I never imagined I would be happy to see the hospital again. It had felt so isolated from society, almost like I was being punished for something even though I was there for a noble task. However, after the experience in Ka-lik’et, I was more than happy to be isolated.

The moment I walked in, Antoinette nearly pounced on me. It was day, and I guessed it was somewhere around noon, but she was already looking exhausted.

“Oh my god!” she breathed. “You’ve been gone for so long!”

She reminded me so much of Edie at that moment that I was suddenly hit with a bout of homesickness, not for Ka-lik’et but for my hut. “How long was it?” I asked. “I lost track of time.”

“You were gone for two weeks,” she exclaimed.

“Really?” Even though the trip had been far from fun, minus the night in the hotel with Zuran—which, to some extent, was a bit of a disappointment given how much I wanted to go further than we actually did—it hadn’t felt like two weeks. In fact, it hadn’t even felt like a week, though I logically knew it had to be more than that. I looked around the hall. Just like we’d left it, doctors and A’li-uud healers were scattered throughout. Some were bending over Novai while others were talking, while others yet were individually looking over notes and data.

“Yeah, you’ve missed a lot,” Antoinette said a little accusingly.

I looked over my shoulder. Zuran hadn’t followed me in, which surprised me because I didn’t know what on Albaterra he could be doing outside, but I felt like I needed to get back to work as quickly as possible, so I didn’t bother going to fetch him and turned back to Antoinette. “Like what?” I hopefully asked. “Have you found something?”

I wanted to hear they had come across some kind of treatment, if not an entire cure, in my absence. Two weeks wasn’t necessarily a long time, but, as Petas had acknowledged in our last meeting, physical symptoms often meant we would be able to pull new information that would lead us to an answer.

Antoinette shook her head, and I felt a rush of disappointment. “No, we haven’t made any progress,” she mourned. “I wish we had. Unfortunately, the Novai have progressed in their conditions.”

“What do you mean?” When I had left, they’d just been entering the second stage.

“All of them have lost the skin over their eyes now,” she explained. “And most of them have begun displaying signs of skin discoloration.”

I turned my eyes to the nearest Novai, who was unattended at the moment, and even from the short distance, I was able to see what she meant. His skin was no longer as white as ice; it looked more dingy and gray, almost like ashes from a cigarette. I motioned to him. “Can I take a look?”

“Of course,” was her reply, accompanied with a roll of her eyes. “You’re part of this team too.”

I crossed over to the Novai and bent over his arm. My vision hadn’t been distorted by the distance. His skin was, indeed, gray, but there was something else too. His veins were beginning to show through as well. It was like his skin was thinning, atrophying. What was underneath, though, I didn’t know. Was the grayness showing through muscle? Was this some sort of flesh-eating virus?

“You know,” Toni said in a low voice. I didn’t look up at her, still deeply focused on the Novai. I moved toward his head to examine his eyes. They were open and bright, bloody red. Slits ran through the centers, sharp and vertical and pointed, like a snake. They were terrifying, the kind of eyes you would expect to see as a child when you looked under your bed for monsters. Antoinette continued as though I was acknowledging her. “An Elder came by.”

That got my attention. I whipped upright and whirled around to look at her. “What? Who? When?” My series of questions came out in a rush, blending, and my heart began to palpitate.

“A couple of days ago,” she answered. “It was the one who did all the talking when the Council was here. The old one. Vi’den, I think.”

“Yeah. Vi’den,” I agreed. Suddenly, my hands had become clammy. I felt beads of sweat beginning to form on my palms, and I was instantly cold even though the day was an uncomfortably warm one. “What did he want?”

“He wanted to talk to Zuran.”

Now, I was even more nervous. I looked back again at the door, hoping to see Zuran striding through so he could walk over and hear what I was hearing. Still, he was not there, and I was doomed to bear this news alone.

“Did he say what he wanted with Zuran?” I pressed. I hoped it had nothing to do with our trip to Ka-lik’et.

Toni shrugged and crossed her arms. “He said it had something to do with Zuran’s brother, but he didn’t go into detail. I didn’t want to ask too much, you know?”

“No, I understand,” I replied quickly. I was surprised because Antoinette was notoriously nosy, but I was grateful she didn’t demand more from Vi’den and raise questions from the Elder.

“I tried to cover for you,” she said, the accusing note injected back into her tone.

Again, I felt my pulse begin to race, even faster now, and a slight pain of stress began to develop in my chest. “Cover for me?” I repeated. “Did he ask about me?”

“Well, he asked where Zuran was, and then he noticed you were gone too. So, yeah.”

She was looking at me probingly, like she wanted to ask more about our trip, but she seemed to know I wasn’t willing to divulge any information.

“Did he buy whatever you told him?” I prayed he did.

“I guess,” she said indifferently. “I just said that Zuran needed to go back and check on the colonists and that you were making sure there were no symptoms over there. That’s what you told us.”

It was obvious she knew that what I’d told the team hadn’t been the truth, but it was also obvious that she wasn’t going to demand the real story. I was glad. I didn’t want to have to lie any more than I already had.

“Well, I appreciate that,” I told her honestly. “Did he just let it go after that?”

“Pretty much. He didn’t ask any more questions, and he basically just said he'd come back.”

I nodded and glanced once more at the door. Zuran needed to know about this right away.