After a long march up Gaya’s arms, Tesel’s group and the one led by Lia and Fil met between the shoulders. They found a tunnel up the neck that was behind the windpipe, so they were able to avoid those powerful winds that had killed a number of their warriors in the lung chambers.
Once all of them were level with Gaya’s mouth, they began to hear faint, whispering voices.
“Are the gods and angels speaking to us again?” Fil asked.
“I don’t think it’s’ them,” Lia said. “These voices sound different, and much too close to be from heaven.”
“Let’s listen,” Tesel said. “This could be important.”
“Kill…worm…kill…will,” the voice whispered, over and over.
“Can you understand that?” Lia asked Tesel.
“Unlike when the gods speak their indecipherable babble, I can make out these words…Gaya’s words,” Tesel said. “But how do we interpret the meaning of, ‘Kill worm, kill will?'”
“We know we have to kill the worm,” Fil said. “That’s obvious.”
“We’ll be facing Kappitta on our way back to face Aisa’s army,” Tesel said. “It will probably still be in the stomach and intestinal areas, because that’s where it gets its food. So surely we’ll kill it first, before we face Aisa’s men.”
“But what does ‘kill will’ mean?” Lia asked. “Does it mean that killing Kappitta will destroy our will to carry on and defeat Aisa’s army?”
“That hardly makes sense,” Tesel said.
“Yet, it rather sounds like that’s what Gaya meant,” Fil said.
“Is this the wisdom that Gaya’s brain has for us to defeat Aisa’s army?” Lia asked. “That we have to let Kappitta live?“
“That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Tesel said. “Kappitta has only been bad for Gaya. It must be killed. Besides, it will be in our way before we get to Aisa. We must at least confront it and fight it.”
“So shall we fight it, but not kill it?” Fil asked.
“Let’s continue up to the brain and find out for sure,” Tesel said. “Let’s not jump to any hasty conclusions.”
“Very well, then, troops!” Lia shouted to all the warriors behind her. “Let’s continue up to Gaya’s brain!”
They marched on up.
Infinite Ocean 