The Triple World

The Tripedium Market

Chapter 5 of The Triple World

It glows blue beneath her fingers. This thing. This old Skyreen motherboard or whatever-the-hell it is.

Yana sighs. She continues poking at it with tweezers. Fin watches her intently, his small forehead furrowed. His big eyes, under a fringe of sandy straw, stare at her hands. He waits, expecting something to happen. Any moment now. Yana always knows what she is doing — Fin knows this. Even when she doesn’t, she kind of does. She is his sister and she always knows what to do. Where to go. Who to talk to. Always.

There is a flurry of movement and Sasha comes whirlwinding through the still-broken, cloth-hung door.

“Still haven’t fixed it, then?” he half asks, half states as he re-fastens it back into place behind him.

Yana looks up with a glare as sharp as Shay’s teeth.

Sasha gives Fin’s hair a quick ruffle before craning over Yana’s shoulder to gaze at the glow.

“Scary thing to admit to, isn’t it?” he murmurs just loud enough for Yana to hear.

“What is?”

“That you haven’t got a clue.” He smirks at her.

Yana is not in the mood. She never is anymore. She remembers a time when she…