A/N: This chapter is dedicated to FairSair6 who has commented and interacted with us as we tell this story. Reader participation is the coin we strive to earn, feedback our reward.
Day 00010 Mission Nilex
Streaking light became twisted arrows, slicing through the mind. Ayla recoiled from the insanity, the chaotic distortion, retreating to the black emptiness of her Gift. There she found words floating around her, offering comfort and balance, soothing her.
"Feel the wind. There is no fear. Breathe the wind. See the path."
Her mind began to flow within the words. They brought order to the chaos.
"Breathe the wind. Here is no fear. See the wind. Feel the path..."
Numbers flowed across Ayla's consciousness like thoughts. An ocean of infinite breadth whose waves comprised ripples of algorithms and numbers. Equations and encryptions crested the waves like white water with its ebb and flow.
Thoughts held frozen, she observed the magnitude of it, an ocean with no horizon. Time had no place here, no meaning. Then, memories stored and filed, the spell broke, releasing her mind to the darkness once again.
«Canaisis?» she thought tentatively to the surrounding infinity.
«I am here, Ayla,» answered Canaisis' voice beside her. «I've never left your side.»
«Was that you I saw?»
«What did you see, Ayla?»
«A universe of numbers and mathematics.»
Canaisis' chuckle was soft and comforting. «A form of me, yes, but you shouldn't have been able to see that. I'd have been more careful had I thought it possible. Your Gift continues to surprise me, Ayla. But then, Humanity often does. You have so much potential.»
«What now, Canaisis?»
«That's up to you. What does your Gift tell you?»
Ayla stilled her mind but felt nothing. Remembering some of what she'd experienced, she knew why.
«I found what my Gift sought. I know now the pain. I understand why he risked his life going to his wife's mausoleum.»
As soon as her response left her, the whispering of wind-blown ash entered a compartment deep within the back of her mind. It pressed against the walls, seeking escape, finding cracks to flow through.
«He needs your understanding, Ayla. I've done all I can. He holds his pain, refusing to let go. Only the Mission sustains him.»
The image of Gareth holding his wife's urn between his gloved hands popped to the fore, and the wind smashed her inner walls, breaking free. It raged, a black dust storm of cutting ash growing, spiraling upward toward her.
«If you stay here, the wind and cold will claim you again. Don't let it in, Ayla.»
Fear struck Ayla, and it was as if the fear itself called the dead world. Cold numbness crept into her hands and feet, and the low grating of ash sounded on the wind. She fought the panic as the weight of a suit settled over her body, compressing her. In the dark of Nothing, she struggled in resistance, paralyzed. Desperate, she cried out for help.
Whispering next to her ear, Canaisis' voice answered, «You are the master of your Gift, Ayla. Open your eyes. This is the path.»
A wind of another kind flowed through Ayla's consciousness. It was clean and crystal pure, shredding the ash-laden wind.
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CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle Two: A Captain's Journey
Science FictionBook 2 ∞ Can a ship, born to sail the ocean of stars to ensure Humankind's survival, save her Captain from the void within his own heart? ∞ ∞ ∞ As Canaisis agrees to carry a religious order to their new colony planet, Captain Gareth Levant finds his...
