful." Luca laughed and rubbed his face. "Biggest insight was that I'm definitely going to be talking to my therapist about this when I get home."

Tola smiled at him sadly as she sat back down at his side again. "I think we all will."

They sat in silence, watching as Arian and Adoette went over the journal. They seemed blind to anything else at first, but Arian slammed it shut and shoved it away from him the second he heard approaching footsteps. His reaction times were insane. It made sense, considering his background, but it always startled Luca how fast he could go from focused to acting like he wasn't involved. Fortunately, it was just Gideon with the promised crutch. "Helen's waiting outside. We should be heading out soon." He eyed the journal as he walked past, but made no move towards it. "Pretty sure I got it to your height, but it's been a while."

"Last time was when I dropped that box on my foot, right?" Luca stood carefully and took the crutch. The cat who'd been nestled next to him immediately transferred herself to Tola's lap. "Guess we can reset my accident streak to zero."

"To be fair, you probably have the longest accident-free streaks of all of us," Gideon said. "Except Tola."

"Doe's would be higher if she stopped running into walls while working," Arian said immediately.

Adoette shoved him in retaliation, but Arian kept walking as if nothing had happened, leaving the journal behind him. His chattering kept going as he left the kitchen—distraction chattering, probably, to hide what he'd been up to. Luca trailed behind long enough to pick up the journal before following.

The impression he got as he picked it up was a mixture of quiet guilt, both of all the signs missed and of the satisfaction the holder (Arian) felt at having been onto something. There was also a fierce resolve to make things right, which was a comforting feeling. It wasn't like Luca had expected anything otherwise from any of his siblings, but knowing it academically and actually feeling it were two different things. One was a lot harder for his brain to override.

They were in this together. They could fix this, one way or another.

They'd bring Cassandra home, just like they'd brought Luca home.