Page 55 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)
IRAVAN
He realized his mistake only several minutes after leaving the projection behind. Iravan hefted the everdust axe in one hand, while the other came to fumble around his neck to feel the blade of pure possibility. Had he used all of the everdust within his pendant to create a weapon against the false-Iravan? He knew he could not infinitely convert possibility from one thing into another. Now that the axe was made, it would remain so. The only reason his stone blade could be used as everdust was because he had always wished for it to be the strongest, most malleable substance possible. Yet in using it now, had he depleted all of it?
His fingers clutched the blade, and Iravan shivered. The blade was smaller, and though some everdust remained, he could not waste it. This was the last everdust on the planet. He would need it to repair the Moment. He had acted desperately—and maybe that was the falcon’s plan all along—to force him to use pure possibility in this fight. It would not be the first time the falcon had tried to make him lose what was important in his distraction. It had done so before when Ahilya had needed him to help fight the Virohi. Iravan could not let it win this way.
The mirror panes around him changed, blinking, but Iravan tried not to look at them. He would find no clue to the falcon’s intent there; he had to imagine the falcon was showing him this deliberately as a way to disorient him. No hidden messages in the windowpanes. Only more of the falcon’s assault. He clutched the axe in both his hands tightly, and floated forward, ignoring the images on the glass walls.
Around another corner, a different projection awaited him.
The light from the blinking bio-node reflected around him, making any shape difficult to see. The figure looked familiar—was it another Iravan, sent by the falcon to unmoor him? He knew himself. The falcon would not be able to seduce him with lies.
The projection was not him.
Askavetra stood there, leaning casually against a mirror pane, watching him come. Iravan slowed down. He tried to remember everything he knew of this life of his. Born during a time when yakshas were considered dangerous, yet Ecstasy was not yet outlawed, Askavetra had always been curious about the jungle creatures.
He approached, and she spun to him swiftly, her arms shining in silver—but this time Iravan was prepared. Instead of waiting for her attack, he swung the blade at her neck. He threw all his weight behind the swing, but she moved quick as lightning. Her hands came up to seize the axe from him, but Iravan resisted—and the pull between them sent out spikes of silver, illuminating the maze. They both tumbled into her memory.
* * *
She was in the jungle.
Inches away from her stood a massive tiger-yaksha, its striped tail swinging behind it cautiously. She knew she should leave, return to her ashram, that this creature was dangerous. But hadn’t she come seeking just such a creature? They will destroy your material bonds, she thought. That was the risk of yakshas, and why any interaction with them was forbidden.
Yet Askavetra had heard stories from other ashrams where people still communed with these creatures. She’d heard whispers of a time when architects from her own ashram had disappeared into the jungle to live with the yakshas, attaining great powers in doing so. Her mother had told her those men and women had been abducted by the creatures, but Sariya had whispered they’d gone willingly. Why?
Askavetra approached the tiger-yaksha slowly. It was so tall she had to look up at it, but keeping her terror at bay, noticing its sharp teeth, she continued forward, attempting to still her shivering. The yaksha bent low, and she stopped moving.
Its maw touched her briefly, and then a purring sound emerged. The yaksha nuzzled her neck, and despite her fear Askavetra laughed. She reached a hand to brush its fur—
Images cascaded through her mind—
Through Iravan’s mind—
* * *
Of another young woman the tiger-yaksha had belonged to, a woman he had known, Naila, who he had felt amity with. He remembered silver light leaching from the tiger-yaksha toward him; watched as he subsumed the tiger-yaksha, and Naila crumpled, the memory of her past lives ripped away from her. The image exploded and expanded into a cloud. He saw architects of the Garden and a landed Irshar collapsing in deep pain as he broke consent and all promises of ethics by taking from them what was never his.
* * *
Iravan tore away from the vision, breathing hard. He returned to the maze, his mind spinning. He was still locked in ludicrous combat with Askavetra, who smiled a twisted smile, and he thought, I let this happen.
It was a shock to learn that the tiger-yaksha had belonged to Naila, though he could see clearly now the linking of it, and the forces that had pulled her life into his orbit. In some ways, they had always been connected, had always known each other—but he had ripped all knowledge of her past from her, bonds of friendship be damned. That was the effect of his subsummation of the other yakshas. He had done so because of the falcon’s madness and influence on him, but the weight of responsibility still crushed his shoulders. It was still my body that did the action, even if my mind was the yaksha’s, he thought.
Askavetra’s eyes shone in satisfaction, and he knew he was giving into the falcon by thinking this way. He was making himself weaker. Iravan snarled, and tried to push the axe toward her neck, to end her and the falcon that controlled this version of her.
Askavetra dropped her grip on the axe.
It happened in the same instant. The axe connected to her neck, and her hand locked around Iravan’s throat, clutching the stone blade hung around a vine.
Iravan felt deep terror. No. He willed it, and his necklace remained around him, resisting Askavetra’s pull. But her hand tightened, and particles drifted from the pendant, diminishing everdust. The pendant grew smaller.
The axe decapitated her.
Askavetra vanished in a swirl of air, extinguishing shards of precious possibility.