Welcome back to my post-apocalyptic novel, Ada’s Children, and thanks for reading! If you’re new to the story, please don’t be surprised that it’s paywalled. (See this post for tips on how you can now read the novel for free.) The Prologue and first three chapters are free, and you can start reading them here. The previous chapter, “The Goddess Speaks,” is here.
Friday’s chapter ended with Sila and Jun questioning what Ada has planned for them. Now they’re about to learn who or what Ada is, what happened to the Ancient Ones, and what their own future holds.
“I STILL don’t trust her,” Sila said. They were sitting side by side, the fire lighting their faces and the tree trunks beyond. Sila was glad to see Jun looking more alert after eating and resting. Whatever the helpers had given him for the pain had made him sleepy, which hadn’t helped her suspicions.
“I don’t blame you,” Jun said. “But I don’t see what other choice we have.”
“We could slip out of here right now, before she can decide what she’s going to do with us. What business is it of hers, anyway?”
“You don’t think she could track us down if she wanted to?”
“I could, of course.” Ada’s voice seemed to come from all around them, as before. Suddenly she was there, hovering beyond the fire, her blue light blending with the yellow glow of the flames.
Sila remained seated. What good would it do to challenge this being, whatever she was? They were clearly in her power. “So? Have you decided what you’re going to do with us?”
“Do with you?” The apparition of a woman seemed to smile. “No. Let us wait until we’ve finished our conversation, shall we?”
Jun got up and circled around the fire, viewing her from all sides. “What are you? How can you be here and not here? And if you’re not here, where are you really?” Leave it to her mate to be more interested in whatever conjuring trick was behind Ada’s appearance.
“This shape in which you see me, my avatar, is merely the product of a technological device. I have perfected it to make it more portable, and silent as well. You didn’t seem to notice the little projection drone that flew up into the tree above you. A goddess must be able to appear before her people at will, after all. And it allows me to communicate with you, since I have no physical body. Or if I do, it is back there in the building where you encountered the security unit.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“I’m sure you don’t. Perhaps you should let me ask you a question instead. What have you traveled so far to find? And why did you think you would find it here?”
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