Resonance Read Online Free PDF Page A

The pads of my fingers tingled at the memory. “Like burlap, you know?”
    â€œCleavers cut the strings of an Echo and reweave the fabric of the parent world. Because it’s man-made instead of naturally occurring, the patch isn’t as finely woven as the surrounding fabric.”
    â€œThat’s why cut sites are weaker? Because the fabric’s not as dense?”
    â€œPartly. You’ve learned about the energy transfer in your Consort classes, correct?”
    â€œThe basics.”
    When an Echo forms, it creates energy, which circulates between the existing branch and the new offspring like sap through a tree. That energy bolsters the Key World, protecting it from unstable frequencies. When Cleavers cut the strings between two realities, they direct the energy back into the parent world, use the weaving to seal it inside, and allow the cleaved Echo to unravel.
    â€œOne of the problems with cleaving is that not all of the energy can be harvested. Some percentage always escapes during the reweaving, so the cut site is never quite full strength.”
    I hadn’t heard that before. “Still better than letting an inversion take root. Or leaving the edges unwoven,” I said. “The energy would be wasted otherwise.”
    The smile she gave me was almost triumphant. “Not necessarily. Feel it,” she said, and pointed at the lockers.
    My hand inched toward the cut site, and the frequency around me quieted, the faintest of diminuendos. The air split beneath my touch, and the strings vibrated in perfect unison. Listening with my fingertips as well as my ears, I found the cut site. Instead of the coarsely woven fabric I expected, a line of tiny bumps pressed against my fingers, firm but resilient.
    â€œKnots,” Ms. Powell said when I twisted to look at her. “The threads are tied, not woven.”
    â€œThis is a cleaving?” That couldn’t be right. But the odd seam was silent, like any other cut site.
    â€œA cauterization. The Echo on the other side of this cut site still exists.”
    I snatched my hand away. “How is that possible?” And if she was right, did it mean Train World, where I’d left Simon, was intact?
    â€œCleaving requires that you cut all the threads at once—you need all the strings of a cut site free in order to weave the edges together. But a cauterization cuts only a few threads at a time, knotting each half. Once that’s done, the Echo is untethered.”
    â€œDoesn’t it unravel?”
    â€œNo. Both sides are knotted, so both sides remain intact. The energy stays within the cauterized Echo, and once the seam is finished, it’s a completely independent, self-sustaining reality.”
    I reached into the cut site, examining the knots again, trying to sense the world on the other side.
    â€œYou cauterized Train World?”
    â€œYes. My team found Simon shortly after you and Addie returned. The process was a little trickier, because you and Simon had already cut the strings. As you know, he makes worlds stronger, which bought us extra time.”
    Exactly as I’d hoped. I pulled my hand free as my knees gave out. I slid down to the floor, my back against the lockers. “You saved him.”
    â€œWe did.”
    I hadn’t believed her before now—not truly, not in my bones—but I did now, and the knowledge knocked loose a chunk of the sorrow I’d carried, dissolving it to tears.
    Ms. Powell was nice enough to look away while I pulled myself together. Once I did, I asked, “Can I cross over?”
    â€œOnce a world is cauterized, there’s no getting through again. It will grow, and generate Echoes of its own, but there’s no going back.”
    â€œHe’s trapped there?” Had she given me hope only to shatter it again?
    She touched my shoulder, her words a rush of reassurance. “We pulled Simon out before the cauterization was complete. He’s lucky we