Vessa spent as much time as she could in the ocean of numbers, but eventually her mind snapped back from it, through the emptiness and into the container full of numbers. Puny in comparison to the endlessness of the ocean, but they did fill the container.

  When she was back in her cell with two numbers on either side and others passing regularly by. Vessa tried pacing, but every step made her headache, so she was stuck lying in bed, feeling her mind pulse with pain.

  Vessa didn’t care all that much because the pain kept her thoughts occupied. When they did stray it was to wonder where she was. Every place she remembered being, numbers flowed in and out of her reach. There was no fixed area. There was no emptiness beyond.

  When the pain went, her mind had more leeway. Vessa would get up to pace, looking at the blank wall where a door had to be; until finally the little girl’s screams made their way through, then Vessa would lay down and start the cycle all over again.

  She was currently back from the endless ocean, her mind almost done hurting when there was a sound and Vessa looked up and to the right towards the blank wall. The door was sliding open.

  “Huh, middle of the wall. I am sure I touched all of that part.” She said as two IIA agents walked in. A blond and a brunette she was sure she’d seen before. Their uniforms were mostly black with only the barest amount of green at the collars and the cuffs.

  “And have been staring at it trying to find the door.” The IIA agent with blond hair said as the brunette leaned against the blank wall. The door sliding shut. Vessa marked its location as she sat up. Her hand going to her head. The pulsing had not quite gone away. She pushed herself back, so that she was resting against a wall looking at the brunette.

  “Where am I?” Vessa asked. The brunette simply stared back at her, but the blond answered.

  “The Imperial spire on Esaul.” He said and Vessa shook her head and then winced.

  “No.” She said, and the brunette raised an eyebrow.

  “No?” He asked, his voice sharper than the blond’s.

  “No.” Vessa said again and reached for their numbers, as she should have done already.

  Male 35: 86%, Male 32: 87%

  The worsening of her headache explained why she hadn’t automatically done so.

  “On the S.S.V. Imperial. 7.6 desma out from Esaul.” The blond said and Vessa looked at him. She couldn’t read shit. His face gave nothing away, but she believed him. The endless ocean, the emptiness, and the container. Planet, space, ship.

  “Makes sense.” Vessa said as the blonde walked towards her to stand at the corner of her bed, where her feet had been.

  “Of what?” The brunette asked, and Vessa looked between them. She was the point of their triangle with enough room not to feel closed in. Vessa didn’t know what to make of that.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Make sense of what?” The blonde asked, and she looked at him. She must have spaced out.

  “I don’t understand.” Vessa said as the pulsing pain finally went away.

  “You clearly have information to indicate you are not in the Imperial spire.” The brunette said.

  “Oh, that.” Vessa said and couldn’t decide what to say. The Umbaan rep had not seemed to know she’d outed herself voluntarily. Or if he did, he chalked it up to a mental break. Castillo might believe or be willing to believe she’d been captured. After all, she had… completed her assignment. All of that changed if she spoke.

  “I just know. I was in the spire. I know how it looks.”

  “As Salv Esherine, yes, but you were never in the cells.”

  “Lucky guess, then.”

  “No, not luck. You knew, and you won’t say. My guess is that it’s something to do with magic. You kill a kid. You’re first. You thought you could handle it, but you couldn’t, so you confess. But now there’s time to think. Right?” The brunette said, taking a three steps forward.

  “No.” Vessa said

  “What part of it’s false?” The blonde asked and Vessa looked away from the brunette. His eyes burning into her. The blonde seemed kind and open. Mind fuckery, she knew that, and it didn’t matter.

  “I didn’t think I could handle it.” Vessa said as she looked for cameras. What she should have been looking for, instead of the door. She wasn’t used to them. Scrying or other things like it would have been blocked, but here anyone could listen in.

  “Everything else?” The blonde asked and Vessa shrugged, but nodded. Fuck. She rubbed her face. This was not going well. Little girl screams echoed, and she was being an open book.

  “You killed the girl and the four boys in the alley with magic. Why?” The brunette asked, taking more steps until his shins hit the bed, and she was looking up at him.

  “Three.” Vessa said as she hung onto her sanity by a thread. Her mind back in the alley.

  “What?” The brunette barked at her.

  “I didn’t kill the fifteen-year-old boy.” Vessa said, it had made no sense to write in blood: help locked in. Who wrote it and why? It could have been magic, but if he could do that, he could get out. Plus, it hadn’t been locked. There wasn’t a way to lock it.

  “How did you know he was fifteen?” The blonde asked, taking a seat on the bed, his hand on her knee. Even in this moment, he was more sincere than the Umbaan rep had ever been in his fakery.

  “The numbers in my head told me,” Vessa said and knew she shouldn’t have. The blonde nodded. His hand went to her shoulder and squeezed.

  “Get some rest. The Umbaan can’t get to you in here. You’re safe.” He said and then smiled at her before rising and the door sliding open.

  Vessa scanned the wall once it shut and while she knew generally where the door was, there was nothing. No lines or weak points. She was stuck.

  She lay down, closed her eyes and went to sleep.