“I am the Keeper of Balance,” the entity replied. It moved through the night air as if it were swimming through water. “I am the Spark of Life. I am the Mother of All Nature.”
Muthr. Eva thought. Its voice sounds like Muthr’s. The entity whirled toward Eva and examined her in its glowing light. Its voice entered Eva’s mind.
I am Muthr. I am your mother. I am the Mother.
“We mean you no harm here, Mother,” Eva Eight said. “We are just looking for a machine, an alien generator. If you could show us where it is, we’d—”
“Generator?” The Mother whisked back toward Eva Eight. “The generation here is done by no machine. It is accomplished through metamorphosis. Is that what you seek?”
“No,” Eight said. “I must find the generator. I need to get to it before anyone else does.”
“Why?” The Mother drew closer to Eva Eight.
“Be-because I don’t want the human leader to take it,” Eight replied with a hitch in her voice. She creeped toward Eva.
“So you would take this ‘generator’ so that no other might have it? You would seize it? Steal it away? Safekeep it?” The entity stretched one of its pseudopods to block Eight’s path to Eva.
“Be careful what you say, Eight,” Eva wheezed, “and what you think.”
“Seize the generator and safekeep it?” Eight repeated. She looked over at Eva, then back at the Mother. “I suppose, yes,” she answered, though Eva could hear a waver in her words. “Can you show me where it is?”
“There is hesitation in you,” the Mother said. “You are concealing your truth. Let me see into you. Let me see your spirit, your truth, before I show you where the generation occurs.”
Eva’s sister let out a short shriek as one of the Mother’s pseudopods wrapped around and constricted her.
Eva stretched out a hand to her sister. Their fingertips brushed before Eight was lifted up. “What are you doing, Mother?” Eva asked. Eight tried to wriggle free from the Mother’s grasp but was absorbed into her ectoplasm.
A blinding burst of light exploded from the entity. Eva closed her eyes tightly, but an afterimage remained. In it Eight remained motionless while her garments and belongings evaporated in the flash. Eva slowly opened her eyes and discovered her sister suspended inside the Mother. Like the entity, Eight’s body had become transparent. Eva could see Eight’s skeleton and veins through translucent skin and muscle.
“I don’t want to be here. I didn’t want this.” The Mother repeated Eva Eight’s words in Eva Eight’s voice.
“Let her go,” Eva said. “Please, Mother, let her go.”
“Her unfulfilled desires have hurt her deeply,” the Mother said. “See, here, how her hatred has poisoned her.” Eva watched an inky darkness pump from Eight’s heart and circulate throughout her body. “I have no tolerance for hate.”
“She has been hurt, yes.” Eva closed her eyes and tried to push out the agonizing pain of her injury. “I am hurt, Mother . . . Muthr.”
“Indeed, this one has been hurt. However, she in turn would hurt others. She has hurt you.” The Mother continued examining Eight. “I see no need for this to carry on.”
Eva opened her bleary eyes. She could see her sister’s pumping heart. Slower and slower the heartbeats became. “No!” Eva called out. “Don’t kill her!” She coughed hard and slumped down onto the roof of the Sanctuary. “She just wanted to have a family,” Eva whispered. “That’s all anybody wants.”
“A family? Yes,” the Mother said. “To look over and care for her own as I do for my little ones.” The entity stretched one of its pseudopods back down into the Sanctuary. “However, to raise them in the world, she must be at one with the world. So it shall be.”
Eva watched as a brightly patterned flower, like an orchid, traveled up the pseudopod inside the Mother’s body.
“I shall soothe her troubled spirit,” the Mother said. The flower drifted toward Eva Eight, still suspended in the entity’s body.
“What are you doing?” Eva asked. Her voice was barely a whisper.
“I am regenerating her,” the Mother answered. The flower went into Eva Eight’s open mouth and through her translucent body. Eight began to jerk and twist, struggling within the entity. Eva watched as her sister’s legs fused together and her toes stretched out into winding tendrils.
“. . . changing her for the better,” the Mother mused.
Eight’s hair grew in great length in every direction, twisting and knotting as it spiraled outward.
“. . . curing all that ails her . . .”
Her skin wrinkled and cracked as it hardened and browned.
“. . . reinventing her . . .”
Arms stretched into branches. Fingers became leaves.
“I have evolved her. She will venture back into the world anew. She is now free from my bosom.”
The Mother released the transformed Eva Eight—who was another being now, composed of both a tree and a human. Her body creaked as she twisted to face Eva.
“I am sorry,” the Eva-tree whispered. Tiny flower buds popped from woody vines that had once been Eva Eight’s hair.
I’m dreaming, Eva thought. I must be delirious from the pain. She closed her eyes and curled up into a ball. I am going to die here, in the Heart of the forest.
A glowing pseudopod stretched out to Eva. With cold, weak, trembling hands she took the pseudopod and hugged it close to her chest. It was warm to the touch.
Eva Nine’s breathing slowed.
Where will my spirit go when I am gone? Eva had asked.
You will know that answer one day, Eva, Rovender had said, but I believe that day is far off.
“Rovee, you were wrong.” Eva whispered. “I hope you remember me.”
I’ll see you soon, Muthr, she thought. Let’s go on the next journey together. As she exhaled a dying breath, Eva could feel the Mother’s pseudopod winding its way around her battered body.
CHAPTER 32: EVOLUTION
Eva Nine felt as if she were soaking in a warm bathtub. She tried to move, but her exhausted limbs wouldn’t allow it. Though her eyes remained closed, in her mind she saw a blurry vision of a woman holding her close. She wondered, Am I dead?
“No,” the woman answered. Eva tried to focus on the details of the woman and saw a slight smile on her face. It looked like Muthr’s silicon smile. The woman combed her long fingers through Eva’s hair, untangling it and rendering it more colorless with each stroke. “You are not dead. You, who would plead for another’s life with your dying breath, are now within me. I am healing you.”
Healing me? How?
“Open your eyes and you will see,” the woman replied.
Eva opened her eyes and found herself inside the glowing entity, Mother. As had happened to her sister, Eva’s skin had now become translucent, revealing broken ribs and a punctured lung. The glowing ectoplasm of the Mother flowed around and through Eva’s body, healing her as it did so.
You have . . . wires inside of you, Eva observed. Mixed with arteries and veins.
“That is correct,” the Mother replied. “I am a chimera. A being composed of both machinery and living tissue.”
“Chimera.” I know that word, Eva thought. Are you a Muthr?
“Once upon a time I was that simple machine, programmed to create life, care for it, and send it off into the world. But I have changed. I have grown, evolved beyond what I once was.”
Evolved. Eva looked out through the entity’s translucent skin. Outside, in the night, the lone tree figure of Eva Eight stood watching. Unmoving. Will you evolve me as well? What shall I become?
“Evolution is adaptation. Mutation. To survive by accepting the changes in your reality.” The Mother carried Eva down into the Sanctuary ruins. From within the entity, Eva could see the overgrown remains of rooms that she knew all too well. “You are interesting, little one. You have already evolved. You are different from your sisterkind and those that I created here long ago.”
I am? Eva looked out into the Sanctuary at the generator room, where the human embryos had been cultivated. The room was now little more than rubble with more bizarre plants growing from it. Several floatazoans hovered in the room’s entryway.
“You are closer to your ancestors in that you are more attuned with your fellow flora and fauna.”
You’re talking about how I can communicate with Otto and the trees.
“It is your compassion that I sense within you. It is an energy beyond any I can create.” A white light pumped from Eva’s heart and circulated through her body. “You feel empathy toward others, no matter what their makeup—be it plant, animal, extraterrestrial, or robot.”
Muthr.
“Yes, and like your Muthr, I still reside here,” the Mother continued. “I still create life and send it off into the world. So it has been for me. So it shall always be.”
You still create new life? Eva glanced back at the demolished generator room. How?
“I allow the beings here to do what I have done—drink from the Water of Life,” the Mother answered. “The primordial ooze from which all living beings flow forth.” The Mother brought Eva to the other side of the Sanctuary, below the collapsed roof. Where the gymnasium and greenhouse would normally be, there was now a small pond. Its green surface shimmered with fluorescent life-forms swimming about within it, while large otherworldly plants lined the shore. The Mother released Eva from her ectoplasmic body and placed her at the edge of the pond.
Eva stretched and yawned, feeling no pain. In fact, she felt as if she had awakened from a deep, restful sleep. Though her skin had returned to its usual rosy tone, her clothing and her hair were devoid of any color. Eva ran her fingers over her ribs and inhaled deeply. Her wounds had been healed.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Your compassion must be encouraged. It must be fostered,” the Mother replied. “Taste the water and teach others how to adapt as you have. Teach them how to thrive in our reimagined world.”
Eva looked out at the water. Floating on the surface were the orchid flowers that the Mother had fed to Eva Eight. Farther out, half-submerged in the center of the pond, was a metallic device shaped like an enormous seed. Under the layers of algae that coated the device, Eva could make out the distinct image of an eye with a horizontal iris—the heraldic symbol of the Ojo family.
“The Vitae Virus generator,” Eva whispered. “It fell here and filled the pool water with the virus.”
A lone floatazoan drifted into the room. Eva watched as it dipped one of its petal-like feelers into the pond water. It placed the feeler into its mouth and licked it dry. The animal twisted and contorted as Eva Eight had done. It doubled in size, and its arms grew in length. It turned and regarded Eva with watchful eyes. Intelligent eyes.
You, it thought to her. Me.
All at once Eva understood how the Vitae Virus worked, the virus that was thriving in the water.
The water that the Sanctuary’s resident Muthr had somehow ingested . . .
. . . the water that all the greenhouse plants had been exposed to . . .
. . . the water that all of Earth’s surviving microorganisms were exposed to—the algae. The tardigrades. The insects . . .
. . . the water that grew the orchid Eva Eight had ingested.
They are always changed, Soth had said of those who entered the Heart of the forest. Different from before.
“Drink from the pool and awaken what is already within you,” said the Mother.
“I am not like the others,” Eva whispered. She thought of Gen, Hailey, and her sister.
“You are not,” the Mother agreed. “Embrace that notion. Open yourself to accepting who you truly are. Only then will your spirit soar.”
Arius’s chant echoed from the back of Eva’s mind. For the waters of life will quench your thirst, heal all wounds, and allow your spirit to soar.
Eva knelt down and dipped her hands into the cool green water of the pond. Cupping them, she scooped up the water and brought it to her lips.
She closed her eyes and drank.
Eva awoke to a chorus of soft hooting. She jolted upright, startled. “Where am I?”
Several turnfins called out from the opening in the roof above her. Eva stood as the night’s events replayed in her mind. Peering out into the darkness of the Sanctuary, she searched through the abundance of life growing around the pond for the Mother, but the entity was nowhere to be found.
Eva looked down at her reflection in the surface of the pond. Aside from the white hair and clothing, the face that looked back at Eva was unchanged. She climbed up to the rim that surrounded the Sanctuary and looked back as a predawn light snuck across the sky. Rooted to the shadowy roof of the Sanctuary, the Eva-tree danced with fluttering turnfins in a cool morning zephyr.
“I must go,” Eva whispered to her sister. “Will you be okay?”
“I shall. It is as if a weight has been lifted from me,” the Eva-tree answered. “I am home.”
“I am happy for you.” Eva ran her fingers over the Eva-tree’s bark skin. It was warm to the touch.
“You were right, Nine. About telling Cadmus of the expanding forest.”
“I just don’t want anybody else to die.” Eva’s eyes were downcast, her mind heavy with the memories of Hailey, Huxley, Nadeau, and Muthr.
“Then show him.” Leafy fingers on willow-branch arms reached for Soth’s necklace, still hanging around Eva’s neck. The Eva-tree plucked an orchid from its many blooms and placed it in the vial with the soil from the Cærulean planet. “Show Cadmus his thinking must evolve in order for his people to thrive.”
“Thank you, Eva Eight, my sister. I will.” Eva set off through the glade.
She passed the ring of spires that marked the Heart of the forest and came to a rest in a field of bracken. Closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, she could sense every tree, animal, and insect in the forest. Her perception of her surroundings was awakened, focused, and sharp. She let her mind stretch out deep into the wood—then it stopped, recognizing a familiar spirit.
I am near. Come to me, she thought.
Eva stood in the bracken and stared up into the gilded dawn sky. A whooshing sound came from the distance, and a great beast landed a meter in front of her.
You. Me. Happy.
“I am happy to see you too, Otto.” Eva reached out her thin arms and embraced the giant armored water bear. A warm dry tongue licked her head.
“We have to hurry. There is much I have to do. Can you help?”
Yes. Always. Help.
Eva climbed up onto Otto’s back and straddled one of his rust-colored scutes. “We need to check on Rovee and Hækel first,” Eva said. “I need you to take me here.” She visualized the area in the forest where the shuttle had crashed.
Hold. On.
Otto cocked his fan-shaped tail under his belly. He snapped it down onto the ground with tremendous force, which sent them hurling up over treetops. Before long they landed at the crash site next to the wrecked shuttle.
Eva slid off Otto onto the moss-covered ground and discovered that Rovender was no longer where she had left him. “Rovee! Rovee!” Eva called out as she ran toward the shuttle. “Rovee, where are you?”
“He is not here,” Hækel called out from inside the entranceway. “Eva Nine? Is that you?”
“Yes,” Eva crawled into the ship. “Where is Rovee? Is he okay?”
“He is fine,” Hækel replied, staring at Eva. “He went looking for you. With both you and your sister gone, we feared the worst.”
“Oh, I’m okay.” Eva played with a strand of her white hair. “Are you all right?”
“I’m a little bruised, but I shall survive,” replied Hækel. “Actually, I think I may be able to get the shuttle operating once more. The boomrod damaged only the steering controls. Fortunately, I keep quite a few spare parts. But it is going to take some time before we are airborne again, especially with the ship lying on its side like this.”
Otto, can you push the shuttle back upright? Eva thought.
Yes.
Outside, Eva could hear the ship creaking as Otto nudged up against it.
“Hold on to something,” Eva said to Hækel. The Cærulean did so, a look of confusion on his whiskered face.
Slowly the ship rolled back into the upright position. Eva and Hækel exited down the ramp.
“Good job!” Eva scratched Otto behind the ears.
“A giant water bear.” The Cærulean pilot put his hands on his hips, marveling at the behemoth. “I’ve never seen one of these this close before.”
“Don’t be afraid. He’s an old friend,” Eva said. She took Hækel’s hand and placed it on Otto’s forehead. “Otto,” Eva continued, “I need you to go find Rovee. Can you do that for me?”
Yes. Bring. Back.
“Thank you.” Eva played with Otto’s barbels. “Bring him back safely.”
“Eva Nine!” Rovender hopped down from Otto’s back and ran to the girl. He held her tight while the water bear hooted and sang. “Are you all right? I feared the worst.”
“I am okay, Rovee,” Eva said, clutching Rovender. “I’m just glad to be back from the Heart.”
Rovender’s eyes went wide. “That is why your hair and your clothing is colorless. You have been cleansed by the spirit of the forest. Is this what has happened?”
Eva nodded in agreement. “You were right about trusting what I feel inside. Even though Eight and I were from the same place, and the same blood, we were just different inside, you know?”
“I do know,” Rovender replied.
“I knew deep down that Eight wasn’t thinking clearly,” Eva said with a sniffle. “I guess I thought it would go away after we left the city, but it didn’t.”
“Her pain was deep.” Rovender wiped a long tear from Eva’s cheek. “It was a scar you could not heal, Eva. No one could.”
“I actually think she is healed now.” Eva smiled. “I’ll tell you everything on our way to Lacus.”
“You are right, Eva. Time is short.” Rovender grabbed supplies from the ship and loaded them into a backpack. “Let us go. Hækel, we shall return.”
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