Book 9. Chapter 35: The Weight of the Infinite
Panic spiked, but Jake quickly went entirely on his Hearthforging instincts. He immediately latched onto the swirling, multifaceted fiery jewel of Svaha, forcibly mixing it with the array’s and Sati’s flames and shunting it into the center of his Hearth Nexus, willing the new sixth Hearthian bond toward Sati. The fiery, gemlike beanstalk spiraled up his bond, arriving at the castle he had built in his hexagonal sphere.
He braced himself for the exhausting, delicate work of carving away incompatible divine domains, just as he had done to remove Varuna's absolute forgiveness using his void flames. Of locking away what made Sati special and matching the Divine Essence to her values and virtues.
But as the Divine Essence reached the castle and he held it in place as it locked in and enriched the bond, he realized there was nothing to carve. Sati's Shuddha Anāhata Agni and Svaha's spark were a flawless, one-to-one resonance.
There appeared to be no conceptual friction. It was as if each piece of essence easily flowed through and congealed onto the Demonic Runes as if they were simply perfectly shaped keyholes. Sati’s fires were the flames of purification and unity, and Svaha’s Essence just grew up to meet Sati’s side of things.
Furthermore, Jake realized that any excess divine pressure that threatened to crack Sati's Tier 2 core would be effortlessly siphoned upward, bleeding into the massive celestial Fire Moon in orbit. It should have been the easiest, most perfect integration he could facilitate.
Jake did not allow himself to relax. Not fully. Hestia’s warning still pressed at the back of his mind: the gift was heavier than expected, and he could not let its immensity draw his eyes from the center. He moved his focus to Agni’s Spark, preparing himself for the true challenge.
That was when the second spark moved all on its own.
Agni’s heavy, primal ember was pulled toward the hungriest thing in the room: Jake’s Void. The spark struck the edges of his Hearthian Core like a falling star, and his Void answered before his conscious will could stop it.
Because Jake had been prepared to forge Sati’s bond, not to have his own soul challenged by an Elder God’s essence, he was violently yanked out of his physical senses. His consciousness expanded with agonizing, instantaneous speed into Agni’s Tripartite Vision.