These Shadows Remain by B W Powe Page A

have still registered nothing. With his power he had made the toons leap and the humans faint onto the screens. Yet now he seemed void of intention.
    Pluta sensed that Tomas was reconciled to his sides. He had gained an insight from his melding. His physical strength could never match that of a shape-shifting storm. But his awareness of how he could move between dimensions was very great. He could do so by opening his hands, embracing with flesh what couldn’t be seen. Openness was his power.
    The whirlwind subsided into more sighing. Tomas didn’t know what was being said, whether it was an implicit accusation, an offer of solace, some final truth, or an invocation to an energy beyond the torture of its turbulent mask.
    *
    The wind became a cloud.
    Out of the cloud came the voice: “What do you wish to see or know that hasn’t already been shown on the screens? What stage do you wish to understand? Look at the circus the toons have become. Even this new creation is flawed. Give them freedom and they become idiots.”
    Pluta sighed. In this sighing he seemed to recharge himself. The cloud smoothed like a beach left unruffled by a retreating wave.
    â€œNow you’ve come back.” 
    â€œNot the same.”
    â€œNothing’s the same.” 
    â€œI know.”
    â€œAhhh, you’re the one who’s truly learning something.”
    â€œThe images are becoming something other than you intended.”
    â€œNot terribly complex, I’m sorry to say. They just smell worse. And moan sometimes.”
    â€œMore elaborate in their foolishness.” 
    â€œThat’s one way to put it.”
    The cloud let out a stream of sighs. They were more mournful than the first he uttered when Tomas stepped towards him.
    â€œMy children have become as shallow as their watchers. Which the screen? Which the watchers? Things I never foresaw. Things beyond the books.”
    Tomas felt he was being studied. The heat and breath became more embracing, clogging his senses. Then he noticed he was shaking. But the shaking was more from the concentrations of response. There was a discharge of energy occurring between them.

    *
    How could you defeat the whirlwind?
    Tomas wondered if you could outsmart elemental force. Humans seldom fared well in a war with gods. Then it came to him. Don’t fight it. This is what Pluta expected. Don’t try to overpower this singular energy. Let things happen.
    The voice growled in a tone Tomas knew too well.
    â€œThe outmoded human. The weakest cog and the most self-important. The spoiled killer who prides himself on being an angel. You have no idea how the cosmos hates you. Somehow privileged. Somehow standing above things. Somehow with dominion. Somehow destined.”
    Abruptly Pluta shifted.
    â€œEverything human degrades the universe. You were the nightmare long before the images came. You were betrayers long before the images decided against you. You were the shallow ones who couldn’t imagine more. You were the ones who wanted the sacred to be simple, just like most of you. You were the dreamers of freedom who cared nothing for what you enslaved.”
    Gone were the agitations of the spitting static. He spoke in the matter-of-fact way that Tomas heard in Gabrielle’s voice. Chameleon wind. It changed its shape to distract him.
    *
    â€œWe’ve lost her,” Gabrielle said.
    â€œNo no,” Santiago said. “Stay with her. Don’t let her get away.”
    â€œI’ve never felt anyone so light.”
    They knelt beside Adina. Gabrielle lifted her head, Santiago comforted her shoulders. They felt that she was fading away from them and from the world.
    â€œShe’s being absorbed.” Gabrielle understood at last.
    â€œLook over there. The storm is lessening. It isn’t threatening in the way it was before.”
    â€œIt’s softened. Tomas is there.”
    â€œIf you can hear us, Adina, stay. It