The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3) (10 page)

CHAPTER
19

THE TIME FACTOR

A tingling spread across her entire body, and Asha felt as if she were being pulled through stone, water, and air.

She inhaled sharply and lunged upward, smacking her head on the metal latticework just above, sending a wave of pain across her forehead.

“Ouch!” She rubbed her head and blinked, finding herself lying on the same bunk she’d fallen asleep on days before. Had it been days? Jyana had mentioned that time ran much faster in the Mirage, and Asha wondered how long it had been in realtime.

“Zahn?” Since there wasn’t enough space to sit upright, Asha propped herself up to look around. In contrast with what she’d grown used to, her body felt strangely heavy. “Zahn, can you hear me?”

She waited, hearing the hissing sounds of unseen equipment.

“Yes!” she heard him say in the distance. “I feel like an airboat fell on me.”

“Just take it easy. Meet me down on the ground floor, okay?” she said. “Push the little button on the side of your bunk and it will take you down.”

“Okay. See you in a bit.”

She looked down and pressed the small silver button inlaid into the bunk’s bezel.

Just as she thought, a narrow metal arm reached under her bunk and pulled it forward, out to the edge of the bunk grid. In one smooth motion, it lowered her down to the floor, parking her beside the tower of bunks which extended for dozens of meters above.

Finally, she was able to sit up and saw Zahn pulling himself out of a bunk across from her.

“Whew,” he said, pulling himself onto his feet.

Zahn lost his balance and almost tumbled onto the floor, but Asha caught him. “Hey! Careful there. I guess it takes time to reacclimatize to the physical world. We’ve been in the Mirage for a while, you know.”

“Sorry, yeah. Thanks for catching me.” He straightened up. “So, how long is that in realtime? Waking time, I mean.”

“Jyana called it planetary time…” Asha looked down and the crisp text displayed on her wristcomm. “Yikes. Just under one Avanian hour.”

“But we’ve been in there for days! Are you sure?”

“Remember what Jyana said? The time dilation is about sixty-four to one. Only an hour of planetary time has passed; no mystery there, which means we have less than a half hour before the ceremony!” Asha looked around and darted over to one of the long grey containers up against the far wall, but it was closed tightly. “Can you come over here, Zahn? I think I can open this if we both try.”

He walked over and helped her force it open.

As he did this, Asha glanced back down and noticed two square buttons on either side of the container. She pushed them in right as Zahn pulled hard on the top, sending the container flying open, nearly smacking him in the nose.

“Hey!” he said. “You could have warned me!”

She turned and frowned. “Sorry! I should have said something, but look!”

Asha pointed inside to where long, spiraling plants grew horizontally across the container bottom, and from their horizontal stalks, hundreds of small blue fruits hung, almost begging to be picked.

“Interesting setup.” Asha tilted her head in contemplation. “Makes me wonder if these were engineered to be like this. But I’d be careful, Zahn. We don’t know if we’re meant to eat these. Need I remind you of what happened in Navika’s garden bay?”

Just as he was about to pick one, he stopped, shooting her a dark glance. “That was an extenuating circumstance, and I was unlucky. This is totally different.”

“You vomited in the ship. I just don’t want you to get poisoned, okay? If these were packaged foods, that would be one thing. But they’re alive and here for a purpose we aren’t privy to. It would be reckless to just take a bite. Let me scan it first.” She held up her wristcomm to it and waited. “Hmm. It isn’t sure. Doesn’t seem toxic, but it’s so exotic that—”

“It looks delicious, Asha, and I’m starving.” Zahn reached down and picked one of the round, blue fruits off of the stalk.

“Wait!” she yelled.

But before Asha could grab it out of his hand, Zahn took a big bite.

Asha shook her head. “You’re impossible.”

He smiled at her as he chewed. “I prefer ineffable. And this is pretty good! Definitely intended for the sleepers here.”

“As I was saying, it’s so exotic that I can’t promise you’ll be okay. You could get sick, you know. It could be attuned to their specific cell structure.”

“It’s good!” he said. “I’m not keeling over, am I?”

Asha bit her lip. “I’ll wait a few minutes and see what happens. If you’re fine, I
might
try some. Until then…”

“You’re really taking this commander thing quite seriously, aren’t you?”

She sighed. “Taking on this role has changed my perspective. On the Island of Forever, I relied on Mira, but now…”

“It’s okay,” he said, inviting a hug. “I’m here for you.”

She embraced him quietly.

“Together, no one is going to stop us,” he whispered. “And you’re doing great.”

Asha backed away and held his shoulders, blinking away a tear that got caught in her eye. “I just wish I felt like I knew what I was doing.” Her voice grew hushed. “Zahn, I feel like I’m faking it.”

“Asha, come on! We’re still getting used to being in the Mirage. It’s not like the physical world. We don’t know all the rules. Try not to be so hard on yourself.” He wiped away a tear from her cheek. “I wanna tell you a secret. Something I’ve never told anyone.”

She sniffed. “What? What is it?”

Zahn smiled. “The secret is about leadership, something I sense in all leaders. And it was something I felt when I thought I was going to die when, you know, when that fissure was heading toward Avani.”

Asha blinked another tear away. “What did you realize?”

Zahn inhaled slowly. “Asha, they’re making it up as they go. No one knows how it ends. No one knows the full ramifications of their actions. All they have is their gut, their head, and their heart. And the smartest people I know are the ones who use all three. Seems to me that’s the only way to be happy with the choices we make. To try, as best as we possibly can, to find the place where those three parts agree, because they
all
have something valuable to say.”

She nodded. “But what if you can’t find that space where they agree? What then?”

“Well, then you remember their strengths. I mean, your ‘gut’ feeling is good at providing info that you don’t consciously have access to; it’s a big part of intuition. The head and the heart work hand in hand, though. Without the heart, the head has no empathy to care about the direction it’s moving in; and without the head, the heart has no ability to weigh the options and decide on a destination. They all have to work together.”

Asha turned his words over in her mind. “Hmm. I’m not sure I agree with all of that, but I see what you mean.” She inhaled sharply and glanced over to the open container and then back to Zahn. “All right, give me one. I think my intuition is coming in loud and clear, either that, or my stomach.” She grinned. “Probably both, but my intuition says it’ll be okay.”

“Good.” Zahn handed her a fruit, leaning in a bit closer.

She gazed into his sapphire eyes once more. They reminded her of a calm sea, filled with life.

“You know, I really wish we could stay here for a while,” she said. “Alone.”

He beamed back at her. “Yeah?”

BZZT. BZZT. BZZT.

Zahn gasped, glaring down to the comm around her wrist. “Man! That thing has
supernaturally
bad timing, doesn’t it?”

“Sorry! It sounds important.”

She read the message more than once to make sure she understood it.

“Impossible,” she whispered.

“What? What is it?”

She looked up to him, a wave of sorrow washing over her. “Navika received a message from the Confederation. A Vakragha fleet is approaching Avani.”

“WHAT?” A look of shock filled Zahn’s face. “I thought Durazha was trying to
unite
all of the Vakragha factions. Why focus on Avani?”

Asha shook her head. “I don’t know. Navika says he’s been trying to get in touch with us, but the Mirage isn’t allowing him to interface with their systems. We need to act quickly, Zahn. They’re only days away.”

A cold look of determination filled his face. “I swear, by the light of a billion burning suns, they will regret coming after Avani a second time.”

Asha took another bite of her fruit and chewed it quickly. “We should reenter the Mirage as soon as possible and get back to Manu. Focus, Zahn!”

“Okay!” Zahn yelled in frustration. “That’s right. Manu said it was tomorrow night. And it’s probably already tomorrow morning by now!” He grabbed another fruit, chewing it quickly.

“No matter,” Asha said, “we’ll get back in and use the time factor to our advantage. In the Mirage, we can turn the days Avani has left into
months
of planning. We’ll come up with a plan, Zahn. And Manu can help us.”

“I don’t know, Asha.” He shook his head. “Maybe we should head back to Avani now. What if we’re their only chance?”

Asha shot him a poignant glance. “What about what you said? What’s your heart saying? And your gut? You should listen to all the parts, right?”

He sighed. “Right.”

Asha closed the container and walked back toward the bunks. “We need to get back inside.” She glanced back to him mischievously. “After all, we have a royal ceremony to crash.”

Zahn followed her over to the bunks in silence, reflecting on their shortage of time. They’d been out of the Mirage for longer than he’d planned.

It was going to be close.

CHAPTER
20

MIRACULOUSLY IN THE AIR

High above the clouds that drifted over the sea, the oval ceremonial platform hung miraculously in the air.

On the edge of the platform, the Empress stood alone, adorned with the traditional white silky fabric of her heritage. In this refuge, she did not cover her head as her customs required, revealing a feature that few would ever see.

Visibility was excellent today, providing a clear view of the snowy mountain range in the distance and the sea far below. Empress Amaraloka drank in the sight as she stood on the ceremonial platform, fully three klicks above Mirage City. She wasn’t entirely sure why she had brought the platform up this far, but today it had felt right.

Perhaps she longed for a change of pace. Being the Empress was a full time job, and one that was often misunderstood. After all, only one Empress was chosen for every generation.

She sometimes questioned her own motivations, and perhaps that was one of the reasons she’d been chosen: her ability to constantly reevaluate her performance, as well as those who served her. Then again, no one would have questioned her choices today. The Tavisians had long grown to adore the Empresses they chose, almost to the point of worship. And combined with her self-imposed secretiveness, she realized that she had become somewhat of a mythical creature in the minds of her citizens.

Could that be why she’d chosen such an altitude for tonight’s ceremony? Was she quietly amplifying the mystique she was creating? And if she was, was that wrong?

The Empress grew tired of these thoughts and turned to a row of peaks far below. She squinted her eyes slightly, and the top of one of the peaks radiated a deep violet. With great focus, she raised her right index finger, and a column of blue light grew out of the violet.

In stages, she pulled the blue light, stretching it out until it became a curving tower of violet, blue, and green that curved over the ridge. The Empress studied the quality of the light, pulling it farther until the green band had stretched out into yellow, orange, and finally red.

If only her citizens could feel such power. But of course they couldn’t be trusted with it. If everyone had such godlike power, only chaos would result. Her advisors had agreed. That is why, she reflected, power had to be concentrated on the few.

The Empress continued pulling into the infrared, setting the end of the light-band down on a peak, far to her right. She squinted her eyes again and laughed to herself, seeing that the end of the band radiated in a color just beyond deep infrared.

She stepped back and sighed, admiring the ribbon of light that spanned the ridge below, adorning Mirage City in faint patches of multicolored hues. The ribbon of light was reminiscent of a rainbow, except that it was completely unlike a rainbow at all. Instead of the colors changing across the width of the band, the color bands changed across the length. It began with a deep red on one end and gradually shifted through the spectrum until it was a deep violet on the other side, just before it touched the tops of the snowy mountains that bordered the sea. She hadn’t done this in years, and smiled as she imagined the stunned response of her people far below.

Without a word, Empress Amaraloka walked over to the middle of the ceremonial platform, sat down, and watched in silence as the ribbon faded from the sky.

CHAPTER
21

UTTERLY IMMATERIAL

After being guided into sleep by the sounds of the bunk and hearing the familiar rushing sounds run up and down her body, Asha found herself floating above the stasis building once more. She scanned her surroundings, dreading to know how much time they’d been out of the Mirage.

“Zahn!” she called out. “Where are you?”

To her relief, he floated up through the roof of the cube, upside down this time.

She zoomed over to him. “Hey, stop playing around. We’ve got to go. Do you remember what Manu said? We just have to picture his door. We’ll skip there together, okay?”

Zahn nodded, flipping himself back upright. “Got it.”

“Okay. Hold tight.” Asha stretched out and focused on the square door haloed in ghostly white light, holding the image in her mind as clearly as she could.

She closed her eyes and let go, feeling a lurching sensation in her stomach. A tingling feeling passed over her.

Then, all fell silent.

Gradually, she opened her eyes again, finding herself at the familiar intersection, deep within the mountains. Across from her, Zahn hung in the air.

“You okay?” he asked, his eyes frowning. “That was the biggest skip we’ve done so far.”

“I’m fine.” She examined the wall. “But where’s the door?”

Zahn felt around, but sensed nothing. “I don’t know. Wasn’t it invisible before he did something to it?”

Asha sighed. “Well, he told us to meet him here; he should have kept the door open. If we’re even in the right place…”

“We’ve got to be, unless the skipping method is unreliable, and Jyana didn’t say anything about that. Hold on.” Zahn zipped down the central pathway before reappearing again. “Yep. This must be the place. This pathway leads to the spiral column that we originally took to get down here.”

Asha ran her fingers across the wall. “But no door.”

“Well, you know what they say. Sometimes, you have to knock.” Zahn tapped where he imagined the door would be.

Still, they saw nothing.

“Yeah,” Asha said, “I don’t think that’s how it works here.”

“Well, what if we—”

A ghostly blue light interrupted Zahn’s thought, once again forming a square outline on the wall in front of them.

Zahn furrowed his eyebrows. “I wonder what delayed him.”

The door faded away to reveal a tall man sitting on one of the round, floating chairs in the middle distance, completely enveloped in a thick amber robe with a large hood.

“At last!” He stood up, flinging a half dozen nearby thought-nuggets off into the corner. “Hurry! There should be just enough time to teach you what you need to know before the ceremony.” He flicked his fingers, causing the door to reappear, sealing them. “Was there a problem with your skip over here? What delayed you two?”

“We got a message from the Confederation,” Zahn said. “The Vakragha are heading directly for Avani. I’d be heading there right now, but Asha reminded me of something.”

Manu tilted his head. “What did she say?”

“That this is bigger than Avani. That if we succeed—”

“
When
we succeed,” Asha interrupted.

“When we succeed,” Zahn continued, “the Breath of Life will let us destroy their command structure, stopping their wave of terror across the entire galaxy, not just Avani. So I’m going to try not to think about Avani and focus on the here and now. But it’s not easy.”

Manu shook his head. “No, it isn’t. But the more you can focus on the present moment, the less suffering you’ll experience. Throughout my life experience, I have come to understand one great truth: Now is the moment of power. We have no power to change the past, and we cannot touch the future. We only have power in this present moment, so I am glad that you have chosen to focus on the task at hand, Zahn. And now, we must prepare. The Empress calls for us soon, and there is much I must teach you about your etheric body before we begin the next phase of this mission.”

They both flew over to the round chairs and sat down.

“My friends,” Manu continued, “your imagination is the only limit here, and in order to learn the location of the Breath of Life, we must take advantage of this.” He stood up. “Observe.”

To Asha’s surprise, Manu reduced in size, and after a few seconds he was shorter than the chair. Still, he continued to shrink until he was only a few centimeters tall.

He flew over to Asha, like a small bug searching for someone to land on. “As you both shall see, the concept of size, as well as form, is utterly immaterial in this realm.”

As he hung in the middle space between them, he grew again, but this time only his head grew, still carefully covered by the cloak. “Don’t you see?” Manu spoke with conviction. “Your imagination is the only limit.”

His hooded head grew twenty times larger than his tiny body, like some absurd genetic experiment gone wrong.

“Size is immaterial; so also is form.” He pressed on the sides of his head, and Asha wondered if he was in pain. After a moment, his head shrunk back down to match his tiny body, and insect-like wings sprung from his back.

Manu flew around them in wide circles, chuckling to himself. “Immaterial. Limitless, but by your imagination.”

“That’s a good trick,” Asha said.

“We don’t have much time,” he said. “You both must learn to change size before we go to the ceremony, and if we have time, learn to create light barriers. You’ve already mastered skipping over a distance; this is not so different. You must first see it within your mind,
believe
it is possible, and then you may do it. Asha, try it with your arm now. Touch me from where you’re standing.” He held out his hand, a few meters away from her own. “Shake my hand.”

Asha bit her lip. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”

She reached out and focused on her hand growing, but nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working?”

Manu shook his head. “Don’t imagine your arm growing. Imagine touching my hand. Your arm will grow to achieve what you desire. Calming your mind first may also be helpful.”

“Right,” she nodded and tried again.

This time, she closed her eyes and meditated for a few moments, focusing on the feeling of her breath on her nostrils. It had been too long since she’d meditated, and it was a good feeling. Yet meditating also reminded her of the Island of Forever, where she had learned this technique. A wave of longing for the island’s emerald jungle washed over her, but she let it pass.

It occurred to her that there wasn’t any air in this realm, but visualizing the physical process of breathing calmed her, and she opened her eyes again and focused on Manu’s hand ahead.

With unwavering focus, she reached out to it, and gradually, her arm grew longer and longer, filling her heart with elation. “I’m doing it! I’m really doing it!”

“Yes, Asha! Now, shake my hand! Zahn, you too!”

“Okay.” Zahn reached his arm out and imagined touching Manu’s hand. Slowly, his arm stretched, and he couldn’t help but laugh to himself.

But before he could make much progress, Asha gripped Manu’s hand in triumph. “Yes!” She beamed a smile at him. “And that wasn’t even painful.” She took a deep breath and released, causing her arm to reform back to normal. “Whew.”

Zahn furrowed his eyebrows. Somehow this seemed difficult for him. His arm would only grow in spurts. He focused on Manu and winced, sending his arm shooting past Manu and into the chair behind him.

“Whoops! Sorry.” Zahn reasserted himself and shook Manu’s hand. “There we go.”

Manu nodded at them. “Excellent. You are both beginning to grasp the basics. Next, you will change your entire body size. Doing this is somewhat more difficult to master, but you must try. First, clearly imagine your head meeting the height of the chair. Start out gradually. Remember, it does not require strain, only clear imagining. Zahn, you can go first this time.”

Zahn swallowed. “Okay. Thinking short thoughts…”

He stood there for a few moments, focusing intently on the chair across from him, but nothing happened.

“Hey, Manu. What if I imagined everything else around me growing? Would that work?”

“Hmm. Since you do not have the power to actually grow everything around you, there would be no harm in trying.”

With great determination, Zahn imagined everything growing around him, towering over him as if in a nightmare. As he did this, his thoughts became reality. Manu, Asha, the chairs, and everything else in the room gradually grew in size. Soon, he was only as tall as a chair, and still shrinking.

“That’s good, Zahn! You may stop.” Manu called down to him. “Asha, you may begin. Then we must review the plan. Our time runs short.”

Asha tried too, and Zahn watched as she reduced in size, proportionally, second by second.

After a few moments, they were both as tall as the chairs, and Asha looked up to see Manu looming like a white tower above them. She looked around, noticing how the etheric chairs and sculptures in the corners of the room appeared as large as buildings, shimmering with faint lines of energy at the edges.

Zahn turned to her. “Can you believe this? We could do these things the whole time, and we never realized it.”

“I just can’t believe this is even possible, although I’m sure we still have so much more to understand about the laws of physics in this realm, if there are any such laws, at least.”

“There must be,” Zahn said. “Every realm has its own laws, even timespace.”

Manu looked down to them, the deep shadow beyond his hood seeming to peer into their souls. “You are both fast learners. We have just enough time for one more lesson. To succeed in this mission, each of us may have to fight a royal guard directly. To survive such an encounter, you’ll have to learn to direct the energy out of your hands. Observe.”

He pointed an open palm to one of the empty chairs and shot a cone of light out his palm. When it hit the chair, the edges of the cone wrapped around behind the chair, enclosing it in a perfect sphere of light.

“That’s a good trick,” Asha said, regaining her normal size.

“This is one of the primary techniques that our guards use to capture someone,” he continued. “You will need to dodge these attacks and respond with your own. Asha, why don’t you try first? You’re already fluent in moving energy around your body. Focus on your hand growing brighter and brighter. Feel that power, and direct it outward. In this realm, it will take on the shape you imagine.”

Asha closed her eyes and imagined her hand growing brighter until she felt a slight tingling in her left hand.

She opened her eyes, imagined the light becoming a cone, and spread her fingers apart as far as they would go, pushing the energy out through her palm.

To her surprise, a wave of heat moved down her arm and out her hand as a cone of light shot out of it. Her palm felt so hot that she nearly screamed, but she was distracted by the perfect light cone she’d made as it wrapped around a nearby chair, creating a similar sphere.

“Wow!” Zahn said. “That was incredible. Great job, Asha!”

“Yeah…” She examined her left palm. It still tingled, but she found no injury.

“Yes,” Manu said, “I apologize. I forgot to mention that. The first few times can be a rather painful experience. But you did well. Zahn, why don’t you try?”

Zahn looked at his palm, and closed his eyes. As Asha watched, she noticed a glimmering light inside his hand. He opened his eyes again and spread his fingers apart as she had, launching a cone of light around the same chair.

“Yikes!” he yelled, shaking his hand. “That
does
hurt.”

“Told you,” Asha said, but then glanced back to the chair, studying the two layers of light that surrounded it. “So an object can have
two
bubbles around it?”

Manu nodded. “It happens often. In fact, many guards prefer multiple layers. Makes it more difficult for the captive to escape. But there will be more time to practice self defense later. Let us discuss the plan.”

The hooded man moved his hands in wide, circular motions, and Asha felt mesmerized as an object faded into view. As if sculpting an object from the air itself, a round table faded below the space Manu was encircling with his hand.

Asha and Zahn watched in silence as the wavering shape grew clearer and clearer, until it seemed just as real as anything else in the room.

Manu pulled one of the chairs up to the table and sat down. “While it is entirely possible to discuss our plan in any geometric orientation, I still prefer sitting around a table. Please, if you could both pull up a chair.”

They each moved over to a floating chair and sat down.

“Now, I have intercepted a nugget that Jyana left for you both at the sunset suite.”

“You what?” Asha said. “You can do that? Intercept a message that was intended for someone else?”

The hooded man nodded. “Indeed, I put a monitor on the suite. Royal guards have this ability. Jyana was concerned that you hadn’t yet returned, but I managed to calm her down.”

“Wait a second,” Zahn said. “Jyana told us to stay in the sunset suite and not to talk to anyone else before further instructions from the Empress. Wasn’t she suspicious at your involvement? She could endanger the mission if she tells the Empress that we are working together!”

Manu sighed. “She wasn’t happy, but as one of the Royal Guard, I was able to persuade her that I had captured you, and that I was keeping you under close surveillance. I didn’t tell Jyana my name, and among the royal guards, our thought-nuggets only show up as one of that select group.”

Asha nodded. “Jyana can be tough to figure out sometimes, but I feel she has a good heart. I’ve learned to trust my intuition about people, and I don’t think she would tell the Empress if you reassured her.”

“Indeed,” Manu said, “and I sense that we will need her assistance before this mission is complete. In fact, you will see her tonight.”

“Really?” Asha said. “So, Jyana is invited, too?”

“I wonder who invited us, though,” Zahn said.

“I do not know. Your idents were in the briefing nugget I received about the ceremony.” Manu paused, his words taking on a new weight. “In any case, the Empress rarely attends such ceremonies, and as Zahn has said, the Vakragha will reach Avani soon. We may only have one chance to retrieve the Breath of Life in time to save them. And if we are to be successful, you must follow my instructions precisely.” He turned to Asha and Zahn, holding his gaze on him.