The Restoration of Flaws (The Phantom of the Earth Book 5) Read Free

Zereoue reside, and in which projects did he specialize?
    She connected to the ZPF and transmitted to her twin brother, Pasha, through Marstone: Are you okay? Did you receive a bid in the top one percent?
    No response.
    Please, answer me.
    No response.
    Oriana frowned. She and her twin brother had been censured by the government during development. Because of that, if bids for him hadn’t been high enough, he might have been sent to the Lower Level and had his neurochip removed, and she’d never see or speak with him again.
    Her eyes welled up, but she pushed her illegal emotions aside. She closed her eyes.
    Sometimes, when Oriana and Pasha had been in Harpoon classes or House Summerset, he would hear her thoughts and reply in her mind, without interference from Marstone.
    Pasha, where are you?
    All she heard was her heartbeat.
    “Madam Champion,” one of her Janzer escorts said, “we’ve arrived at the RDD dormitories.”
    Oriana stepped out onto white marble pavement. The dorms stretched around her—white onyx buildings with sharp peaks studded with gemstones, connected by skywalks. Hundreds of Janzers knelt on either side of a staircase, their diamond swords angled to the Granville sky. Torches lined a massive glass archway labeled NEOPHYTE DORMITORIES, and in between each torch the flags of the thirty territories hung with the Great Commonwealth’s flag—wine-red and painted with a flock of doves, wings spread along a triplet of crescent moons—above them all.
    Oriana turned. The line of transports behind hers looked like pearls beneath Palaestra’s orange Granville sunlight.
    Was Pasha in one of them?
    “Come, Madam Champion,” a Janzer said, “the rest of the commonwealth’s neophytes may not depart until you walk.” He offered his elbow.
    The Walk of the Champion. Oriana had imagined herself here from the first day her developers, Lady Parthenia and Lord Thaddeus of House Summerset, had taught her about the Harpoons. Yet now, as she pushed her right foot to the first step, she couldn’t move. It was like when Lady Isabelle had called her up in front of the group the first day of Harpoon classes. She stood, her body paralyzed, her mind asunder.
    I’m Champion of the Harpoons , she thought. These steps should be the easiest part of my ride.
    She lifted her right foot, then her left. With each step, though, her legs seemed heavier. She gripped the Janzer’s elbow tighter.
    Did Pasha watch her upon a transport’s walls? Did he wait outside a dormitory in a lesser territory? Had his bid been high enough to negate their Warning from the Office of the Chancellor?
    Twenty more steps.
    I am a Harpoon Champion , she thought, and I will demand to see my brother.
    Ten more steps.
    Again, she accessed the ZPF, called Pasha through Marstone, and was notified he wasn’t available. She tried to contact her friend Nathan Storm, the candidate who had helped her win the second half of the Harpoon Exams inside Ceres.
    No response.
    Three more steps.
    She arrived at the summit. Behind her, oval transports snaked for kilometer after kilometer.
    Her Janzer escort shot a flare into the sky. It erupted into a flock of crackling doves that flew through the air and spiraled over her, then down the stairs until they arrived near the base and spun up in a tornado of sparks. When the bird-flares extinguished, the first hundred entryways to the first hundred transports opened, and the newly minted RDD neophytes stepped out.
    Oriana activated her extended consciousness and scanned them all.
    She didn’t find Pasha.
    He must’ve received a bid , Oriana thought, must have!
    She felt a burning sensation in her eyes but wouldn’t let herself cry.
    “Madam Champion,” the Janzer said, “your new life awaits you.”
    They took an elevator up to the Champion’s Suite at the top floor, and the Janzer taught her the code to activate her doorway. When the frosted-glass entryway slid open, indigo light enveloped her.
    “See the