Page 21 of The Enduring Universe
How was he alive?
Did I win?
***
Shards pierced his skin, lulled his consciousness.
Blood turned sharp. The pain was excruciating.
He withdrew, watching.
A grateful thought.Finally.
He drifted
his bubble of protection waning
He waited
relieved
for his end.
14
AHILYA
Her desire amplified by the vriksh, Ahilya reached into the earth.
She did not know what she was supposed to do, only that she had to find a way to protect Irshar and the planet, protect Iravan before the Virohi destroyed him, and the Virohi before they unleashed chaos. The vriksh listened to her unspoken commands and obeyed on its own.
Massive roots, each as thick as a house, plunged into the soil, crisscrossing the jungle and intertwining into tight nodes as deep as the planet. The planet wobbled, and held, tightening around the tree.
Iravan’s voice flickered in her mind,Let me go.
Ahilya shook her head, unsure if she could really hear him.
In her mind’s eye, she saw the tree rear back, whipping in all directions, leaves raining down, branches creaking. It expanded within Irshar, the trunk growing massive, shooting upward to blot out the sky. Roots rippled out, curling all around Irshar’s broken architecture, supporting roads and bridges where they fell apart, and wrapping thick tentacles around buildings that had caved in.Before, the vriksh had been a gigantic tree, but it had limited its reach to Irshar’s plaza. Now, it exploded, swelling and surging all around the ashram, catching fragmenting structures, wrapping itself gently around huddling citizens in protection.
Sluggishly, Ahilya watched the tree looming inside and beyond her. Branches burst into existence, and the jungle shrieked.
The vriksh waited coiled with her heart.Please, she begged, gasping.Please.
The tree gave all of itself to her.
And, knowing what to do, Ahilya directed the Virohi toward the vriksh. The Virohi were one of her; they could not deny her call, not when they were a hive mind and they had learned to see themselves as her.
They responded against their will, and their voices merged with the memories of a thousand years, screaming, weeping, grieving.
Ahilya pulled her many selves together. She saw the vriksh rising higher and higher, binding the Virohi to itself as she desired. Branches wrapped around the trunk in tight coils like a human hugging their own body. Roots curled, like fingers closing. Underneath Irshar, more roots secured the planet, clutching with hair-thin fibers, straining, containing the Virohi within themselves.
A cry, and the mirrored Ahilyas shrieked, mouths wide open, eyes wild.
The vriksh bound itself. It shook, and Ahilya sank to her knees with the effort, her entire body quivering.
Iravan cried out, a sound of wretched despair and sorrow—
