Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
No dust. No ti'Linn or Kallit. Crystal surrounded them, rising to a high dome
both above and below. They stood on nothing. “It's the same as I remember it,”
he said.
Niv still stared at where the altar had been. Keeping one hand on Niv's
shoulder, Ulanda straightened. Niv's eyes followed her. “Kori set the points,” she
said. “I could feel them as we went in. Nothing now, I don't know, the pull might
stop me from...” She waited a moment, her face blank with thought. “The Station
Center, I could feel it... I can feel it. It must be through her.”
Alicia laughed sharply, relief in the sound. “Anything about what Rilla was
doing? Is this a pull or a different reality? You never said it was beautiful.”
Ulanda looked at Niv, not him or Alicia. “It's as real as I could make it.” Niv
stood. His eyes never left Ulanda's, his gaze intense.
Rit forced down a tide of jealousy, far stronger than any he had felt since
Nisstin. More even than physical intimacy, the look spoke of lives and experiences
he hadn't shared in, and Ulanda's tone, more that of a lover than a woman
making decisions that would affect many people's lives. She picked the
damnedest times to start playing that game.
Alicia picked up the senor disk and brushed it against a pant leg. The tight knot
of her dark hair was gray with dust; they had brought what had gotten onto their
clothes and persons here with them. “Rit? Anything?”
He shook his head. “How many versions does it take to make something real?
I don't know either.”
Alicia took his hand. “Was that my question?”
He kissed the back of her hand but knew she wasn't fooled. “We should be safe
here for as long as it takes to filter the possibilities out. Just don't look at the wall
patterns and you should be fine.”
Alicia turned a puzzled look to him, and then the walls. “Why not?”
As they had the first time Rit had seen this place, shapes moved within the
patterns of black and white that made up the walls. He had thought the effect
would be local, even solely visual. Gingerly, he pushed his awareness outwards.
Crystal. Tiles after all, but not clay. Traps? The movement tried to draw him into
the shapes. He felt them in Ulanda's mind as well, she was searching in the same
way he was, Niv forgotten for the moment.
Then the shapes had a focus - opposite them. Rit pointed, but Ulanda had
already seen it. “Can you make out what's happening?” he asked. Ulanda shook
her head.
Alicia had her rifle at the ready, her cue from Rit's tone, the sensor disk back
on her belt. “What now?”
“I don't know, it might be normal for this place.”
Alicia looked to where the exit should have been. “Why don't we just leave and
decide both things later on? If the exit is still there, we can get through and seal
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca