Page 58 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)

COHESION

It was hurling massive branches at the planetrage, breaking the onslaught into chunks, when the world flashed, blinding Cohesion’s every sense.

Air shivered.

Sound ceased.

It happened for the merest instant, so tiny that if Cohesion were not Cohesion, aware of every minuscule part of itself, it would have missed the flash. It continued to beat back the planetrage, creating a massive wall of branches nearly a thousand feet high against the tsunami attempting to sweep it away—but within its mind, a panic spread. The parts of it which had once been architects understood it first, and Cohesion watched understanding bloom in all of its other parts like light beaming. The flash was a lull. The battle was too easy. Cohesion had been winning, but it was never meant to be this simple. Earthrages had occurred before, and each time a lull had happened, it had only paved the way for something terribly ferocious to come on its heels.

It slung sharpened trunks like missiles into fiery rocks, disintegrating them, when the flash occurred again.

Fragments of the planetrage broke apart, then another flash, blinding Cohesion’s eyes. Within it, voices rose and fell, churning out their memories, Virohi, human, animal, tree, all delving within themselves for an explanation.

And a word appeared in Cohesion’s mind like the softest whisper.

Dissolution.

The planetrage flashed again, and in blind overwhelming panic, Cohesion pushed its intention to survive, but—