The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
Inajda is one of the few people who has been granted access to Anesidor Sumian’s Transient Laboratory. She and Alexand materialise inside the laboratory, hoping to find Anesidor Sumian.
The Guild Master’s General takes Katherine with him to a place she’s visited once before. To a future cloned earth, where the people of the original earth have fled or are taken after they die.
The Guild Master’s General and Katherine have been phased between matter and energy, and followed Eric Mehmed through the convent cloisters, to where Sister Ancille showed him to his room. (This story is dedicated to David Prosser, who has supported these stories for almost a decade. You can visit David’s blog The Buthidars here)
Generals Edith MehXian and Xan Medani have travelled back in time to complete a mission to uphold time’s continuity, and to prevent their own world from unravelling.
Alexand, to make a point, has arranged to donate one of her mechanical eyes to a fifteen-year-old girl, who has lost her sight, and has no access to proper after care. As Katherine’s Bullet is still one of the top stories in the news, Alex has arranged for the press to schedule live reports of the operation, keeping the fifteen-year-old girl’s identity secret, out of respect. One very rich man, Georges De Somme, looks on from his study, as a familiar name is mentioned.
Katherine, and Ajeeta Kothari have spent a month attempting to isolate the antibodies responsible for immunity in their three blood samples.
Alex presses her hands against the exit door, anxious to get outside onto the beach.
Future Katherine takes Inajda to Nan Ha, to be with a very ill Alexand. Katherine watches from the trees, as Inajda makes her way down into the village, towards her brother’s house. Inajda turns around just in time to see Katherine dematerialise back to her future world.
After a month of overseeing Katherine’s rehabilitation, Inajda has been left behind, wondering where future Anesidor has taken her friend. She has been accompanied by the mysterious future version of Katherine, who seems to have an agenda for her as well.
Despite having remembered all the events previously erased by Future Anesidor Sumian, (the death of Farokh, and the fact Inajda came to Katherine to retrieve an inhibitor to slow Alexand’s illness) Inajda has been convinced that staying with Katherine is the best option. They are waiting for future Katherine to show up, with a future version of Alexand, and the promised cure for their Alexand’s illness.
