Page 62 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)

COHESION

It ruptured.

Lost its mind.

Careened into madness.

Its sentience crashed, caving in as dissolution smashed into it, chewing away parts of it, taking away meaning and sense. Each loss was painful, each piece of information lost like an amputation. Its mind broke, trying to connect disparate pieces of itself, attempting to hold its own form with narrative.

Fire tore at its roots, ice freezing its people who rested within its boughs. Light shifted, and the tree yawned and caved, stretching far beyond reckoning, crushing parts of itself into balls, killing its citizens.

Dissolution destroyed them all, dissolving, distorting, demeaning. A great warping occurred, and everything bent, keeling over, a twisting within circles. An elongation and slowness of sensation—huge shrill sounds, except no sound could scream in such a terrifying way. Nausea and insanity, and Cohesion could no longer fill the gaps with memory. It could not hold form. It could not assemble meaning.

The hive disintegrated in order to save itself, like a tree flinging out seeds in a storm in order to ensure its survival. Tearing and burning, the little minds popped out of the singular existence, floating free from Cohesion, bodies falling limp, minds hurtling through space, meant to be alone, alone, alone.

She was one of the abandoned.

She opened her eyes and screamed.