Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

Marek tried to call out his name within the black center of the Mark. No one responded. He pressed harder against the Mark. The center opened beneath his awareness.

A space existed behind it.

It was not empty.

Marek could not see Devin inside. No body, face, or shape resembled a person.

Still, something completely occupied the space. It was not an injury. Neither was it poison nor an unstable unknown ability.

A person should not have fit inside a Mark. Elia’s continuing rupture should not have fit inside one either.

Marek attempted to reach the contained Case. But it was as if nothing moved at all.

Good thing the black center did not resist him. It recognized that the Case was already where it belonged.

But that did not make it any better.

The Quiet Room ended.

Sound returned without warning.

Several medical personnel had gathered around Devin. A stretcher had been opened beside them. The doctor from the nearby station checked his eyes and pulse again.

Clara held Marek’s sleeve.

She did not ask immediately. Her fingers remained there until he responded.

”His body is functioning,” Marek said.

That was already obvious.

The next part was not.

”He is not inside it.”

The doctor stopped examining Devin. Marek kept his hand near the black circle without touching it again.

The Mark had opened a Case. Devin was the identified condition. The Mark had found a valid Vessel—it was Devin himself.

The process made no sense according to the rules Marek understood regarding their Ophiuchus Marks.

Devin was lifted onto the stretcher. His arm slipped over the side. A medic placed it across his chest. The body accepted the movement without resistance.

Marek turned to the five patients behind the screen.

Their Marks carried the same difference: that every black center was occupied.

The doctor had already recorded twenty-three cases throughout the facility. Only five had been moved to this station. The others were being kept in separate medical sections after several collapsed during registration.

All twenty-three were Ophiuchus.

No other Sign had shown the same presentation.

Marek approached the older woman among the five. Her body remained warm. He checked her pulse before placing his other hand over the Mark near her shoulder.

The Quiet Room formed.

[SUBJECT IDENTIFIED.]

[MARIEL GABAS.]

[ACTIVE CASE DETECTED.]

[CONDITION IDENTIFIED: BEARER.]

[CURRENT VESSEL: BEARER.]

[VESSEL ACCEPTANCE: ESTABLISHED.]

[CASE STATUS: STABILIZED.]

[RESOLUTION STATUS: INCOMPLETE.]

The results did not change. They were the same as Devin’s.

He examined the security officer next. Then the youngest patient.

Each body remained functional. Their every scale contained nothing. Every black center contained the person whose body lay beneath it.

The Cases had succeeded.

’This just proved success isn’t always a good thing,’ Marek thought.

Another disturbance passed through the assessment area.

A woman screamed from the THIRTEEN SCALES line. A middle-aged man had collapsed beside her. She caught his head before it struck the concrete and lowered him across her lap.

His eyes remained open. His chest indicated he was still breathing. The black center beneath his damaged shirt was no longer empty.

Medical personnel reached him.

Before they could move him, the woman who had been whispering near the barrier became quiet.

Her hands were still pressed over her Mark.

”I am still here,” she said again.

The words had weakened.

”I am still—”

Her fingers loosened. The rest of her body followed. The person beside her caught her before her head struck the floor.

Two more.

Less than a minute after Devin.

The hall continued around them. Names passed through the public-address system.

New buses entered the loading area. Registration workers continued scanning Marks and recording occupied scales. Thousands of people remained beneath the Ophiuchus symbol.

Most had not yet realized what was happening near the medical stations.

Marek crossed toward the fallen woman.

A medic had already confirmed that she was breathing. Her pulse remained steady. Nothing suggested physical damage.

Marek placed his palm over the black center.

[SUBJECT IDENTIFIED.]

[CELINE MARASIGAN.]

[ACTIVE CASE DETECTED.]

[CONDITION IDENTIFIED: BEARER.]

[CURRENT VESSEL: BEARER.]

[VESSEL ACCEPTANCE: ESTABLISHED.]

[CASE STATUS: STABILIZED.]

[RESOLUTION STATUS: INCOMPLETE.]

The middle-aged man produced the same result.

His name was Ramon Marasigan. His wife remained beside him while the medics prepared another stretcher. She kept one hand around his wrist and pressed the other against his cheek.

His body reacted when she struck his chest and called his name. Marek could not determine whether Ramon did.

The body still possessed reflexes; it seemed so. They moved Ramon and Celine into the medical section.

The five patients became eight.

Additional cots were brought from another station. Curtains were extended around the area, although the fabric did nothing to hide the number of people being carried inside.

Twenty-six cases now existed within the facility. And yet several thousand Ophiuchus bearers were still waiting for assessment.

Marek returned to the youngest patient. Her hair had been tied into two loose braids. One had partly come undone during transport.

A plastic identification band surrounded her wrist.

LIA REYES.

AGE: 12.

Marek rested his hand over the Mark again. The interface did not change.

Condition identified: Bearer.

Current Vessel: Bearer.

Case stabilized.

Resolution incomplete.

She had awakened younger than Marek.

That had not protected her.

The doctor remained near the foot of the cot. His earlier questions had stopped. He no longer appeared to expect the medical equipment to find something it had missed.

Marek understood what everyone around him was beginning to consider. He had removed conditions from other people. Perhaps he could remove these Cases too.

The previous conditions had existed inside hosts before entering another Vessel.

These were different.

The host was the condition.

The condition was the bearer.

The bearer was already inside the Vessel... in a way he could not understand.

Clara moved between Marek and the cot before anybody could suggest an immediate attempt. Henry remained beside her.

Neither needed to explain the danger. The scales contained conditions. Nothing had confirmed that an entire person could enter one.

The Mark appeared to disagree. That did not make the Mark correct. It only meant the Mark considered the process valid.

Marek counted the empty scales surrounding his own center.

Eleven remained.

Twenty-six swallowed Ophiuchus were already inside the facility.

More could collapse at any moment.

Even if transferring one into himself worked, there were more people than he could hold. And he did not know whether the person would be released from the original body or simply contained somewhere else.

He returned to Devin.

The black center remained closed around the Case.

Not crushing. Not damaging. Containing. Perfectly.

Marek attempted to establish a boundary.

Devin as the condition. Devin’s body as the host. Marek as the Vessel.

The interface reacted.

[CASE BOUNDARY INCOMPLETE.]

[TRANSFER ROUTE: UNESTABLISHED.]

[VESSEL COMPATIBILITY: UNKNOWN.]

No acceptance request appeared because it said that the transfer route was not established. That meant it would not be possible to contain Devin’s condition or anyone’s into his own Mark.

Nothing moved between them, which further strengthened the interface’s assessment.

He changed the distinctions and tried again. However, the result remained the same. The system recognized that a transfer might exist, but it could not define the path.

Marek removed his hand.

The doctor needed a term for the medical records. There was no proper name for what had happened. For the moment, he recorded only what could be confirmed.

”Breathing. Warm. No detectable injury. No external response. Ophiuchus Mark intact. Thirteen scales empty. Black center occupied. Cause, unknown. Prognosis, unknown. Treatment, unknown,” the doctor whispered to himself as he wrote down these things.

Devin was moved behind the expanded screen. They moved Ramon and Celine as well.

More medical workers arrived. They carried portable monitors, oxygen tanks, and supplies that could keep the bodies alive. None of those things could reach the people contained inside their Marks.

The assessment lines continued moving.

Another Ophiuchus stepped into Devin’s former place. The fallen barrier was lifted and returned to position.

Announcements continued above them.

Families were still being searched for. People argued with registration personnel. Some compared the colors inside their scales. Others covered their Marks completely.

Twenty-six Ophiuchus had already been checked. Most people inside the hall still believed they had only fallen unconscious.

The processing officer called Henry’s name. He returned to the assessment line. Clara followed when hers came next.

Marek remained beside the barrier.

Cooper passed him.

His injured arm rested inside the temporary sling. Sweat had begun gathering near his hairline despite the cold air circulating through the hall.

The black center of his Mark remained empty.

Thirteen broken scales surrounded it. Every one of them was still empty.

”I just wonder how those from the medical team are not yet annoyed by your meddling with their check-ups, though.” Clara went to his side.

”Perhaps they were too busy to pay attention to me.”

Then they finally walked to their lines.