Chapter 89: I Am The Original

Marek stepped past the note and entered the covered passage.

Strips of white fabric hung between the columns, stirring lightly as Marek continued through the passage. Several reflective panels along the inner walls had been covered. In contrast, others remained partly exposed, catching fragmented glimpses of him whenever he passed—his shoulder, the side of his face, the edge of his white coat. When he glanced back, the entrance was still visible behind him, with Rhovan standing farther beyond it at the intersection exactly where he had promised.

’It seems like he can still listen. Right, just stay where you are, Rhovan.’

No one followed Marek inside.

For several moments, nothing tried to stop him either.

The covered passage eventually opened onto a narrow service street along the edge of the botanical institute. Several abandoned commercial buildings stood across from the institute wall, most damaged enough that civilians no longer used them. An old department store occupied the nearest corner, its front windows broken and its entrance left open.

Marek had only taken several steps onto the service street when Nadia called his name from somewhere inside the store.

"Marek. This way."

He stopped and turned toward the broken windows. Nadia was still farther behind with the others along the surrounding streets, well beyond the distance from which her voice should have reached him this clearly. More importantly, it had come directly from the department store.

The voice repeated his name with the same impatient lift Nadia usually gave it whenever he ignored her. Even the small breath before the next words sounded right.

"Marek. This way."

Marek stared into the dark interior before glancing back through the covered passage. Rhovan remained at the intersection, watching him closely enough that Marek only needed to raise one hand.

And when he did, Rhovan moved immediately.

He crossed the distance while the others remained where they had agreed to wait, reaching Marek without bringing anyone else closer to the institute.

"Nadia’s voice is coming from inside that store," Marek said when he arrived. "The actual Nadia is still somewhere behind us."

Rhovan looked toward the broken windows just as the copied voice called again.

"Marek. This way."

Whatever amusement had remained on his face disappeared. He listened until the voice faded, then glanced toward the distant streets where the others were waiting.

"That sounds exactly like her," Marek remarked.

Rhovan did not immediately signal anyone forward. Instead, he studied the department store while Marek followed his gaze.

Several hanging signs remained suspended beyond the open entrance. They moved despite the lack of wind, each one shifting a fraction later than the sign beside it and producing a slow wave toward the rear of the building.

Marek watched the movement repeat.

One sign shifted before the one that should have preceded it.

"There," he said. "The order is wrong."

Rhovan narrowed his eyes as the signs repeated the sequence. "The later movement is trying to come before the one it should be following."

"Gemini?"

"That’s where I’d start."

Only after saying that did Rhovan turn and raise one hand toward the streets behind them. A faint gold flare appeared around his fingers before disappearing.

"You called them?"

"I told them to come closer, not rush inside," Rhovan replied. "Something has already interfered with your route, and apparently it knows one of their voices. I think that qualifies under our agreement."

Marek could hardly argue with that.

While they waited, a metallic smell drifted from the department store, and warmth gradually spread beneath Marek’s right shoulder. Rhovan lifted one hand before Marek could approach the entrance, faint gold gathering beneath his collar.

"If there’s an Astrant inside, their correspondence is already behaving incorrectly," he said. "A Gemini copy is supposed to remain a second version. Whatever is happening in there is trying to erase that distinction."

"Black Errancy?"

"Possibly. I’m not naming the route yet."

By the time Nadia and the others finally reached the service street, the copied voice had called Marek two more times. Nadia heard the second one before she reached them and slowed almost immediately.

Her expression tightened. "I did not say that."

"I know," Marek replied.

The voice came again from inside the store, repeating his name with the same cadence.

Nadia listened more carefully this time. "Even the breathing is right."

Rafe had already moved toward the opposite side of the street. He checked along the exterior of the building and returned after identifying three possible exits, including a rear service passage that rejoined the route toward the botanical institute courtyard.

Another strip of white fabric could be seen farther ahead along that route.

Marek stared at it.

The invitation had not ended here. Whatever had copied Nadia’s voice had simply placed itself between him and the person who had told him to come inside.

Dario followed his gaze. "We could go around."

"Maybe," Rafe said. "The rear route is still open."

Before anyone decided, the voice inside changed.

"Marek?"

His body reacted before he had time to think.

Mara’s voice came from behind the broken windows, carrying the irritated upward turn she used whenever he ignored one of her messages, followed by the smaller breath she sometimes tried to hide whenever she was frightened.

"Marek, please."

Marek moved toward the entrance before Rhovan stepped across his path.

"That isn’t her."

"I know."

Rhovan glanced at the foot Marek had already placed forward before looking back at him. "Your body clearly disagrees."

Marek forced himself to remain where he was. A voice alone gave his Mark nothing he could define as a Case, and it certainly did not prove that Mara herself was inside the building.

Then Amara spoke from the same darkness. "Stop making me search for you."

His hand slowly closed.

Nadia’s expression changed as she listened. "I’ve never heard your mother."

"Then whoever is doing this heard her somewhere," Rhovan said. "Either directly or through a recording. Gemini still needs a source to copy from."

"And Black Errancy?" Nadia asked.

"It can twist an existing Gemini rule," Rhovan replied. "It can’t simply invent a completely unrelated Authority."

Rafe checked the rear passage again. It remained open and still connected to the route toward the courtyard, but entering it would require them to pass along the department store anyway.

Going around would not solve much. Whatever waited inside had already demonstrated that it could reproduce the voices of people connected to Marek, and ignoring it would not make that problem disappear.

His fingers briefly touched the section of his backpack where he kept the family notes. Checking them would not tell him where the voices had come from, but he still wanted to make sure they were secure before entering a place where someone had already used his family against him.

Rhovan noticed.

"Do not praise me before we walk into an obvious trap," Marek said.

"Then, I am saving it for later."

"That was not permission."

Rhovan stepped through the entrance first anyway.

Marek followed Rhovan into the store, with the others close behind.

The department store had been stripped almost bare. Most shelves were gone, while old advertisements and pieces of broken ceiling panels covered sections of the floor. The former cosmetics area remained more intact than the rest, with tall panels of dark glass surrounding the central aisle.

As Marek and the others moved deeper inside, the dark glass multiplied their reflections around them.

Marek did not notice the woman at first. She stood among the reflected images, almost blending into them until one figure moved differently from everyone else.

She stood near the center of the cosmetics section and looked around thirty, with one side of her hair cut short while the other fell across her jaw. A Gemini Mark crossed both her wrists, its paired and symmetrical geometry now traced by thin black lines that extended beyond the original shape.

Rhovan’s expression hardened when he saw them. "Black Errancy. We were right."

The woman ignored Rhovan and kept her attention on Marek.

"First."

Before she had even finished saying the word, the woman in the nearest reflection mouthed it ahead of her.

"First."

The same thing happened in the next panel, then the next, until the word traveled through the dark glass. Each reflected version seemed to speak a fraction earlier than the one before it, as though every copy were trying to claim that it had spoken first.

Marek watched the sequence carefully.

The copies were not behaving as though they had followed the source. Each one was insisting that it had been the source.

Rhovan did not ask what she was. "What’s your name?"

"Laureen Harrow."

Her reflections answered one after another, each giving a different name.

By the time the voices stopped moving through the panels, twelve reflections had given twelve different answers with the same certainty as the living woman.

Silas moved closer to one of the panels without touching it. "Don’t decide which one is original simply because it answered first."

Every reflection turned toward him.

"I am the original."

Nadia’s frown deepened. "I already dislike her."

Kellan glanced sideways at her. "Professional jealousy?"

"She stole my voice. That makes it personal."

Laureen raised one hand, and Mara’s voice sounded from every reflective panel around them. "Don’t let him reach me."

Heat spread beneath Marek’s Mark as the black edges around Laureen’s Gemini geometry advanced farther along her wrists.

"There," she said. "The brother is the witness."

Every reflection turned toward Marek.

One showed him continuing toward the botanical institute courtyard while another showed him turning back toward the covered passage. A third placed a blonde girl farther ahead, but her face shifted slightly whenever Marek tried to focus on it. Another showed the same girl walking away beside a tall figure dressed in silver-white.

The images lasted less than a breath, each presenting a different version of what might happen next. None of them gave him anything he could verify, and he refused to choose between them simply because one frightened him more than the others.

Laureen watched his face carefully. "You recognized one of them."

"I reacted to one of them," Marek replied. "That doesn’t make it true."

Her smile widened.

Around them, the reflections began moving again. This time, they no longer followed Laureen perfectly.