Page 99 of The SongBird's Love

“Huh? You saw who?”

“Pan,” she elaborated. “I saw him. He was there. I... I just caught a glimpse of him before I crossed back. It was definitely my master.”

“Are you sure?” asked Loir, looking back at his screens. “I don’t see anything, Kitty...”

“I’m sure it was him,” she nodded. “Just... right before I came back. Check again. It was definitely Master.”

Loir kept double-checking, his fingers running across his keyboards, but he was definitely frowning a lot, even for someone without eyebrows... Eden also frowned and came to his side to check too. The memory was still freshly engraved in her mind, but there was no sign of it on the screens. It was as if she had dreamed it.

“...He was definitely there,” she muttered.

“What did you see?” asked Dante.

“It was very brief, he came right before I crossed over. He just... He pushed me out, and said I had done a good job.”

“You saw him right before you came back?” asked Loir, stopping the frantic typing.

“A second before I opened my eyes,” nodded Eden.

“Damn it,” grumbled Loir.

Eden sighed and walked a few steps away to lean against the wall and let herself slide down slowly until she was seated on the floor. Rolf was standing still by the door, an indecipherable expression as usual. To her surprise, Beer and Bullet appeared, running to her with a great deal of yapping and their short little tails wagging; however, she didn’t feel like playing with the pups. She was exhausted and confused. Each Dive strained her body, and she was definitely going to be sore soon. She massaged her neck, her SIN still hot under her blonde hair.

Meanwhile, Loir was still glaring at his screen, reading Eden’s last images over and over.

“...You can’t find him?” asked Dante, visibly curious as well.

“No...” grumbled Loir. “Kitty’s Master is that good... I can’t believe it. He used the Ether.”

“What’s the Ether?”

Loir made a strange gesture with his head, and from the way he moved, Eden imagined he was probably trying to roll his eyes. They stayed completely black, though, so it was hard to tell.

“It’s like the space for all hackers,” she explained. “The Ether is like a thin layer we all go through the moment we travel between reality and the System. It was there before the Core and before any other system. It’s like the larger space in which all the SINs are in, although no one is connected.”

“Like an asteroid field,” added Loir. “Everybody’s there, but no one’s partying...”

“The Ether is like an outlaw zone. It’s so chaotic, no one can control it. No one even knew it existed before we found a way to connect it to our minds. However, everyone has to travel through the Ether before we are connected to anyone. It’s... like being in a coma. We don’t know where we are, it’s not physical or tangible, but we’re neither awake nor dead.”

“I can’t understand how your master got to you through the Ether,” said Loir. “Even the Core can’t go there...”

“Why?”

“It’s human-only,” said Loir. “It’s out of the Core’s web. It can’t follow a human mind going back to their body once they reach the Ether. But no one should be able to follow anyone at all... Maybe Master just played a nasty trick and came right before you got into the Ether, Kitty. Everything else would be too crazy.”

“Maybe...”

Eden felt a bit sad. She couldn’t believe there would be a day where a theory would be too crazy even for Loir... She let out a long sigh. Still, she was sure of what she had seen. It was definitely her master. How he had found her, she couldn’t tell. Had he seen what she had done inside the Core? She blushed, a bit proud. She hoped he had seen everything, how good she had gotten...

“Argh, I can’t believe I missed an occasion to see Pan!” whined Loir. “How was he, Kitty?”

“He didn’t change at all, from the little bit I saw. His blonde hair, still looking so young.”

“Ugh. I hope he’s very old and smelly in real life,” grumbled Loir.

Eden smiled. She knew he was just upset he hadn’t been able to catch the legendary Pan. She let out a long sigh. She was upset too, but having been able to catch a glimpse of him, no matter how brief, made her very happy anyway.

“...Are you alright?”