The light entered through the gap between the paper curtain and the frame and landed across Ashe's face, touching her forehead and parts of her cheek. That gentle pressure of light on skin felt strangely familiar as though her body had already catalogued it before, somewhere, but at first she couldn't quite place it. The association came soon after, linking it to the same familiar sensation from when she had been inside the pod. She lay still for a moment, struck by how strange it was to wake up to such a thought in her mind.
But the thought didn't stay long. She soon heard steps in the corridor outside, somewhat hurried and irregular as though someone was coming through it quickly. She pushed herself upright and looked around.
Connor wasn't there.
The space on the other side of the room was empty. The improvised bed was left untidy and the cup from the night before was still on the small table near the window, which could have meant he had left the apartment in somewhat of a hurry.
Ashe moved instinctively and checked the tunic she had left beside the bed then reached into its pockets where the two harmonic seeds were still settled in place. She exhaled slowly and allowed herself a second of relief before the steps in the corridor outside sharpened in intensity.
Then the door opened. Connor came through at a hurried pace, pushed it shut behind him, and turned immediately toward her. Something was clearly wrong.
"We need to go," he said.
Ashe looked at him in an attempt to understand at least from his expression what the hell was going on.
"Now," he added, already moving toward the far end of the room.
"What happened?"
"No time." He pulled open a cabinet that stood covered in growing vines trailing down from the ceiling, then reached inside it. "And you can't wear that," he added, gesturing at the tunic near the bed. "That'll make you an open target. I'll get you something else."
She looked down at it, then back at him. "What exactly are you…"
"Take it, come on."
He held out a folded piece of clothing, trying to move things along as quickly as he could. Instinct pushed her to resist but reason convinced her a moment later that whatever this was, whether she wanted any part of it or not, deciding that would take time she didn't have right now. There would be time to choose later when things settled. For now, she took the clothes from Connor and moved to get dressed.
He turned his back to her, giving her space as he crossed to the window where he began to pace. There was an edge to it too, and out of the corner of her eye Ashe could see that every second he waited was pulling at his nerves.
She changed into the new set of clothes. They were a bit too large for her, making her look smaller than she actually was, but they served their purpose. If anything, they gave her a little room to breathe too. When she was done, she stepped out in the main area of the room.
"Come on," he said with his hand already on the handle.
"Wait."
She then crossed the room toward where the tunic was and reached into its pocket. The two seeds came free smoothly, their glow catching his attention immediately. He recognized what they were right away.
"You're full of surprises," he said while watching the seeds glow in her palm.
"Seems like you are too," she replied, hinting at how the morning was clearly not going the way either of them had planned, and yet here they were.
Connor let her have the last word and. Instead, he reached beneath his desk and pulled out a small backpack with reinforced straps which he then handed out to her. She placed the seeds inside with care, adjusted the weight across her shoulders, and followed him out.
The corridor stayed quiet for a while as they made their way up to the elevator, but then voices came through from down below. The words themselves were indistinct, but the tone was decisive, as if they were urging each other to move faster.
"It's too late. We take the other way."
"What other way?"
Connor didn't waste time explaining, instead he turned quickly and led her toward another route.
The other way turned out to be a structure attached to the back wall of the building, accessible through a narrow panel that looked like ventilation until Connor released a hidden latch. Beyond it, a descent of metal rungs and platforms ran along the outer wall. It was not often used, but practical for situations such as this one.
As soon as they reached street level, they turned the nearest corner and put as much distance as they could between themselves and the building. Behind her, Ashe could hear the voices growing louder.
"Just how bad is this?" she asked, glancing back at the commotion that had started.
"Fairly bad," Connor said.
They moved through a series of side streets, narrower than the main paths through Railen but still filled with the noise of the market nearby. They chose routes with as much movement as possible, using the crowd as cover. They soon entered a section of the market district where the morning trade was already in motion, with stalls open and people moving in all directions. And for a few minutes their strategy did work.
But then, a few minutes later, the inevitable occurred. Four men had positioned themselves across the width of the street ahead, fully blocking any movement forward. They looked no different from anyone else in Railen, and yet their posture was more expansive, as though suggesting one should stay away if they knew better.
Connor slowed at the sight of them.
The nearest man, with one side of his head shaved and a series of dark markings running down the side of his neck, looked at Connor in a condescending manner.
"Where are you headed in such a hurry?"
But Connor chose to say nothing.
"We had an arrangement for last night," the man continued. "I don't ask for much. You know your way around plants and I do appreciate the skill. But when someone doesn't show and doesn't send word… well…" He shook his head slowly. "It starts to feel like disrespect, plant boy."
The crowd around them had thinned by then, suggesting people wanted no part in any of this. They adjusted their paths, moving past with their eyes fixed forward.
Then, one of the men standing slightly to the left, noticed Ashe at Connor's side.
"Didn't know you had company," he said. "And you didn't think to mention her."
Ashe frowned but kept her eyes forward, meeting his gaze without any fear.
"Oh, and she's a feisty one!"
The third man had been quieter than the others, and it was him that Ashe noticed the most. Something in his expression changed as he looked at her more carefully. He leaned sideways and said something low to the man beside him. And maybe there was something in the way he moved, or maybe in the way he spoke about her while addressing someone else, or maybe something else entirely. But she did recognize him from before, from back at the facility, when he was there among those who had attacked her. The memory came back in a rush and a shiver immediately ran up her spine.
He then moved toward her, his hand reaching for her arm. At that moment, something released in her chest. It was something that had been building inside her since the very beginning in the pod chamber, then led through everything she had experienced afterwards. All of it was there, packed inside like a ticking time bomb. So when his fingers closed in around her forearm, it simply came through. All of it.
A shockwave discharged several meters in a radius, moving through the air and through the people in it. The men immediately went down and so did several people in the crowd who had been moving past. A stack of crates at the nearest corner came apart and scattered across the ground too.
Ashe was the only one standing. She remained there for a while as the immediate noise of the aftermath moved around her and through her. Then Connor's voice came from somewhere to her left.
"Ashe…"
She turned her head and found him on the ground as well, pushed back against a wall. He was looking at her hands.
When she looked as well, she saw that the skin on her hands and forearms had darkened. It was similar to what she had experienced before, only this time the blackness looked deeper, carrying faint violet tints along its edges. From her fingertips and the backs of her hands, small fragments lifted into the air, black and fine, like the lightest ash drifting upward and dissolving in the air. And yet, she felt no pain.
From the far end of the street, a voice cut cleanly through the noise. "She's an emergent! Get back!"
Then, from a different direction, closer than the first, someone else raised their voice too. "Someone call the marshals!"