Terrence Brooks Jr's Arc

Chapter 14 of 7

The floating city grew until it filled the front glass. Towers rose in purple, green, and yellow light. A landing ledge opened along its lower edge, wide enough for the ship. The hound guided them down. "They see us," it said. "They always see. The question is what they do next." Terrence gripped the seat. He came from this place. But he did not know if these people wanted him back or wanted him gone. "We don't know these folks," Beno said. His hand rested near his pistol. "We walk out blind, we could walk into a wall of guns." He said it flat, then went quiet. Demo pressed his face to the glass. "Bro, look. No welcome party. No nothing." He tapped his diamond ring on the panel, fast, the way he did when he was nervous. "Maybe they cool. Maybe they ain't." Ladybug studied the empty ledge. "You send a scout first," she said. "You don't hand them the whole team. If they take one, the rest still have a choice." Her voice stayed soft. Terrence had learned not to trust the softness. The ramp lowered. Cool air came in. One figure stood on the ledge. It was tall and thin, wrapped in a white uniform. Its head was a smooth white dome with two blue lights for eyes. It did not carry a weapon. Terrence went down the ramp alone. The others waited at the top, watching. The figure raised one hand. Then, a second later, it smiled the exact smile Terrence had not yet made. It was copying him, but slow, always a beat behind. "I am Gideon," it said. "I catalogue arrivals. State your kind." "I don't know my kind," Terrence said. "That's why I came. I was taken from here. As a child." Gideon tilted its dome. The blue eyes flickered. "Scan complete." A pause. "Your bones. Your build. Your soul-mark." Another pause. "You are Aivrûn. City-born. Blood of the raisers." Then, one second late, Gideon's face fell into the shock Terrence felt spread across his own face. "So they know me," Terrence said. "Do they want me?" "The raisers are honored here," Gideon said. "But you have been gone many years. And you did not come alone." The blue eyes turned up the ramp, to Beno's pistol, to Demo's chains, to Ladybug's red boots. "Outsiders. That will be tested. The city fears what it does not know." Terrence looked back at his team. Then he faced Gideon. "They come with me. All of them. Or none of us comes in." Gideon was silent. Then it copied Terrence's hard stare, late, and stepped aside. "Then walk. But know this. The council will decide if you are son or threat. And they have killed both." Terrence walked into the city of his birth. He was welcome. And he was on trial.