III: THE WARNING
Bedroom. Blankets. Windows. Skyline. Min whispers to herself, willing the familiar sights of her world back into being. She holds her eyes clenched shut for the journey; the last thing she wants now is a glimpse of the Dead Empty.
"Still hiding, are we?"
It's her again—the voice in the dark. The hairs on the back of Min's neck stand up straight. And somehow, I know she's right in front of me.
Min's composure cracks, and her eyes snap open. A young woman hangs in the emptiness before her, drifting on an invisible sea. The woman's smiling face is crowned by a billowing cloud of shoulder-length platinum blonde hair.
"Who are you?" Min's question comes out somewhere between a whimper and a demand.
"Depends on who you ask." The floating woman offers Min an impish grin. "Maybe I should ask you—what do you think my name should be?"
Min's mind spins, struggling to make sense of this impossible encounter. "…Willow, maybe?"
The stranger's smile widens, revealing a row of perfect, pearl-white teeth. "Why Willow?"
"Because I like them, I guess." She gives the luminous figure a half shrug. "They're my favorite trees at the Academy."
"Willow it is, then." She places one foot in front of the other and curtsies, bending slightly at the knees. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
Min closes her eyes and attempts to center herself. "How are we talking right now, Willow? How is this possible?"
"Those are good questions, Min. And they deserve answers. But right now, the question that matters most is why I've come to find you."
"Okay." She lets her eyes open and fixes them on Willow. "Why, then?"
"Because you're in danger. Everybody is." A tinge of sorrow enters Willow's light, airy voice, and the mischief fades from her smile. "Tonight's Revel isn't going to go the way you think it will. The Gleam's defenses are going to fail, and they will fail spectacularly. And when the last of them comes tumbling down, this entire city is going to crash."
Min shakes her head. "That's impossible. The Gleam's defenses can't fail. Those towers have beaten back a thousand Blackouts; they can survive anything."
"Oh?" Willow cocks her head. "And how have they defeated the Blackouts, exactly?"
"I don't know," Min snaps. "I'm being trained for leadership, not for engineering."
"I'm gonna cut you in on a secret, kiddo." Willow lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "The engineers don't know, either. Nobody does. There isn't a living soul who can tell you what those machines actually do, much less what they're supposed to be doing."
"And you can?"
"Nope. Once, maybe. But not anymore." Willow leans forward to look the girl in the eye. "What I can tell you is that they're in bad shape, Min. Irreparably bad."
"I'm not listening to this." Min fixes the strange woman with a defiant gaze. "You're just a voice in my head, Willow. You aren't even real."
Willow raises an eyebrow. "Sure about that?"
Min gives her a curt nod. "Yes."
Willow stares down at Min for a few more seconds. Then her posture relaxes, and the grin slips back onto her face. "That's fine," she shrugs. "I expected as much. Just do me a favor, okay?"
Min eyes her warily. "…Yeah?"
"When your world ends tonight and you're cowering in the dark, remember that I tried to help you."
Reality smashes into Min like a freight train as the Dead Empty vanishes around her. She blinks, and her bedroom snaps back into focus. Without a moment's hesitation, she yanks the cable out of the NeuroSim port at the base of her neck.
"Remember," Willow's voice whispers as the umbilical peels away. "And come find me."
