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UAM/Ages/Torilacha/Journals
Journal on the Table
Shorah Explorer.
I'm sending you this anonymous letter, not out of cowardice but for serious reasons that will become evident once you've completed the journey I propose.
You have completed Yeesha's journey. She has reached her goal. Therefore you have also reached the end of your own journey, because she used you for freeing a Bahro. But she left you behind, alone and abandoned.
You may have seen men exploring the City, they want to restore the ancient city of the D'Ni. They have organised a group called DRC, headed by people with laudable intentions: restore the glory of the D'Ni civilisation. Or so it seems.
They want to manage everything, they hide everything. Ages they discover are put aside, allegedly for security reasons. But they alone can see them, can make this judgment. Why all the secrecy? Why the obscurity?
Do you think that men who have tasted absolute power would renounce it, would share it? They want to uncover the D'Ni secret, the Art of Writing, and it doesn't seem they want to share it.
There was Yeesha, who warned us, but she is gone. And we can't trust her. She wants us to abandon D'Ni and its secrets. And yet the Art could do immense good to mankind, in the same way it made possible the glorious D'Ni civilisation. Why quit now?
The DRC came to me, for I can read D'Ni. But they clearly harbor bad intentions. Clearly, power corrupts.
Yeesha seems to be gone, to releeshan or elsewhere. We're alone.
You followed Yeesha's steps. I believe you act in good faith and you worry about what will become of this knowledge. Something must be done. I spy on them, but i can't follow them. I need help. Can you help me?
Like I did, you must start by understanding the Art. Before they do. To use it against them, and maybe become as powerful as they are.
I'll tell you more later. As a sign of good faith I'm giving you a Book I stole from them. Explore the Age, I don't have time for it. They seems to value it a lot, it must contain valuable secrets.
If you find more Books, or D'Ni writing, make copies or snapshots of them, I will soon tell you how to send them to me for translation. I don't think letters are safe: I'm alone and the DRC is too near.
So I propose a safer and more direct solution. Go to this internet site: http://www.weblin.com/home.php?room=de1&lang=en and create an avatar. Then go to the page for your Age, and there I will tell you discreetly where we can meet.
Best regards, your brother explorer, Dorian.
Journal on the Tall Bookshelf
19-8 de l'hahr 8420
I begin again the analysis of those crystals in this notebook, so that everything I know about them is at the same place.
21-8 de l'hahr 8420
This is more complex than I thought. Some of the triggers cause brief and intense heat, others cause a permanent but gentle warming. This is frustrating, I would prefer to not need those clumsy heaters for using the crystals, which I can find easily near the cavern. Maybe if i combine them...
2 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
So actually crystals react differently, according to the proportions of constituents. Some of the triggers (NOTE: could be "catalysts") I isolated have tremendous heating power, but seem to lose it quickly. Too bad, they carbonized some wood in a few (MISSING TEXT) would be useful.
1|2 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
Surprisingly, the most stable heat-generating constituent loses no power after 1|0 (?) yahr of continuous usage. Too bad it has so little power, it would be the perfect stuff for heating rooms and cooking. With all the problems I have with watering and caring for the sapelli (NOTE: doesn't make sense in French either).
1|5 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
They're really hard to crush, and crystal powder doesn't give the same results as whole crystals. As if the mineral structure was driving the heating capacity of the component.
1|7 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
I have made two classes. One for stable, low-power "triggers" (NOTE: the writer used a word without precise meaning. Someone or something that starts something. Could mean trigger, catalyst, release mechanism, toggle switch, detonator, or even Martin Luther King. In the current context, it could, and probably does, designate the "constituents" in the crystals that generate heat), and others for powerful, short-lived ones. Now I have to do systematic testing in order to classify all the stuff I picked up.
1|8 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
This Age has primitive inhabitants.
Journal in the Cupboard
1-3 de l'hahr 8420
I'm in Toliracha. Ah the joy of stepping into a raw Age, almost unexplored and yet it has everything I need for my projects. Ah! My projects. They will see, all those old goats in the Guild, that my idea can revolutionize the City. Because, I'm certain of it (NOTE: the French version uses feminine adjective, which means the writer is a woman), here I will find plants that will let me put flowers in the Cavern (NOTE: hard to translate. May be "decorate the Cavern with flowers" or "make flowers grow and bloom in the Cavern").
I'm just starting this notebook and I have a hard time describing my emotions from 3 days ago. 3 days hard labor, moving crates, bags and equipment. I ache all over, but I'm happy (NOTE: feminine again), I'm home, in my lab Age: Torilacha.
17-3 de l'hahr 8420
Good. The two rooms are ready. Dearia has agreed to my request for equipment, I can start work right away.
Too may things to do, I must organize, select priorities, otherwise I'm lost. Most urgent is to install the first plantations (NOTE: or plantings, or flower beds) and begin observations. I'll have time to get the lab and other stuff when this is done.
2-5 de l'hahr 8420
The first three planters are ready to receive my first three seedlings. I'll put a Zalsvasis(?) baltikos, a Iridaceae and a sleeper Sapelli. Those are the three most promising species, very resistant, they usually gro on an Age with little light, in the woods. I'll prepare planters for the next species.
Maybe I should just stay with those three for now. Dearia and Philon brought materials for a fireplace, but it doesn't work too well. Don't know why.
1|1 + 7 de l'hahr 8420
The seedlings (saplings?) seem to have rooted well. I can conduct a little expedition outside by (opening?) irrigation more. I'll also gather and bring back some of the crystals Deoria told me about.
1|5 + 7 de l'hahr 8420
That was a nice trip, a little tiring in the end. Carrying six shoefs (?) of stones during a whole day, that's something I haven't done since my studying years in the Guild. Time to get back to observations and experimentation on the crystals. Finally, the iridaceae is adapting well to this low light. It has withered much less than the others and its roots are firm and smell good. Watering seems OK for this one. I'll reduce the water amount for the other two.
1|7 + 7 de l'hahr 8420
Those crystals are dangerous. I put two together and they heated up strongly, scorching my work table. The smoke alerted me. Good thing those tables are resistant, otherwise it could have resulted in fire. ANd my notes on the sleeper sapelli were right next to it. Also my linking book to D'Ni. A near catastrophe. Got to isolate those two crystals. Do experiments to discover their properties. This Age is weirder, it has physical laws more different than usual ones than I thought. And yet I was told they were identical to the ones in D'Ni. I'll have to find out who wrote this Age.
(NOTE: the three last words, "Que je courrir" make no sense.)
2|1 + 7 de l'hahr 8420
My first experiments are going well, I have results already. It is a whole category of crystals that react with another (category?). Not just the ones I accidentally put together, but a whole family. They must contain a (constituent?) that should be isolated. Also, it is not both crystals that generate heat, only the one that reacts with all others. These generate heat on contact. I will name "pole" the one that reacts with all others, those I will name "triggers". This trigger family seems vast, I extract some (missing word, possibly "heat") from tens of nearby (could also translate as "related") crystals that all react with the pole. I'll have to classify them and test their properties.
2 + 8 de l'hahr 8420
Big surprise. Eeartus has quickly answered, and the Writer of this Age is Farmeis, who disappeared in some Age a year ago. Eeartus said he had a brief but excellent carreer, with rare errors and had a rich writing style. They say he (missing verb) Ages from the Kings period, more specifically texts from Ja'xreen writers. Classification of my crystals is going ahead, but I'm not sure it's relevant, as I lack the equipment to perform advanced chemical analysis. Up to now I have found around 15 different trigger crystals. Later I'll perform more serious experiments in my quest for a stable heat source.
1|2 + 8 de l'hahr 8420
I will compile my notes on crystals and plants in notebooks, this will be more convenient.
1|8 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
This Age has primitive inhabitants. This shouldn't be, I insisted on getting an uninhabited Age, for quietness. What has Farmeis done? He couldn't possibly have made such a mistake. Anyway, the D'Ni linking book is right here, I shouldn't be afraid of (missing text). This morning I saw footprints in the sand, not far from the entrance of my tunnel. One set of footprints only, coming and going. Hard to tell. But he left behind a crudely tooled piece of leather, akind of satchel. STiching is crudely done. It is large enough for one stone, maybe a heat-generating one? This is certainly not from D'Ni. SO there ar natives here. SHould I go back to D'Ni and leave my plants now?
1|9 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
I have to put up doors and locks. I'll have to get back to D'Ni. But how do I know he's not going to destroy everything while I'm gone? Bring everything I can with me, that's what I need to do. And install the locks I already brought. That's the most urgent task.
2|0 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
I can't sleep. I haven't seen or heard anything new, but this emptiness that I used to enjoy now bears heavily on my nerves. Thankfully my work with the locks is easier than I thought and I'm almost done. I worked at it all night.
2|1 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
Locks are activated. The code is simple for me, but unfathomable for them. It is the number of days since my arrival here. Even if they read D'Ni, they can't possibly have this information.
2|2 + 9 de l'hahr 8420
I'm back to D'Ni. What a relief. I have lots of stuff to do and I must return to Torilacha as soon as I can. First, find Eeartus and get explanations. And fins other notebooks, this one is almost full.
