The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

flashed Asha another quick smile, and the elevator stopped. “Follow me. Your introduction begins at the Vista of Intention, at the far end of this hall.”
    The door opened, revealing a long hall inlaid with bronze. Two yellow strips of light ran along the upper half of the wall, and a pattern of small purple squares ran along the bottom edge. Jyana waved them ahead, and Asha noticed thick, impenetrable golden doors spaced unevenly along the corridor.
    “Jyana, can you tell me more about the collapse?” Asha said. “How is anyone still here? Didn’t the Vakragha try to consume the planet whole, just like the others?”
    “Yes.” Jyana said coldly. “Ultimately, they failed, but we did not fully escape their wrath. That was over twenty planetary years ago now, and I was only a child. I only have fragments of memories from that time, but my father was one of the few who stayed behind.”
    “What happened?”
    Jyana shot Asha a dark glance. “If you left on the life boats, surely you saw it. Cold beams of viridian plasma rained down from the sky, cutting deep into the surface of our planet and setting fire to our forests. Once the surface had burned completely, they left. I haven’t seen weapons like that before or since. That’s all I know.”
    “Sounds like a nightmare,” Zahn whispered.
    “But there must be more,” Asha said. “Jyana, does anyone know why they didn’t consume this world? After all, it’s all the Vakragha have ever done. What was different here? If we knew, we might be able to prevent more from being consumed.”
    Jyana didn’t even look over to her. “All I can tell you is that it didn’t happen.”
    “What do you mean?” Asha ran up to walk alongside her. “Please, Jyana. There must be theories.”
    “We don’t know for certain.” Jyana inhaled deeply. “The planet could be somehow immune to their gravity weapons, but we aren’t sure. All we know is that the spacetime fissure they brought to our planet wilted away before it even got close.”
    A chill washed over Asha. “So they burned our world down.”
    Jyana nodded. “We can only surmise that it was their only remaining strategy. To wipe out as much life as possible was, perhaps, the only alternative in their mind to enslaving us. And as you can imagine, there was great suffering. Many who left on the scout ships, like yourself, contacted us and considered coming back to help, but the governors here decided it was unwise. There were complications due to plasma radiation, and most of those who stayed here were driven underground. Some of the smaller flora have since returned, but it will take much longer for the forests.” Jyana gestured ahead. “We’re here.”
    Asha had grown so immersed in Jyana’s story that she scarcely realized that they had reached a balcony at the end of the hall which overlooked a huge inner chamber. She and Zahn followed Jyana over to the edge of the balcony and beheld an expansive view.
    Carefully arranged in clean patterns were hundreds upon hundreds of colorful, transparent cubes, each as large as a house. There was so much to see at once that the sight consumed Asha’s attention for some time. Most of the cubes were white and arranged in long rows with walkways between them. Interspersed between these were yellow-green cubes, and Asha thought she could see faint outlines of broad leaves through their partially transparent walls. The remaining few were orange and pulsed in brightness in a small group toward the far end of the chamber.
    “Behold, the Vista of Intention.” Jyana waved her hand over the space. “Our people worked for a long time on this complex, but as you’ll soon realize, what you see below is only a shadow of the true majesty of the Mirage.”
    A rumbling sound in the distance startled Asha out of her reverie, and she turned to Jyana. “What is the Mirage?”
    Jyana’s expression grew serious. “The Mirage is where all dreams become reality, Asha. It’s the only way