The cable swung, knocking her heavily into the shaft’s wall, then broke. Althea fell, hitting the hard bottom with her shoulder, gasping and shuddering with the impact.

Other impacts were pounding into the platform above. Powerful explosions rumbled in the distance, resonating so deeply she could feel it in her bones. She pulled out Dorian’s case, held it tight as she curled up against the wall.

The shaft shook again, the muffled, mighty explosions pounding from above shook the walls furiously. Debris, small and large rained down upon her while the floor of the shaft beneath her rocked and bucked.

What were her chances of survival – even considering the depth of the shaft?

Terror of burning, crashing trees, flash of flames and destruction, memories of the child she had once been – flooded into her mind. The transformation in death, she recalled the litany shouted over it, her grandmother’s last rites. Althea focused on the memory with all her will.

“I will not fear the coming of shadows.” The darkness of the forest called all, but the faithful, humanity had come from the sky, from the sun, from the flames.

“For I am bathed in the light.” The cold, hard surface rocked again beneath her.

“I will not fear the touch of the one.” The expression of universal oneness, where they all had come from – the beginning… “for it is the touch of love.”

The finale – the collapse of its trunk, branches, into the final conflagration…

“I will not fear the end of life for it is the end of loneliness.”

The floor bucked again, a heavy object falling from above her shoulder, head with stunning, painful force.

“Oneness brings understanding of all that was and all that will be,” she continued, despite the pain.

Still the peals of thunder continued. When was it going to stop?

“Oneness restores the touch of all that have gone before.”

Would find them all: old friends, her sister, brother, mother, father, grandmother, teachers – where she would be going?

“Oneness brings completeness, the new birth, in the new place, the new paradise, the new world,” the final promise of a world without pain, without fear.

Althea curled tighter as the thunder above continued without abating, ignoring her prayer.

“Take me for, I have come to you.”

She screwed her eyes tight.

“Take me – for I give my all.”

She hoped Dorian would be there too, that she wouldn’t leave him behind.

“Take me for I am all for you.”

The final submission to The One and oneness – maybe she never would find out where her search, where the path to the truth of the Macros would lead. Althea held herself tightly, praying silently for forgiveness.

Then it was over. Pounding thunder gone, leaving only her labored breathing, the throbbing pain of her shoulder, head – yet again – and the pitter-patter of falling dust and debris. She wasn’t dead, couldn’t be, it hurt too much. Slowly, Althea rose, brushing aside the shattered debris that had fallen on her. Felt over the matted hair on her head, the sticky wetness of fresh blood.

She stared up at the bit of light, still marking the opening high above. The quiet stretched to a three.

A distant blast shook more dust free.

Then it was quiet again.

Turning away from the point of light, fingers fumbling with the latches in her coat, she pulled out Dorian’s case, checked its interface. His casing was clean, fully intact. She felt the rush of gratitude that while her audio buds were loosened, they still worked just fine.

You’ve done well, he told her, intending to comfort.

“It’s not over,” in the darkness, the quiet – Althea could feel the pull again – the desire, the need. She couldn’t take comfort in what she’d done. “Not yet.”