Chapter 125: I Need Her

Astrid Vale

I stared at her, and something in her expression made me understand she wasn’t being cruel or dismissive. She genuinely believed in the system here, believed the restrictions existed for a reason, believed the doctors she’d trained under were doing right by whoever they kept behind those doors.

"She’s not just some stranger from the surface," I said, forcing myself to slow down, to make her actually understand. "Ivy is my best friend. She’s the person who stayed beside me when I had nobody else at Moonshade. She knows everything about me, my whole life, things I’ve never told anyone else." My throat tightened around the words. "She’s my family, Liora."

Liora’s expression softened slightly, but she didn’t answer right away.

"Please," I said.

She looked down at her hands. "What if she doesn’t want to see you? What if something’s happened to her that’s made her different? What if the doctors have a reason for keeping her isolated that has nothing to do with cruelty?"

"I don’t know," I admitted. "I don’t know any of that. But I have to see her myself. I can’t just sit here wondering."

Something about the honesty of that seemed to land harder than any argument I could have constructed. Liora studied me for a long moment before finally speaking again.

"The medical facility isn’t simple," she said slowly. "There are ordinary wards, where most patients go. Then there are restricted sections, deeper in. Surface arrivals are handled differently than the rest of us, kept under closer watch. Not every doctor has access to those deeper wards. I certainly don’t."

"Who does?" I asked.

She hesitated again. "Maximus," she said finally. "He has authority over that entire section. Access that even senior doctors don’t have without his approval."

I sat with that for a moment, my mind already working through the shape of the problem.

"How often does he visit the medical facility?" I asked.

Liora blinked, caught off guard by the sudden shift. "Fairly often. He checks on progress most days, I think."

"Does he carry some kind of key? Or is it something else, a password, a specific authorization?"

"I don’t know exactly," she said. "I’ve seen him use something, a small device, I think, but I’ve never gotten a close look at it."

"Where does he keep it when he’s not using it?"

"I assume his office," she said, then stopped herself, understanding dawning slowly across her face. "You’re planning something."

I didn’t deny it.

"Astrid," she said, her voice dropping, genuine alarm creeping into it now. "This isn’t Moonshade. If you’re caught interfering with Maximus, or trying to access the restricted ward without authorization, you could lose whatever freedom you have right now. And if anyone finds out I helped you, even a little, I could be punished too. Badly."

"I know," I said. "I’m not asking you to do anything dangerous. I just need to understand how this place works if I’m going to find a way to reach her."

She was quiet for a long moment, weighing something I couldn’t see behind her eyes.

I decided to try something different. "You asked me what the sky looks like," I said. "Remember? You wanted to know if it was really blue."

She nodded slowly, uncertain where I was going with it.

"I want to show you," I said. "I mean that. If I ever get out of here, I’d take you up there myself, show you all of it, the sky and the stars and everything you’ve never gotten to see. But I can’t do any of that if I leave Ivy behind. I can’t walk away from her, not when she’s somewhere in this place, alone, and I have no idea what they’re doing to her."

Liora looked at me for a long moment, something shifting behind her expression, some internal argument finally settling into place.

"I might know a way to get you closer," she said finally.

I looked at her sharply. "What do you mean?"

"I’ve been inside Maximus’s office before," she said. "Part of my training required delivering reports to him directly. I know the layout. I know roughly where he keeps certain things." She hesitated. "I don’t know for certain if the access device is kept there when he’s not using it. But if it is, I might be able to help you figure out where."

It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t even close to a plan yet. But it was more than I’d had an hour ago, more than a locked door and a friend’s name whispered somewhere behind it.

"When is he usually occupied?" I asked. "Away from his office, I mean. Meetings, rounds, anything predictable."

"Most mornings he checks the medical wards personally," Liora said, thinking it through slowly. "That usually takes him an hour, sometimes longer if there’s been an incident overnight."

I filed that away carefully. "And who else has access to his office during that time?"

"A few attendants," she said. "Servants who clean and organize his papers. Nobody who would necessarily question me being there, since I’ve delivered reports before."

We sat there for a while longer, working through details, timing, small pieces of the puzzle that were nowhere near forming a complete plan yet but at least gave me something to hold onto besides fear.

Eventually Liora had to leave, promising to find out more about Maximus’s schedule over the next few days without drawing attention to herself. I watched her go, grateful in a way I hadn’t expected to feel toward someone I’d only just met, someone who’d started this conversation asking me innocent questions about clouds and rain and was now quietly risking herself to help me find my best friend.

Once I was alone, I thought about everything Maximus had shown me since I’d arrived here. The dinners. The careful attention. The compliments, the reassurances, the constant performance of hospitality wrapped around something colder underneath it all.

If he wanted a compliant guest, someone grateful and cooperative and easy to manage, I decided I could give him exactly that. I could smile at his dinners and answer his questions and let him believe, completely, that I’d settled into whatever role he wanted me to play here.

If it meant getting close enough to find Ivy, I would play along with all of it.