The fear spiraled again, taking away her breath. Her skin was cool and clammy, her nerves electrified. Rhea reached out to clasp her arm, drawing Ariadne back from the brink. It helped, but it wasn’t enough. Too many memories. Plain foods and so much hunger. Old vids and her shelves of Named Things for comfort. The wall of succulents and plants and rocks that she had given monikers—all collected from places she had never seen, ordered by a computer program that didn’t understand a child’s needs.

But the Temple hadn’t been a home; it had been a prison.

“Ari,” Rhea said. “There isn’t much time.”

“I know. I know.” She took another deep breath, squared her soldiers. She could do this. She was strong. The Oracle did not have sway over her anymore.

She keyed in the code, and patched herself into the mainframe.

It was bad news: The blaster had been on this ship, as Kyla had suspected, but had already been offloaded. The notes only had random acronyms she didn’t recognize. She stared at them, hard, as if they’d assemble themselves into words that made sense from the power of her glare.

“The weapon isn’t here anymore,” Ariadne told Rhea. “I’m going to keep searching and track it down.”

Rhea nodded and placed a soft hand between Ariadne’s shoulder blades. Calm muffled her anxiety, but not completely.

“I’m going to drink during our dance party,” Ariadne said, striving for a brightness she didn’t feel. “I’ve always wanted to try wine. Do you think I’ll like it?”

She kept up a steady babble as she continued to work, describing silly things to Rhea. Digging just a little deeper, searching for signs that the blaster had linked up with the mainframe. As she ran her search, she distracted herself by describing decorations and music, the drinks they would serve. Silly little details that helped calm her down, that helped her think of a future beyond these screens.

Rhea hummed and agreed when she needed to, keeping a sharp eye out the window of the storage hull. Ariadne noticed Rhea’s shoulders slumping. Rhea looked. . . . exhausted.

“Ari,” Rhea breathed, shaking her head as if to clear it. “Hurry.”

Oh. Ohhh. Ariadne felt so foolish. While she was describing her dance party and trying to locate the weapon, Rhea had been using her abilities to influence soldiers to ignore the ship.

Ariadne typed faster. Just a little longer now. Just a little—

“Ari,” Rhea said, swaying on her feet slightly. She looked nauseated. “We need to go.”

“But I haven’t found the—”

Rhea grasped her shoulder, her strange eyes fevered. “I am so close to losing my grip on those guards outside. We have to go, or we won’t make it out of here.”