Page 54 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)
COHESION
A waking.
A curious stillness, like vibrations emanating from rock.
Stability that washed over it like a wave—dampening its chaos and reviving its peace at the same time.
Hands, fingers, tongues, roots, seeds, fruit, it was everywhere, it was everything. With the last consciousness returned to it, Cohesion ballooned far above its bodies caught in the tree. It saw with a thousand eyes, it breathed with a million mouths. Neither humans, nor cosmic creatures, nor tree, nor animals—it was nothing at once, and all of it, a sum greater than its parts. Joy, exhilaration, acceptance, grief, hunger, curiosity, despair, it saw everything in all their little minds, and it wept because all it felt was a vast and drowning love, love, LOVE.
Sentience was enormous, beyond anything that could be captured in thought. It could only be felt, through every pore of skin, through every leaf that whispered, and every scent that washed over it.
Being alive—existing—This had always been the purpose of life. Life meant experiencing, witnessing, participating. The sip of nectar from its bee-mouth. The inhale that was deep enough to burst a lung. Rain against its bark-skin. Wind raking the serrated edges of an elm leaf. The laughter of children chasing each other through sun-baked streets. Vapor rolling off its bird wings. And within it, the quiet of mind watched in wonder. Each instant precious, each instant filled with awareness. So deep that it was impossible to distinguish between Cohesion that watched, and Cohesion that was being watched. To finally do this—it was so deeply reassuring that its little bodies hurt with how much they were releasing.
I know myself, it thought to their little minds. Because I know you.
Cohesion danced, reveling in its existence. Looking inward and outward and seeing everything. We are one, it thought. We are I, and I am one. Its hive-like body buzzed with glorious perception, and a melody emerged uniting all of its pieces into a singular purpose. It knew the melody—the raga of harmony, but it was also the raga of indivisibility, of accord, recognition and identity. Not a single melody but a symphony of voices and thoughts, of little waves moving together like schools of fish, making a singular ocean. It was aware of every flutter, every whisper, and all of those were its own.
I am the whole world, it thought—but then the world rumbled.
It felt it in their feet, in its roots. In each striation of muscle and each spasm of heart.
Cohesion looked away from its wonder. It saw the approaching storm, trying to annihilate its remarkable existence. Now when it had finally found itself, a great sense of tragedy filled it to be destroyed.
A vast denial erupted from it, the raga of harmony growing sharp like a blade, emerging like a shout. NO!
The planetrage came.