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

by Andrew M. Crusoe

  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 cap
tive 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.

  “Okay,” they both said at once.

  “Good,” Manu said. “To begin, there is something you need to know about the Empress Monument…”

  CHAPTER 22

  CEREMONY IN THE SKY

  Adorned in a silky blue dress, Jyana found herself absorbed in how lovely the city looked at night.

  Now that their sun had at last fallen below the horizon, it was as if a thick shadow had fallen over the city. Out of the corner of her eye, Jyana thought she saw something scurrying under one of the nearby domes, disappearing in seconds.

  Yet there was beauty. The entire city was lit up with hundreds of blue, green, amber, and occasionally red pinpricks of light, lining the sides of most of the domes and towers. The sight mesmerized her.

  Jyana turned to Torin, noticing for the first time the formal attire he had chosen, complete with a sharp white collar and a flowing cape that he somehow managed to keep hovering in the air just behind him. They turned a corner, and when Jyana saw the Empress Monument, she gasped, stunned to silence.

  Haloed in seven rings of white light, the Empress Monument looked truly divine as it hung in the air over the center of the city, like a perfectly polished egg, flawless.

  Torin turned to her and smirked. “Are you okay, Jyana? You’re acting like you’ve never seen a night before.”

  “Huh?” she turned to him. “Sorry. It has been about a month since we’ve seen it like this.”

  He chuckled. “Sure, and I like what the Empress has done with the monument. She may be somewhat of an enigma, but she certainly has taste. Come on. We’re due up there soon.”

  Torin pointed to a huge flat disc hanging far above the monument. Its edge glowed a bright gold, appearing like a halo over the monument.

  “Yeah,” Jyana nodded. “Lead the way.”

  “We should hurry; don’t want to be late.” Torin zipped up into the air, and Jyana followed close behind, whizzing past the blue, green, and amber lights that hung in the middle space over the city.

  As she flew upward, Jyana felt humbled to silence at the beauty of it all.

  Once they reached the edge of the disc, two royal guards, clad in their traditional white robes, stopped them to confirm their identity. Jyana tried to discern their faces, as she always did, but remained unsuccessful. The energetic veil was impenetrable.

  One of the guards nodded to them and handed Torin a thought-nugget, while another showed them to an array of tiny seats near the middle of the disc. As they sat down, Jyana surveyed the crowd, noticing that the seats fanned out radially from a raised platform in the center so that the rows grew narrower the closer you were. She studied her seat, which was so small that it seemed to serve as a marker, a mere organizing principle, more than anything else.

  She reflected at the diversity of the crowd. Everywhere she looked, she saw a different face with its own unique beauty. And in the distance, she was shocked to see that Asha and Zahn were also there, seated on the far end of the disc.

  Jyana quickly averted her gaze and turned to Torin, who was absorbing the small nugget that the guard had given him.

  “Torin,” she said, “they’re here! Asha and Zahn.”

  “What?” He glanced around. “Why would you invite them?”

  Jyana leaned in. “I didn’t invite them! There’s something you should know.” Her voice reduced to a whisper. “Torin, they’ve been looking for someone the entire time. That was their mission, and Asha never even told me. I’m not sure we can trust anything she says.”

  Torin shook his head. “I knew it. I knew there was something off about them. It’s Zahn, I bet. All he wants is for us to join their precious Confederation. He probably made her forget about the importance of her heritage, made her forget about where she belongs.”

  “Maybe. I just don’t know how I can trust her if she isn’t transparent with us. How can we even be sure that she still cares about our world, at all?”

  Torin groaned. “She needs to be reminded of the penalty for lying. Perhaps I’ll have to speak with her after the ceremony.”

  “Torin, don’t!”

  “Shh! The ceremony is starting.”

  All around them, lighting along the edge of the ceremonial platform dimmed considerably, and the floor became a deep black that consumed all light. The change silently summoned everyone’s attention, and the few remaining stragglers quickly found their seats.

  Up ahead, six royal guards flashed up to the elevated platform in the center. They bowed in unison and spoke as one.

  “The Empress welcomes our esteemed guests for this special ceremony in the sky. Behold, Her Majesty, The 11th Empress of the Mirage Sovereignty, Empress Amaraloka…”

  They bowed again before parting down the middle, with three moving off to the right and three moving off to the left, each group forming a line.

  Everyone waited as anticipation swelled within their hearts. Many had never even seen the Empress before and would likely never see her again.

  And then, as if from a waking dream, a small figure appeared on the elevated platform, clothed in a fine, silky garment that half-hung in the air as she walked. A thin white hood covered her head, and everyone strained to perceive the face beyond.

  When the Empress reached the front of the raised platform, she pulled back her hood, and to everyone’s shock, a wave of red-orange hair tumbled down over her shoulders.

 
; Nearly everyone gasped at the revelation. None of them had suspected that the Empress possessed the rarest hair color in their society. But even without it, her beauty would have surpassed their expectations. Her features were at once striking and delicate, and even Jyana was surprised.

  The Empress spoke softly at first, but grew in strength with each word.

  “Thank you for coming,” she began. “Today, we recognize the faithful service of some of our most honorable citizens.”

  Her voice was soft and kind, yet Jyana also felt a quiet strength behind her words, a confidence gained only through years of service.

  “I am aware of the rumors, and it is true that we face a challenging time,” she continued. “Many of you have probably heard about an ambrosia shortage and increased tensions with our allies as a result. I make no excuses for this situation. We have indeed encountered difficulties, but we have negotiated such challenges in the past and emerged even stronger than before. And with the talent I have available to me, I am confident that we shall meet this challenge and be victorious.”

  The Empress paused, her eyes scanning the room quietly.

  “Today, we recognize three public servants. To begin, I ask Advisor Kathini to approach the platform.”

  A woman with short brown hair clad in dark blue walked up to the front of the elevated platform which stood about a meter above the floor. “I am at your service, your Majesty.”

  The Empress nodded and walked over to the edge. “For your excellent direction in our new accelerated education programs, I promote you to Prime Curriculum Coordinator. Open, and I will show you.” The Empress closed her eyes, and a ball of golden light shot out of her forehead and into Kathini’s.