Sunblind Serpent: The Zodiac Without A House

”Are you Aquarius?”

The irritation that followed did not arrive as an emotion inside Marek’s mind. It came through the way she answered, the same way a person’s annoyance could be heard even when their words remained controlled.

”You do not know enough to ask that properly.”

Marek kept the pen above the notebook. ”Then explain what I am missing.”

”No.”

He placed the pen down.

Henry had been watching the movement of his hand rather than Marek’s face. ”She refused?”

”Yes.”

”What did you ask?”

”Which Sign could use this ability...”

”And?”

”She said I do not know enough to ask properly.”

Henry considered that while adjusting the box of documents away from the edge of the table. ”That sounds like someone from a university.”

Marek glanced at him. ”Okay, old man.”

Henry frowned. ”I already told you I’m not that old.”

The voice laughed again.

Marek ignored both of them.

He had already considered Aquarius before asking. Most of the reports connected the Sign to water, electricity, heat, signals, and anything moving through an established route. The Exhibition Center’s temporary network still passed through several Meridian-connected systems, even when ordinary calls and messages failed.

A person with sufficient control might use those connections to carry a voice. That still did not explain why the words appeared inside Marek’s mind rather than through one of the speakers.

Gemini remained possible because of the voice itself. Pisces remained possible because the communication affected his perception. He had read reports involving copied speech, dream intrusion, emotional influence, and people hearing sounds that had never entered their ears.

None of the researchers had recorded direct communication between two awake people through thought.

If the ability existed, no one on Earth had documented it yet. Or the people capable of using it were simply not from Earth.

Marek directed another question toward the connection. ”Who are you?”

”Someone who should not have needed to contact you yet.”

”That is not an answer.”

”It is the answer I chose.”

”Do you have a name?”

”Yes.”

She did not provide it.

Marek waited while the ward continued around them. A nurse pushed a cart between two rows of cots. One of its wheels produced the same short squeak every time it completed a rotation. Near the medical tables, Clara inspected the strap around Cooper’s immobilizer while he attempted to explain that it had already been tight enough.

The voice remained silent.

”You know mine,” Marek said.

”Marek Vale.”

The way she said his name felt more intrusive than the earlier words.

He had not introduced himself. His name appeared on registration forms, patient assessments, the Route Eight incident report, and several requests sent through the Exhibition Center’s limited network. Someone with access to the facility’s records could have found it.

That did not explain how she had established the connection.

”How long have you been observing me?”

”I was not observing you.”

”You knew when I reached the question.”

”I was observing this world. You just became noticeable.”

Marek returned his attention to the final line inside the notebook.

What connected Dr. Mercer, Meridian, and Ophiuchus?

The speaker had contacted him only after he wrote it. Either she had seen the page, or she already knew what he had been trying to understand.

”Where are you?”

”Somewhere your current maps do not include.”

”Outside Earth?”

”Yes.”

The answer arrived without hesitation.

Marek wrote it beneath the other notes.

Speaker claims to be outside Earth.

Henry read the line and remained quiet for several seconds. He then raised his head toward the roof, although nothing beyond the Exhibition Center’s ceiling could be seen from the ward.

”You believe her?”

”No.”

”Good.”

”But that does not mean she is lying.”

Henry returned his attention to the notebook. ”Ask what she is.”

Marek directed the question toward the voice.

”What are you?”

”A human.”

”From the Prime Continuum?”

”You are also in the Prime Continuum.”

”You know what I mean.”

She continued giving answers that could not be called false while avoiding the part Marek actually wanted. Government reports often used the same method. They provided enough information to satisfy the structure of a question, then left out the detail that gave the answer meaning.

”Were you born on Earth?”

”No.”

”Were you born in this world?”

The connection remained quiet for several seconds.

”Obviously not.”

Marek’s pen stayed above the page. ”Then what are you?”

”A non-native.”

He wrote the term down.

NON-NATIVE.

Henry read the word from the opposite side of the table. ”Non-native to Earth?”

”She said this world.”

”What does she call the world?”

Marek repeated the question.

The woman answered with one of her own, ”What do you call it?”

”Earth.”

”That is what you call the planet.”

Marek stopped writing.

The periods of light and darkness continued without any visible Sun or Moon. Familiar parts of Linden City remained where they had always been, but streets now ended near forests, coastlines, and land that had not existed before Day 367.

Government systems designated Earth as a Newborn World.

None of the reports explained whether the term referred to the planet alone or to everything that had appeared around it.

”Earth is not the world,” Marek said.

”It was part of one.”

”Before Day 367?”

”Yes.”

”What is it part of now?”

The voice did not answer.

Marek waited long enough for Henry to understand that the conversation had stopped again. He then added another question to the notebook.

What is Earth connected to now?

The page had begun with four words.

Things that do not match.

The list beneath them continued growing faster than Marek could remove anything from it.

”Why did you contact me?”

”You asked something worth hearing.”

”What connected Dr. Mercer, Meridian, and Ophiuchus?”

”You are still missing part of the question.”

”Which part?”

”The world.”

Marek examined the words he had written.

Dr. Mercer had known about the Signs before midnight. Project Meridian had been hidden inside environmental and medical systems long before Day 367. Ophiuchus had been excluded from the government’s first classification system despite warnings that clearly acknowledged it.

He had treated those questions as separate from what had physically happened to Earth.

They might not have been separate.

Marek wrote another line beneath the first.

What connected Dr. Mercer, Meridian, Ophiuchus, and Earth?

The voice did not laugh this time. ”That is closer.”

”Then answer it.”

”No.”

Marek stared at the page. ”You contacted me to correct one question.”

”I contacted you because you noticed that there should be a connection.”

”And now you refuse to explain it.”

”You would not understand the explanation yet.”

”You could try.”

”I already did.”

Marek had received several statements. None of them formed an explanation.

Henry leaned closer to the notebook. ”What does she want?”

”I do not know.”

Marek directed his next words toward the connection. ”You heard him.”

”Yes.”

”Then answer.”

Something changed.

The voice did not become weaker, but the connection no longer felt as steady as it had several moments earlier. Marek could not identify what had moved. The sensation was similar to a call losing signal, except there had been no noise or distortion from the beginning.

”What I want is not important yet,” she said.

”Yet?”

”Your governments are still measuring what happened to their cities. They are deciding which awakened people should be detained and which ones should be called patients. Most of you do not understand your own Marks.”

”You do.”

”Yes.”

The answer came too quickly to be modest.

She continued, ”And definitely better than you.”

That was the closest she had come to admitting that people outside Earth had known what would happen before Earth understood that anything was coming.

”Is this telepathy?” Marek asked.

”No.”

”Then what is it?”

”A connection.”

”Through Aquarius?”

”Not entirely.”

”Through my Mark?”

”No.”

Marek paused.

That answer was different from what he expected.

His interface had produced no notification. None of his occupied scales had become warm. No pressure moved toward the black center, and the Case Seals did not react as though something foreign had entered them.

The connection did not belong to him.

He was only receiving it.

”You are doing this alone,” he said.

”Yes.”

”So I cannot contact someone else this way.”

”No.”

The answer removed one possibility.

This was not another function hidden inside Marek’s interface. It was not an ability he had activated without understanding it. The route existed because the woman created it and continued only because she maintained it.

”Can you contact anyone on Earth?”

”I can contact anyone I have a valid route to.”

”Why do you have one to me?”

The squeaking wheel stopped near the far end of the ward.

Marek barely noticed. His attention remained on the connection and the notebook beneath his hand.

The woman did not answer immediately.

”You were beside several Meridian-connected systems when you awakened,” she eventually said.

”So Meridian created the route.”

”No.”

”It gave you access to me.”

”Not exactly.”

Marek wrote beside Meridian:

Possible Route.

Another incomplete distinction.

Henry followed the movement of the pen. ”Is she leaving?”

”I think so.”

The voice had become less distinct. Marek could still understand every word, but the presence behind them appeared farther away.

Henry glanced across the ward. ”Ask what happens next.”

Marek directed the question toward the fading connection.

”What happens next?”

The voice did not answer.

The ward continued around him.

A nurse spoke beside one of the occupied-center patients. Clara had finished adjusting Cooper’s immobilizer and was now checking the medical form attached to his cot. Someone called for another set of blood-pressure equipment near the western partition.

The damaged wheel remained silent.

Marek raised his head.

The cart had stopped near the far end of the ward.

A woman stood beside it.

She wore the same plain identification band issued to transferred civilians and held several folded medical forms against her chest. Marek recognized her from the previous shift. She had arrived with another group of civilians sent to Section Nine.

She was not part of the medical staff. Marek had not seen her speak to anyone.

Yet her attention was now fixed on him.

Marek remained seated.

The woman’s sleeve had shifted far enough to reveal thin lines of light extending from the Mark along her wrist. They were already fading.

The connection weakened with them.

Marek stared at her.

She stared back.

Her lips did not move.

The connection tightened one final time.

”We already studied this world. It’s almost time.”