Phoenie threw one hand to her mouth, the other gripping the back of her chair tight. She was whispering under her breath, willing Lysander to stop before he got himself into trouble. The teachers looked less concerned, with Sabeen Haan and Valentine Baudin wearing especially broad smirks.

“That was no mere explosion of gas that drove us into this armoured bunker,” continued Lysander, “I have recorded evidence that we were attacked by a giant robot!”

The childish revelation struck the crowd like a tidal wave. At first there were giggles and chortling, but as the words began to soak in so too did they start unearthing buried memories. All of Veritas cast their eyes towards John’s laptop, the image of the pointed creature looming over the swimming pool making more and more sense by the minute.

“Now I don’t know who’s been playing with your memories,” continued Lysander, “But if they think they’re playing with mine they’ve got another thing coming! Why I’ve already saved backups of my exclusive footage and sent copies to my associates, and once it has been analysed and edited into a coherent format I’ll be letting all of you in on the secret! FIGHT THE POWER!”

“The power is yours!” added Angelo, popping out from behind the podium like a delirious, wide-eyed puppet with an unnaturally large grin.

Then they scampered away like monkeys, as if they’d just spray-painted Chris Shaw’s car pink. Before he disappeared, Lysander tossed John his glasses with pinpoint accuracy.

“The shit is getting outta hand,” said Theseus, “I can’t tell what the hell is real and what ain’t!”

“We…we need to think about what’s going on,” said Phoenie, “And not make any brash accusations! We don’t know who might be listening…”

Astrid’s group were in the process of leaving the shelter behind Lysander and Angelo. Though the girls didn’t appear as intimidating or self-righteous as they had been in the past, Katrina was still worried they were going after the two boys. She wanted to ask Amanda, get the gossip from the inner circle, but the betrayal still felt like a raw wound. Theseus must have thought the same thing, because he had turned his back on the group and focused his attention on his cell. At least his relationship with Amanda hadn’t been strained by her defection, much to Phoenie’s disapproval.

“Looks like he really did send the footage elsewhere,” said John, “Record says as far as Malkuth?”

Phoenie leaned in to look at the computer screen. “That’ll be to his ‘girlfriend’ I’ve heard about,” she said, “Apparently she’s some sort of anarchist wizkid, but I’m not sure I believe that,”

“It’s Lysander,” chuckled Andromeda, “Is he ever predictable?”

As Veritas began to leave the shelter, Katrina slowed down to walk with Dante, who kept his usual slow pace behind everyone as if he wanted to be the last to leave.

“What’re your memory like?” he asked.

“I don’t know any more!” she replied, her free hand flailing around, “Stuff happens! Stuff doesn’t happen! Stuff happens again! It won’t make any sense, and now you mention it I’m starting to remember other things. Lots of things. How long has this been going on?”

“At least six months,” he replied.

“See, you know! You remember everything, don’t you?”

“Not everything,” he said, “I don’t want to remember it all either,”

“Is it that bad?”

Dante made a sarcastic grunt and closed his eyes. “The lies are better,”

***

Chapter 42
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