The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3) (19 page)

Finally, they emerged from the rippling tunnel into a clear space high above the planet. The stars were more pristine and clear than Zahn had ever seen them before, and he sent Manu a thought-nugget.

Can we speak freely now?

Manu nodded.

“Whew!” he said. “That was close back there. You sure you’re okay, Manu?”

“I have Asha to thank for the speed of my recovery.”

Asha smiled back. “I’m only doing my best.”

Zahn looked up to the brilliant disc above. Now that they were slightly closer to Rundikha, it was easier to see the deep scars that marked its surface, like a warrior whose injuries could never fully heal.

“So, should we just anchor onto you?” Zahn asked. “It’s going to be a big skip to get up there.”

“Yes,” Manu said. “And we should strike now before the Empress realizes I have gone. Anchor onto my ident.”

Zahn inhaled slowly and made a final glance back to the dry world far below, and Asha glided over beside him, offering her open hand.

“Three.”

He took it as a feeling of nervousness grew within him.

“Two.”

Asha beamed a smile over to him before raising her gaze to the white disc above.

“One.”

Zahn squeezed her hand tightly, and he felt a deep lurching sensation in the pit of his stomach as the stars washed by.

Was this how Navika felt when they made a timespace jump?

For a fleeting instant, he felt like a sea creature amidst the vast ocean of space, swept up in a current, watching the entire galaxy slide by.

CHAPTER
33

THE ANUTTAM VAKRA

Above the surface of a burning world, a dark orb churned like a twisting shadow.

As it grew on the horizon, Durazha felt its immense power drawing her ever closer. Something caught her eye, and she turned just in time to see a spurt of lava fall back down into one of the volcanos that dotted the landscape.

Her gaze was pulled back to the orb sitting atop the obsidian tower, ancient and immovable. The pulling feeling overwhelmed her, as if her dark soul knew of no other purpose. She was compelled to see, to
know
, what churned inside. And with a final push forward, she was engulfed into a shadowy world within.

At first, she wondered if she had plunged into a thick liquid, seeing nothing. She blinked furiously, until the outline of an armored creature hovered in the center of the orb. Its legs were folded, and its armor was so dark that she could discern no depth, only an angular outline. Otherwise, it was remarkably similar to any other member of her species, and she knew instantly what it must be. Somehow, she had found the hidden dwelling of a Vakragha overlord: a pocket of negative space.

When she was young, she had learned that this was the pinnacle of self-serving existence: to draw so much power into yourself that your mere presence warped space around your position, rendering you undetectable by anyone in spacetime. Such a high position required lifetimes of disciplined focus to achieve, but when a Vakragha had achieved overlord status, it was in a perfect position to direct and influence any autarch it desired. With the secrets of immortality and perfect invisibility now achieved,
any
autarch could be swayed to serve an overlord.

Yet even in her privileged position, Durazha only once had the chance to engage in communication with an overlord. And now, actually standing within the presence of one, she felt deliciously petrified.

Until now, she had never imagined that she would encounter one personally, at least, not until she became one, of course. Surely this overlord had command over multiple autarchs, who then commanded their many factions. The thought of the sheer concentration of power made her lightheaded.

Gradually, the overlord opened its eyes, revealing two red slits that glowed even brighter than Durazha’s eyes; and it looked down to her, regarding her carefully.

Durazha…

Without moving its mouth, she heard the overlord’s voice within her mind, and she found herself unable to look away. Durazha tried to discern its gender, but intriguingly found it to be completely genderless.

Durazha, you have not returned to the land of the living by mere chance. You are here to perform a great service to our cause. At last, we have the opportunity to condemn our adversary to the eternal pain they deserve, and you shall play a grand role. If you are successful, you shall also enjoy the power that I, the Anuttam Vakra, bask within.

The thought of possessing so much power enthralled Durazha, and she fought to stay calm.

“What role do I play, Anuttam? Tell me, and I will do it. All I want is to unite our factions and make the Confederation wail in pain for their resistance to us!”

The overlord grinned slightly, and the power it radiated made her shiver. Even its teeth were as dark as obsidian.

So eager! Yet your time to unite the factions has not yet come. You need more power, and I have a mission for you that will grow your power exponentially.

“What would you have me do, Great Anuttam?”

You possess the Kiss of Life. Bring it to me, and our dominion shall have power over death itself. With such power, even the Fire of Life will be of no consequence, and I will reverse the death of any Vakragha I please, rendering our dominion invincible.

Durazha pressed her lips together in anticipation. “An intoxicating idea, but how can we be sure? Yes, the Kiss of Life brought me back to life, but how could we possibly affect every Vakragha in the dominion?”

DO YOU QUESTION MY WISDOM, WEAK CHILD?

The overlord grew three times its previous size and roared down to her.

FOOL. I am the Anuttam Vakra. I am the first. I am catalyst. I am death.

“You are the first?” Durazha whispered. “Is that possible?”

Two-hundred millennia ago, I would have killed you right where you are for questioning who I am. Yet I have learned much. I am the ANUTTAM; the first of our kind to fully devote myself to the self-serving path. I preside over the site where our species transformed itself and became powerful, and no matter what you choose, I will claim the Kiss of Life in the end. It is inevitable. What you must choose, Durazha, is the role you will play.

“You believe I have more potential than Razakh, don’t you? Otherwise, you would have drawn him here first.”

Durazha, every atom in your being is screaming the truth. You are greater than your father ever was. You were once the leader of the greatest faction our species ever knew. What would you do to have that power returned to you?

“Anuttam, my father lives within a pool of his own pride, but he is not a fool. He will not allow my power to surpass his. What do you propose we do?”

Bringing you back was your father’s last chance at expanding his reach. He believed that together, you would both have the power to unite every faction in the galaxy. But your father is weaker than he appears. Use the Kiss of Life against him. While it may require a heart to restore life, you need only knowledge to take it away. When you claim it for yourself, chant the sound complex ‘vigalati’ six times, and the orb will obey your desire, draining your father.

“Vigalati?”

Yes. An ancient command which will trigger the stone to drain off his energy. Then you shall take his flagship and come to me. I sit above our most cherished world. Bring me the Kiss of Life, and you too will graduate and become an Overlord. And then the sky shall open up, and you shall see a new world.

She studied its enormous form, awe-inspiring in his sheer power and malice. Every angle of its body seemed to ingest light as if it were a precious meal.

“Yes…” she whispered. “I shall meet you there on our birth world. On Agnira.”

To ever-growing power!

It raised its hand high above its head, and she did the same.

“To ever-growing power!”

The overlord faded, and she found herself flying over the volcanic landscape of Agnira, the birthplace of their species. Below, she thought she saw a few figures walking around, but before she could discern more, the scene melted away.

With a deep gasp, she sat up, blinking furiously.

She looked around and realized that she hadn’t moved from her command chair at all. A wide expanse of stars were displayed ahead, and a green glow still filled the command deck.

“Father?” she called back. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Oh, not more than a day,” he said slowly. “But you did miss the most indulgent agnihawk feast I’ve ever thrown.”

“What?!” she screamed.

Razakh boomed with laughter. “You are so remarkably gullible. Not long at all, actually.”

She groaned. Her father’s humor was insufferable.

“You did miss the early stages of the vakramukta in action,” he continued. “Soon the fissure will be large enough to visibly distort the atmosphere of the nearby gas giants. Observe it grow.” He pointed out to where dozens of viridian beams disappeared into a twisting spherical void in space. “We shall be the Grand Autarchs of Aravinda, my daughter. It is our destiny.”

Durazha said nothing.

He was a pathetic excuse for an autarch, allowing his emotions to cloud his judgment. Soon, power would be in better hands. Wiser hands.

CHAPTER
34

THE CHINTAMANI CHAMBER

When she opened her eyes, Asha found herself on the edge of a sheer cliff.

She looked up, noticing how bleached white boulders of every size littered the landscape around them. And without a word, Zahn floated up beside her and looked over the edge into a trench that appeared to stretch down forever. She looked carefully, but could make out little in the darkness.

“See anything interesting?” she asked.

“I’m going to go with a ‘no’ on that,” Zahn said. “But I trust the jagrul.”

“Indeed,” Manu said, “and we can only surmise that this is an entrance to a chamber within the moon, at least if the jagrul’s vision is accurate.”

Asha glanced over to Manu. “The vision may have been brief, but I think it’s accurate. The jagrul bird has never erred before.”

Something caught her eye in the sky above, and she looked up, admiring the wealth of stars splashed onto the canopy of darkness above her. She also saw something she didn’t expect, a series of thin white rings way out beyond the moon’s orbit. She followed the rings down to the edge of Tavisi far below; the rings extended all the way around the planet.

“Manu,” she said, “what’s that? Why didn’t we see it before?”

He looked up and studied the white rings for some time.

“Those are the inner planes,” Manu whispered. “We are truly seeing beyond the veil now, yet time runs short. Come.” He gestured to the trench below. “Our future lies within, not above.”

He dove in headfirst, as if the trench were a dark pool.

Asha had trouble tearing her gaze away, but eventually turned to once again peer into the trench below. Without a word, Zahn dove in after Manu, and Asha watched him for a few moments.

She tried to swallow her fear. “Okay. Here we go again.”

With outstretched fingertips, she dove into the soupy darkness, quickly catching up to Manu and Zahn who were gliding in formation.

As they pushed ahead, the trench grew narrower, and after a few moments Manu abruptly halted.

“Stop.”

“Huh?” Zahn stopped and turned to him. “Why? What’s up?”

“Don’t you sense it? There’s a shield barrier below us, similar to the one used at the edge of the Mirage.” Manu turned to Asha. “Let’s spread out and find a gap. We may need to partially pass through the rock to find it, but that shouldn’t impede you. Carefully make your way down until you feel resistance, and then stop. Any gap should be visible if you pay close attention. After that, we’ll use thought-nuggets to hide our communication.”

They spread out, each gliding down into the shadows, until Asha felt the springy resistance of the barrier. She glanced around, noticing how many rock slabs had broken off and fallen down here. The bottom of the trench looked like chaos, strewn with creepy, almost person-like shapes.

She glided downward a bit more and searched for imperfections. Last time, she’d seen a distortion in the light, so she looked for something similar.

“Here!” Manu said, waving them over to a spot toward the middle of the trench. “Over here. It’s not even small. Quite unusual.” In a blink, Manu flew down into the gap, and Asha’s view of him suddenly became blurry, as if he’d gone underwater.

“Hah, the barrier is distorting you,” Zahn said, flying down to where Manu had indicated.

He zipped down, and Asha followed him.

Down here, the light was even dimmer, and Asha looked back up, seeing the trench’s walls towering above them, distorted in long ripples, making the rocks seem to sway like the forest.

Come, we must press onward.

They reached the tortured pit of the trench, and as they passed into a patch of utter darkness, Asha was careful to focus on Manu’s ident so she didn’t lose them.

Pretty dark.

Manu took on a reassuring tone.
Never fear. Just follow my ident. I see something up ahead.

Asha felt the tension mounting.
What’s up there?

Follow my ident and see, dear Asha.

She darted ahead, into the blind darkness of the rock, and found herself in the midst of a vast crystalline structure filled with a dim white light. The crystals crisscrossed and intersected in ways that she found immediately familiar.

Ice? But it doesn’t make sense. Why does the ice have a faint glow?

Manu glided over to her.
There are several possibilities. Perhaps this ice patch is exposed to the sunlight somewhere far above us.

Asha glanced over to Manu and once again tried to make out some detail beyond the white light of his hood. Still, she couldn’t see his face.

The hooded figure zoomed ahead, waving them downward.

We must not let the natural beauty distract us from our purpose here. I believe your little friend was correct. I feel something, a presence far below. Come, we must press onward.

They zoomed ahead, through the expansive patch of ice. Sometimes they would see a large rock stuck within the ice sheet, a strange frozen pattern covering its surface. And soon they reached the end of the ice layer and plunged back into a dark patch, once again blind to their surroundings.

When they emerged again, they were behind a rocky column in a much larger space. It took Asha a moment to realize that they had reached a huge chamber, glowing golden. Pointed spikes covered every surface, reaching up from the floor and down from the ceiling, and in the far distance, at least two dozen hooded guards guarded something near the center of the room.

Zahn nudged her, pointing to something in the distance.

Asha looked, noticing a small mound of stone where a large pearl-like object was embedded into the rock, glowing in a deep golden light. She almost yelped with joy, but stopped herself. After all that they’d been through, she didn’t want to give away their position, and she looked around for Manu, who was leaning against the back of the column.

This is it! The Chintamani chamber.

He locked eyes with her.
I’ll distract them while you retrieve the Breath of Life. Usually, I would recommend a covert approach, but the stone is totally surrounded. We’ll have to attack from multiple angles. You may need to leave without me.

Asha winced.
We’re not leaving you, Manu. We’re all getting out of this together.

The success of this mission is of highest importance! The Breath of Life is the last chance we have against the scourge.

He looked over to the small mound, and Asha bit her lip.

Manu, we’re all leaving this chamber with the stone. Or else I’ll die trying.

Yet he didn’t respond and bolted out into the open, shooting wide energy-domes at the cluster of royal guards.

She pulled out the small knife she’d made to fight the etheric worms and turned to Zahn, meeting his gaze. At once, she felt they shared an understanding, and they both bolted ahead toward the small mound.

While Zahn and Manu distracted the royal guards, Asha zoomed up to the glowing pearl-like object. She reached out and pulled at it, but instantly felt weak. She looked over and was shocked to see that a tendril had attached to her arm, leading back up to a hooded guard that was covered in dozens more of the small grotesque appendages.

“Sick!” Asha screamed, cutting at the tendrils with the knife she’d manifested. “Get off of me!”

She flew up and sliced at the guard’s tentacles, beginning to feel weak.

“You jerk! You sucked some of my energy away, didn’t you?”

The guard only laughed at her as he unleashed a wave of energy balls at her. Behind him, another guard approached, and she realized she only had one choice. With a wild intensity, she dodged a plethora of tentacles and charged at the grotesque guard with her knife, plunging it deep into his white hood, where she could only assume its head was.

The guard screamed as the light that once hid its identity faded, revealing the face of an old man, partially split in two, yet utterly bloodless.

Asha frowned as she pulled the knife out. “One down.”

Still, another guard was fast approaching, and she glanced around for Manu, who was dealing with his own problems. He’d trapped five royal guards already, but two were chasing him into a corner on the far end of the chamber.

Zahn was no where to be seen.

She turned around and looked back over to the golden mound. “Zahn?”

To her shock, the Empress Amaraloka stood beside the Breath of Life. Her fiery red hair seemed calm for the moment, but her face was covered in a mixture of disgust and rage. Asha’s eyes followed a long tendril of energy that led up out of Amaraloka’s right hand to a sphere where Zahn was trapped.

“Gha!” Asha groaned.

Her eyes burned into Asha, and she spoke in slow, measured syllables. “The sheer audacity of your plan is unforgivable.” A wave of sadness washed over the face of the Empress, and Asha wondered if she might cry. “At the ceremony, I shared a thought-nugget outlining an opportunity I’ve never extended to anyone else: the chance to be my royal healer. I
honored
you, and this is how you repay me? By trying steal the source of our civilization’s power?” The Empress spun her hand around, whipping the sphere Zahn was inside in a wide circle until she abruptly stopped, sending him smacking against the inside of the sphere. “How dare you violate my trust!”

“Empress,” Asha said, “this isn’t about you or me. The Confederation needs the Breath of Life. Without it, we’ll lose everything. The Vakragha will
own
this galaxy! Please, don’t you realize that?”

“The scourge won’t come near us, child! Not with my power!” The Empress screamed back, and Asha suddenly realized that she’d never seen the Empress actually upset before. Her raw energy sent her fiery red hair flying in all directions, revealing a terrifying rage.

“Yes, they will!” Asha screamed back. “Maybe not tomorrow, but they
will
come, as they come for everyone.”

Two guards flew down beside the Empress, and one of them pulled along a sphere where Manu was trapped. Zahn already floated in a sphere at the right hand of the Empress, completing the symmetry of the scene and filling Asha’s heart with despair.

The Empress turned to Manu, who was floating to her left. “And you! From this day forth, you shall be the most reviled in the city. You took an oath, Manu, to serve me. Yet today you betrayed me in the deepest way. I cannot fathom why you would do this, but your punishment shall be the worst of all.” She curled her fingers into her palm and moved her hand toward her heart. As she did this, Manu’s brightness faded, and Asha watched as his face slowly came into view.

It was a face Asha had seen before, a face she had grown to trust, even to love as one would love a family member.

Asha’s expression twisted in bewilderment.

“Oonak?”

Without a light behind his hood, the man’s white robe seemed almost grey in comparison, and his strong jaw and dark eyes were unmistakable.

“Yes, Asha.” Oonak nodded. “It is I.”

Asha squinted her eyes and looked over to Zahn, who was speechless. “But why didn’t you tell us? I don’t understand.”

“I am so sorry, Asha. I couldn’t reveal my true identity to anyone. I never knew who might be listening, and I didn’t want to hurt either of you again. I already left you two once, so I decided to reveal myself if and when the mission was a success. I am sorry that I miscalculated.”

“A grand miscalculation, I would say.” The Empress shook her head in amusement as several more guards surrounded Asha. “I sensed the deception in my midst, which is why I’ve been coming up here, to monitor that which is most precious. And now you shall
all
be exiled from this world, forever. The Dagger of Kirin is too good for you, Asha. You shall suffer.” She gestured toward Asha. “Drain her!”

The guards shot tiny tendrils onto Asha’s skin, like little sucking mouths that made her feel sleepy and weak. Yet there was a strength still inside of her, and she pushed it down, as deeply as she could.

Oonak pressed his eyes shut, as if he were in great pain. “I had to try, Empress. I know you don’t trust my friends, but what they say is true. The Vakragha will come for this world, just as they came before. But now they will come without end, for there is one who possesses the Chintamani stone of healing, the Kiss of Life. Only the Breath of Life will balance the scales again, Empress. Why don’t you go and see for yourself?” Oonak pointed upward. “With your power, I’m sure you’ve seen them, in your visions, haven’t you? Consuming so many suns.”

The Empress stared at him darkly.

“Yes,” Oonak continued, “you
have
seen them, haven’t you? You see the inevitable coming, but you do not embrace the truth. Yet you must. We all must.”

With a twist of her hands, she shrunk the sphere so that he was pressed tighter and tighter. “Such visions are delusions, Oonak! With no basis in fact.”

“Empress!” Oonak pleaded. “You know as well as I do that it is not the strongest species that survive but the most adaptable to change. And we must do the same.” His voice shrank to a whisper. “Please, Empress. I took an oath to act for the highest good of our people, and that is all we want to do!”

The Empress stared at him in silence for a few moments, her gaze burning into him. “Another word out of you, and I shall kill your friends myself!”

Rage bubbled up from within Asha. She had not come this far to watch her friends fail now. Like a well deep within her being, she tapped into the strength the ambrosial soup had given her, and breathed it in.

“NEVER!” Asha cried out, twirling in a mad spin and severing the half dozen tendrils attached to her body. She shot a huge dome of light out of her hand, surrounding the Empress in a thick sphere of energy. And, pulling her last ounce of ambrosial strength from deep within, she manifested a golden blade in her other hand with as much ambrosia as she could pour into it.

Asha launched a tentacle of energy out to the sphere and pulled the Empress over to her, pointing a long golden blade toward her.

“Listen up, Royal Detritus!” Asha said. “You make ONE wrong move, and I’ll drain the Empress of her vital energy.”