Beneath the Fallen City - Jamie A. Waters (large ebook reader .txt) 📗

her. “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined. I wish your father could be here to see you. You were so little when I last saw you. I’ll never forget the way you looked when your father agreed to take you down to the surface. Your eyes lit up with excitement. You were adamant you were going to find something special.”

Kayla shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember.”

Seara nodded sadly, clasping her hands together on her lap. “You were very young. If you want, I have some videos of the three of us together. Maybe you’d like to see them at some point?”

“Sure, I guess.”

Alec gestured to Veridian. “Seara, Veridian’s mother was the one who saved Kayla from the ruin collapse. They grew up together.”

Seara’s gaze turned to Veridian again, her face filling with gratitude. “Your mother sounds like a truly great woman. I’d be honored to meet her one day and offer my thanks.”

“I believe she would have enjoyed meeting you too. Unfortunately, she passed away almost two years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Seara’s expression darkened. The depth of the emotion on her face made Kayla’s heart go out to the older woman. “It’s incredibly painful to lose someone you love. I owe you and your family a great debt for the life of my daughter.”

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Veridian bumped shoulders with Kayla and teased, “I could have gotten worse in a little sister, but not much.”

Kayla laughed, relaxing a fraction, and gave him an affectionate shove. “You jerk. Your life would be impossibly dull without me. Admit it.”

Veridian chuckled. “You’re definitely right about that. I wouldn’t have gotten into nearly as much trouble.”

Seara smiled at them. “It sounds like you two have quite a few stories to tell.”

“ They’re mostly Kayla’s stories. I was usually just along for the ride to try to keep her out of as much trouble as possible.”

“Oh, please.” Kayla crossed her arms in a playful pout. She knew he was trying to make the situation easier for everyone, and she loved him all the more for it.

Veridian leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “There was this one time when she was about thirteen, and she was really getting into scavenging. She heard one of the other scavengers in our camp talking about how there wasn’t anything of value in a particular sector. So she snuck out of camp the next morning and dropped down into the ruins. She ended up coming back to the surface a couple hours later with almost five thousand credits worth of loot.”

“You know, the way I remember it, you were just as anxious to go down there as I was.”

Veridian winked at Kayla and continued his story. “Mack, the scavenger who had been complaining, was furious. He was convinced she was trying to make him look bad. He went to Leo, our camp master, and demanded she be grounded on the surface until she learned her place.”

Seara leaned forward, her hands resting on the edge of her seat. “What happened?”

Kayla grinned. “I clocked him.”

Seara’s eyes flew open. “You hit him?”

Veridian nodded and laughed. “This little, dark-haired, skinny girl went right up to Mack, who’s actually a pretty big guy, and… Wham! She punched him right in the face and told him to suck it up. She told him if he couldn’t handle a little competition, he should go play in the tech room.”

“Oh my,” Seara gasped. “What did he do?”

“He was pretty pissed, but it got him to wake up. When he realized Kayla wasn’t a pushover, he actually started to respect her. Most of the other scavengers did too. Mack ended up teaching her quite a few of his tricks in the pits.”

Kayla smiled. “He’s a good guy. He’d freak out if he saw me here in the middle of OmniLab.”

Seara sat back, pride shining in her eyes as she beamed at Kayla. “It sounds like you have a lot of your father in you. There was a fire in him, and he never let anyone or anything hold him back. It was one of the things I admired most about him. I believe you have that same fire, Kayla.”

Veridian snorted. “She’s a freaking inferno.”

Kayla stuck her tongue out at him.

Alec, who had been quiet up until then, cleared his throat. “It’s getting late. I’m sure there’s much more you’d like to discuss, but if you don’t mind, my father is expecting us for dinner tonight.”

Seara stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her dress. “Oh, of course. If you’ll find something suitable for Veridian to wear, I’ll take Kayla to my room. I believe I have something appropriate for her.”

Kayla followed her down the long hallway, stopping when Seara paused outside a door. She turned around to face Kayla, her expression hopeful. “Would you like to see your old room? The furnishings are the same, but most of your things were put in storage years ago for safekeeping. I’ll have them brought back up for you. They might jog some of your memories.”

“My room?”

Seara nodded and pressed the button outside of the room to open the door. Kayla stepped inside and looked around, not sure what she’d been expecting. A large canopy bed stood in the center of the room. The walls were a pale-blue while thick, cream-colored carpeting covered the floor. An expansive mural of the sky was painted on the ceiling. As Kayla stared at it, the mural seemed to change, and she realized it represented the time of day. The sun was beginning to set, and the room was filled with soft pinks and gold. A large desk stood on one side of the room, and there were two other doors on the opposite wall.

“Wow, it’s big,” Kayla said in surprise. “Where do those doors go?”

Seara smiled. “I’ve always loved this room. That door leads to your private bath area, and the other is your closet.”

“All this space for one person?”

“Yes. This room is actually smaller than some of our others. We selected it when you were a child because we wanted to keep you close to us. Our room is down the hall. We would have given you larger and more private quarters as you grew up.”

“Will I be staying here tonight?”

Seara nodded. “It’s yours for as long as you want. If you’d rather have a different room, you can take your pick. Veridian can stay in the room next door, if you’d like.”

“No, this is fine. Thanks.” Kayla trailed her fingers along the edge of the desk, not quite believing this was real. The varnished wood was smooth to the touch and had been well tended over the years. This one piece of furniture was more beautiful and elaborate than anything she’d ever seen.

She caught her reflection in the mirror and paused. With her faded clothes and tousled hair, she was a stark contrast to the richness of her surroundings. Kayla bit her lip, feeling out of place. She was better suited to wielding a wrench than living amongst this luxury.

“You don’t need to thank me, Kayla. All of this belongs to you. It’s as much yours as it is mine.”

Kayla jerked her hand back and frowned. “Uh, let’s just say it’s yours for now. This is a little overwhelming.”

“I understand,” Seara said quickly. “I don’t want to pressure you.”

Kayla slipped her hands back into her pockets to resist touching anything else. “So what’s this thing about dinner? Why do we have to change?”

“Right. Let’s go to my room.” Seara led the way back down the hall. “We occasionally have formal dinners. This one is political and social. The High Council will be there, along with many from the Inner Circle. They’re entertaining some prospective traders and will decide on one of them in the next few days. I imagine there will be more people than usual since you’ll be there. They’re going to be curious.”

“Great, more people staring at me,” Kayla muttered.

Seara smiled at her daughter. “Well, we’ll make sure we give them something to really stare at then.”

She led Kayla a few doors down the hall and stepped into a large room that was almost the size of Leo’s entire camp.

“This is your room?” Kayla asked in amazement, trying to take in everything at once. There was a large, intricately carved canopy bed against the far wall. One wall had a mirror with lights and a counter filled with strange bottles. Ornate pieces of furniture, including a seating area, were placed throughout the room. This ceiling also had a similarly strange mural that seemed to reflect the outside sky.

“Yes. The closet is through here.” Seara pressed a button on the wall, and a door slid open. Racks of clothing lined the inside with floor-length mirrors on the back wall. Seara stepped inside and began browsing through her clothing. Kayla walked over to the closet and stared in shock.

“These all belong to you? You have a whole room for clothing? I think you have more clothes than Leo and Carl’s camps combined.”

Seara paused, turning back to Kayla with an apology in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know this is new to you. I’ve heard some stories about what life is like outside of the tower, but most people only hear things second-hand. Is it bad?”

Kayla shook her head. “Not at all. It’s not anything like this though. I suppose it’s what you’re used to. Your entire bedroom is larger than the camp where I grew up.”

“Were you… happy growing up?”

Seara’s worried expression tugged at Kayla’s sympathy. It was as though one more emotional blow would topple her. Something about her provoked Kayla’s protective instincts. “I suppose,” she said with a shrug. “Happiness isn’t really