Regeneration (32 page)

Aryel sat back in the chair, shaken to her soul, and realized that she was seriously considering Zavcka's proposition, and that Zavcka had known that she would; she had known that Aryel would have no choice.

“You may yet live for many, many years,” she said finally. “And Eve may grow into someone who does not do things, maybe doesn't do
anything,
the way you would. She may break everything you ever built.”

“I understand that.”

“You're prepared to watch that happen?”

“Yes,” Zavcka said irritably, “and if you don't believe me, ask Gabriel to sit in on our next conversation. He'll tell you.”

“Why, Zavcka? Why would you be okay with that?”

Zavcka Klist looked sharply at her, and then around at the shelves of books, the lone window, the gilt-framed pictures. Her gaze came back to Aryel, lingering on the gold-tinged bronze of her wings.

“One hundred and twenty years ago,” she said softly, “there was a child I dreamed of being, but there was no room for that child in that age, no space for her to be. She never existed, and I grew out of the longing for her. I forgot—I forgot until twelve days ago, when I sat here”—she tapped at the tablet—“and I saw that dead dream-child, alive. You think I may regret what she does when she grows into someone who isn't me? I don't believe I will, Aryel, but so what? So what if I don't approve? What does that matter? I don't want her to need my approval, or yours. She lives in an age that has space for her, and I want to see what she does with it.”

“It might have space for you too, now,” Aryel said. “Space, and time.”

The older woman shook her head. “This is a new era, and I do not think I will see it out. Nor, I suspect, will you. But Eve will. Eve will outlast us both, and that's good enough for me.”

Regeneration
took its time coming into existence, and once again I am greatly indebted to everyone who was willing to talk through aspects of the book with me and to read and respond to the first, dreadfully rough draft. If she were not already a legend, the inimitable Jo Fletcher would have earned her editorial stripes with this one, and I am deeply grateful for her guidance. Thanks also to Nicola Budd and Andrew Turner at Jo Fletcher Books, and to my agent, Ian Drury.

One of the conceits of
Regeneration
is the notion of a disruptive technology that leads to transformation in the energy market; anyone interested in the current state of affairs would do well to read David J. C. MacKay's comprehensive but easily comprehensible book
Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air,
available as an ebook at
withouthotair.com
. My thanks to Anna Eagar for pointing me to it. I encountered the notion of quantum-energy storage in the essays
A Quantum Leap in Battery Design
by David Talbot (MIT Technology Review, 2009) and
Digital Batteries
by Alfred W. Hubler (Complexity, 2008) and ran with it; any resulting errors, embellishments, wild suppositions, and flights of fancy are, of course, all mine.

S
TEPHANIE
S
AULTER

L
ONDON
, 2015