[ After she talks to Rhy, Julie sleeps for hours and hours. Harder than she did even once Wanda cleared the noise from her head. When she wakes, she eats an entire loaf of bread without thinking about it, doesn't even notice until it's practically gone in her hands.
It still takes her a bit to make her mind settle enough to concentrate. Only when it calms can she make it back to the Horizon; she appears at the Singularity instead of her own domain. The wolf is still there, lying on the cushion she left, waiting for her. She takes a seat and lets the wolf rest its head on her lap as she takes a breath and rubs her hands together.
Okay, honey. It's you and me, she thinks, putting her hands flat on the stone again. There is a sense of elation that fills her even before she touches it, like receiving the tightest hug she could ever imagine. I know. I'm always gonna come back to you. You have to be patient. But we can get them back. Just find me something that I can use, okay? I need to know where. Are there any messages that say where?
It doesn't take anywhere near as long as the first time. She keeps her eyes open this time, waiting for another lost message to get routed to her.
That's not what happens.
Instead, after waiting for an hour or so, encouraging the Singularity, straining herself, there is a flash. Her whole body seizes and she falls backward to the ground, frozen in place, eyes wide open. The wolf leaps to its feet and barks frantically.
Her vision is blurry. Blurry and dark, it's so dark. Barely any light. She looks upward -- they must be underground somewhere, but the walls and ceiling are stone. Her skin burns from some kind of sticky goop. She looks down at her hands and they are unfamiliar.
She looks around. There are giant things everywhere on the walls. They look like rotted pumpkins, to Julie, but the way some of them are torn open suggests they are much softer. Inside one that's close, she can just make out a human body.
There's a well. What looks like a pile of rotted corn. Shrines. The air shimmers like it's over pavement in an August heatwave. She can see Mat. The man she'd met once, Istredd. A younger boy who she doesn't know by sight.
She looks up again. Something scurries by in the dark.
Julie wakes back up in bed, once again ejected from the Horizon. She grabs the notebook and pencil, in easy reach this time, and scrawls out her recollections as quickly as possible. She tries to doodle the pumpkin thing. ]
SECOND: Kell and his surroundings, day three
It still takes her a bit to make her mind settle enough to concentrate. Only when it calms can she make it back to the Horizon; she appears at the Singularity instead of her own domain. The wolf is still there, lying on the cushion she left, waiting for her. She takes a seat and lets the wolf rest its head on her lap as she takes a breath and rubs her hands together.
Okay, honey. It's you and me, she thinks, putting her hands flat on the stone again. There is a sense of elation that fills her even before she touches it, like receiving the tightest hug she could ever imagine. I know. I'm always gonna come back to you. You have to be patient. But we can get them back. Just find me something that I can use, okay? I need to know where. Are there any messages that say where?
It doesn't take anywhere near as long as the first time. She keeps her eyes open this time, waiting for another lost message to get routed to her.
That's not what happens.
Instead, after waiting for an hour or so, encouraging the Singularity, straining herself, there is a flash. Her whole body seizes and she falls backward to the ground, frozen in place, eyes wide open. The wolf leaps to its feet and barks frantically.
Her vision is blurry. Blurry and dark, it's so dark. Barely any light. She looks upward -- they must be underground somewhere, but the walls and ceiling are stone. Her skin burns from some kind of sticky goop. She looks down at her hands and they are unfamiliar.
She looks around. There are giant things everywhere on the walls. They look like rotted pumpkins, to Julie, but the way some of them are torn open suggests they are much softer. Inside one that's close, she can just make out a human body.
There's a well. What looks like a pile of rotted corn. Shrines. The air shimmers like it's over pavement in an August heatwave. She can see Mat. The man she'd met once, Istredd. A younger boy who she doesn't know by sight.
She looks up again. Something scurries by in the dark.
Julie wakes back up in bed, once again ejected from the Horizon. She grabs the notebook and pencil, in easy reach this time, and scrawls out her recollections as quickly as possible. She tries to doodle the pumpkin thing. ]