Page 52 of All That Has Flown Beyond
He reached out with his Ousía and felt it straight away. The Ousía of the corrupt being clung to the child, feeding off it. He could feel the sickly depletion of the baby’s Ousía, the child’s instinctive fight to survive.
He could do this.
He closed his eyes and took strength from the circle and runes around him. From the land, the pack ties the baby already held. He surrounded the corrupt creature, enveloping it completely, a steel cage. He took a moment to pull all his strength forwards and then pierced. It was a savage, ruthless action that not only cut into the being but pinned it in place.
The corrupt creature started struggling at once, its Ousía bucking and rearing in Kaiyo’s hold, but he didn’t let go. This was his family. Or had been, once. His determination was absolute.
He compressed the cage. Tight, tighter. The creature shredded at Kaiyo, but he didn’t let go, even when the pain manifested in his body, blinding. He pressed closer, smaller, tighter, compressing the Ousía of the creature until there was no space left for it to exist in. He held still, trembling with the exertion. In another dimension, where his body was, he could feel the sweat coating his body, his laboured breaths. He pulled from the earth. He could not fail.
The creature was suffocating in Kaiyo’s hold. It tried to pull from Kaiyo’s Ousía, but his force wouldn’t leave him. Not for a creature as small and pathetic as this.
Kaiyo squeezed the steel bars of his Ousía. The strength needed was like holding a sack of rocks over his head. The longer he held it, the harder it became, but he couldn’t allow it to drop.
He pushed with all his might until—there. He could feel the creature start to fall apart. Fissures splintered its essence until it cracked. It was like a sudden oil spill, contained by the cage Kaiyo made. He weathered its sicky disintegration until there was nothing of it left.
Kaiyo’s body took a deep breath, but he knew his work wasn’t done.
He turned his exhausted Ousía to the baby. He could feel his relief, his sudden capacity to breathe, but damage had been done. Like a virus ransacking the delicate structure of neurons, it had decimated the infant’s Ousía. It was split and bleeding, the lack of oxygen having taken its toll.
Kaiyo concentrated. This was not going to be light work.
He began at the centre. It was like threading a needle carefully through delicate material. Every point of damage had to be revived before it was knit together. Again and again and again. Points of light on a dark sky. None of them could be missed or the constellation would be incomplete.
Kaiyo lost track of time. The operation was delicate, all-encompassing. He pulled from himself until he had no more to give and then pulled from the earth. It listened and came easily, recognising Edu as one of its own. Recognizing Kaiyo too, perhaps. Kaiyo had no time to dwell.
He cured the damage in the core and then radiated outwards, creating a steady foundation for the Ousía to rest on. Even when he thought he couldn’t knit a single stitch more, he continued, his focus never wavering. It was as strong as his will.
Kaiyo felt the last point of Edu’s Ousía repair. A moment. Two. Then, from the endless silence, an infant’s cry pierced the air.
Kaiyo opened his eyes. His vision swam for a moment before being drawn to the squirming baby in his arms. Edu’s face was flushed, toothless mouth open in a cry. His lungs belted out healthily, his dark eyes upset and imploring. Kaiyo took a moment to check that the work really was complete, but it was all there. A small, healthy creature, tied to the pack and the land.
“Thank God,” he whispered before turning his head to the side. The dawn light was streaming through the windows, making the room seem otherworldly. Thea, Emil, Ahmik, and a woman he had never seen before were standing at the edges of the outer circle.
“It’s…it’s done. You can come in,” Kaiyo slurred. His tongue felt thick and unwieldy in his mouth.
Thea and Emil sprang forward immediately, collapsing beside Kaiyo and taking the baby from him when he nodded his permission. They were both crying openly, Thea rocking the baby back and forth as Emil wrapped himself around both of them.
Kaiyo watched them, the world spinning around him. His lungs felt small and compact, his breaths shallow.
Shit, he thought. He’d given too much. More than his Ousía held.
“Kaiyo.” Someone was keeping him from toppling forwards. He looked through the haze to see Ahmik kneeling beside him, arm wrapped around his shoulders.
“Pillow,” Kaiyo said through clenched teeth. He knew what was coming.
“What?”
“Get me a pillow.” The world lost focus. “Lay me down. Pillow below head.”
He was falling. The floor was coming up to meet him. His head landed softly on a pillow.
The convulsions that took over him locked all of his joints, turning his muscles to concrete, his jaw a clenched vice. An earthquake shook him from the inside out, rattling the floorboards his body had become.
There was nothing. Not even darkness.
“Kaiyo, Jesus. My phone is over there, I think they’ve stopped. Call an ambulance.”
“No,” Kaiyo groaned, a garbled noise through aching teeth. “Ambulance no. Worse.”
