Page 65 of The Surviving Sky
Besides, even if she found proof of habitat, it would be no easy task.
If this was what the architects had beentaught—ifthis was what theybelieved—thenflight must have come as more than a simple miracle of survival for them. It would have been a means to escape the fearsome jungle, once and for all. Ahilya’s attempts went against ancient architect values, a reason why she had been denied the records, why her expedition had not been approved until the last minute. She had always known she had been fighting against great odds, but to see the depth of it, the sheer magnitude ofresistance…This thing you’re trying to do, Tariya said.Changehistory…at what cost?
Ahilya slouched back on her chair, her heart sinking. If she had any hope of building her thesis for the council seat, she needed Iravan. She was certain he had the missing piece to this story. Their fates had become unexpectedly intertwined ever since their bargain, but Iravan had genuinely been curious each time he’d visited and discussed her archeological ideas. It had reminded her of their years of courtship, and she glanced around the library alcove now, her memory flooding with warm days of lying together, other lovers and concerns forgotten, limbs entangled, books spread over the floor.
The books now had proven tooobscure—butperhaps she could try her luck with Dhruv. Her hand spread out, and the wall opened in response to her desire. Ahilya withdrew the broken tracker locket from the expedition, then stood up, stretched, and exited the alcove.
The day had broken, gloomy and cold, and dressed only in her thin kurta and trousers, Ahilya hurried down the stairs toward the main hall of the fig-tree library. With the weather being the way it was, the library was already full, with beginner architects in their gray uniforms slowly ascending the shelves, non-architect citizens arriving with their children in the play area, and competitors for the council seat, Umit and Shreya and Rana, bent over their own research.
Ahilya reached the main floor, tapped at Iravan’s rudra bead bracelet, then wove a path toward the solar lab. In minutes, she had emerged onto a wide-open terrace, rain now falling steadily.
For a second, she stood, confused.
Then a wall on the far end of the terrace opened in a creak of bark, golden light glinting from within it. Ahilya hurried to it, and the wall closed behind her as soon as she entered.
Despite years of friendship with Dhruv, Ahilya had never been inside the solar lab. A vast open hall with cloudy sunshine streaming in through vaulted glass ceilings, the solar lab had always been restricted. If it weren’t for Iravan’s rudra bead bracelet, she’d never have found it now.
The lab was astonishing. Giant blue holograms floated everywhere in approximations of wheels, funnels, and tubes. Sungineers clustered around them, expanding and minimizing the images, studying them from different angles, chatting about how matters in the ashram had not yet returned to normal. More sungineers sat at windows, but as Ahilya looked closer, she noticed those weren’t windows. They were bio-nodes: massive devices of which Dhruv often spoke, diagrams flickering on their glassy screens. Like gigantic versions of the solarnote tablets, the bio-nodes gleamed and hummed. Rays of dim sunlight ricocheted off them through the lab.
None of the sungineers paid Ahilya any mind as she strode in. Iravan had assured her of that yesterday, when she had asked about visiting the lab. “They tend to bury themselves in their work and forget their surroundings,” he’d said. “Keep an eye out for Laksiya, though. I don’t want her to know you have the bracelet.”
Discreetly, Ahilya crossed the main hall and climbed a winding staircase. Each floor floated on its own, unsupported by the one below, like leaves on a plant, with smaller staircases branching out like stems. Ahilya checked Iravan’s bracelet for Dhruv’s whereabouts and found him on the highest floor. Her oldest friend sat hunched alone in a vast chamber, staring at a bio-node. Unlike the other chambers, Dhruv’s office was covered with gray slabs of stone interspersed within the grass. A dozen bio-nodes whirred and clicked along the walls, no sungineers attending them. Barren and dreary, the chamber seemed like it was not a part of Nakshar at all.
“Go away, Umit,” Dhruv called out irritably. “I’ve reserved this chamber today.”
“I could go away,” Ahilya offered. “But I’m not Umit.”
Dhruv turned in surprise. “How in rages did you get in?” he asked by way of greeting.
Ahilya approached closer and sat down next to him. She pulled back her kurta and showed him the rudra bead bracelet.
Dhruv’s eyes grew wide. “That’s a SeniorArchitect’s—Wait,Iravangave this to you?” He whooped in sudden glee, leaning forward to examine the bead. “Was this because you told him he needed to help us? Ahilya, you mad, wonderful thing. I can’t believe you did this.”
“You can’t say a word to anyone. He could get into trouble.”
The sungineer waved her warnings away with a hand. “This is amazing. Think of what you can do with this. Access the architects’ archives, all their historical records, all the secrets they keep even from sungineers. I had tofightto reserve the invention chambertoday—damnedUmit nearly stole it, saying he needed it to chart communication withKinshar—butwith a Senior Architect’spermissions—”
“Dhruv,” Ahilya interrupted. “You heard about the incident at the Academy, didn’t you?”
“Yes—itwas to beexpected—theMaze Architects are exhausted, and there have been other incidents since then of architecture not working as itshould—”The sungineer glanced at her face, then cut himself off. “Rages, Ahilya, you weren’ttherewhen it happened, surely?”
Ahilya searched herself for lingering anguish. Her hands didn’t shake. Her heart beat steadily. It had been the same ever since the event at the Academy, ever since she had finally gone to the infirmary and faced the place where she had first met Oam.I feel better, she thought in wonder. How had that happened? It was as though she had redeemed herself by nearly drowning.You saved us, Tariya said in her mind.Look what you did.
Dhruv was still watching her in concern, and Ahilya’s brow creased at the solicitousness.
Iravan had known when to withdraw his sympathy.
In all the three days of visiting her, her husband had never once forced his kindness on her. Instead, he had distracted her as she’d needed to be; he had remembered that she was more than her pain. In the end, that had healed her.
“Iravan thinks it wasn’t exhaustion that caused the failure at the Academy,” she said, ignoring Dhruv’s question. “He thinks something interfered with trajection, the same thing that disrupted the flight alarm. Could this have anything to do with the spiralweed?” The plant was dangerous to trajection; for all Ahilya knew, it could break constellation lines in the Moment, too.
Dhruv shook his head. “It’s not possible. The timings don’t coincide with the alarm. Besides, the spiralweed is still in the deathbox, right?”
“Yes, in my archives within the library. What does that have to do with it?”
“A deathbox traps consciousness. Deathboxes create a barrier around the Moment, essentially creating a separate pocket Moment. When the forcefield is activated, then anything inside the deathbox doesn’t show up in the normal Moment and only responds to trajectioninsidethe box. I don’t see how the weed could affect what happened in the Academy.”
Ahilya frowned deeper. “How do you intend to get it out, then?”
