CHAPTER 7 - OASIS 2

Second Age, Echo Realm

Somewhere in the backyard of Venus, in a post-city of Adequate Nutrients spectators gathered to see what the echoians intended to disclose to them. Sol was safe for the moment, prompting the Couple to visit. They were seated on the stands where there was a good view of the field. "For your partnership in the face of staggering odds in the defense of our shared territory, we would like to gift you with this symbol of our appreciation" Meza Buyer announced and pointed to a table from which stacked photo albums of old earth and other artifacts were handed out. The real compensation was below in the substructure, where mechanics were installing the containment cells and energy extraction mechanisms for a shipment of Idea-Stars. "Can you believe this!" Buyer blurted flippantly, waving around a how-to book on the art of magic, back when it was only a pastime, making the crowd burst with laughter. Meza retired to the standsafter warming up the crowd. The system colonists reacted more favorably to the normal humans than the altered ones, old prejudices being alive and well. Umlave took to the field, waiting for a time until out of the corner a cargo truck rolled onto the green. The driver popped open the door and jumped to the ground, then unlatched the back, laying down the ramp. A truck full of dairy cows stumbled down the ramp onto the green, filling up the air with deep clamoring. Umlave took the microphone and waited for silence, "Welcome everyone to this sad but joyous day. Say hello to our earthy friends here. As those who know me most will appreciate, there is now something I must do. In just a moment, I will say goodbye to the old me and hello to the new. Please tell your neighbor to stay calm and watch very carefully. This may shock you at first, but by the time I'm done you will be very pleased, I promise. It has fallen upon me to enact fragmentary regeneration". With a snap of her fingers, the gravity on the field drained away, and the cows drifted into the air, tumbling in confusion. The crowd all began "moo-ing" in parody of the panicked animals. Like a symphony conductor, the patron waved her hands back and forth, and from the udders of the cows came streams of milk that collected together, forming a wide mandala above the field. Adding layers upon layer of intricacy, the mandala became more beautiful until she was satisfied, and she left the ground rising up towards the hole in the center of the disk. Sitting in the stands, Uffhill watched the face of Oasis as it crossed the threshold of the mandala, and became that of Onsuru, followed by her body. Another victory in the fight against death, as the fragment that was the avatar regenerated the individual. The patron pointed to the mandala and it fell down to the green, soaking into it. Awakening from the grass below, and brushing the dirt off of her body, a replica of the original performer appeared, somewhat befuddled, and then bowed to the crowd, "You may call me Oasis 2". Uffhill smiled as she waved to him. "This one is slightly less pretty" he thought to himself, examining her face, and noticing the annoying freckles and other defects. "My family is just one big inbred jumble, isn't it?" his heart sinking in disappointed realization. Afterwards, as everyone was stewing about the field, a system colonist with a hat and smoking a cigar approached Onsuru and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "have you ever thought of a life in show-business, kid? I can make you a star". (no cows were harmed in the making of this novel).

First Age, Ninth Eon - Island

Below her feet Echo could see the fast approaching ground. The wind rushed upwards, channeling them swiftly towards their destination. At long last they alighted on island earth. Echo looked to Sam as the wetness of grass tingled the soles of her feet. He was hers again, the one who witnessed her in the stillness of night, who held her hand when she was but unformed echoes. And the pillar strengthening the center of her world. Sam reached to her and brought her into an unexpected kiss. It was powerful and magnetic. A hard press against the ruggedness of her lips. Skies welcomed their love with exotic clouds and flavors of blue. The land all around whirled like a fermentation. Aether in her blood turned to vapor, and it heated the chamber containing her pumping heart. Sam felt it too as a line of spit between the two of them fell from his lips. The black hair whistled as it endeavored against the wind. Intricate medieval armor partially covering her body clinked in unison. The silver glow of her eyes felt like bliss as it washed over him. The limitless universe that was her skin blinked with its treasured stars and darkness. And the echo seal of ES upon her chest glowed like a soft white lamp. Sam took a moment to think about it, then came to a conclusion. This was his woman.

Far away on the barren wastes of some terrible planet Visioness was in unendurable pain. Dust of his footsteps, tracing away, still lingered on the path. The one that had forsaken her had gone too soon. She skid her back against the ground and let out a vociferous cry. It was overbearing. A rich sweat of fresh agony welled up in her body. Threads of her muscles pulled in all directions, snapping. She let out another one, long and thundering to the featureless sky. Yet it was like a mute, knowing nothing of her petitions, and its atmosphere churned with callous, uncaring mechanics. In her mind Visioness could still see him, sitting on a throne in the cloud of her breath that she had made for him. The soft touch of his hair. The way his body rose and fell to her own exertions. Now he was gone, and what was there left of the world? The bitter bite of destiny hurt her chest. Tears retreated back to the recess of her eyes, where they would shrink until no more. And in her chest her heart crumbled. It was mere chunks of dust that collapsed in upon itself. Leaving nothing but void. Dark void. Enigma of magic fired up on her body. An unspeakable color with multiple hues. From it radiated out a single rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. It propelled until it found the horizon, cleaving it in two. The object was fast as it raced through the map of space. The tip of it was shaped like a ribbon, arcing towards the place of its landing. At island earth the populace looked up at the clouds and saw them blush in many colors. The bridge descended towards the soft hills of the planet. Echo lifted her head and saw it leagues away. A force of magnificence and violence, on a scale she had rarely witnessed. When that single rainbow touched the earth, the ground crumbled. It fell apart and the earth was soon to be destroyed. It happened suddenly. Boulders of earth thrust up through the ground, more powerful than explosions. Echo was able to retrieve the Moon-Soul and then lead the population into the cave of silence. The rest she sent in by trans-manifestation.

Second Age

As she sprung up from the bed, Falzar breathed a sigh of relief. It was another perilous dream. Folds of the bedsheet poked out between her fingers. The day was still far away, as revealed by the world's blank expression of immaterial darkness coming in from the window. Falzar shook her purple hair and got to the floor. The patron was neck to toe in golden armor that had spikes protruding from the back at great length. They could … of course retract to defend the nature of her bed. "Yawn .. it's so early" she observed dispassionately. The way to the bathroom was easily navigated, and so she opened the door and looked into the mirror, foggy from yesterday's shower. It had a sinister metallic sheen staring back at her. Falzar was too cowardly to admit it to herself. She brushed a portion off with her right hand, uncovering the lens. "Huh? Is that really me?" she thought in sheer wonder. The portion was wide enough to see dark eyes and a face of a woman that was like a mystery. Energy festered around her, dark in the extreme. As soon as she looked again, Visioness was gone, and the mirror had returned with her own aspect. The meaning of it all fell silently from her lips. Falzar was lost for words but with all that had happened recently, she just needed more rest.