Read Online The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3) by Andrew M. Crusoe - Free Book Online

he could call furniture except for a puffy, round platform nestled up against one of the curved corners of the house. Beyond that was a wide opening that led into a balcony where Asha was already waiting.
    “When she called it the sunset suite, she wasn’t kidding.”
    Zahn zipped over, carefully navigating around the strange objects that were interspersed throughout the room, and joined her out on the wide balcony. From here, it was difficult to discern individual buildings, the city appearing as a collage of eccentric shapes that hung effortlessly over part of the sea.
    When he leaned over to the side to examine the suite’s architecture, he noticed that the balcony was supported by nothing at all.
    “Yikes!” he called out. “A balcony like this is liable to put a guy on edge.”
    Asha rolled her eyes at him. “You are the corniest person in the galaxy. You realize that, right?”
    “Shh.”
    Her gaze drifted back down to the city, and Zahn’s eyes followed hers, noticing for the first time that, within the huge variation of shapes, there was a discernible pattern. From here, it was easier to see that the entire city was arranged in concentric circles, and on the far edges of the city, Zahn could discern figures flying around several new domes that were being built.
    “These people seem addicted to building things,” he said.
    Asha looked over to him. “Can’t say I blame them. If you had the power to create huge structures directly from your imagination, would you be any different?”
    Zahn said nothing, his eyes following one of the long spokes back to the center of the city, where it joined the others near the egg-shaped monument.
    The Empress Monument.
    Something about that made a chill run up Zahn’s spine.
    “Classic hub and spoke model,” he said. “Your father’s outpost is laid out the same way, isn’t it?”
    “Yep.” Asha wandered back inside, examining their bizarre living arrangement, and Zahn followed her over to the round puffy platform he’d seen earlier. “I wonder if this is a bed.”
    While she examined it, Zahn noticed a large window, also round, that overlooked a valley on the other side of the suite, not unlike the one where they’d landed. When he looked intently, he thought he could make out ruined structures on the far end of the valley, but it was too far to be sure. Then a strange thought came to him. If they were both nonphysical, if he only inhabited his etheric body, then why should there be any limit to how far he could see?
    With a burst of curiosity, he focused intently on an unnatural shape in the distance, and to his astonishment, his perception of it grew and grew. An image of a long, toppled tower covered in yellow-green shrubs flashed into his mind. Behind it, countless more bits of stone littered the landscape.
    “Hey Asha, can you see a fallen tower in the distance? I don’t know about you, but I can see a lot farther in this realm than I could in the physical.”
    Asha furrowed her eyebrows and looked out. “Hmm.”
    “Way out there, behind the strange projections. It looks like pieces of an old tower. If you relax your mental focus, you should be able to—”
    But before Zahn could finish, a wave of exhaustion hit him, and he completely lost his balance.
    Asha caught him just before he hit the floor. “Careful, Zahn! You know, I think Jyana was right. I think manifesting that object must have taken a lot out of you.”
    To his surprise, she picked him up and brought him over to the round platform on the other side of the room. “Why don’t you lie down?” She gently put him down onto the bed, and he found he couldn’t speak. “I’ll look for the energy packets that Jyana mentioned, okay?”
    “I don’t know what happened.” Zahn whispered as he sank slightly into the puffy platform. “I just felt weak all of a sudden.” His vision blurred as the full weight of his fatigue hit him. His eyes grew heavier, and before he knew it, he lost