Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

Marek remained still.

The voice had not come from Henry. It had not come from the medical tables, the public-address system, or any of the monitors positioned throughout the ward. He had heard no distortion from a damaged speaker and no direction that would allow him to locate where it originated.

The words had appeared inside his mind.

Henry was still standing beside the table. His attention shifted from Marek to the open notebook, then toward the surrounding ward as though he expected someone nearby to reveal themselves.

”What happened?”

Marek did not answer immediately.

The ward continued around them. Medical personnel moved between the occupied-center patients. Paper forms changed hands near the temporary registration desk. Somewhere beyond the partitions, a metal tray struck the floor and was followed by several apologies. Clara remained beside one of the examination tables while Cooper attempted to adjust the position of his injured arm without attracting her attention.

Everyone remained oblivious.

Marek examined the nearest patients again. Several had visible Marks along their arms or necks, but none showed signs of an active manifestation. No one was watching him closely enough to suggest they had spoken.

The voice returned.

”You heard me.”

Marek felt the words more clearly the second time.

They sounded female, although he could not be certain whether the connection preserved the speaker’s actual voice. The words carried tone and rhythm, but there was still no sound passing through the ward.

They were clear. Crystal clear.

There was no distance between Marek and the voice. No wall, speaker, or open space for the words to cross. They simply appeared where his own thoughts usually formed, carrying an amusement that did not belong to him.

Henry moved closer. ”Marek?”

”There is a voice.”

Henry searched the area behind him. ”Where?”

”Inside my head.”

Henry stopped. That answer did not become less concerning after Marek said it aloud.

The voice laughed.

The amusement entered his awareness in the same way as the words. Marek recognized it as laughter, but he heard no breath behind it and no vibration inside his ears.

Henry immediately caught Marek by the arm. ”Sit down.”

”I am already beside a chair.”

”Then use it.”

Marek allowed Henry to guide him onto the nearest seat. Henry crouched slightly and examined his face. ”Can you see me properly?”

”Yes.”

”Any dizziness?”

”No.”

”Pain?”

”No.”

Henry raised one hand and moved it slowly across Marek’s field of vision. Marek followed it.

The voice laughed again.

Henry noticed the change in his expression. ”Is it speaking now?”

”Yes.”

”What is it saying?”

”Nothing. She just laughed. Must be crazy.”

The laughter immediately stopped.

Henry glanced toward the medical personnel at the other end of the ward. ”Should we call someone?”

”No.”

”You just said there is someone inside your head.”

”I said there is a voice inside my head. I do not know whether anyone entered it.”

The distinction mattered.

At least, it might.

Henry remained beside him. He did not call anyone, but he also did not move away.

Marek looked down at the notebook. The final question remained beneath the other entries.

What connected Dr. Mercer, Meridian, and Ophiuchus?

He had written the line only moments before the voice appeared. Whoever had contacted him had either heard the conversation, read the page, or known enough to recognize what he had finally asked.

Marek placed the pen beside the question.

”Can you hear me?” he asked quietly.

Henry watched him more closely.

The voice did not respond.

Marek tried again without speaking. He formed the same question and directed it toward the presence he could now feel somewhere behind his ordinary thoughts.

”Can you hear me?”

”Yes.”

Marek’s hand tightened around the pen.

Henry noticed. ”What?”

”She answered.”

Marek wrote beneath the final question.

Voice heard through thought.

He paused, then crossed it out.

That description assumed too much.

Voice heard without a sound.

The voice spoke again. ”You correct yourself often.”

”You are watching me.”

”I am listening.”

”That is not the same thing.”

”No.”

Marek waited for her to continue.

She did not.

He directed another thought toward the connection. ”Can you hear everything I think?”

”Only what reaches me.”

Marek thought about his mother’s registration record. The voice remained silent. He thought about Mara’s unknown transfer, West District facility, and the copied evacuation order that had sent two buses to the wrong facility.

Nothing answered.

Then he deliberately sent the next thought toward the presence. ”What number am I thinking of?”

”You have not chosen one.”

Marek randomly chose sixty-nine.

The voice remained silent.

He wrote another line.

Not constant thought reading.

That conclusion was based only on what she allowed him to observe. She could have heard everything and simply chosen not to respond.

Marek added a question mark.

Henry read the notes from beside him. ”Telepathy?”

”That is one possibility.”

Henry glanced at Marek again. ”And the other possibilities?”

”I have not identified them yet.”

That answer did not reassure him either.

Marek had reviewed every Sign-related report available inside the Exhibition Center. Most came from hospitals, temporary detention facilities, security offices, or government research groups attempting to describe abilities that had existed for less than a week.

Several Gemini bearers reproduced voices after hearing only a few words. One copied the cadence of an evacuation officer well enough to redirect two transports. Pisces reports included shared dreams, emotional impressions, false memories, and people hearing familiar voices while unconscious. Aquarius manifestations affected electricity, water, signals, and connected machines.

None of the reports described a person speaking directly into the mind of someone awake.

Most of those reports ultimately relied on information provided by Dr. Mercer.

Marek did not know how reliable that made them. He also had no way to confirm whether the government had released everything it knew. Some information might have been withheld to prevent panic. Or for reasons that had nothing to do with the public.

Marek had searched for that telepathic-like ability specifically after several patients claimed to hear voices. Every confirmed case had eventually been connected to auditory hallucinations, dream contamination, copied sound, or an active curse.

This did not resemble any of them.

The voice had responded to questions he had not spoken. It had also reached him without appearing to affect Henry or anyone else inside the ward.

If one of the Signs possessed telepathy, Earth’s researchers had not recorded it. That might only mean the ability required more experience than any awakened person on Earth currently possessed.

”Which Sign are you?” Marek asked.

The voice remained quiet long enough for him to wonder whether the connection had ended.

Then she answered. ”You have already considered the likely ones.”

Marek stopped writing. ”Aquarius.”

”Why?”

”Signals require a route. You are sending information through one I cannot see.”

”Could be.”

”Gemini can copy voices.”

”Yes.”

”Pisces can affect dreams and perception.”

The voice remained silent.

Marek examined the ward again.

”But I know I am awake.”

The lights above the occupied-center cots remained dimmer than those near the examination tables. One of the temporary partitions had been repaired with strips of white tape after its support bent during the previous light period. Henry’s box of documents remained beside the notebook. The Route Eight report was still beneath it.

Everything appeared where it should have been.

That no longer proved as much as it once had.

”Are you Aquarius?”