Chapter 22
KIT
SFS POLARIS
Monday
She finds him again in the sundome, standing at the edge of the small pond.
“You’re here again,” she says, both relieved and nervous.
She doesn’t want to admit to herself that she was hoping he would be here. She told herself that after a day spent tending to three Fever patients, she needed to spend time in the sundome, replenish her Vitamin D levels. But really, that was secondary. She’d wanted to talk to him.
He turns from where he stands, the right side of his mouth tugging up into a small smile. “I’m here again.”
Kit’s stomach somersaults as their eyes catch, and she’s acutely aware of her blood rushing through her veins, feels it in her ears.
She saw him earlier today on her way to the lab, leading his wing into the hangar they’d been using as a training space. She’d tracked his movements, looking for a tattoo under his ear, but couldn’t see one. He’d winked at her as he passed, but she’d convinced herself she was imagining it.
“You left the lights on today,” she says, feeling a bit dumb for stating the obvious. She gestures to the room, which is lit from overhead by a technology intended to replicate the sun’s rays. It feels only slightly artificial, and she’s warm standing under it.
“Needed to brighten my soul,” he deadpans.
Kit isn’t expecting it, and she bursts out laughing.
The sound glitters off the walls and bounces around the dome.
She crosses the lawn so she stands next to him on the edge of the pond, leaving an inch of space between them, but close enough that she can smell the cedar and coriander that she’s come to associate with him.
“That may have been harsh of me,” she says, apologetically, remembering she told him his soul was black only two weeks ago.
He shrugs. “I think you were spot on.”
She looks at him from the corner of her eye. “Well, in the spirit of helping you come back into the light, tell me something happy.”
She swears she sees Task’s entire body seize up, as if this question is causing him physical pain. But it passes in an instant, and he’s relaxed again. Or as relaxed as she’s ever seen him; she’s not sure he ever fully lets go.
“Happy, hmm?” Task muses, and she sees something flicker across his eyes.
Kit nods once, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She hopes she didn’t push him too far. But she feels the boundaries he’s created are slowly falling away, and she wants to know him in spite of herself.
“When I was four, I remember my mother taking me to the market in Aresgate, just outside of Xaria. We lived on Draven’s estate, and it was always a treat to go off the property.
I found his estate so boring; it made me feel trapped.
” Task chuckles, mostly to himself. “Anyways, she took me to Aresgate and I’d never, ever had chocolate before.
You know it’s rare on Nexarium, right? Not as easy to come by as on Lumaria.
But we passed this vendor, and he had chocolate-dipped bananas, and my mother stopped and got us both one.
We sat down right at the edge of the market, next to a little fountain, and we ate them together.
It wasn’t anything big, but sitting there, having chocolate for the first time with her, I was happy.
I remember smiling from ear to ear as she tried to wipe the mess from my face. ”
Kit smiles, even though she feels a searing pain in her gut, grief twisting her insides into knots as she remembers her own mother — her gentle voice, her soft touch. “Where is she now?”
“She’s dead.” Task says it matter-of-factly, his voice emotionless. “My father too. Killed by rebel Lows — the Revs — on Nexarium.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kit says, moving to place a hand on his arm. They have more in common than she thought.
Task steps out of her reach, face still blank. “Don’t.”
Kit is taken aback, both by Task’s request but also by his admission. She wasn’t expecting that. But it provides her more insight into Task, why he believes what he does about the caste system. She still doesn’t agree with it, how he views them, how he likely views her, but she can understand it.
She lets out a breath, considering how to pivot the conversation into more neutral territory.
Tuesday
Kit sits in the library today, surrounded by tall shelves.
Most of the books that line them are digital, their spines illuminated in neon text.
All it requires is a tap with a Prism, and the book is downloaded instantly.
Dim candelabra hang on the walls, casting a golden glow over the digital catalog open on the table in front of her.
She sinks further into her chair, adjusting the small banker’s lamp in front of her.
She’s trying to go through the millions of digibooks in the Polaris’ catalog so that she can try to cross-reference them for information about nixos.
She’d gotten what she could from Amaltheia, but she needs more.
She has to find more. She has to prove that everybody’s confidence in her isn’t misplaced.
She can’t mess up again, not when Luminary Ellsworth, hell, the entire planet of Lumaria is relying upon her to find something that will stop the Fever.
She’s looking for information on the etiology of black magic, but so far, she’s coming up empty.
And she wants to understand why pink salt works to cure a black magic curse, because if she can decipher that, then maybe she can reverse engineer her way into something that might work for the Fever.
The pink salt is helping manage it, but it’s not doing what she needs it to.
There’s something there, though, some link that she’s missing; she’s so close to putting it together, she can almost taste it. She taps the page again.
The door slides open, and she looks up from where she sits, her eyes meeting Task’s. “Hi.” She smiles at him, and she can feel her entire face lighting up, despite telling herself to play it cool.
He offers her a tentative smile back, something she’s fairly certain she’s only ever seen when they’re together. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I needed to look into something for Draven. What are you working on?”
“Trying to find information about nixos. If I can understand its cause, and how pink salt works against it, I think it will help us with developing an antidote for the Fever.”
“Nixos?” Task asks, surprised.
“I told you it’s the primary magical signature associated with the Fever, right?”
“Damn,” Task says, under his breath. Then, “No. But that’s…troubling.”
“Do you know anything about it? Amaltheia and Wynstann told me it’s something you all have dealt with for years.”
Task hesitates. “I’ve seen it firsthand, a few times. It can be debilitating. But the pink salt has kept it at bay on Nexarium. We’ve not had an issue with it in a long time.”
“What about how it comes to be?”
At that, Task laughs. “I’m a soldier, not a healer.
I may have seen a nixos infection a handful of times, but I don’t understand any more than that.
” Still, he walks around the table to stand behind her, reading the file she has open over her shoulder.
She feels a pleasant chill at his proximity. “Can I help?”
She was not expecting him to offer. But, she reasons, sorting through these textbooks would be faster if she had a second set of eyes.
Tullia is in the lab today, and Nevis, Wynstann, and Amaltheia are on duty in the medical bay, leaving Kit to pore through the digital pages alone.
But he also just mentioned he has to do research for the Governor of Nexarium, and she doesn’t want to be responsible for getting Task in trouble. “Can your research wait?”
He waves his hand in the air. “I’ll get to it later. This is more important. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Kit scoffs. “I would assume saving my planet is more important than whatever little errand your governor has you running, but since you won’t tell me anything, how am I supposed to know?”
“Little errand?” Task raises his brows at her, as if insulted. She knows he’s not, though. She thinks he likes it when she ribs him, sees the sparkle in his eyes when he’s going back and forth with her.
“Yes,” Kit says, pressing her lips together to hide a smile as she swipes her finger in the air to turn a translucent page.
Task huffs and drops down into the chair next to her. “Tell me what I’m looking for.”
Her eyes finally find the tattoos under his ear, and she’s momentarily distracted. A strange rush of relief barreling through her as she sees they’re all black. He’s not married.
She gathers herself and says, “Look for cases where pink salt was used to combat a black magic curse. I have another theory.”
Wednesday
Task
He didn’t mean to come here after his training session with Voss, but his feet carried him down the now-familiar corridors before he realized.
He supposes this is par for the course now; that his brain is always slightly addled with her.
He sits across the table from her, sweaty in his training shirt and trousers, pretending to read a digibook.
He sees Kit glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. He looks up, meeting her gaze directly as he brings his canteen of water to his lips. “Yes, love?”
Pink stains her cheeks as she watches his throat as he swallows. “Would you stop calling me that?”
“You like it,” he says, grinning a bit.
She huffs. “I do not.”
“Whatever you say,” he sings. “What were you looking at, then?”
Kit shakes her head, a loose strand of hair coming dislodged from the bun pinned at the nape of her neck.
“I know I’m extremely handsome. You don’t have to pretend.”
Kit rolls her eyes, letting out a breath through her nose. “As I’ve said before, you’re about as handsome as an urb.”
“You think that highly of me?” Task snickers. “I’m flattered.”
Kit slams her palms on the table, frustrated. “Would you be serious for two seconds?”