hastaabhyaamabh ayapradaaM maNigaNairnaanaa vidhairbhuushhitaam.
bhaktaabhiishhTaphalapr adaam harihara brahmaadibhiH sevitaaM
paarshve paNkaja shaNkhapadmanidhibhi ryuktaam sadaa shaktibhiH.
...
Slowly, calm returned. All the other deer had fled in panic with her assault of the great stag, scattering the smaller animals before them. Now her great jaws ripped at the stag's throat, her massive claws dug at its flesh. The scent of fresh warm blood filled her nostrils, the taste of it filled her mouth.
But in the new quiet, she knew she was not alone. Behind her she heard the clumsy scampering of her young cub, and its pitiful mewling crying out to her, but she didn't turn away from her kill.
Durga's heart raced as the life of the stag reached her empty stomach. She watched her cub circle the body of the dead stag, but not approaching too close for fear of being swatted away.
And then their eyes met and the cub drew closer, still wary, nostrils flaring at her hot, bloody breath. Closer she came until they almost touched.
The empty husk that had been Anubis lay crumpled at her feet. Sick, black, writhing in confusion and pain, the half-ascended creature clung to its old robes unable to separate itself. And above it, beautiful and bright and glorious, pulsating with energy, Maya hovered.
Behind them, as their battle raged, the gate splashed out. Sam could only watch as the defeated Goa'uld dragged its broken corpse away. Desperate that it shouldn't escape, Sam tried to intercept it, yet Maya stayed between them as it fled.
And when the gate closed, Maya stood tall before her. With a gesture Sam's robe fell away and Maya placed her hands on her shoulders. At her touch, the simple design painted on Sam's body dissolved; at her smile, a new, more intricate design etched itself on her skin; at her sigh, dark and burning pain flooded Sam's senses as the spirit of Durga filled her more completely than ever before; at the single tear welling in her eye, the gate opened again and Maya flung her Mother through it.
Maya stood silently as her Mother raced away from the stars falling in the sky, shaking her head as her mother screamed.
Yet all this while one man had remained, watching quietly. Maya turned to him and smiled. Slowly, he nodded and walked away, fading into the shadows.
...
My name is Maya.
My mother is of the Tau'ri, my father from an old, old people who were but children to the Ancients. Myself, I am neither Ancient nor Tau'ri, yet still I go where I will and do what I will. My mate is Nafrayu of the Nox. Together we walk the stars, journeying from world to world – I have my mother's curiosity – we do not interfere — but we do take... precautions.
I am... old.
Before I was born I flew with the fenri.
Before I was born my spirit found its freedom above the treetops. I sang with delight at the marvelous beauty of the forest and the life teeming within it. I didn't know about comfort or warmth or any of the other things mothers like to associate with their unborn child. There was no remedy to take from the rhythm of Mother's beating heart. I didn't know pain or fear, I knew only joy and delight.
Then the visions began.
True satori came to me with no escape. With it came an awareness of self, of identity. I knew who I was, what I was, where I was. I knew the truth of my Father, whose lineage is so much older than he would believe. I knew my Mother, and the truth of her newly-altered DNA. All that they were unfolded before me.
I knew. I saw.
Still, there was no fear — the concept was meaningless. The world was simple; it was less complicated to separate illusion from reality, to distinguish the truth. I visited often with Mother in the Garden; I sat with Master Chen; but I could never resist the call of the fenri.
Mother and Father had made their home on the small island where they'd first met, where I was conceived. It was a dangerous time, a paradox, an enigma filled with ghostly images that had no meaning that could be easily explained. It was a learning time.
I am Maya.
It is what Nafrayu called me. It was Nafrayu who spoke my true name when I was born. I see the memory in Mother's eyes whenever she looks at me; how Nafrayu had said "Hello, Maya" as if we had known each other for ever, and the look of wonder as Mother held me in her arms for the first time.
My name is Maya. And as I grow, as I wander, as I walk the stars, I will be known by many more names – more than I care to remember – but there will always be some that I may never forget. To some, I am Kali, I am the black, the destroyer, the darkness that falls. To others...
I was five years old when Mother died. I'd known my whole life that she would. I held Nafrayu's hand so tightly the day she left, I was so afraid that she wouldn't understand that I had to let her die. Nafrayu had helped me make the dye. We'd found the whitest flowers, the freshest leaves and the darkest berries. Father had painted Mother's skin in celebration for what was to come, but even he could not know the truth.
And I was five years old when I died — but I alone have been reborn so many times and kept all the memories of what was and what yet may be.
...
And for the shortest time that lasted forever there was nothing.
The next... "My God! It's full of..." Sam blushed as the stars faded, as a new world solidified about her — as a new aspect of the warrior settled gently before her.
"What is this place?" Sam asked. "I mean, even now I can see in you all the warriors, all the women that have carried Durga before, and we are the last." She hesitated. "But... this place?"
"Always questions," the warrior said. "I remember how difficult it was at first for me to understand, but I was young then," she smiled. "I have always known all that you know; I have always known all that you will ask. We are here, now, and yet all you wonder is how you returned? Your thoughts are so ten-dimensional."
"But there are only ten – well, eleven, – but —"
"And it depends where you start counting. You learned that lesson before; you taught it to Daniel."
"But..." Sam knew her instinct was to answer and think later, refining her thought processes, reducing a problem to its simplest form. "Feynman stated that quantum tunneling allows..."
"Always it's quantum," the disappointment in her voice was almost painful. "I am not you, nor am I what you will be. Forget Planck and Schrodinger and Feynman; yes, photons travel the path of least time, but forget about solving the sum over histories, at least until you can do it for more than hydrogen atoms. Remember what you were taught. Where is the broken mirror?"
"But...," Sam started.
"Always it's but."
The shape of the warrior solidified before her, became sharper, losing the previous incarnations. "Time is a state of mind," Sam said.
"Yes, yes, yes. And space is an illusion," the warrior said impatiently. "The way beyond is so much more than the eleven dimensions of time and space that you know. But there are limitations; it's harmful even to us if we travel to where we should not be."
"And yet —"
"We do not interfere," the warrior corrected her. "Yet here I am with you now, and perhaps together we might find the answers that we both seek."
"And we are the last." Sam didn't smile. "What should I call you? Are you really Maya?" Sam laughed, but there was no joy to it. "Ah, but your skin is clear. Are you Grace? Or have you chosen some other name?"
"Yes, I am Maya. I will always be your daughter, just as I will always be Grace to watch over you. But you would be the lever of life upon times... Three worlds, Mother. You will persist in the eternal garden to defy me — yes, I know that, too. You will see the Master Chen reborn, just as I know that you will try to turn Daniel away from me."
"I do love you, Maya, but —" Sam began, understanding dawning.
"And you," Maya interrupted, "You would return to Father, to rebuild what his people once had. And you would continue to walk with your own people, too; to sacrifice your life for your Colonel. Yet you will not join with me and walk with mine?" Maya closed her eyes, turning away.
"It has to be, Mother," Maya continued. "What I am now... You will watch me die so that I will live on. And what was done to stop Anubis when he ascended... I would not allow it then just as I would not let Daniel stop him. I see more than you do, Mother. Do not blame yourself," Maya paused. She knew her Mother had already left. "And do not blame me because my way is not yours," she finished quietly.