Page 63 of The Enduring Universe
Darsh’s rogue trajection manifested once again. More Ecstatic bodies connected to each other with a dark cord, before crumpling. Vaguely, Iravan forced his attention to remain on Darsh. Slowly, very slowly, he brought the boy closer to him in the Deepness as Ecstatics started to fall in the Garden.
35
AHILYA
Ecstatics fell.
Ahilya saw Iravan notice the architects, then disregard them. He was too preoccupied. He would not help.
Naila was ushering architects to the doorway, encouraging them to leave the assembly hall. The youngest of them listened. Naila had the innate authority of a Maze Architect, and she’d learned her tricks at Iravan’s knee. But most others paid no attention. Several Ecstatics were lit with the light of trajection, though many simply watched wide-eyed as a dark, smoky band connected to their compatriots, before crumpling them.
A wave of helplessness immobilized Ahilya. Did she have a role here? For all she knew, this had happened before and was normal. She and Naila were likely overstepping. Iravan certainly wasn’t alarmed. She could see him next to Darsh. A look of intense concentration covered his handsome face, and though she sensed his worry, she also sensed his purpose. He felt in control.
The others seemed to be more curious than terrified. The courtyard still looked the same, but the whispers of the leaves weregrowing louder, filling her ears in a rush. The ground was moving ever so slightly, and she glanced down to see grass withering, caving into dirt, and deep cracks forming across the floor. Nobody else seemed to be noticing the phenomenon. Was this expected?
Trees shook as a gale blew through the chamber.
Some serious-looking Ecstatics approached Naila and surrounded her. Soon they were nodding, listening to Naila’s caution. Some began to lead the younger architects away while two of them picked up the fallen Ecstatics and led them toward a quiet corner.
Naila gestured with her head at Ahilya, her instruction clear.Follow the healers. Ahilya nodded and left the Maze Architect to usher recalcitrant Ecstatics toward the doorways. She crouched next to the two healers who were examining one of the fallen architects. One of the healers, a woman—Shayla, Ahilya thought her name was—pulled the unconscious architect closer, examining their face. The other healer—Bipesh?—pulled open an eyelid. Thin strands of black swam across the fallen architect’s cornea. The two Ecstatics crouched back and exchanged a look.
“Him?” Bipesh asked softly. “Or the lackey?”
Shayla shrugged. “Darsh is a child. Even if it is him, isn’t it ultimatelyhim? Can we really trust him?”
“No choice, is there?” the other muttered. “Who else do we have?”
Iravan.That’s who they were talking about.
In the Etherium, Ahilya could feel Iravan’s love and concern for Darsh, and how he wanted to make this as painless for the boy as he could. She took the fallen Ecstatic’s hand in hers, as other architects brought more bodies to lay around them, fast converting the space into a makeshift infirmary.
“Has this happened before?” she asked.
“No,” Bipesh replied. “But Ecstatics recover. That’s why you see the rest just watching.”
It seemed a brutal way to live, but Ahilya did not comment on it. “What’s their name?” she asked instead, nudging her head toward the person lying in front of her.
Shayla gave her an assessing glance. “Ravi, I think. Not sure.”
Ahilya nodded. “Do you not have a place you can take these people to heal?”
“Canthey heal?” Bipesh replied, shrugging his shoulders. “We don’t know what this is.”
Ahilya said nothing. Healing aside, something horrible was clearly happening to one of their own, to so many of their own if the sounds behind and the arriving bodies were any indication, but neither Bipesh nor Shayla seemed to care. Even in Irshar people had hope for a better future. The ashram had its share of problems, but it was still an ashram, a community, built together by so many people.
This Garden was not. Was it possible to create a community of Ecstatics? Ecstatics were individuals in the greatest sense of the word. Iravan had tried to unify them, but without a set of laws, without any codification, all they had was a legacy and a future of death. Regret was the only thing Iravan had given them in certainty.
The chamber shook, leaves raining down on them. Ahilya saw dust swirling in a whirlpool. Darsh’s unity with his yaksha was changing the Garden, just like Iravan’s unity with the falcon had changed the habitat. Last time she had fallen unconscious, unable to witness the change of the habitat. Now she could follow the movement of dirt, whooshing around them in slow, rising streams. Small chunks of soil mixed with root shards and debris flaked off the ground. The pillars and walls around the edge of the chamber rearranged themselves in a design she could not foresee. If she stared at the flowers, she could discern slivers crinkling away from them, joining this strange whirlpool. All across the chamber,streams of dust were rising, intersecting, and now more people were noticing this, pointing at the change silently cascading around them in swirling patterns. Murmurs grew, the architects torn between watching this and keeping their eyes on Iravan and Darsh.
The Garden would look very different from what it had once been, but perhaps none of them were in danger. After all, the habitat had reformed after Iravan’s unity without harming either him or her. Ahilya could only hope the same thing happened here.
“Can they heal?” Shayla asked her, repeating the question, obviously expecting an answer. “Do you know anything about it?”
Ahilya entwined Ravi’s limp fingers in hers and closed her eyes. In the forest of her Etherium, memories flashed between leaves. Foliage rained down, and each leaf was a page out of Ravi’s life. Ravi, smiling at another architect. Ravi, focused as they trajected. Ravi, with their eyes glinting, mouth open in a rictus of pain—a memory made in real time—though in front of her the architect lay nearly comatose.
She jerked away, dropping their hand.
“What?” Shayla asked. “What did you see?”
