A LARGE BALL INSIDE A THIN SHEET OF GLASS

1563 4D

Eyes. Like summer sunlight the words heated Ezzar. Don’t move, now. The liquid must settle and congeal. A woman’s voice, and familiar, too, coming from somewhere down inside. Ezzar wanted to bend her head down to look, but she couldn’t. Very good. Stay there until I tell you it’s all right.

“But,” Ezzar tried to say. Her mouth refused to move. She tried to move a hand, to touch her face. No effect.

She wanted to sit up, and the voice, soft and pleasant, said, You should not try to do this. It forces me to stop you. Will you please lie still?

“Yes,” Ezzar tried. Nothing came out of her mouth (her mouth, where was her mouth?) and she heard the voice again.

All right. That will allow me to work faster. Don’t forget. Surges of color lashed Ezzar‘s tongue and ears. Her face burned and tickled all at once.

“Who are you?” Trying to speak, Ezzar formed words in her head.

The voice responded, Grendel brought you back to me. You were burned. I’m trying to reconstruct your face. Do you want the three-pointed scar?

“Yes, I do. You said ‘back to you’. When did I see you before?”

You met me here in the City, when Andrew left.

“Allashani.”

Yes.

“Where are you? How are you speaking to me?”

I’m inside you, in a way, if you can think of a large ball inside a thin sheet of glass. I’m repairing your body. It takes a lot of water and phosphorus. I have to work fast. There are many hurt here. Your people are so savage. We are in a lower level, far down.

Electric tides shivered through Ezzar. “How did I get here? Where’s Rennie?”

If you mean Grendel, he carried you here. He nearly collapsed. I put him to sleep just outside.

“What happened to me? Was it a beam?”

Yes. You took a reflected hit and lost your eyes and part of your face. And you’ll have very short hair in front, for a while, and your ears, well, I tried to get them right. They’ll look okay, but different.

“Not funny, though?” Rennie had always teased Ezzar about the slightly bent-out tops of her ears.

Funny? I’m making them small and flat to your head, just like they were.

“Good.” Ha. Now he’d have to shut up. Ezzar tried to move her fingers. Nothing happened. “Why am I all stuck here and I can’t move?”

Think of this as surgery, with special anesthetics and a surgeon inside you. Oh, I took care of your leg. But it’ll be hard to get around for a while. I’m making everything grow back at an accelerated rate, maybe three thousand times faster than when you were developing in your mother. I’ve left neural pathways intact except deep in your brain, where the pain would hit you.

“I appreciate that.” Ezzar sensed tickling around her mouth and nose. It grew into a tingle, making her want to move her lips. Now it burned; she tried to work her facial muscles.

Good. That’ll strengthen connections. Keep trying, but don’t try to get up. If you do, your eyes will sag and run out.

Ezzar shuddered. “I can see something. It’s like small flashes and sweeps of red and green.”

Very good. The retinal leaders are linking up. It’ll be about a quarter hour before you’re done and I can let you go. Your eyes will be working normally, or maybe even better.

“That’s all? A quarter hour?”

There’s too many others, or else we could talk for a while. You interest me.

“You mean my eyes and skin and everything will be back to normal?”

It’ll all work, just the way it did before. Maybe it’ll look a little odd to you until the hair grows back.

Weariness pooled in Ezzar‘s mind like warm wine, overrunning her many questions. “I’d like to sleep a little.”

That will be fine. You’ll only wake up after things are done. Blotting out the tickling and the fire in her face, the warmth suffused Ezzar. She slept.