Si was looking for Anna. After their last meeting, she had stopped contacting him and had abandoned her messenger ID. Four days ago, they had met, and it all happened.

  He thought about it. Her ID being disabled meant what he thought would be easy to sort out wasn’t for her.

  They met more than a year ago. They talked, commenting on books and articles. She was very composed, it seemed, but he could feel she wasn’t. It intrigued him. Why was she like that? He liked to decipher people.

  Si tried to talk to her more the next time he met her, at the same spot in the library. He took a look at what she was reading. They discussed some topics regarding energism; she visibly was looking for materials of this kind.

  Energies collisions. The reason for energism.

  She appreciated it when he helped her find some additional documents.

  There was no way for her to know that she got materials she usually wouldn’t be able to access. So, when he did that, when he caught himself sharing these documents with her, he knew.

  He trusted her.

  That was a surprise for him. As Si typically wasn’t very trusting. Despite what others said and how he was perceived, he was careful.

  He needed to be.

  And Anna he trusted. Intriguing, for the second time.

  Si had to admit.

  He lied a bit. He said he was a low-rank Shadow. She wasn’t aware of the title that people used in the streets. Young Master—she didn’t get it. He added that he was useless, and they laughed about it whenever someone called him by his official title.

  So, for her, he was Useless Young Master, Silly Shadow, Silly, as she liked to call him.

  Si loved that.

  He assumed she was from the OFF but didn’t ask intensely; he waited for her to say. She knew details about work in the OFF camps, about their organization, their management. She was informed in a way that was not possible from any news.

  Besides, who from Unio would know so much about the OFF and, more importantly, work in their camps? They were too egocentric and proud. So, it was his guess; she was from the OFF.

  To add to his assumption another detail, he sensed her energy. He tried, at least, as knowledge about how to detect energy—not to mention how to track it remotely—was lost. All lost. But Si invented, reinvented bits of it, and assessed her energy. It was not artificial; she was not Crystaler.

  What he also noticed was that she was in a bad condition mentally. When they met for the first time, she was scared. She pretended to be calm, but she wasn’t.

  Si used all his empathy to understand what it might be and how to approach her. He wanted to help her, as he, from the very first talk, liked her. As if something beeped in his heart.

  He didn’t overthink it. Not like in the old stories, love at first sight or something like that. He was called Silly, but he hoped he didn’t act silly.

  Si laughed at this thought.

  Then he realized that he already trusted her. Visibly, both had their small secrets, yet he trusted her.

  He decided he needed to learn about her soul. And he did; during the long months of their meetings, he got to know her soul and liked what he had learned.

  Si had another thought.

  Anna was the smartest girl he had ever met. Yes, yes. But he checked. Once, he did this silly thing and took a look. So, he knew. She was the one. He didn’t meet any other girl with such beautiful feet. Not to laugh about it, Si had to admit, this was his small weakness. No one knew.

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  Si laughed harder.

  How silly. He was truly Silly Shadow, the silliest one.

  A few days ago, they had a moment. He finally, just slightly… so, not that slightly, he managed to kiss her… maybe he not only kissed her.

  Was what he thought was some small kissing and cuddling—not small for her at all? But it wasn’t that she didn’t like him; she said she liked him, so it was not that.

  Then, she was suddenly devastated, as she said things like what was wrong with her; she asked this specific question; it was directed not at him, she was questioning herself.

  Si was surprised. He wanted to calm her down, tried to talk quietly, letting her say more, more about what was wrong. And she said—but what a thing!

  She said she was engaged. Si was, again, surprised.

  But how much, very much surprised. She added that it was arranged, and no feelings were involved, but she also said she shouldn’t behave like this.

  Si had to admit. Yes. Because he then had a thought that he was also engaged, politically, and he shouldn’t behave like this.

  It wasn’t the worst.

  The worst was she then added, and he felt jealous, she said something that meant she was in a longer relationship before meeting him. This was also unexpected.

  She left. Usually, they would meet two or three days later, but she didn’t show up. And her messenger’s ID was not working anymore.

  So, it was clear. She was avoiding him. Silly Shadow, sure, though he was not that silly.

  First, he tried to look for her. He didn’t have pictures of her—now he thought about it, how peculiar. But she had gray, almost white hair; it should be easy to find her crossing official Gates.

  He checked and was surprised.

  Si only then noticed, whenever they were outside where security devices could capture her face, she had her face covered. It was not suspicious, not at all. He didn’t notice it before; what a lesson for the future.

  She wore hats or scarves.

  Now Si understood it. She didn’t want her face to be found.

  Why didn’t he think about it before?

  And Anna, her name. He never checked. But now, he tried to find her on the lists of Gates users, and there were many girls with the name Anna, but after he checked screenings, there was no Anna matching her looks—hats and scarves included.

  So, it was not her real name.

  Also. She had Crystal. He assumed for so long she was from the OFF, but when he sensed she had Crystal—not the energy though, it didn’t emanate energy in a normal way—Si then had an additional thought.

  Who embedded Crystal like this? They were implanted in the neck currently, much smaller as well.

  It was rare. It was an old way to embed Crystal, even if treated as jewelry. Why to do it? It was invasive and actually uncomfortable.

  He searched for someone who could order it. He asked in several places and received a list of custom Crystals. Furthermore, he asked about the last five years. But found nothing similar, many people, but nothing similar. A lost clue? Not really. It could mean she did it earlier, raising the more important question of why it was done.

  Also, the OFF people wouldn’t do this kind of thing; they detested Crystals.

  Unio then. Not good. She was from the place his political fiancée was from.

  What was more? There was a possibility, unfortunately, they were incompatible. Unio people, Crystalers. She had this Crystal, even if it emanated no energy. And he was from Shadows.

  What misfortune.

  Now, Si thought, this was the reason he stubbornly wanted to believe she was from the OFF. He deliberately omitted all small signals. He wanted her to be from the OFF, so then she would be a natural energy girl. They could be together—

  No need to despair.

  Si needed to find her and clear things up. He also had to find a solution. In science, preferably, as this whole situation with incompatibility was a long story that should end finally.

  He sighed.

  But it gave him new strength. A new reason to look for the old knowledge, from the days the Sect was still of great importance and the science bloomed.

  Before, he was investigating how to prepare a better defense, preferably an attack, to win if another battle occurred.

  Now, he had a personal reason to look for materials on Crystal science, old merger attempts, and extraction, specifically those about Elder Shi An’s extraction. There was a possibility she had no energy Crystal implant, but a decorative Crystal embedded. However, even if she had artificial energy, this old case showed it was possible to remove its flow.

  The knowledge was lost.

  Clar’s e.i., energy intelligence device with knowledge—the last Clar took it and ran away. For a man, as they said.

  “Was it embedded in their genes?” Si had a sudden thought.

  He never thought they lost all of it; he expected to have datasets duplicated or something. Not really. It was difficult to do the backup of the e.i., apparently. Also, the other backup was destroyed in a very silly way, during terraforming.

  … They forgot to take it from the place it was stored physically.

  Terraforming destroyed it completely.

  The Sect’s Academia materials were all lost as well. That was the most stupid story ever, Si recalled it. Even more than the one about terraforming. The Academia President, Elder Shi Yi Anders, before he unexpectedly died back then, sealed the materials. The package was prepared upfront; it was secured, addressed. And what?

  The logistics company lost it on the route.

  They truly lost it, as if it were snatched, some materials would leak. Nothing of the sort. All the knowledge was lost because one courier lost one package.

  How silly.