When we last saw Red, she was wondering …
“Barely audible clicks…or were they drumbeats?”
Still pacing. Agitated.
Zophia crossed her sitting room—back and forth, back and forth. She couldn’t sleep. Wouldn’t sleep—not until she understood. She sat in the Bergère. Immediately sprang up.
Not ready.
Not ready to face what the universe had shown her.
She paced.
She had seen it before.
She had heard it before.
Something was trying to break through. Break her. She would not be broken. Not again.
What cost would knowing bear? How could she not know? How could she protect her daughter?
Jayla.
She sat…and faced it.
The loss of her unborn children. That was the trigger.
The stasis vault—
Not stasis. Not healing.
Dissection.
They cut her open. Took everything.
Her call to the stars. Their call back.
It threatened them, so they took it. Buried it.
Then she buried it—forced to.
But even as it tried to peek back through, she buried it. Stuffed it deeper and deeper. She did. Her own survival instinct. Zophia trembled. Her heart and soul on the verge of shattering into a thousand bloody pieces—never to be whole again.
They stole it from her. It was hers. She saw it. She heard it. It was hers. And they stole it. Paranoia. Unearned fear. Gurdjieff. It had been his idea. He stole her.
I was just a child…She started to crumble.
She was just a child…She couldn’t get it back—any of it.
Altered memories—no longer whispers. No longer rumors. The blade. The cold.
The voices telling her it was necessary. That it would make her better. She gasped. Nearly doubled over. The pressure in her chest—
It was real.
It wasn’t just GAP paranoia.
They’d taken something else.
Something Jayla had too.
She’d be damned if they took it from Jayla.
The neural archives hummed again.
GAP was watching.
“She knows.”
“She thinks she knows.”
“Should we flag it?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Pause.
“But monitor more closely. She can’t possibly go that deep.”
GAP would not allow it.
When the door next swooshed open, it startled Red from a short but deep sleep and to a too-early morning. What startled her most was that there stood Mum.
“Your father’s daughter. Clearly,” Zophia said as she gauged the unslept-in bed.
“Fix your hair and wash your face. I’ll wait.”
She was not stern, just insistent…and confounded.
“Mum?”
“I haven’t got all day, Jayla.” Zophia actually had all the time she wanted and more. Yet, she had nothing—nothing more than purpose.
“Yes, Mum. Sorry, Mum.” Red combed fingers through her hair as she tried to guess what time it was. She looked at her mother differently this morning. Perplexed. But she had her own purpose for the day. How could she best please Mum? Get on her good side? Ungrounded?
Zophia studied her daughter. They shared something. But it wasn’t just the stars.
What was it?
Innocence is a luxury. Had Zophia ever been innocent?
“That’s good enough; let’s go.”
Although Mum seemed impatient, Red detected it was not her usual impatience. But then Red was no longer certain of what or who her usual mother was. Curious.
Red scurried behind Mum, and checked back over her shoulder, sighing relief as the hoodie still hid her digipad and the goggles. She was now free to skip down the hall behind her mother.
As they neared the gathering pod…
“Wait,” Red stopped. “Can I…”
“No. Let’s go.”
…Past the gathering pod, past the kitchen, and out the Finn family module. Zophia’s pace was swift, but Red kept up, not about to show signs of failure—not to Mum.
As they approached the hidden door of the AOD, she slowed with a sense of—not fear, but definitely suspicion. She desperately wanted to be here. But couldn’t believe her mother brought her here.
Why?
She considered running away from a trap, but too late. The door swooshed open and there stood Issi, to greet Mum, and happily surprised to welcome Red as well.
“Mornin,’ ma’am,” he said to Zophia and passed a clandestine wink to Red.
“Master Beathan,” Zophia said, “our wayward Jayla may have left something behind yesterday. Do you mind tending to her while I take care of something else?”
Red flinched first; shrunk next. Apprehensive and even more curious as to why her mother had really come here. And why she chose to bring her along.
“Of course, ma’am,” Issi said.
Zophia momentarily lingered as she logged her daughter’s confusion. If she wanted to comfort Red, she didn’t know how to go about it—awkward. She placed her gloved hands on Jayla’s shoulders and almost softly turned her toward her.
“My willful daughter.”
She sighed, the corner of her mouth twitching with something almost like…a smile.
Almost.
“...”
She stopped from saying more; she suddenly couldn’t. Instead, she just squeezed the small shoulders lightly, then about-faced and disappeared into a private nook.
Red, or ‘Jayla’, could not place the expression on Mum’s face as she walked away; she had never seen it before. But she forgot it as soon as Issi motioned for her.
Observer 1: “The daughter’s eyes are opening.”
Observer 2: “Then it’s time we begin.”
Observer 1 (after a pause): “Should we notify the Speaker?”
Observer 2: “Not yet. Let’s see if she reaches the threshold.”
Next: Episode 11—Ancient Star Wanderer
Bonus Content
Curious about the world of Starwoven? Keep yourself busy between episodes with bonus content. Browse the Starwoven Section INDEX for lore notes, character cards, and companion content.
