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Gabriel doesn't want me to touch him anymore. He has pulled away from me before, but not as abruptly as he's doing now. Our sleepover must have disturbed him. We've had sex, for heaven's sake. How can he feel weird about taking a nap with me? Maybe I just don't understand men. Since I have amnesia, I can't be sure I understand anything that other people do.
Aldith appears in front of us.
We'd been walking down the hall, and now we're forced to halt. I try once again to grasp his hand, but he folds his arms over his chest to thwart me. Why is he so determined to avoid even the tiniest amount of intimacy? It must be related to what he went through before he dropped out of the sky and landed on the beach at my feet. Losing his friends must have scarred him more than I'd realized. I wish I had my own experiences to guide me, but I'm flying blind when it comes to helping Gabriel recover from his losses.
Maybe all I need to do is be here for him, whether he likes it or not.
"Did you sleep well?" Aldith asks.
"Yeah, sure," Gabriel says. He seems to be trying to get away from me, shuffling sideways when I rest my cheek on his upper arm. "Aldith, did you figure out why Jarek thinks you know what's going on?"
"I believe so. But I don't have a direct interface with the Heart or Lifeblood of the Echo, and the Brain is still in limbo."
"You said the Brain requires a human being to function. Are the Heart and Lifeblood humans too?"
Aldith's features crimp the slightest bit.
I think she doesn't know whether she should tell Gabriel about Grant and Erin, who are the Heart and the Lifeblood of the Echo. I trust Gabriel, but it's not my place to out my friends if they don't want a stranger to know about their connection to the Echo. Grant and Erin aren't here to answer that question, but they trust me, so they'll accept whatever decision I make. I don't have time to find a way back to Sanctuary, ask for their permission, and come back to the stronghold. Since we've already wasted seven hours, who knows when the lightning will come for me again.
And seven hours here might mean seven months have passed back home.
"Yes," I tell Gabriel. "The Heart and the Lifeblood are humans. Grant and Erin took over those roles to stabilize the Echo and Earth when the worlds were having conniptions. They don't have any particular duties related to becoming the Heart and the Lifeblood, and they've only come back to the stronghold a few times to check on things."
Gabriel stares at me for a moment, his mood impossible to gauge. "You must be the Brain. That's why the lightning keeps coming for you."
"No, it must be you. I mean, you saved me from the lightning. That has to mean something."
Aldith clears her throat. "You are both ignoring an obvious aspect of the Brain."
"Like what?" Gabriel says, and he's starting to sound grumpy again.
"Every human brain has two hemispheres, which control opposite sides of the body."
"So what?"
Aldith lifts her brows. "The answer is obvious. The Brain of the Echo would seem to require two humans to function properly."
Gabriel narrows his gaze on Aldith. "But you said Sefton Stainthorpe was the Brain. That means one man, not two humans, controlled the Echo."
"And you forget one vital fact." She walks straight up to Gabriel and aims her glowing eyes at him. "Sefton Stainthorpe had an Echo, the being known as Will, his alter ego who was created when Sefton activated the Catalyst and the Anchor to begin the alchemy of worlds. Sefton did not foresee that his plan would result in an Echo of himself being created, but that is what occurred. He also did not appreciate sharing the Brain with Will."
"Who are the Catalyst and the Anchor?"
Aldith winces the tiniest bit.
She doesn't want to give away information that might be misused. My friends in Sanctuary had shared a lot with me, though I sometimes wonder why they trust me that much. I'm glad they do, though, because now I need to impart that information to Gabriel.
"You can never tell anyone else about this," I say to Gabriel. "I trust you to keep the information confidential, because it affects the lives of three people."
Gabriel swerves his attention to me. "I know how to keep a secret, Sarah."
I wrap my arms around myself, rubbing my hands up and down, suddenly feeling a chill. "Allison was the Catalyst, the human who initiated the chain reaction without knowing she'd done that. Sefton used her without her permission. Dax was the Anchor, the human who kept the alchemical reaction from spinning out of control. He was also used by Sefton without his permission. We don't know what might happen if thisinformation got into the wrong hands. For all we know, the Catalyst and the Anchor might reignite the alchemy of worlds or start the alchemy of souls."
"You said the secret affects the lives of three people."
"The third life is Dax and Allison's unborn child. We've been afraid that if Echo creatures found out the Catalyst and the Anchor had conceived a baby, those beasts might try to steal the child. Their baby might become the golden fleece of the apocalypse."
"Because their kid might have the Echo power."
