“Have you ever done it by accident?” Josephine asked.
“When we were younger, yes. Not as much now. If we are in pain or afraid, we often think of the other first, and then those emotions may send by mistake. Jarl once broke his arm playing by the foxwillow in the last summer days, and I knew immediately.” There was something in her voice as she mentioned the incident, the casual way she spoke of things I’d never heard of reminding me of my own summers taking day trips to the beach with my family or when my sister and I ate Popsicles in the shade of the giant tree in our front yard. There was a sense of familiar fondness and a deep sense of loss; whatever a foxwillow was, Jari would probably never see one again. I would probably never see that giant oak tree again, either.
She glanced at me, and I offered a smile. Josephine was silent as she walked behind me. We both understood.
“This way,” she said before I could say anything else, veering off to the right. The air was clean enough now that I could see the path outside our bubble, and we were definitely up in the mountains. The incline got sharper, and the air got gradually thinner.
“We aren’t going to run out of oxygen or anything, are we?” Josephine asked.
“I doubt the mountain goes that high,” I said, and she reached out to punch my arm. The good arm, thankfully.
“I know that. I meant the bubble we’re in.”
“Oh,” I said, glancing around. That might actually be a legitimate concern.
“We are not in a bubble,” Jari explained. “I am purifying the air around us in a small radius as we walk. You could easily reach outside of my range, if you wished.”
“And you can do that anywhere? Even underwater?”
“Yes.” She sounded proud. “Underwater, far underground, anywhere. It is specifically the ability to create the environment I need to survive, no matter what is around me.”
“And you said you can adapt, too?” Josephine asked.
“Yes. I can either create the bubble for those I am with, or I can allow myself to breathe wherever I am.”
“Do you grow gills or anything? Like, do you change your shape?”
“No, that is my brother’s gift. He can become a water dweller; I can simply dwell in the water as is.” She sounded irritated again; I was beginning to guess that she thought her brother’s shape-shifting was a better ability than hers.
“That’s really cool,” Josephine said, and then we had to explain the colloquialism to Jari. By the time we got that sorted out, the air had cleared up enough that Jari dropped her not-bubble, and we walked into a makeshift base.
My knees went weak with relief. There were at least half a dozen temp camps, which could fit four people if you got cozy. There were twice that many Walkers doing various chores, and I recognized most of them—and one in particular, a girl most recognizable by her beautiful white wings.
“Jo!” I shouted, surprising myself as I darted forward. I was further surprised when she moved forward as well, meeting me in a hug.
Though Jo was one of the first people I’d interacted with at InterWorld, our relationship had always been chilly at best. Still, she was a teammate and (as far as I was concerned) a friend, and the first of either I’d seen in four or five days.
I hugged her tightly, though I was careful of her wings and she was careful of my shoulder. She pulled back almost immediately, looking embarrassed at her uncharacteristic exuberance. “Joey,” she said, her voice heavy with relief. “You’re—” She cut herself off from saying the word okay; I obviously wasn’t all that okay, given the sling, wrist brace, and number of bandages on me.
“Alive,” I filled in. “So are you. I’m glad,” I said honestly, and we exchanged wry smiles. It was kind of like that right now; “alive” was about as good as we could hope for.
“I am also pleased to see you relatively well, though not uninjured,” said another voice, one I would have recognized immediately even if not for the overabundance of formality in his tone.
“Hey, Jai!” Oh, what the hell—I hugged him, too, something he accepted with a hint of surprise. “Are you all right? I haven’t seen you since . . .” I trailed off, not knowing what to call it. I couldn’t say the accident, because it hadn’t been one.
“I was fortunate enough to remain mostly unscathed,” he said, “and I attempted to provide the same fate for our comrades. With little success,” he added softly, his brown face filling with sorrow. I squeezed his shoulder.
“It would have been a lot worse without you,” I said.
A small crowd was gathering around us, a crowd of people I recognized. They all took turns waving or greeting me, saying they were glad to see me or expressing relief that I was alive and here. There was the rest of my team aside from J/O: Josef, twice my size and built of thick, dense muscle, and Jakon, my sleek, furry wolflike cousin, and others who weren’t on my team but had missed me anyway. J’r’ohoho, the centaur from a primitive world who’d nevertheless excelled in his science classes, and Jaya, with her red-gold hair and sweet voice.
They were all here, all glad to see me. It was a homecoming, of sorts, the kind I hadn’t yet had at InterWorld. No one here had been glad to see me before, had given me hugs, or said they’d missed me. It was nice, not just for myself, but because Josephine was watching with a quiet understanding. I was glad she could see the camaraderie we all felt for each other firsthand.
“How did you all get here?” I asked finally, raising my voice to be heard above the chatter.
“That’s something you and I should discuss,” said a new voice, firm but not unkind, and a few people stepped aside to reveal Joeb.
“Hey,” I said in greeting, another wave of relief washing through me. It wasn’t just that I was glad to see him. He and Jai were both senior officers, which meant I wouldn’t be the only one making decisions now. I didn’t have to do this all on my own anymore.