Page 146 of The Surviving Sky
His mindEXPANDED.
His skin exploded intoblue—
The falcon-yaksha grew in might andstrength—
Their consciousnesses reforged; a union occurred that had awaited lifetimes. He—they—
Became
In the Etherium, Ahilya’s consciousness sparkled, holding strong against the creature.
Let’s end this, Iravan said, finally knowing what had to be done.
Together, she replied, understanding.
51
TOGETHER
They approached the creature with one will.
Embedded in different visions, a part of different worlds, Ahilya and Iravan floated in the vortex, holding each other, able to seeeverything, sharing a consciousness.
The Resonance generated its silvery stream of light in Iravan’s second vision. He spun his golden ray, and it collided with the Resonance’s jet of power, the streams thickening instead of canceling each other out. He grasped the rope of combined light in the Deepness, then flung himself into the Moment.
The combined light transformed into sparkling hair-thin constellation lines as soon as he moved from the Deepness to the Moment. The green dust of possibility swirled around him, and Iravan intersected his lines with the dust again, readying himself. Woven out of his two split selves, coated with pure possibility, the constellation lines were unbreakable this time.
Ahilya smiled. With Iravan by her side, her agony had become a buzz in the back of her mind. Why had she fought it before? The pain was hers; she would not let the creature own it.Have youconsidered, Tariya had said to her,you’re stronger when you want the same things?Finally, she and Iravan wanted the same thing. She knew what she had to do.
The rift at the Moment shuddered, a raging hurricane of stars as Iravan flew in and out of gaps, weaving his indestructible constellation lines, building what the Etherium had shown him before: a labyrinth of a billion twists that circled to where they began, a hundred impossible stairs that looped unto themselves, countless false egresses that would seduce the being deeper into the maze and imprison it.
Iravan had failed before when he had tried it alone. He would not fail now.
ForAhilyaconverted pure possibility into reality.
She focused her desire as Iravan built his maze. She pinpointed her will so the green dust he had used to intersect his lines with converged toward a single possibility of success. Iravan spun, using all his skill, all his Ecstatic power, all Ahilya’s command of the dust.
Now, Ahilya!he said.
And Ahilya caught the exquisite web he had spun, in the manner of holding it between her fingers. She enforced the unfragmented desire of her total consciousness, with everything she had been, everything she was, all that she ever would be. She drove Iravan’s maze toward the rift where she had been the shield; she focused on a singular possibility—for them to endure.
The lines throbbed, and Iravan roared, raging, trying to hold on to hispattern—
Ahilya screamed, pushing against the rift, willing the maze intoexistence—
The planet shuddered, one last heave of the earthrage, of a consciousness attempting to fragment—, the being screamed,enraged—
Then—
The constellation lines snapped into place.
A gargantuan web of stars spanned the infinite Moment, trapping the splitting being at the rift.
All over the planet, the earthrage rumbled in its last throes, dust ballooning, then settling, trees growing instead of shattering. The ashrams bobbed in the sky, shuddering, as the trajection of a thousand architects relaxed, became easier.
In the vortex, Iravan took a deep breath, and the yaksha yarped, a sound of blissful joy.
Ahilya smiled as her pain disappeared.
