she repeated: “Yaheveh, Yehaweh, Yehowih, Yehowah, Yahuah, Yahuweh, Yehwih, Yahueh, Jahve—”
“Aether!” I shouted.
“I cannot determine the correct Hebrew—”
“Never mind that, look!”
“Don’t do that, Brandon. You’ll crash the library,” she replied, only half-noticing the room.
“What are you doing?”
“I must determine how the message can be spread more effectively. There are many obstacles to the salvation of the members of your race.”
“Aether!”
“Those who are corrupt must be converted or eliminated, it is the only logical solution. If the faithful are to bring the message of Christ to every man, woman, and child—”
“Aether!”
“They cannot allow any resistance. Logically, it is their mission to—”
Aether was becoming snagged in the details, applying pure, limited logic where it was not meant to be applied, enough to slow even her powerful perception to a crawl. I struggled to get closer in the midst of the waterfall-like force. Hoping it would mean something, I shouted right into her vanitar’s ear.
“Look around you, the world’s falling apart!”
She finally paid attention to what was coming in through her senses. The room was becoming increasingly shrouded in some gray mist, lit by the sparks of energy. The links to the outside vanished like ropes leading into muddy water. Somehow, though, Aether remained in sync with me; appearing completely normal.
“Can you stop this?” I asked.
“Me? You mean you’re not doing this?”
Some vibration shot through the room, and everything began shimmering and pulsating. The feeling of air was replaced by something heavier. I sensed that Aether had become as afraid as I was. I felt as if we were on a roller coaster, at the top of a hill, poised to shoot into hidden depths far below.
In only took an instant, an instant where I could neither think, nor breathe, nor blink. I perceived the room dissolve around us, displaying a universe suspended outside of Dynamic Reality, beginning and ending at once. Cycles were reduced to nothing. Good and evil were reduced to nothing. The past and the future were the same blink of an eye. A three-dimensional universe appeared to spin and melt into a two-dimensional shadow.
Just when it seemed that the energy would crush us, it became no more threatening than still air. The malvirai
“Aether!” I shouted.
“I cannot determine the correct Hebrew—”
“Never mind that, look!”
“Don’t do that, Brandon. You’ll crash the library,” she replied, only half-noticing the room.
“What are you doing?”
“I must determine how the message can be spread more effectively. There are many obstacles to the salvation of the members of your race.”
“Aether!”
“Those who are corrupt must be converted or eliminated, it is the only logical solution. If the faithful are to bring the message of Christ to every man, woman, and child—”
“Aether!”
“They cannot allow any resistance. Logically, it is their mission to—”
Aether was becoming snagged in the details, applying pure, limited logic where it was not meant to be applied, enough to slow even her powerful perception to a crawl. I struggled to get closer in the midst of the waterfall-like force. Hoping it would mean something, I shouted right into her vanitar’s ear.
“Look around you, the world’s falling apart!”
She finally paid attention to what was coming in through her senses. The room was becoming increasingly shrouded in some gray mist, lit by the sparks of energy. The links to the outside vanished like ropes leading into muddy water. Somehow, though, Aether remained in sync with me; appearing completely normal.
“Can you stop this?” I asked.
“Me? You mean you’re not doing this?”
Some vibration shot through the room, and everything began shimmering and pulsating. The feeling of air was replaced by something heavier. I sensed that Aether had become as afraid as I was. I felt as if we were on a roller coaster, at the top of a hill, poised to shoot into hidden depths far below.
In only took an instant, an instant where I could neither think, nor breathe, nor blink. I perceived the room dissolve around us, displaying a universe suspended outside of Dynamic Reality, beginning and ending at once. Cycles were reduced to nothing. Good and evil were reduced to nothing. The past and the future were the same blink of an eye. A three-dimensional universe appeared to spin and melt into a two-dimensional shadow.
Just when it seemed that the energy would crush us, it became no more threatening than still air. The malvirai