It was a shorter walk than I expected to get back to your Aunt’s flat. I’d flown around this area before which made think it would be a lot more taxing on foot but that turned out to be wrong. Or maybe it was because I finally felt like I was doing sothing.
The electronics shop nearby had a little sale going on and it just happened he was trying to get rid of a whole box of old charging cables that had been made obsolete with the advent of everyone using USB-C, so I got to snag one for just a few dollars with a plug adaptor thrown in too.
It was almost like things were going to get better.
Then I started to notice the people on the street. Not the people exactly, but the way they were all standing in small groups huddled around soone holding a phone, or even just standing off on their own with their eyes glued to a device. Since smartphone started being a thing, it’s been common to see people completely absorbed while walking around but I hadn’t seen sothing like this on this scale before.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand what they were muttering about so instead, I hurried on ho.
The energy was electric as I squeezed past people andering in the street outside and there were even people in the lift still glued to their phones or tapping away at ssaging apps. Then when I finally escaped the tal box and made my way to the end of the hallway, I saw that soone was waiting for by the front door.
"Hello Athyst," I said in greeting as I walked up to the woman, getting my key out of my pocket.
"Misha, is Bran with you?" Athyst asked.
The sudden ntion of you cut into and I dropped the key. As I crouched to pick it up I answered.
"He’s been kidnapped," I said quietly.
"Kidnapped...?"
"Heya Misha!" called out another unexpected, but not unfamiliar voice.
"lody! Eh, and Coral too? What are you two doing here?"
The two girls had clearly taken the lift up after and were also buzzing with excitent, the one that everyone else seed to be buzzing with.
"We wanted to talk to you about sothing..." lody started to say as she looked Athyst up and down then glanced at .
"This is a friend of and Bran’s," I explained. "Athyst."
"Hi."
"Hello."
"Athyst, these are lody and Coral."
"Ah." The gu-huo-niao gave a polite nod. "Perhaps we can head inside to discuss further...?"
"Right."
I’d never tried to charge anything in the flat (even the kettle was a stove based one) so it took a hot minute to find the power outlets. Once I had, I plugged in the phone and slotted in the SIM card then set it aside. It was going to be a long wait.
"When was Bran taken?" asked Athyst. "Have you found him yet? Who did it?"
"He-"
"Bran’s been taken? You an he’s been kidnapped?" asked lody, eyes wide.
As I stood up a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over and I fought to figure out what to say.
"Yeah," I finally said. "But I’m going to get him back."
"But..."
"Have you eaten, Misha?" asked Athyst. "You look pale."
The question sounded foreign to . "Uh, I guess not, but-"
Without waiting for the rest of what I had to say, Athyst took by the arm and deposited on one of the cushions by the coffee table.
Coral said sothing to Athyst who nodded, then both she and lody both went out the door.
"Where are they going?" I mumbled. The ntion of food seed to have been the last straw and I was finding it hard to even keep my eyes open.
"They’re just going to get food," explained Athyst. "You just rest first."
So I did, folding my arms on the table and resting my head on them.
I heard Athyst go into the kitchen and fumble around with the kettle, but the next thing I knew, the front door was swinging open again, intermingled with the voices of Coral and lody and the sll of hot food.
I must have fallen asleep.
"I don’t know what you like, so we got a bit of everything," said lody as she helped Coral take out the different containers of food from the bag.
"Oh, thank you..." I mumbled as my brain slowly ca back online. "How much do I owe you?" I then asked.
"Owe ?" asked lody.
I indicated the food.
"Oh, no no, our treat," she said, waving both hands. "And, uh... I was wondering if I could ask you sothing."
Coral had gone to the kitchen to help Athyst get proper plates and cutlery so it was just lody and in the living room. I eyed the girl.
"About the dream?" I asked.
"Huh? Well... kind of, I guess," lody replied. She settled down on one of the other cushions. "So, what you and Bran did to help Coral that... I don’t know how much of that was actually real and how much was just a dream I had. But..." She also glanced at the kitchen then turned back to . "Coral and I are together now," she added with a happy whisper.
I hadn’t been expecting that but the sudden news did actually make feel happy. "Congratulations," I said genuinely.
lody bead while blushing. "Well, anyway, I was thinking that maybe all that stuff was real since," she pulled out her phone, "Have you seen The Unity’s stuff?"
"Oh, sothing about ’physical computing’ or sothing? I haven’t actually seen the presentation but..."
My voice trailed off as the video played on lody’s phone and the image ca to life.
"Teleportation," ca a male voice over the speakers, "The epito of travel. Just imagine being able to instantly move from your ho to your workplace and the savings you’d make on ti..." It went on but I wasn’t listening. Instead all my attention was on your pixelated figure standing next to the man giving the presentation.
"That’s..."
"That’s Bran, right?" lody finished for . "I thought it looks like him." She motioned to take her phone back from but I kept on holding it and instead rewound back to the beginning of the presentation.
"What the hell is this...?"
"That’s what I wanted to ask you," said lody. "Well, actually that’s what Coral wanted to ask you."
I looked up at the ntion of Coral’s na. You and I had had dealings with lody but not so much with Coral, especially if you didn’t count her Dream Coil.
Coral returned to the table with plates and cutlery and sat opposite lody. "lody told about what you helped her with before. And what you helped with. You and Bran, I an," she said.
"Oh."
"And so when I saw that," she nodded toward lody’s phone I was still holding, "I thought you and Bran would be the best people to ask about it."
"...How so?" I asked. Right now I was feeling even more out of place and disorientated than before. How was I supposed to help or guide anyone in this state, especially when you weren’t around.
Coral portioned out the chopsticks and spoons as she spoke. "The company, The Unity, they have a website where they talk about what they’re offering. It’s impressive, and even though I know they should be puffing things up, it’s still very impressive, and that..."
She looked to lody who gave her an encouraging look. I’d tended to think of Coral as a spirited, strong individual so I was quite surprised to see her now suddenly so vulnerable.
She took a deep breath. "If this technology becos mainstream, how much do you think it’ll end up costing?" she asked in a rush.
Ah, now I understood.
"More than you can imagine," ca Athyst’s voice as she erged from the kitchen, teapot and large mugs in hand. From the scent, I was pretty sure she’d brewed up so of your calming tea.
"Do you know sothing about this?" I asked as she sat. After finding out she wasn’t human and was a lot older than she looked, I’d kind of relegated her to the more... curmudgeonly section of my mind, so discovering she was so up to date on the latest topics was a bit of a surprise.
Athyst sat and poured four mugs of tea.
"No," she said.
The collective mood of the room dropped and awkwardness replaced it.
"But," she went on, "I know how this has been done in the past."
"Wait, the past?" I took the mug I was offered but did not drink. "You an this has happened before?"
"In a way," replied Athyst as she handed out the other two mugs. "In years past, when there was no separation between the natural and the supernatural, certain beings exchanged favours for coin."
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