The Roar of Andora: Book One

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Oneness of the Cosmos

By evening's fall the late spring stars flickered from out of the dim into the chords of the constellations. Each denoting its own special meaning. Each a hieroglyphic of a Hero from The Days of Old, eternally ensconced in the heavenly bodies.

A fire made of lumbered oak and kindled by the scattered pine needles Jorje swept off his porch in the autumn months sat between the student and the teacher as they spoke in the grove behind Jorje's house.

"You're telling me... that it's—what exactly?"

"It's the life-force inspiring the cosmos."

"Sifün, I'm sorry, but it sounds like you're making stuff up, like, we're in some ancient myth or something."

Jorje smirked, looking into the firelight. "Where do you think the old myths got it from? You don't need to believe what I'm telling you Aaron, but it's the truth."

"That within all of us exists this Aurai?"

"Sure. The Aurai, the Winds, the spirit, the kundalini—whatever you want to refer to it as. No matter the name of the practice, it's all the same."

"I am so lost. You're telling me that you're not the only lunatic that believes in this stuff?"

Jorje smirked. "Lunatic. I like that. Again, Aaron, you don't need to believe it at all. If you want to believe that the only strength known comes purely from the muscles, go right ahead. But you experienced the Aurai yourself."

Aaron stared down at the jolting flames. "So this," Aaron quoted his hands, "Aurai is the power of the entire cosmos?"

"It is all of the Oneness, yes."

"What's the Oneness?"

"Life. Life here on earth. Life after death. Life before birth."

"Hold on—let me get this shit straight." Aaron shook his head, beyond perplexed. "This magical Aurai that dwells within every human and animal and living thing...is also the force that moves the cosmos and is apart of, Oneness? Like, Sifün, I want to believe you, but it sounds like you're making this shit up."

"Do you believe in life after death."

"I guess. Maybe. Yeah."

"Where do you go?"

"Heaven... Hell."

"Can you point me in the direction of either?"

Aaron was urged to point up, but then felt stupid and blanked.

"Can you actually get there from here, on earth?"

"No?"

"And then where are they?"

Aaron shrugged. "What does this have to do with the Aurai?"

"Your soul, your spirit, is but the entirety of the cosmos itself—your Aurai as well. When you die, Aaron, you reunite with the Oneness—the all of everything. All of what's known in the world had come from, and all that it will return to. And that's the soul of everyone. It's only your human identity in this lifetime that makes you—Aaron Evershield." Jorje flagged his hand at Aaron.

"Didn't the Wind Goddesses make the world?"

"And who made them?"

"Well, according to the myths, the Black Wind."

"And where did the Black Wind come from?"

Aaron, again, shrugged.

"The Black Wind came from the Oneness. When you practice the meditations, what you're doing is harnessing your Aurai, the very pure force of the Oneness, the very pure force of Creation itself. It's empowering every living thing right now, it empowers every interaction we all make, whether we're aware of it or not. Radiating in and out of you. Just some have learned to control the Aurai, concentrate it, so to speak."

"Sifün this is—"

"It's what, Aaron?"

"Like, I just don't believe it. Like, I know I felt this 'Aurai,' but—"

"But nothing. If you someday ever travel the world, walk through the lands of all different cultures—they all reflect back on the Oneness, whatever name it comes by. And almost every culture has a practice of utilizing it."

"And this 'Oneness' or 'Aurai,' or whatever, is what I'm controlling when I attack with a sword?"

"All the sword is doing is acting as a vessel for the Aurai you've concentrated and controlled within yourself. It's really quite simple." Jorje looked back down to the fire. "What'd you think? Time to call it a night?"

Although Aaron resisted accepting his teacher's existential theories, something about what Jorje said felt true to him. If it weren't for experiencing the harnessed power of the Aurai through the simple flick of his teacher's wrist earlier, Aaron would've written Jorje off as a crazy mystic. But having brushed the world beyond his, Aaron couldn't discount it. Something had to be true.

Casting his eyes towards the constellations, Aaron wondered if the Aurai was what actually motivated the stars along their celestial trail. Aaron then thought of how there was so much more to the world than he had ever known. "Yeah," he said. "Let's call it a night."

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