Ka'alan's Journal
~Fan Fiction~
We have all been asked to write our personal experiences. These are to be collected and installed in the new Library of D'ni when it is complete. It is hoped that writing our experiences will bring a sense of closure to the trauma of the past and provide an important historical document for the future, so I am happy to do it. Before The Great Destruction, I wrote a little something in my journal each day, a habit I learned from my parents, but since then I have been so distressed and then so much occupied, I've not thought of writing and would have found it difficult to spare the time and energy, even had the materials been at hand.
I am Ka'alan. In the old days of D'ni's glory I was a guildswoman of the Guild of Clothiers. Our guild was one of the earliest to be formed, and our guild Ages provided us with marvelous materials for our craft. Our guild had many specialties and subdivisions, but we were a united guild, all divisions working together.
I was a skilled worker in my craft and proud of what I had accomplished. I was the orphaned daughter of a lower district shopkeeper with no prospects, and I had risen to a place of security within a respectable guild by long and hard work. It wasn't easy for a common citizen to rise in D'ni society without family, wealth, or connections, but it was possible if one was diligent.
In those days just before the Destruction, I was assigned to the work of doing the uniforms and personal garments for domestic servants in the households of some of the moderately important Guild Masters. This was a very good position, because if the lady of the house liked my work, she might request that I do some work for her as well. That might lead to further promotion. At only 51 years of age, I had achieved much, and I had a long career ahead of me. How different my view of the future is now, than I imagined it then!
In this phase of my work, I often traveled to the homes of the servants whose clothes I made. It was so much easier for me to go to them for fittings than that they should leave their work and come to us at the Guild, perhaps inconveniencing their employers.
One evening I happened to be in the home of Master Fahir of the Guild of Surveyors. I was in the servant's hall taking measurements for the new uniforms the Mistress had ordered for her maids, when we heard a terrible noise! The house shook with the earth quake that immediately followed. Before we recovered ourselves, the great bell of the D'ni started to ring and another, stronger quake struck!
For a moment we stood there gaping at each other. One of the maids began to shriek hysterically until the Steward, Greth, shook her and told her to be quiet. She closed her mouth with a snap and stared at him wide-eyed. He said, his voice clear even over the sound of the bell, that they ought to check the rest of the house and see that the Mistress was safe. His orders to the men were quickly obeyed. I raised my eyebrows at his departing back, amazed that he could be so calm and organized at a time like this!
Unwilling to be left behind, we all followed Greth upstairs to where the Mistress had been going over her household accounts. We crowded round her, me at the back as has always been my habit.
I could see she was as frightened as we were, but she controlled herself with valiant effort, and even tried to reassure us. Her quivering voice stopped in the middle of a forced platitude, and she stared, gaping with horror over our shoulders. Turning to look, we were drawn irresistibly to the window which faced the City.
Across the water we could see a huge crack had opened in the wall of the cavern and some kind of yellow-brown gas was pouring in through it! Another quake shook us then, this time even stronger.
The house was very well made and there seemed to be no structural damage, but small things tumbled off shelves and tables to the floor. Instinctively one of the maids started to pick things up, but the Mistress told her to leave it. She said we'd simply go into the family's Age, Silaro, and wait until things calmed down here. There would be time enough to clean up when we got back.
She told the Steward to gather the whole household and make sure no one was left behind, and to leave a letter for Master Fahir, telling him what had happened and where we'd be. Greth organized the menservants to search and secure the house, and sat down to write out a letter at the Mistress' desk.
The Mistress led the women to the Book Room. It was a windowless room with thick walls and a heavy door in the center of the house. She took the weepiest of the maids and put her hand on the book. The girl linked and the room got a lot quieter. The maid who had been silenced by Greth had developed the hiccups and they sounded strangely loud in the enclosed room. The other women formed a sort of a line, and the Mistress stood by the book calling them by name and directing them to link one by one.
Greth came in then, with the letter in his hand, and seeing me still standing there in the doorway, he sent me back to the servants' hall for my sewing things. He told me I could continue my work in Silaro while we waited. No use sitting around idle. I didn't dare disobey, although I felt an increasing dread the more distance I put between me and that Book! As I left the room, I collided with the cook and heard the Steward ask him if all was secured in the kitchen.
I ran down to the Servants' Hall and got my things as quickly as I could. I was unfamiliar with the house and had simply followed the others upstairs without noticing my surroundings much. It took me some time to find the servant's hall, gather my things and start back up the stairs. During that time I'd seen no one else about.
I had reached the main floor when I met the Steward at the foot of the stairs. He didn't even try to hide his annoyance. He said the Mistress was worried that his Master would return in the midst of the gas, which she claimed had an unwholesome look. He said she had told him to go and warn the Master personally.
The Master was in his private Age, the Book of which he kept in his laboratory. It seems the Mistress felt it was a bit unsightly to have his experiments out in the open, so he'd made hidden panels to conceal his workroom and supply rooms. His private Age had something to do with his volcanic experiments. Not the sort of Age to keep in a respectable Book Room, so he'd made a small room for it off his workroom.
I walked along with the Steward as he told me this. Just before he linked he told me to get back upstairs to the Book Room, link into Silaro and make myself useful.
I was out of the workroom before he was fully gone, the panels sliding shut automatically behind me. The great bell had ceased to ring and there was an unnatural quiet. The cries from the city were muffled. I hurried up the stairs, hoping that the Steward hadn't locked the Book Room door!
It stood open, as the other rooms in the house were all open. It suddenly struck me how vulnerable it all was. It had been quite some time since the terrible acts of terrorism had been stopped by the Maintainers, but the feeling of security I'd had before the attacks had been lost forever.
All alone in the house, feelings of dread overcame me. I began to think how vulnerable we all were in Silaro with the book right here in the open Book Room. What if the quakes or the gas damaged the book? We could all be trapped there forever!
On impulse, ashamed and yet not able to resist, I grabbed up the Book and ran back down to the workroom. Even knowing where the room was, it took me a few minutes to find the mechanism to open the panels.
Once inside with the doors safely closed behind me, I took the Book of Silaro and set it on the table in the tiny room where the other Book was kept. Shutting that door behind me, I faced the open Books. The only light was from their glowing panels. I placed my hand on the page and linked into Silaro.
What happened next, I've only been told by the grateful Steward, as I wasn't there. He found the Master only after a considerable delay. Master Fahir was deeply engrossed in his work, many miles from the cabin where he kept his linking book. Knowing he could be anywhere, and not wanting to miss him, Greth had simply stayed there waiting for him. Eventually he returned, and hearing Greth's tale, they immediately returned to D'ni, taking the precaution of wearing masks and air tanks on account of the gas.
When they linked into the closed bookroom, and saw both books there together, they were both puzzled. The Steward told him that I had been the last to leave, and he told me with a blush that he'd made some disparaging remarks about my placing the Silaro Book there with the other.
When they went out through the rest of the house, he felt a lot differently! The place was in chaos. Things were tossed around and broken up. They thought there had been further quakes until they saw the messy footprints that trailed everywhere through the house. It was clear that people had been there and had purposely done damage. There were prints in the Book Room, and in the Library. Books were thrown about. Furniture was overturned. Closets ransacked. The place was a horrible mess.
They went to the roof of the house and used their glasses to stare across at the City. There was a great deal of damage, but they thought they saw some scattered lights. In the boat house, they had another unpleasant surprise. Someone had damaged all the boats in common use. Sunk them. The Master had to take out the small craft he'd used as a boy and they used that to go to the City.
They saw destruction everywhere. The quakes had done terrible damage. They met a few guildsmen in protective suits who were cleaning up the remaining bodies, giving them a decent burial in an Age created for the purpose. They heard about the destruction at the Common Library, and how the body of Lord Veovis himself had been found down by the harbor!
They told me that it seemed that all the Ages, even private Ages, had been desecrated! Millions were dead. Even now I can hardly comprehend it. How could they have done something so terrible?! The Steward even told me that he thought Silaro would have fared the same if I had not put the Book into the hidden closet with the other Book! I certainly don't feel so silly about my little burst of paranoia now!
The destruction in D'ni was of an undreamed of magnitude. While they were gathering and organizing themselves and discussing what to do, another quake struck, causing even more damage and killing a guildsman! It was the final heartache. To have so few and lose another!
As the aftershocks of the final quake further settled the rubble, it was quickly decided that it was too risky to rebuild in D'ni. They searched as thoroughly as they could under the circumstances for undamaged Ages. These they visited, warning the people not to return. They gathered the Books together and took them to an Age called Tigano, where they spent some time discussing the situation.
It was decided that they must sever all ties to D'ni rather than risk that Veovis' fellow conspirators could somehow follow us and wreck more havoc. Fearful, also, that the desire to return might prove too tempting, all Linking Books back to D'ni were collected and destroyed but one.
Two guildsmen were dispatched back to D'ni. They arranged things so that when they linked back to Tigano, the linking book would fall into a vat of acid. After their return to Tigano, the last Linking Book to D'ni was destroyed in a solemn ceremony. D'ni is truly nothing but a memory for us now.
Representatives of the people were gathered together from all the saved Ages and organized. A new Council was formed and the Guilds reaffirmed. Living above the ground on Tigano was not entirely pleasant to us, so it was determined that a new Age should be written where we would feel more at home.
I will never forget my first glimpse of Araya'dora. I linked onto a broad meadow, it's flowing grass and wild flowers a sea of pale green studded with soft shades of rose and lavender. Before me in the distance lay cliffs of white stone heavily laden with quartz, and where the Stonemasons had already worked their magic, the polished and faceted surfaces reflected the light with millions of brilliant sparkles.
The light, though it was the middle of the day, was subdued. Looking up, I saw a canopy of gaseous water suspended high above, shading the land from the strong sun. The filtered light creates softly undulating shadows, and is very kind to our sensitive eyes. The canopy envelops the whole planet and keeps the temperature moderate and stable even at the poles. Here we have abundant raw materials for The Art, and much, much more.
Immediately, I volunteered to take up residence here and help with any work they could find for me. I have helped to establish the presence of my guild on this age. We are cultivating and collecting our materials and prospering greatly. Every day more people arrive from the other Ages, eager to explore and enthusiastic to join the work we are doing here.
The Stonemasons are well along in their work of carving a magnificent entrance to what will be our underground city. Eventually there will be other entrances and the entire face of the cliff will be covered with carvings depicting our history. The Surveyors are carefully sounding out the rock and already we have the beginnings of a grand tunnel that will lead the way to New D'ni. We will not hide ourselves; we have no need. We are the only sentient inhabitants of this Age.
Facing this entrance, across the wide meadows, we have constructed the heart of another city. We will dwell in underground cities, and surface communities, and spread out throughout the whole of this wonderful place. We will write our Ages and expand our empire, as the D'ni have always done since Yavo gave us the gift to do so. We are the foundation, the seed of the future of the D'ni, and the fruit we will bear will be great, indeed!
The only shadow on my joy is the remembrance of those who have died, and the knowledge that there must be other survivors whom we missed. Somewhere out there in time and space they, too, must be working to rebuild what was lost. I hope someday we may find each other.
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