[Can’t Opt Out]

Gravity pulled her down—tugging, grasping; the most inescapable force in the universe. An inevitable fall.

Emilia breathed, pulling in the heat of the setting sun as all her skills flittered out, her body left in free fall, her eyes falling closed as she just let the fall take her. It would be too short; it didn’t matter that they had been nearly 8000 metres up. It was nothing when gravity came for you, pulling you faster and faster until you hit that terminal velocity and only a skill would push you faster, only the most able people able to utilize the skills needed to halt their fall safely. Thıs text ıs hosted at novel~fire~net

The pushing of your body faster through the use of a skill was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Due to the danger, Emilia had only gone spreading once, tandem with Vrin, who had designed the skill that allowed free divers to push the ocean apart and let their bodies plunge through its temporarily empty depths, their bodies moving faster and faster until the skill catapulted them back to the surface as the ocean pressed in around them. Her father had so not been happy when he learned that Vrin had taken her—only in her early teens and without even a Censor yet—free diving with him, let alone spreading.

Sometimes, Emilia wondered if her father also suspected Vrin had set her on the path toward being the hacker she was today—what he would think of the man who had briefly acted as her babysitter during the Ingranal Conference if he knew the entire truth of it. That conference had been boring, and Vrin had hacked into the conference’s database, attempting to avoid work by having himself assigned to some random security post when they’d met. Vrin, grubby and unshaven and yet leaking a power and confidence she couldn’t yet place, had captivated her. Then, he’d actually talked to her like she was a human being. Not a silverstrain. Not the Secretary General’s ill-behaved daughter. Not someone who was barely more than a preteen and definitely still looked like barely more than a child.

Seriously; sometimes people asked her why she wore clothing that accentuated her thighs and ass. It was simple: it hadn’t been until they filled out that people began to see her as anything more than a child. Dressing like an adult and making sure the parts of her that were 100% that of an adult stood out was just about all that kept her from still looking like she was barely thirteen, rather than nearly thirty. If she took off the makeup, took down her complicated hairstyles, and pulled on the clothes young teens were current wearing, she’d definitely pass, and it sucked.

So, yeah, when Vrin Devano had treated her with kindness, she’d attached herself onto him, and he’d been perfectly content to let her follow him around. Better yet, her actual babysitter had taken off. Vrin was supposed to be security at one of the biggest government conferences in Baalphoria. Why wouldn’t he be someone safe to leave her with?

That babysitter, needless to say, had been fired. Vrin had been safe enough—it wasn’t like he wasn’t supposed to be there, he was just supposed to be helping with a talk on the OIC System—but it had only been a few years previous that terrorists had attacked the same conference. Emilia, innocent—if also vicious—child that she’d so often been, could have totally been kidnapped by some random person trying to get something out of her father! And technically, Vrin had kidnapped her to take her free diving and spreading.

Really, the man had no fear of consequences, and to be fair, there really hadn’t been any. Her father had been upset. Vrin’s boss had been upset, but Vrin wanted to quit anyways—and as far as she knew, even nearly two decades later, what he really wanted was a job at The Ridge Rind, but a former classmate worked there, and they hated each other enough to not risk working together—so all threats issued against him had been useless, especially since he’d liked her.

Even at that age and Censor-less, she’d been coding silly little things. It had all been limited to the odd little tablets children used in their day-to-day lives, before installing their Censors, but it had still be fun. The lot of her friends had installed her hacks, which ranged from allowing them communication outside of their parents’ monitoring to little games they could play together. Many a lunchtime snack had been lost through betting on those games.

So little Emilia, hacker in the making, had fascinated Vrin—not that he’d told her father or his boss as much. Rather, the man had just been an excellent manipulator, pulling at their words and threats until he realized that if he made it seem like he really wanted to be free of her and regretted his decision to kidnap her for a few hours, he’d probably be assigned to watch her for the rest of the conference.

And, so it went. By the time the conference was over, Emilia understood all the theory she could hope about hacking while not actually having a Censor. Four years, one Censor, one Halen Mhrina, and a thousand stories and skills and functions later, they’d met again. Now, Emilia let her eyes flicker open. The world sped by around her, impact coming for her as she plummeted towards the river, although Halen hadn’t pushed her out so far that she risked landing in it— Well, technically she’d collide with the riverbed if she hit the river at this speed.

Even through the blur of movement, it was beautiful, the sun slowly setting over the Grey Sands, the Jibur Bay just visible over the distant cities that edged its clear blue. These moments—the moments before she would hit that final landing—were breathtaking, and she snagged a few photos of it, a short video, sending them off to Vrin and Olivier, who hopefully had stopped panicking by now after watching her be pushed off the wall.

A giggle escaped Emilia as her back pressed into the net that edged much of Huss’tra. It collapsed under her, stretching further towards the planet, as she finally let the skill she had briefly used to accelerate her descent snap out of existence. Luckily, she had the specs for the net etched into her mind, and all it did was continue stretching before she finally stopped. Then, up she went, giggling and calling out to Halen as he passed her at a much more reasonable speed than what she’d been cruising.

Part of her wanted to keep going like this—to accelerate her descent once more and let the net bounce and bounce and bounce her. Maybe another day she’d come back and do that. It wouldn’t be much appreciated by the locals who minded the net—if anyone else fell or jumped, her vibrations through it would send them bouncing as well—but they already viewed her as a menace who should be banned from the Huss’tra for all her illicit climbing. The looks she had gotten when entering the Huss’tra earlier had been something else, only Lan’za’s presence keeping anyone from telling her to get the fuck out.

A message from Olivier asking if she was alright coming through as Emilia’s bouncing slowly came to an end, Halen sitting on the net a few metres away, held still by some skill or another as he just took in her joyful laughter. Just like her, Halen had realized the chances of her being allowed to climb the Huj’ut’tra—a several-years-old addition to the Huss’tra that was actually meant to be climbed and entirely the result of their coren’taz climbing the outer wall a few too many times—were virtually non-existent, despite her good behaviour. His solution had apparently been to force her into a position where she could climb without the fault landing on her; instead, he would take the heat.

Given the energy vibrating through the messages Olivier was sending, making sure she was okay, making sure Halen—who Olivier had apparently pushed over after Lan’za assured him there was a net that would catch her and that she’d be fine—hadn’t landed on her or started a fight or anything, Emilia figured Halen’s plan had worked: Olivier would only blame him for this.

{Starlit Eyes} slithered across her face, a soft blackness dragging the world through her until she could see Olivier, Lan’za and much of the class staring down at them… not that they’d be able to see much from so high up. There were some public skills that allowed users to see long distances, but none were as effective as {Starlit Eyes}, and due to its ability to also spy on people, it wasn’t public.

Still, Emilia sent a copy off to Olivier while she assured him she was fine and falling was fun. “Would have been better with a little notice,” she noted, finally coming to a complete stop as she continued staring upwards. A few seconds passed before two spurts of blackness spluttered over her pseudo-teacher’s eyes as {Starlit Eyes} failed to activate once, twice, before it properly settled over his face. Emilia waved, Olivier actually waved back.

“Lan’za says there are exits along the net?” he asked, frowning when Halen waved up at him as well. There was a chance Olivier had realized he hadn’t pushed her to settle a score, but Emilia didn’t think the man thought she’d encouraged the pushing either—probably Lan’za’s doing, or perhaps the look of shock on her face when Halen had pushed her.

“Yeah,” Emilia replied, pulling up a map of the Huss’tra which may or may not have been created over years of their coren’taz exploring it without permission.

They were in a section where the inner Huss’tra had no hallway, so they could either walk a hundred or so metres in either direction towards a hallway exit, or climb a hundred to an upper hallway and use {Hidey Hole} to get inside. Having wanted to climb, Emilia was partial to the second option.

“It’ll take a few minutes for us to get back inside,” Emilia told the lawyer, claiming that the net was challenging to walk on while forgoing mentioning that both she and Halen definitely had skills that could solidify it for them. “And the nearest elevator is a bit of a walk once we’re in. I can meet you back at the ship, if that’s alright? It doesn’t leave for two hours, right?” Best to confirm the details and gain Olivier’s trust when she was about to definitely not do what she’d told him they were going to do.

The man didn’t seem to like the idea of leaving her behind, but after assuring him that in the worst case—that she somehow missed the ship’s departure—she’d just return to Baalphoria and explain what happened to her father, as well as Lan’za promising that she’d stay behind to escort Emilia back to the ship—which, rude that Olivier trusted her so much!—the man relented. Off he and the class went, heading back to the ship, while Lan’za unhurriedly made her way down to the level above them because they were definitely climbing up.

Were they supposed to climb this part of the Huss’tra? Definitely not. That had never stopped her before, and it definitely wasn’t going to stop them now.

“I can’t believe you pushed me,” Emilia said, tilting her head towards Halen, who was still sitting a little ways away, gazing down at her, his deep brown skin half-lit in the bright sunset, half-cast in inky darkness.

The man shrugged. “You wanted to climb enough that you were actually behaving. You deserved your reward.”

“I would have behaved without it.”

“Really?”

“Yes!” Emilia insisted, finally pushing herself up and crawling over to glare up at Halen. “I don’t actually want Olivier to get in trouble if I’m a little bitch during this trip. I don’t know what he had to agree to exactly, but if I fuck shit up, he’ll be the one dealing with the consequences.”

“Seriously? That’s brave,” Halen snorted, lips quirking as he watched her. “Is that why he looked so put out every time Lan’za or I talked about some shit you’ve gotten up to over the years?”

“Probably,” Emilia admitted, trying and failing not to smile. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hoping I don’t show up at the ship and he can just be done with me.”

“I would.”

Emilia blinked at Halen. “What?”

Looking away, her former classmate’s eyes glimmered in the sunlight, the gold of them growing as his pupils turned to pinpricks. “I don’t think he minds having you here. Compared to most of his students… it doesn’t matter that you’re younger than them. You know this place—probably the rest of the places he’s taking you as well—and you love it. The students… a few of them appreciate the culture, but most are a mixture of terrified, horrified, disgusted, and just disinterested. And even the few who are enjoying everything, like that Norrayn? They’re still friends with the ones who look at this place with wrinkled noses.” The man’s eyes flicked back to her, serious and conflicted in a way Emilia didn’t think she’d ever seen on Halen—

No, that was a lie. There had been a moment, back when she’d been assaulted by his friend; a moment where he’d seemed to want to say something about it—about his friend’s disappearance, perhaps—but had thought better of it and just walked away, leaving Rafe to come up behind her, his arms a warm, safe shield against the pain of the world.

“I think Olivier appreciates that you’re here, even for that alone,” he continued, conflict leaking out of his eyes even as a pained smile forced itself across his face. “And Emilia, I’ve seen the way his eyes seem to always catch on you. He is definitely not just appreciating that you’re here for that.”