Page 59 of The Surviving Sky
Airav turned to Bharavi. “You were at the watchpost before landing. Did the magnaroot behave unexpectedly to you?”
“It relaxed like it should have when the earthrage stopped,” Bharavi said, shaking her head. “It’s why I called for landing.”
“But it didn’t sharpen for Naila,” Iravan said, frustrated. In quick words, he told them what Naila had reported to him, about the stars of the magnaroot remaining unchanged, the very plant remaining still even after the flight alarm went out. “The Resonance is the onlyexplanation—”he ended.
“It’s not,” Airav interrupted.
There was another silence, this one deeper.
Iravan frowned, glancing from one to another. Kiana blinked and looked away, rolling her cane in her lap. Laksiya cleared her throat, and her gaze trailed to Manav’s empty seat.
And the full implications of Airav’s words hit Iravan.
The holograms he had entered to see, Airav’s unyielding demeanor, Bharavi’s calculatingsilence—
He had told Ahilya that no one could interfere with the magnaroot at the watchpost, but the truth was an Ecstatic Architect could manipulate the rudra tree’spermissions—it’swhat made Ecstasy so dangerous. The architect wouldn’t even do so consciously. In Manav’s case, less than five years before, a newly raised Iravan had caught Manav in the Moment, lashing a dozen constellation lines to the rudra star. Manav had held a whole conversation with Iravan in his first vision, clearly oblivious to what he was doing in his second.
It had been a tiny, unconscious slip.
Thatwas the way of Ecstasy.
Until one day the slip became destruction and endangered all life in the ashrams.
Iravan’s heart raced under Airav’s scrutiny. His palms grew sweaty and he resisted the urge to wipe them on his kurta. His eyes fell on Kiana, the only person in the room who had any interest in believing him.
“Kiana, please,” he said, his voice cracking.“Please—thinkabout what I said.”
Bharavi frowned. Airav merely shook his head.
But Senior Sungineer Kiana nodded again. “The next communication to all the sister ashrams is scheduled in a few days. I’ll ask about their landing and flight logs.”
“In the meantime,” Chaiyya murmured. “Perhaps you should not overexert yourself, Iravan. You need to recover. That’s the best thing you can do right now.”
Iravan said nothing, his hands shaking. This was dismissal as clear as it could be.
The anger rose in him, sudden and sharp, tightening his throat. Almost he retorted that he was still a Senior Architect, but before he could form the words, Bharavi stood up. “I call to adjourn this meeting,” she said.
Airav looked from Bharavi to Iravan, then shrugged his acquiescence. The others nodded, and Kiana pushed back from her chair, steadying her cane.
Bharavi picked up the notebook in front of her and approached Iravan.Come with me, her lack of regard said.I’ll explain.
For a second, Iravan didn’t move. He wanted to shake them, force them to understand the Resonance, see the danger that he could see. But everyone except Kiana was muttering about other matters, Iravan clearly forgotten. Bharavi was already out the door; there was nothing else in there for him.
With a final, desperate glance at the Senior Sungineer, Iravan turned his wheelchair around and followed Bharavi out.
20
IRAVAN
They’ve already decided my guilt.” Iravan scowled outside the council chambers as they descended in the elevator.
“Yes.” Bharavi nodded thoughtfully, studying her notebook. “I’m afraid so. You being at the Academy when that accident happened didn’thelp—”
“That’s outrageous. I had nothing to do with that.”
“Consider how it looks. Your first action after the event was to come here. Ahilya was one of those trapped citizens, wasn’t she? Did you even stop to check if she was fine?”
“Tariya was one, too. Didyoucheck on her, Bharavi?”
