Chapter 4: Faint Echoes
The classroom air was warm when I returned, the filtered sunlight pooling gently on the polished floor.
Paloma had her feet kicked up on the seat in front of her, twirling a pen between her fingers. Her gaze flicked to me when I entered.
She stretched. “You Fehu types are always nose-deep in secrets. Gotta keep the gold polished, huh?”
I didn’t reply. My thoughts were still stuck on the image I’d found, me, a younger version of me, standing beside Lev Belyaev. Our hands were barely touching in the photo, but we looked… close.
But my mind wouldn’t let it go.
We were close.
And I had no memory of it.
“Hey,” Paloma snapped her fingers once. “You okay?”
I looked up. She was studying me now—not with suspicion, just a lazy kind of curiosity.
“I’m fine.”
“Liar,” she grinned, leaning forward. “But whatever. You’re interesting.”
“Don’t ya’ have friends?” I muttered, not quite meeting her eyes.
She let out a low laugh. “Ouch. Yeah. I just like strays.”
“I’m not a stray.”
“Mmhm.”
Our eyes met, and something between a challenge and a truce passed between us.
I looked back out the window. The wind-powered skyrail shimmered as it zipped past the upper edge of campus.
“Lev Belyaev,” I said without looking at her. “What’s his deal?”
Paloma raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
“Well… he's loaded. Like, your level loaded. Fehu royalty since birth. Parents own half the clean-energy grid in three countries. Quiet, cold. The kind that doesn’t need to say anything to make the room adjust.”
I said nothing. She didn’t press.
But inside, my thoughts stirred again.
If he knew me before, if we were close, why hadn’t he said anything?
Why look at me like a stranger?
The last class of the day passed in a blur. Something about quantum agricultural design and adaptive algae fields. I barely processed a word.
When the final bell rang, I waited for the others to clear before heading out.
Outside, the garden courtyard was softly lit, water trickling from the edges of a sculpted fountain. Greenery spilled over marble ledges like it had always belonged there.
I sat on the stone bench, letting the sounds wash over me.
A few students passed, some casting curious glances
None approached.
Then Paloma flopped beside me, hands behind her head, blond hair catching the light like straw in the sun.
“You always this moody, or is it new?”
I glanced at her.
“You always this nosy?”
“Only when bored.”
We sat in silence for a while. Not uncomfortable.
The afternoon light made everything look a bit unreal. Like a painting you could accidentally fall into.
I found myself saying, “Have you ever… woken up and felt like your life used to belong to someone else?”
Paloma blinked slowly. “Nah. Can’t say I’ve had that one.”
She turned her head toward me. “But I’ve had dreams I didn’t wanna wake up from.”
I didn’t answer. Just stared ahead.
Somewhere in this city, the real story was buried. Of me. Of Lev. Of the accident I wasn’t supposed to remember.
But not yet.
I still wasn’t ready to dig it up.
[End of Chapter 4]
