Fu Tu re

7: The Test

Forti woke up in bliss. She stumbled through reality, head still in the clouds with thoughts of Riel, of Vasi being alive, until she visited the hospital with her brother after breakfast, and a figurative tub of freezing water was doused over her head.

Her mother rubbed her arm soothingly, sitting by the bedside while Forti stood over her sleeping sister, dripping in cold sobriety. They observed Vasi's breathing together.

Rise and fall. Rise and fall.

She's alive, Forti tried to convince herself.

"We have to believe," her mother said, tired but reassuring. Her father was watching owlishly from a corner chair. "Keep talking with Vasi and trying the triggers from time to time. All we can do is wait."

Forti didn't want to wait.

I won't let her wait.

Unable to afford caring about others, Forti receded from the few friends she had for the remainder of the school year, drowning herself with school work although it gave her all sorts of attacks in the night. Her only concern was how to acquire the mind reader as she ghosted the halls, planning in her lunch breaks, in her daydreams, in her talks with Riel.

She researched clearances and permissions, all prohibited or unavailable, but one glance at her family's faces hovering by Vasi was all it took to investigate illegal means.

Deodunge might have a distributor.

Its black market infamy was outrageous. Articles complaining about the land churned daily, rivaling gossip magazines in frequency and malevolence, and Forti devoured them for a hint, a taste of how to contact a seller or be a part of the underworld.

It was futile.

The research journals and bitter opinion pieces about the stain of Ganmecria, how everything wrong in the country began and ended there, offered little helpful information. Deodunge's history was fascinating, however.

Built on a remnant of a fort used long ago, it was a strategic location that can access and be accessed anywhere else in the country. After the Diamond Wars, displaced people of all species settled there, and though at first it flourished, whether by government negligence or human folly, the city sunk into the outlaw anarchical state it was today.

Forti broke away from the fifth analytical paper repeating Deodunge's origins before it dissected the rifts in illegal finance between species, catching herself before she slipped further down the rabbit hole. She couldn't trust they would land her the knowledge she needed anymore, not when most of the authors haven't lived there, none being from there.

The first month of summer passed like water dripping from a leaking faucet into a void.

It was a warm Friday noon when the letter about Vasi's result arrived. ValorA somehow found out Vasi was alive and promised when she awoke, she had a spot. With Wyver, Forti showed it to their parents, who mustered smiles to tell Vasi she did it. She got in.

Vasi continued sleeping.

When the siblings came back home, Forti confronted her brother, finally recalling what Rongyae had said.

"I can't tell you the specifics if you're going to get tested too," Wyver admitted hesitantly.

"That's fine." Forti believed he didn't mention it because of academic integrity. "Will they be sending an email about when I have to go to the school?"

Wyver looked away.

"You'll find out. I can't tell you much, Forti."

Forti stopped pushing any further. Nothing could pressure Wyver if he didn't want to say anything. He was an immovable object when it came to secrecy, and he had very few secrets to begin with.