Chapter V

Solandre & Aimiko

The walls and floor of the Gevurium rotated in unison, their crystalline crimson surfaces alive with millions of shifting designs. Light danced from every direction, converging and diverging in a mesmerizing display to multiple destinations.

Within this kaleidoscope, three silhouettes glowed with an ethereal light, mirroring her own. They draw closer, and together the four figures joined hands, forming a circle. As their fingertips met, the surrounding light was drained into the walls, granting their bodies definition and revealing their true forms. They stood as projections of human flesh, united and bare, with nothing to conceal, all and the same.

Zanda felt the embrace of her Naadi, a soft red wave of Vis, and recognized Refius directly before her. His presence had always been a source of immense knowledge and empathy, his Naadi glowed with the yellow of autumn leaves.

The two unfamiliar souls radiated a soft purple Vis, marked by patterns Zanda had never seen before. Refius met her gaze with clear blue eyes and spoke in energy waves "You were anxious, I understand. This is a unique moment; relax," he advised, then turned to introduce the newcomers. "These consciousnesses belong to Solandre and Aimiko."

Shock coursed through Zanda. Both of those names evoked legends, heroes from the first generation of Gevurah in Malkuth, their tales woven into the fabric of her childhood through virtual experiences, documentaries and graphic novels.

Before she could introduce herself, Refius interjected, "They already know everything about you, Zan," he said, a playful smirk on his face.

Aimiko’s sixth dimensional soul floated just above the moving floor, circling the group and leaving a trail of purple Naadi. Her voice filled the space, "Zanda Effenzi, born in the twelfth millennium of the Holocene calendar, your lineage and upbringing are well known to us. Your mother, Keta, a renowned Netzach acclaimed for her contributions to mathematics and music…"

Solandre moved in a counter orbit to Aimiko, his own trail of naadi weaving through the air, feeding that multidimensional room with Vis. "And your father, Louise, a member of the Chesed dedicated to the study of Neurological Synesthesia. Despite their illustrious careers, you, dear Zanda, are their crowning achievement."

Her naadi radiated with waves of different shades of blue, overwhelmed by such a compliment. Refius stood in front of her apprentice, his smile stretching from ear to ear, brimming with pride. They were consciousnesses belonging to a pair of the most iconic gevurah in history. The Superiors sped around her in the moving chamber inside Gevurium, intensifying both their naadis.

Aimiko flew suspended, opposite to Solandre.

"Mysteries to life remain unexplained. Why are we here? Why have we arrived at this precise moment in history? Despite everything we did, our wrongs, the hate, fear, and pain, the loss, the wars we fought, the lives we took, the stains of blood in our history will remain there permanently. Yet, even as we stand here today, we can't help but wonder: Is our presence here merely a coincidence resulting from our choices? Are we following a path leading us to a specific outcome that justifies our behavior? Where are we headed? Are we alone in the universe? Is this merely quanta over infinite entropic interactions tied to this planet? Another conjunction of time, space, and matter?"

Such mysteries were a common topic among the Malkuthians. They shared a collective existential crisis, trying to understand their role in the universe.

"Throughout our lifetimes, we've attempted to comprehend ourselves through history. Even though our history books were filled with inconsistencies, we now possess the technology to reveal the interpreted past with great detail, as it truly happened. We've spent a significant portion of our lives seeking a clue to what's next, but we were fools. There's an infinite number of possibilities for our species."

Their voices merged; Zanda couldn't identify which Naadi belonged to whom. Both emanated with the same shades of purple, creating a white vortex of Vis energy around her.

“In a few days, we will become one with Yesod and leave our duties as superior gevurah. We have chosen you to hold our knowledge because, Zanda, you have the key to our future within yourself.”

The newest gevurah felt goosebumps all over her body in the third dimension.

The Yesod were the branch of elders of Malkuth. Sephirah, centuries old, that shared their experiences with their descendants, using their wisdom to guide the young in the right direction. They served as advisors to the contemporary generations, aiding them to forge their destinies without directly interfering.

This system allowed the status quo of the planet to rest on the shoulders of the most innovative and thoughtful minds from its current society. There, between thoughts, she realized, this experience was a passage ceremony known as Kabalatio.

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Solandre and Aimiko's final act as gevurah was meant for Zanda, leaving her to question why. Over a century and a half they had mentored many apprentices; she was not meant to be part of any such ceremonies unless Refius retired. Even then, he would need to choose her over his other apprentices to inherit those experiences. So, why her?

Solandre and Aimiko seemed to read her thoughts, responding, "You are another mystery, our dear child. Your training did nothing but confirm the suspicions we had about you eighteen years ago when your kabbalah indicated your desire to become one with The Gevurah…"

Zanda could barely see Refius, the Vis wall between them thickening.

"You've overcome every obstacle your education, training, and life has imposed, always with the best probable outcome. Your time spent training in Asporto is proof of that. You scored higher statistics than any other gevurah in our era."

The warmth enveloping her was calming. Aimiko and Solandre's barrier drew her consciousness to the chamber's center, emanating energy from sacred patterns, leaving her speechless and cloaked with one of the purest naadis she'd ever encountered.

"Zanda, you've brought everything we've experienced in our entire existence into question, down to the atom. Your generation is the next step in our evolution. We give you this gift, hoping it will illuminate your path through the unknown journey that is life. May our experiences provide you with wisdom for the times ahead."

The Vis vortex merged with her, "Believe in yourself because we do, and soon, our whole kind will too."

She felt an incredible energy coursing through the link between her consciousness and body across planes of existence.

"Aequitas, Zanda Effenzi," Aimiko's voice faded away.

"May the next generation become the best version of our species, benediximus and aequitas, Zanda," Solandre's voice also disappeared.

Their connection ended.

"Aequitas," she responded, everything around her shaking. Her consciousness was pulled from the Gevurium dimension, then there was whiteness in every direction, timeless yet fleeting. Her body and mind were overwhelmed by the massive influx of energy and information.

Zanda found herself back in her body, free falling towards the ocean. As she neared its surface, her vision narrowed. Reacting, she called for her merkabah, but it was unresponsive, like dead weight.

Thinking of her companion, she cried out, "Gia!" to no avail. For the first time in decades, she couldn't sense her kabbalah.

Her yellow crystaphene bodysuit broke through the ocean's surface, plunging deep. "Gia!" she called again, voice breaking, unanswered.

Trapped in her shield, she dived into the dark depths of the Tasman Sea, her vision limited to the marine life around, whales visible in the distance. Unable to move, she accepted her descent, calming as an emergency light blinked on her armor, and a powerful current swept her into the murky waters. It felt endless, her existence a speck in a vast, uncaring vortex.

After a moment of contemplation under the immense pressure, an idea struck her—it was all about her weight.

She relaxed, preparing to harness the synthesis within her atoms. Her body bent with the vortex's force, tumbling into the abyss. Focusing her mind, she channeled her Vis energy to push away from the current, feeling every cell in synchrony before being interrupted.

“That was intense!” Gia’s voice surges. “I believe my system overcharged with the flow of incoming energy. I apologize, Zanda.” Both of her kabbalah and merkabah were back online, filling the void of uncertainty within her.

It made sense, explaining the ordeal as a matter of time until a reboot. A weight lifted from her shoulders, replaced by a feeling of lightness, as if she had run a thousand-mile marathon in seconds.

"Gia, are you okay?"

"Yes, thank you for asking. It was a lot of information to process. I wasn't expecting any of it."

"Neither was I," Zanda reflected on Solandre and Aimiko's actions, incredulous. "You know what happened, right?"

"Do you realize what it means?" Gia hinted at the significance, hard to overlook since the events at the Gevurium were so clear.

"A great responsibility. It was naive to even consider taking a break."

"The incoming data was too fast and vast for the merkabah to process, receiving petabytes from a multidimensional connection in seconds!" The kabbalah sounded excited, aware of the knowledge awaiting discovery and learning.

They resurfaced, Zanda's T.H.I.C. dissolved into a billion nanites as she took a deep breath. The sunrise continued its ascent on the horizon. The entire event had spanned only fifteen minutes.

“Gia, contact Refius and resume our trajectory,” the merkabah places her body back in a flying position. "How was it for you, Gia? I know the suit overheated, but how did you experience it?" She sought to reassure her kabbalah of their shared experience.

"Absolute darkness. When it shut down, I had nothing, losing access to everything and all sense of time. I saw everything coming and then nothing."

“Not feeling you close was scary. It was a terrible darkness to think you were gone, Gia.”

"I was there but couldn't communicate. Silence was all I had." Her kabbalah struggled with the notion of Zanda's eventual departure, facing eternity without her.

As they flew towards Civitas Agricolae, Zanda's entire body succumbed to sleep, her companion reducing the suit's speed to let her rest before arrival.

****

That's it for Chapter V!

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Aequitas and much love,

Indigo Sapiens.

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