Legacy to Zero

20: Retracing While in Hiding

Harlow

I scanned the paragraph. None of the words had entered my head—and I could swear I'd read it five times. With a sigh, I rubbed my eyes and started again.

It wasn't that the archives weren't important to me. Not even a little. I just couldn't absorb the sentences. When I'd first met him, Lars had given me one look while studying and told me I was inattentive. I'd just scoffed. But his advice on how to work with it wasn't actually bad, even though I hated that it worked.

Under my breath, I read aloud. When I was finished, I turned to River. "So—what you're saying is..." I trailed off.

River sighed. "Did you finish it or not?"

"I finished it."

"Sure." She pursed her lips. "Quote the first sentence to me."

We had gotten off the bus moments prior, tracing the route to Haryun. The fresh air dragged through me. Hairs on my neck prickled. "Something about using the keys as a defence. The important part is further down. The description of the keys." I tapped the paragraph I'd read aloud and repeated it. "I used three keys. One unused that had been given a life anew. Another that had been used by myself with grand value and meaning. The final one created and unique."

"Right," River replied. Her footfalls slowed. "What did Astra write for that final key? She paraphrased it."

"Are you quizzing me now?"

She leaned over me and squinted. "Nope, you just"—she scanned the pages in my hands—"took so long that I forgot."

"Whatever. She wrote: A key with no copy."

Were we getting off-topic? It was so hard to tell with River. In a flash, she held the Aeris' key and twisted it around, flicking her thumb over the grooves.

"It's an interpretation only she would come up with," she said. "Anyway, Ishanti traced the bound thread to Aeris. And she isn't wrong that it's a lot like Aeris' thread. It's the reverse—he cut it so that she wouldn't be able to make a replica. She had him literally make a key with no copy."

"Okay, but—but that doesn't mean it's Rachna's key, does it?" I sighed, touching a hand to my cheek. "Nothing here says that we can make new keys. Wouldn't it be about finding what was originally used?"

River shook her head. "It's the right key. Has to be."

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes, from arguing the point. Neither of us knew for sure, and it wasn't like we could ask. All we had were the archives as a guideline, a lifeline, and other than that, we were stumbling blindfolded in the dark. Hoping we were right.

I mulled it over. What other way was there? "I feel like I have to know if the story is real, but..."

"Well, there is nobody from Rachna's family left on the council. You think she might still be alive?"

"There's a good chance? She was somewhere around sixteen when she wrote that account." Racha would be almost sixty now. If she was still around... she was clearly in hiding.

River's arms crossed. She didn't conjure the portal, instead staying fixed in place among the trees. "But we can't find her. I mean—not if she doesn't want to be found."