Chapter 152: Moving References

Searching for Tomas turned out to involve far more waiting than Marek had expected.

He had imagined that receiving his Standing Card would finally let him walk into some enormous archive, type his father’s name into a terminal, and discover where Tomas Vale had been hiding for the past eleven years. Instead, his first attempts had consisted of public-record searches, several requests that needed processing, and Rhovan explaining why searching through the records of an entire World was not the same as looking somebody up on an Earth website.

Marek wanted to argue with him, but the problem was that Rhovan was right.

They had spent most of the morning going through what information Marek could legally access under his new civil identity. Tomas Vale had not conveniently appeared on the first page of anything they searched, and even where Earth-related records existed, they were fragmented enough that Marek could not tell whether a missing result meant his father had never been recorded or whether they were simply looking in the wrong place.

Rhovan had eventually taken the device away from him after Marek reopened the same search for the fourth time.

“Staring at the page longer will not convince it to tell you where your father is. Neither would it make your search productive.”

Marek wanted to keep searching, but staring at the same records wasn’t getting him anywhere.

Several hours later, Rhovan had dragged the whole group to Lantern Plaza.

Lantern Plaza was one of the busiest places Marek had seen since arriving in Courtspire City. Unlike the government districts they had visited so far, people here actually seemed to have time to stop, eat, talk, and look around.

Large buildings surrounded an open square broken apart by walkways, trees, sitting areas like wooden benches, and broad pools of water near the center. Public displays covered parts of the nearby structures, though most of them were advertising restaurants, performances, broadcasts, and community events rather than government notices. Temporary stalls occupied several sections of the plaza, while permanent restaurants opened their fronts toward the pedestrian paths.

Marek had also discovered that Courtspire residents were very serious about eating outside.

“You’ve been looking at that stall for almost a minute,” Nadia said while walking beside him.

Marek pointed toward the plates being carried away from it. “I’m trying to figure out why everything comes in pairs.”

Rhovan answered from several steps ahead of them. “Paired tasting plates are popular here.”

Marek looked at the two portions on the nearest customer’s tray. “They always serve them like that? You mean people tend to buy food in pairs usually?”

“Often enough.”

Marek glanced at the rows of food stalls around the plaza. “I’m starting to think Libra likes putting things in pairs.”

Kellan had already stopped listening because he was ordering something from another stall.

Eren noticed and followed him over. The last time Kellan had ordered for himself, he’d ended up with a dish meant for several people.

Marek followed the others farther into the plaza while Rafe examined a public map on his communicator. Dario had bought something wrapped in thin paper without asking what it was, which Marek considered progress only because he had at least watched the vendor prepare it first. Silas stayed near the edge of the group, paying more attention to the people around them than the attractions Rhovan kept pointing out.

For a while, Marek allowed himself to stop thinking about Tomas.

It wasn’t deliberate. There was simply enough happening around him that concentrating on one thing became difficult.

A public debate was taking place on a low platform near one side of the plaza, where two speakers were arguing over some transportation proposal while people in the audience sent questions through their devices. A group of children farther away had gathered around a street performer balancing several floating objects that Marek initially assumed were being held up by Authority until Rhovan told him the man was using ordinary stage equipment.

Kellan looked at the floating objects again. “So it’s just stage equipment?”

The performer heard him and somehow gave him an offended look.

Several minutes later, they passed a long row of food stalls, and Rhovan insisted that Marek try a paired plate because he had spent the past five minutes criticizing a tradition he had not actually participated in.

Marek accepted mostly because arguing would have taken longer.

The first portion was sweet enough that he wondered whether it should have been considered dessert. The second used the same base ingredients but had enough spice to make him stop chewing for a moment.

Rhovan watched him try the second portion with a smile that made Marek suspicious.

Marek swallowed and pointed the fork at him. “Whatever you’re thinking, keep it to yourself.”

Rhovan’s smile widened, but at least he stayed quiet.

They continued through the plaza after everyone finished eating. Marek had started paying more attention to the people around him than the buildings, partly because Spatial Parallax had made it difficult not to.

Rhovan’s lesson had changed the way he looked at crowded places.

Before learning the Technique, Marek would have described the plaza as busy and left it at that. Now, whenever two people crossed in front of him, he caught himself estimating the space between them. A delivery cart passing through the pedestrian lane became a moving reference against the edge of the walkway. Two children running around one of the pools made him notice how their separation widened and narrowed as they circled opposite sides.

He was not actively using the Technique on all of them. Rhovan had already warned him against exhausting himself by turning every normal walk into training.

The habit of noticing relationships remained regardless.

Marek was watching a pair of suspended signs sway above one of the market paths when he heard someone shout.

At first, he assumed it had come from the public debate behind them.

A second cry followed from somewhere closer, sharper than the first, and the group turned toward it.

Near one of the vehicle-access lanes bordering the plaza, three men were surrounding a woman.

One had both hands around her arm and was pulling her toward a dark vehicle stopped beside the curb. Another had opened the rear door, while the third stood several steps behind them, blocking anyone approaching from the plaza.

The woman twisted hard enough that the strap of the bag hanging from her shoulder pulled across her neck. “Let go of me!”

Several pedestrians had already noticed. Most had stopped because, for a few seconds, nobody seemed certain whether they were witnessing an arrest, an argument, or something else.

Marek caught one look at the woman’s face and stopped wondering whether this was some kind of argument or arrest. She was clearly terrified and was trying to get away.

The man holding her tried to drag her another step toward the vehicle, but she planted one foot against the pavement and grabbed the door frame with her free hand.

“Newton,” Rhovan called, but Marek was already moving.

Kellan passed him before he reached the lane. “Hey!”

The man blocking the approach turned toward him and raised one arm. “Stay out of this.”

Kellan didn’t slow down. “That would’ve worked better if she wasn’t screaming for help.”

The stranger stepped forward to intercept Kellan. Around them, the people who had stopped to watch began backing away from the lane as the situation became harder to mistake for an ordinary argument.

Eren stepped toward the crowd and extended a pale Libra line across the pavement, guiding the nearest families away from the lane while leaving enough space for people to keep moving.

“Keep this side open,” he called while directing two nearby families away from the vehicle lane.

Rafe had already moved farther to the side where he could see both ends of the street. He pointed toward a delivery entrance ahead. “Don’t let anyone get pushed that way. There’s another vehicle coming through.”

Dario shifted toward the opening and planted himself between the approaching traffic and the people leaving the plaza.

Nadia stayed with the civilians while Silas moved off to the opposite side without drawing attention to himself.

They had done this enough times that nobody needed Rhovan to assign them positions anymore.

The man facing Kellan swung first.