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Updated: June 20, 2025
It was evening before Kalus said anything to Sylviana of the morning's adventures. First there had been work to do, then he felt reluctant to worry her. Finally, as they sat side by side on a flat stone before the diminishing fire, she asked him. 'Where did Avatar take you? For an answer he reached into his pouch and took out the cactus buds, and laid them on the stone between.
As if in imitation, Kalus determined to begin the work at once. Using one of the poles from the neglected frame, he carved a handle for the rusty ax-head the girl had found. He sharpened its cutting edge as best he could, and with the sun at its height, set out to begin felling trees. Sylviana went with him, along with Kamela, for warning and added protection.
Then both voice and spirit were gone, and only Earth-life remained in the chamber. 'Wait! cried Sylviana. 'You can't leave me here, please. Come BACK. But even as she spoke the image in the mirror faded, and a narrow beam of violet light shot forth from its place in the glass. Coming to rest in the center of Kalus' forehead, it seemed to hold him there against his will.
So he worked, and waited, and prayed to the wind which knew could not hear. While the woman-child, oblivious, pursued the treacherous shadow of revenge. It should be said in her defense that Sylviana had not stopped loving him.
He was ready to break his back and his heart to construct the shelter Sylviana had described, but all pleasure had gone out of the thought. It was still morning when the young mantis emerged, looking little better than it had the day before.
As Sylviana read to him the last chapter of Hemingway, the futility of life congealed into a single, inescapable blade that no longer hovered at a distance, but stood poised like a needle above his heart. All was black, and like Kamela before him the very throbbing of his heart, with its surges of love and hope was the final, crushing despair.
Realizing there was nothing more she could do, she remained there in uncertain melancholy, her mind buried deep in her thoughts. Peering down at the entrance of the larger cave, Sylviana kept her vigil. Kalus had long since fallen asleep, something which troubled her deeply. She could not understand how he could be so indifferent about the fate of her only friend.
And this, a vision of the inextinguishable nature of life, was in that hour both a joy and an indescribable sadness to behold. As the boat rounded a high promontory, a hidden inlet was revealed to them. Sylviana gasped, and Kalus lifted his spear in alarm. But there was no danger. No physical danger at least.
Using the wood Akar had brought him, Kalus built a small fire and they divided the cooked meat between them. Sylviana had protested slightly, but given in when informed that regardless of the Mantis' decision, there could be no more free meals of sebreum. There was an air of restless tension in the small enclosure.
The would follow a small, tree-blinded stream to the hills. The Hill. There could only be one. 'Sylviana. Kalus sat crouched and still among the twisted bramble that grew, overshadowed by oak and maple, at the base of the hill. He had reached the narrow vale first and seen them coming, as he thought, from the west.
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