The medic waved the panel away, and the boy gasped. She tugged her earlobe thoughtfully. “It’s more than the System not having a record of him. He does not appear to recognize the System at all. That could be why it was unable to maintain his bodily functions—his brain is unaccustomed to working in tandem with it.”

The boy was staring at me again, making my stomach clench oddly. I ground my teeth in irritation.

“That’s ridiculous. Everyone on Iamos has had exposure to—” I stopped short. His strange appearance and behavior, no knowledge of the System…

Glancing at the medic, I said under my breath, “Simos?”

“It’s possible,” she said. “We’ll have to run more tests to be sure.”

I exhaled shakily. “Right. Someone should alert the geroi, then.” And Ceilos. I’d have to tell Ceilos. Where had he disappeared to, anyway?

I started to turn toward the door when the boy spoke again. I froze for a moment, staring down at my feet. I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want to face those unsettling dark eyes.

He said the word once more, and then there it was in my earpiece, in my mind:

“Wait.”

I looked at the medic in surprise. She smiled. For the first time, it seemed genuine. “Excellent. The System is beginning to decode his thought patterns. If we can keep him talking, the lexicon will build more quickly.”

She looked at me expectantly, her head quirked to the side. I knew what she was thinking. The boy wanted to talk to me. I could tell by his persistent stare.

But just now, I didn’t want to talk to him.

I could feel his eyes boring into my back, but I kept my own trained on the door. “Good luck, then,” I said to the medic. “I have things I need to attend to.”

“Kyrin Nadin, wait!” the medic protested. “We need to check your vitals again before we can release you—”

But I was already out the door.

Chapter 18

My fingers trailed across the cool hewn stone of the passageway. Millions of multicolored phosphates, embedded in the walls, twinkled as my skin brushed past. The upper subterranean levels of the city, where the hospital was located and the esotoi lived, relied primarily on the more common green and blue stones for lighting; but the deepest part of the cave system, winding below the mountains, where the geroi’s villa was located on the Vi’in Exelishin—these were lit with vibrant golds, brilliant magentas. They were laid carefully into the floor in mosaic patterns, in the ceiling like long-forgotten constellations. They arced across the walls just as fragmented light through a prism.