“Aside from enhancing the performance of One’s AI, I’m the Oracle’s hands and voice. I help with things One can’t do.” And with a swallow, Ariadne shed the childish, cheerful pitch she’d learned from the vids, all those little inflections that made her sound different from the way the Oracle made her. “Engines are engaged. Proceed to exit 153A-3 to exit Tholosian atmosphere.”

“Gods below the seven levels,” Nyx said. “You’re the voice in my fucking head.”

“Affirmative,” Ariadne said, unable to switch out of the voice. At least the lack of inflection hid her fear.

“So, you’ve been hidden and trapped in the belly of the palace this whole time?” Rhea whispered.

“Affirmative.”

“Gods,” Rhea whispered. “How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

“I can’t imagine what your life must have been like so far.”

Ariadne coughed, forced herself to be bright again. “Oh, well, it mostly sucks. But that’s why I’m so glad I found you. I don’t want you to have all the oxygen sucked out of your lungs and then have your bodies thrown out the airlock. That seems a waste.”

Nyx smirked. “That’s . . . kind, kid. I guess.”

“I’m not a kid,” Ariadne protested. “My frontal lobe may still be developing until I reach full maturity, but I’m definitely not a child. The Oracle designed me to bypass the mental limitations of childhood.”

“You said you wanted a nickname,” Nyx pointed out.

Up in the Temple, Ariadne’s body flushed with warmth. “Can I give you a nickname?” she asked. “Like . . . Buttons. I saw a vid with a fierce Old World animal called a snowcat and its name was Buttons. Can I call you Buttons?”

“No. Good gods, no.”

Ariadne deflated. “Oh. Okay.”

“Nothing personal,” Nyx tried. She cleared her throat. “So, how do you suggest we get out of here without dying?”

Ariadne wrapped her arms around herself up in her garret, rocking side to side as her smile grew.

Nyx had said we.

—

It took every spare moment Ariadne had to claw back from the Oracle’s endless work schedules. But even when she was crafting code, or recording her voice for the Oracle to blast through spaceships, buildings, people’s very brains, she was always dreaming of escape.

They were a trio of different skills and knowledge subsets, and a triangle was the strongest shape. She was only sleeping a few hours a night, slurping down the kykeon the Oracle provided her. She grew even thinner, and she had little enough to spare before.

She made mistakes, and the Oracle punished her.

The months crawled by. Sometimes, in the deep of night, she looked up through the porthole of the garret at the stars and cried, certain she’d never be able to make it. Even if everything went to plan, the idea of finally leaving the Temple was terrifying. Rhea and Nyx hadn’t even seen her.