* * * *
Xyl could not judge how long they had walked, nor how far. This, she decided, was a good thing. Time could play some nasty tricks in NetSpace when a Runner was in the freezer. She didn’t want Gracie to become frightened.
Suddenly she could simply enjoy being herself, without having to be concerned with time. Without expectation of the future the moment was all she had.
She felt truly at peace for the first time since Auriel’s death.
She watched Gracie moving effortlessly over the obstacles and around Aivatar corpses, the small pixielike Persona glowing dimly in the darkness. If the girl suspected that she too had flatlined, she made no mention of it again. Xyl was grateful for that. She knew from her own eight previous flatlines that if you panicked it was much more difficult t
