***
“This place looks so funny, Swarley,” Ceril said. The boys had been wandering around the halls for what had to be hours, looking for their dormitory. “I’m not even sure if we’re in the same school anymore.”
Swarley said, “I know, right? I don’t like it. It’s just so…I dunno what. I mean, Phase I felt so cozy. I felt safe there, you know?” He slapped the sandstone wall and slid his hand across the border that divided it from the brushed-steel paneling beneath it. “But this? It’s just so cold.”
“It’s sterile,” Ceril said, hoping he had used the word correctly.
Swarley nodded. “Yeah, that’s it exactly. Like a—like a hospital.”
“Weirdest hospital I’ve ever been in,” Ceril muttered.
The boys walked a little further down the hall, and Swarley pointed into an alcove. Every hall in Phase II seemed to be decorated the same way: statues in alcoves. The statues in this one stood twice the size of Swarley. “Who are these guys?”
“You don’t know?” Ceril asked.
“And like you do?” Swarley replied.
“Well, no. How could I?” Ceril stood beside Swarley and stared into the alcove.
“Whatever,” Swarley said, “but I bet they’re old.”
“You think? I bet they’re technomage artifacts.”
“That do what? They’re statues of people with animal heads cut out of big pieces of rock, Ceril.”
“They could be artifacts.”
“And you might be the prettiest person in the hall right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s true.”
“I’m just saying,” Ceril said. “They might be. We don’t know.”
“No, we don’t,” Swarley said. “Come on, let’s go. I want eventually to find out where we live. My feet are starting to hurt.”
“Yeah, and I think we go left up here when the hall ends. There should be an elevator to the dormitory level.”
“How do you know that?” Swarley said. “You’ve been as lost as I am.”
“We’ve passed the sign for it a couple of times already. You’ve been walking us in circles.”
“I have done no such thing.”
Ceril just nodded and started walking toward where he thought the elevator was.
“It all looks the same to me,” Swarley said. “Lead on, man.” He followed Ceril down the hall and toward their dormitory.