For the Good of the World

Chapter Three

On the day of her grandmother's funeral, Via lay in bed, squeezed her eyes closed, and cast her mind into the Caeles.

Gray mist rose around her, as heavy and shadowed as her grief. She flung her will into the fog and visualized the records she sought.

The nanites answered with a yawning void where knowledge should be.

Brow furrowing, she stretched her will toward Clari, feeding the mists her friend's sparkling eyes and blue laurel.

Soon, a silhouette shimmered before her like condensation on cold glass. Gray nanites brightened to blue and cream. Then Clari stood before her.

"What do you need, sweetie?" her best friend asked. Heartache for Via's loss rippled between them.

Via shaped a plush chaise out of the mist. "I'm trying to access the security records for my grandmater's chambers." She sat, and Clari plopped down next to her. "But the Caeles can't find them even though I'm family. Can you try?"

Clari winced. "I can't, I'm sorry."

Via's breath stalled in her chest as surprised betrayal bit deep. "What?" Her hands clenched. "This was my grandmater! Sure, I don't have the right credentials for a formal investigation right now, but you know why I can't launch one."

Clari sighed and covered Via's hand with her own. "It's not that. Your grand ma asked me to un-key her chambers' surveillance capabilities last year."

"What?" Via blinked, then frowned. "Why would she do that? Why would you? That's illegal."

"I know, but you know your grand ma! She may not have been a Navigator, but you know there was no defying her will. She said she didn't like the idea of millions of nanites staring at her. Then she gave me that look. You know the one."

Via chuckled, surprised to find tears spilling down her face. "Eternal Radiance, that glare could curdle milk."

Clari's lips curled in a small smile, and she patted Via's hand before letting go. "So, what are you going to do?"

Via swallowed. "I can't snoop around officially, but... but the Rite of Thirty-Six hours is tomorrow. For Grand Ma and the other victim." Her face felt puffy and hot beneath her knuckles as she wiped tears from her cheeks. "At least I won't have to go undercover as one of the bereaved." She choked out a bitter laugh. "Well, when I go to my grand ma's rite, anyway. Ivan's is a different story."

"I'm not sure that's a silver lining, sweetie," Clari said gently. "But do you need company when you visit Ivan's family?"

Via shook her head. "No, but thanks. It'll be awkward enough for me to show up. I'll have more luck alone."

***

The faces that greeted her when she arrived at Aura and Ivan's door weren't unfriendly, exactly. Just confused.

"Via," one elderly woman said.

"What brings you here?" the other asked.

They squinted at her from above identical shimmering black laurels, and only a glance into the Caeles let Via distinguish between the twin Chief Terraformers.

She offered a polite nod to Umbrata and then Lucina. "I'd like to pay my respects."

Umbrata folded wrinkled hands before her. "Thank you, my dear. Our family is so sorry for your loss, too."

The three of them stared at each other. In the room behind the two old women, someone sniffled, and plates clinked. A man walked down the habitat wing's winding white corridor, staring curiously at the silent trio until he rounded the corner.