Page 162 of Everdoll

My focus snapped back. The woman on the screen was familiar. Dangerously familiar.

“Eleanor Kern, right?” Amara stated.

“Kern?” My breath caught.

Raymond’s biological mother?

“Is trashing the Kerns a thing now?”

“But this is an election speech!” I reasoned. “Doesn’t sound professional.”

Ever since yesterday, the whole world had been talking about the late Kern family and their history. And now, releasing this video…? It was a smart publicity move—it might have caught the attention of younger people—but I couldn’t see any other reason for it.

Amara shrugged. “Classic Krivan. All drama, and little policy.”

The woman’s voice in the video drew our attention back to the screen.

“I am Eleanor Kern.” Her proud tone echoed across the entire square. As she stepped back, a white room came into view in the background.

“Today marks the thirteenth anniversary of our great discovery.” She smiled, retreating further into the frame until a hospital bed was revealed. A child lay there, black hair spilling across the pillow.

My eyes widened. A chill ran down my spine.

No way.

“We will finally witness the effects of the Umbra element on a mortal body. So far, the host has responded positively; it’s not just sustaining telomerase activity, but effectively halting telomere shortening altogether. The element also permits natural anabolic growth while strictly inhibiting catabolic decay. Even more remarkable is how it neutralizes the typical risks: cancer, mutations, or any form of genetic instability. It’s unprecedented. This element, unique to Mars, is nothing short of a miracle.”

When the woman disappeared from the screen again and went to the child, pulling back the sheet covering him, I held my breath. The small body was covered in scratches, in syringes… It was bleeding everywhere, and a yellow liquid was dripping from his left arm.

The child woke up from the sleep, his blue eyes staring at the ceiling vacantly, while his mother smiled at the camera. My chest tightened, unable to process what she was seeing.

“Remi…” I blinked at tears gathering in my eyes. There was only one image in the world right now. One truth, one nightmare spread through my veins.

“How…”

I murmured, my voice shaking with dread. Nothing had steeled me for this. Raymond had never talked much about his own family, brushing them aside with practiced forgetfulness. I, too, had let this happen, him being a Loxton was eventful enough. But this…

For how long had he carried this alone? How many times had I failed to stand beside him?

When his mother silently raised his arm, the little boy didn’t resist. He didn’t flinch when she cut off his finger with a small knife. The woman stood still, clutching his bleeding hand in one of hers, while her other hand held his severed finger. The blood clotted quickly, and soon a faint throbbing stirred at the wound. A pink bud of tissue swelled, then the outline of bone emerged in it. Muscle and veins wrapped around the growing structure, nerves stitched themselves in, and finally a thin layer of skin closed over it… Now it looked like a lump of flesh, pink and shapeless, but everyone had seen it.

It had regenerated itself.

His mother approached the screen again. I feared her happy face would haunt me.

“As you can see, our host body has stabilized the telomerase without any side effects! It has grown normally up to this age, and its cells will remain young from now on. I am pleased to announce we have ended biological aging. We aim for infinity. We aim for immortality. And we won’t stop. We are close to changing the fate of humanity. That concludes today’s presentation.”

When the video ended, Krivan raised his hand with a triumphant smile on his face.

“We stand on the threshold of transhumanism, and we are closer than we have ever been. Soon, immortality will not be a privilege. It will be a right, accessible to every citizen of Mars. We will make it happen!”

As the commotion in the crowd grew, I tried to regain my breath. Amara was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her. Whenever Remi was involved, the world around me lost its significance, as always.

“Was this child Raymond Loxton?”

I immediately turned my eyes toward her at the question. “That cyborg kid… is he immortal?”

My face grimaced. This was it? That secret he had protected with every fiber of his being, a secret he wouldn’t hesitate to break a heart for?