Page 1 of The Enduring Universe
PROLOGUE
In the airborne nest, the falcon found him.
Its massive silver wings cut through the air. Its black eyes glinted in satisfaction, for there was fear and recognition in the man’s eyes. The falcon slammed into the floating nest, ripping it apart. Earth and trees fell away, disappearing into the jungle below, as the nest tilted, plummeting a hundred feet before righting itself. Where was the man-thing? It would not be denied again. It saw him emerge onto grass, holding a female body. It saw his indecision as he looked to the female, as if he would choose her.
The falcon screeched in outrage, unleashing its power. Vines grew around the woman, strangling her. It would take her out of the reckoning. It woulddestroyher.
It swooped down, clutching the man’s body between its talons, leaving behind cries of fear and shock. The jungle screamed below, and the falcon turned its power into the globule of stars, exerting its will. Shards of earth pierced its wings but as the falcon pushed its power, the storm relented. To navigate carefully through the storm was necessary. The human would not survive the jungle.The falcon despised the man-thing, but it needed him safe, and so he remained alive for now. The falcon flung him away in disgust once they arrived at the safe-nest. It returned to the darkening caves where others of its kind slumbered.Awake, it called to the other survivors, but it had tried before. These creatures—its kin—were lesser still, unheard by their halves. For thousands of years, the falcon had tried to awaken them, to corral them into action. They were too dull. Too lost. Exhausted, it tucked its head under a wing to tend to its wounds.
The next time it awoke, the man had arrived, accompanied once again by the female. The falcon fluttered its wings warily. In the velvety darkness, it saw the man’s jagged shape, and felt a rush of relief as it realized the human wished to finally unite their powers. Thousands of years, it had waited for this moment.
It mimicked the man’s light, creating a spiral vortex of great power, and wrapping the man and his female within its wings. Power coursed through it, and it wove among the stars, guided by the man, just as the man wove through the Deepness guided by it. They feltcompletion.Its voice burrowed within the man, and the falcon thought,Peace. There is peace.Words and language flowed into its mind, slowly at first, then with growing rapidity. The remembrance of such sentience was so beautiful, it ached.
But despite months of unity, the man did not give in.
He did not learn. He refused to see purpose. His heart was too full of anguish. The falcon studied the shape of him, the angst and infinity, the shame and guilt, and its rage mirrored back. Its purpose bled in the man.
Amends, he heard the man say.
Destroy, the falcon returned.
And the man agreed those meant the same thing.
The falcon laughed, a feral sound even to its own ears. In thevelvety darkness, it attacked the man over and over again, trying to take him over—this small, foolish creature that should have acquiesced in seconds but had resisted for years. It felt the man’s terrible purpose and it screamed in panic and terror as this small creature performed a subsummation—no, no, no—
It dissolved in a final relief, its presence a shadow inside the man’s heart.
And within that shadow, an understanding.
A waking.
A learning.
1
AHILYA
In the silence of the jungle, the mutters of the architects echoed loud and restless. Ahilya moved to distance herself from them, her tread quiet yet careful.
The care was ingrained in her after a lifetime of exploring the unpredictable jungle, though there was hardly any need for such caution anymore. It had been three months since the last earthrage devastated all the ashrams. Now those storms were over. Despite the thriving foliage, the jungle lay still, unnatural and quiescent, as though dead.
No, Ahilya thought.Not dead. Merely resting. Merely watchful.
There were no animals in the jungle, but the Virohi seemed to watch her from between leaves that stirred in the breeze, tracking her footsteps. The architects with her couldn’t sense the creatures, she knew, but she could feel the Virohi in the whispers of the trees, in the endless dark depths that even her bright sungineering torch could not pierce. The cosmic creatures studied her with longing and rage. A deep familiarity emanated from them, filling her with dread.
, they whispered.Her hands slowly shook in terror.This isn’t real, she thought.The Virohi are in Irshar. They are not in the jungle. They cannot be.
Leaves stirred. People murmured behind her. Evening sunshine fell in dappled shafts, intersecting with the light of her torch, illuminating a patch of grass here, a thick bush there. She swept aside a branch, cut a small notch in a passing tree, and hacked away the clustered vines in front of her. She tried not to give in to the fear that always arose when the cosmic creatures called her.
The Virohi had been silent when she left the habitat three days ago, but leaving was still a risk. The habitat—Irshar, as everyone had taken to calling it—had grown unruly, beyond her control.
A couple of months before, the Virohi-imbued pathways, roads and walls had listened to her persuasion by settling into fixed forms when she’d asked them to. Lately, they had begun changing with more frequency. That the Virohi were reaching to her so easily, beyond the confines of Irshar… It was a sign of her weakening hold over them. It was a sign of their control ofher.They were growing agitated. She was needed in Irshar to stabilize the architecture.
Yet she was needed in the jungle too. It was whyshewas in charge of this mission. Councilor or not, her true vocation was to be an archeologist, and her task was to find a new home away from the ever-changing habitat. That was why she had been sent here, leading ten people into the dark, guided by nothing but her intuition.
Ahilya ducked under a heavy branch, her cheek brushing stray vines. Moisture hung in the air, heavy and oppressive. Dark green moss silenced her footsteps. She trod over fallen branches and roots, the undergrowth as still as the rest of the forest. Twice, she had to circle back—something she had never done in a moving jungle.
It unnerved her, this stillness.
