I was woken the next day by three sharp knocks, and opened the door bleary-eyed to see Niva proudly displaying Ganymede like an unveiled statue.

  “Here he is, good as new. I had a bit of fun with the voice circuits, almost decided to give him a State Kingdom accent, but don’t worry he’s exactly how he was before he broke. Can’t stay, see you soon.”

  She was gone before I could thank her, galloping down the hall.

  Instead, I hugged Ganymede, surprising myself with how much I could miss a robot.

  “Are you feeling better now?” I asked him, forcing him to take a seat in one of the plush chairs in the corner of the room.

  “Quite well Miss Ayla, thank you, but I have been told you plan to go out after curfew tonight with Master Elian, is this true?”

  “Yes,” I admitted, “But he knows what he’s doing, we’ll be fine.”

  A shadow crossed the android’s face.

  “I can’t let you go. It’s not safe.”

  “Where’s your sense of adventure?” I chided, “Besides, if Elian sees the institutions he can figure out how to get rid of them, and that’s worth any risk. Please Ganymede, I need you to let me do this.”

  The android pursed his lips.

  “I won’t disobey your wishes but I want it noted I am thoroughly against the idea.”

  “Fine, fine. I’ve noted it, and if it blows up in my face you can say I told you so, how’s that?” I placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll be back before you know it.”

  Later, under the dark cloak of night, I stole away to the courtyard, criss-crossing the corridors with the map Ganymede had given me.

  The sky in Langlia at night was different than Vocafeum. All the lights of such a big city obscured the stars from view, a haze lighting up the sky in orange and grey instead, like dawn, but warmer. Possibly the last warm evening of the summer, if recent days were anything to go by.

  I tiptoed into the garden, following the lavender-lined path right up to the rose arch. The scent of the lavender enveloped the air like a weighted blanket, smothering all my worries. I held out as long as I could before I picked one of the flowers and twirled the stem, breathing in everything it had to offer.

  It was then I saw Elian, leaning against the arch. He hid well, I noted. Blurring into the shadows as if he was used to it.

  On instinct, I hid the flower behind my back.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “To go back there?” I shook my head, “No. But if it means I might see Niles again? If it could free us all? Definitely.”

  He brought my hidden hand forward and cupped both of his around the plant as if a light breeze could break it.

  “My mother planted those,” he said softly, but a split second later he withdrew into himself, erasing every trace of vulnerability as he schooled his features into a stern stare.

  “Follow me and be quiet,” the soldier in him gave out the command, his jaw hard-set, and for once I listened, following him around in the darkness around the garden lanes, grabbing onto his arm when I couldn’t see where I was going, the gravel crunching softly beneath our feet. At some point, he creaked open a side gate and strode down a path leading to a large building.

  A key glinted in his hands beneath the moonlight as he unlocked the door and flipped a switch, filling the room with a low hum and bathing it in yellow light. Now that I could see, I realised it was a hoverport housing at least a dozen hovs all lined up in a row. Some of them looked like the hov I came in, long, black and shiny, while others were smaller and more colourful like a beetle.

  He unlocked the one on the end, black, inconspicuous in the night, and it sparked to life. I flinched as it jumped up to a great height and almost smashed the ceiling, right before it dove back down and almost crashed to the floor.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Are you sure you know how to control that thing?” I asked, noting that life being driven by a chauffeur clearly didn’t leave much time for driving practice.

  His reply came in a hushed tone, reminding me I needed to whisper.

  “I passed my driving test. Let’s leave it at that. Now if you don’t mind, we need to hurry. Climb into the passenger seat.”

  I did as I was told while he came in from the other side, pressing a couple of buttons next to the main wheel causing the roof to whir open from above. I should have expected it by now but the sudden jolt of the hov as it started to fly still had me reaching for the door handle to grip onto.

  It flew up and up until it went through the roof which then closed, leaving us open to the night.

  “The trip is longer than I’d like but with any luck we’ll be back by sunrise and no one will notice we’ve been gone.”

  I didn’t try to hide the wonder in my face.

  “Thank you for doing this. Most people wouldn’t.”

  A Custom would only come to Vocafeum to check their shipments or, as I’d learnt last week, work a double shift as the Chancellor’s wife and the director.

  “I know what it’s like to be controlled. I don’t want that for any of my people,” he murmured, then cleared his throat. “Let’s hope we don’t run into trouble, eh?”

  I grimaced.

  “Bad news I’m afraid, trouble and I are locked in a permanent game of hide and seek.”

  “Yes,” he pursed his lips, “I’m starting to gather that.”

  He turned up the radio which was playing an upbeat duet about sunny days ahead, the male singers’ voices velvet, soothing the adrenaline coursing through my body.

  With a start, I realised I knew this one and sang along to the optimistic lyrics.

  “How do you know this?” he asked. I understood his confusion, it wasn’t as if we could play music growing up in the institutions.

  “The wardens used to listen to their radios when they got bored, I must’ve picked it up.”

  “This used to be my grandfather’s favourite song before he died.”

  Suddenly the melody turned bittersweet.

  “I’m sorry. Were you close?” I asked. He lowered the volume dial and fiddled with a few other dials he probably didn’t need to.

  “We used to be. When my mother let me see him he would tell me these stories of genetically engineered dragons and people with superpowers. He made me feel like the alterations my family had made us heroes.” He frowned. “Is that bad?”

  I shook my head.

  “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a hero.”

  Especially when he had the chance to actually be one.

  “Do you sometimes wish you knew your family?” he asked carefully.

  I kept the answer curt. “Niles and Ramya are all the family I need.”

  At the mention of Ramya’s name he had to stop himself veering to the side of the road in shock.

  “Ramya?” he pulled the wheel sharply to get us back on track, “Not Ramya Banavan?”

  The crazed tone in his voice had me leaning back in my seat.

  “Yes, that’s her name, why?”

  “How long has she been there?”

  “Since I had to start work, ten years or so…”

  The puzzle pieces of a terrifying thought started fitting together. The dust on those boxes in the laboratory was thick enough to be built up over years, maybe even a decade.

  “You don’t think… Niva’s mother…”

  “Has been gone for ten years,” he confirmed.

  “But she never said anything about a daughter. It can’t be the same woman. It just can’t.”

  They shared barely any features. Ramya’s eyes were darker and her face more rounded, whereas Niva’s jawline could shred paper.

  “The timing adds up.”

  I sighed in disbelief.

  “She practically raised me, I mean we worked together all those years and she never... Why would she keep her daughter a secret? And Niva, what do we tell her? Do we even have the right to interfere? Ramya clearly did it for a reason.”

  “We should tell Niva the truth. She deserves to know and quite frankly I’m scared of what she’ll do if we don’t, but I’m not sure how we even begin that conversation.”

  “We’ll do it together.”

  I placed my hand on his, then quickly pulled away. Probably best not to distract the driver. Again.

  “Yes, I think that would be best.”

  He lowered his foot on the accelerator.

  “I never suspected… Never would have imagined…” He struggled to finish his thought, giving up halfway through before changing the subject. “Anyway, the man you mentioned, Niles,” he asked, “What’s he like?”

  “He’s quiet, keeps to himself, but very kind and gentle. Someone I can depend on. We’ve been through a lot together.”

  “Sounds like a man worth having around.” He raised an eyebrow teasingly.

  I laughed, “It’s not like that. We’ve known each other too long. I see him like a brother.”

  Besides, there was very little time and opportunity for romance as far as the institutions were concerned.

  “What about you?” I asked, not about to let him off so easy, “Do you have someone worth keeping?”

  “Not at the moment,” he said, “And probably never will once I marry Ariadne. Not that she’s not nice it’s just… I don’t feel that way about her.”

  “Why? Because she’s too out of your league?”

  “Ouch, didn’t anyone tell you beauty is in the eye of the beholder?” he joked, “It’s everything. And nothing. We’re just different.”

  He kept silent for a while, and I was happy to sit in the silence, the thrum of the electromagnets the only sound around us, and watch the fields stretching over the horizon.

  Eventually we passed a green sign for Tolbris, a city I remembered being around the midpoint between Langlia and the moors where Vocafeum lay, having passed it on the way to the Estate only days ago. But it could have been a lifetime, given all that had happened since then.

  “We’ll pass the county border in an hour,” he announced, “From there, well, at least we’ll be in the right ballpark.”

  “And we’ve got a lot of songs on the radio to sing in the meantime,” I piped up.

  “You mean you have a lot of songs,” he objected, “I don’t sing.”

  By the time we got to Vocafeum, the moors were shaking with the soft vibrato of Elian’s favourite ballad.