Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy (The Lightbound Saga Book 1) by S. G. Basu

wave came surging forward, Maia saw the strokes in her mind’s eye: the precise sweeps that would tackle most of the swell. She swiped back and forth, cutting calculated paths though the white cloud, accurately clearing more than half of the flitting seeds.
    She continued to practice, occasionally stopping to wait for the next surge. The exercise, while sweaty and tiring, was the perfect antidote to the persistent worries from the previous night. About twenty gusts had come and gone when Maia noticed her grandfather walking toward her.
    “Did you have a good night’s sleep?” Dada asked when he was close, his face rigid with concern.
    Maia nodded. She did not want to tell him how wretched she felt at the moment.
    “How about a walk?” Dada asked.
    Maia nodded again. While she itched inside to know more of what had happened last night after she had left, she also dreaded this conversation; it meant that she now had to come to terms with that reality.
    “I truly wish I could make it all go away,” Dada said as they walked. “Then again, maybe this was meant to be, maybe this is your destiny.”
    His words made Maia twitch. She resented them, not understanding how Dada could suddenly come around to talking like the Xifarian principal. Perhaps it was simply Dada’s way of consoling, of helping her come to terms with the situation, but it annoyed her to no end. This could not be her destiny, she told herself. Her destiny, spectacular or not, lay in ThulaSu.
    “So, it’s final? I have to go to . . . Xif?” Maia asked.
    “Yes,” Dada said with a sigh, “unless . . .”
    “What?”
    “Unless I can . . . we can hide you somehow.”
    Maia slowly shook her head. “No, that won’t work,” she said, steeling herself. “They will find me. And even if they don’t find me, they will surely find you. Can’t have them hurt you. I shall go.”
    Moments trickled past, and neither spoke a word. A pang of hurt and anger formed an uneasy knot in Maia’s stomach.
    “It’s just . . .” Words stumbled in Maia’s mouth, and she struggled to string together her thoughts and feelings. “I can't stand talking about Xif, let alone think of going there. You know how Sophie . . . changed. I don’t even want to see the things that lured her away and made her turn against us.”
    She paused to take a breath. “And I don’t want to know the people who hold us prisoners, I just don’t. Those people . . . so arrogant and rude . . . and they hate us.”
    Her grandfather smiled with sympathy, but then turned grave. “Maybe this is a good opportunity, Maia. I know you worry about your family, about Alasdair and about me. If you really want to bring us together, you need to try to find out what your mother really wanted when she let go of the brother she loved so much. I believe there was more to it than we know. My Sophie could never be dishonorable.
    “And, Maia, you need to face your past, not run away from it. Stop a moment and look back with unbiased eyes, judge it for what it is, and decide if or how your life needs to be driven by it. Only then will you be truly free to embrace the future.”
    Maia winced. She had heard this a hundred times before, but since that cruel evening in Miorie, she had resigned to the idea that her mother was a traitor. She had a choice of clinging to hopes like Dada did, the choice of doubting Uncle Alasdair’s words, but that meant leaving herself open to another agonizing heartbreak. Maia was not willing to take that chance.
    Dada continued in a soft, sad voice. “I tried to find out as much as I could. I wanted to learn the truth, to vindicate Sophie’s stand, but Xifarian protocols wouldn’t allow me to set foot on that planet. This is our only chance, Maia, to see the world your mother loved. And, maybe, understand her a little.”
    Maia felt a familiar sting in her eyes as they walked over the highest point on the road. It hurt to realize that while Dada was concerned about how she felt,