The Nurse's Journal
~Fan Fiction~
I dreamt of D'ni again this night. Not the usual dreams of the Destruction that I've been having these past three years. This time it was of D'ni in the days long ago before even the thought of such a disaster was imagined. Before Veovis was born, before Ti'ana came among us.
I saw it all as if I were there. I could smell the air, feel the breath of the great fans and hear their hum. I could hear the throngs of people through the open roof of my home, and all the old sounds of life in the great cavern. I went out walking the old familiar streets. I followed the ways I used to take to the Guild Hall, and saw the faces of those who have passed on. Some whom I haven't thought of in years were there, all their familiar features bathed in the charm of longing for that old world.
I awoke this day well before my time for rising, the after-affects of the dream still heavy upon me. Perhaps it's my age that makes me feel as I do, wanting so much to go back in time and exchange what we have for what we had. I was nearly 190 when the Destruction decimated D'ni. I was saved by the merest fluke. It all started when I began to attend on Ti'ana and her child. The assignment wasn't viewed as a good one among my peers. I think I was given it because old Master Drafus didn't much like me.
There was a terrible prejudice among some of the masters of the Guild of Healers against the human, Ti'ana, her marriage to a D'ni, and especially to the child. Some had plainly stated that there would be no children, could be no children from such a marriage. When proven wrong, when proven by so much of what Ti'ana did that there was little difference between us and her kind, the tolerance and dispositions of these few took a decided turn for the worse.
Perhaps that is what made Master Jura say the things he did that night. Though she dismissed me as well, I can't hold it against her. I'd have done the same in her shoes, were I brave enough.
Master Jura was greatly annoyed, and said so rather colorfully on the long ride back to the city. His dignity had been deeply offended. He was one of those men whose view of existence is so narrowly focused on his own point of view that no other perspective existed for him. He couldn't conceive that anyone could honestly see things differently than he did. I heard him once say that those who did express disagreement were only doing so out of perversity and a desire for independence or some emotional outburst.
That night he even claimed that Ti'ana would be the first to agree with what he'd said, had her maternal instinct not driven her to behave so badly. Ah, well, I certainly didn't tell him what I was thinking!
In any case, he treated me very kindly after that. He recommended me for some very good positions, and it was on his recommendation that I had that place in the household of Master Ga'nerin.
Ga'nerin was a very wealthy influential Master of the Guild of Merchants. He had risen even higher than any in his family before him, and was universally liked. He'd been awarded his own private Age only twenty years previous. Tigano had been a raw, but fertile Age and Ga'nerin had a talent for development. It brought him greater prosperity and never a stingy soul, he'd used it to help others to a better life as well.
There were four children in the family already, and Mistress Timar was shortly to give birth to their fifth. One doesn't often see such a large family among the D'ni, but one could easily see how happy they were.
The family was in residence on Tigano, when the Destruction occurred. The D'ni had a good many settlements there. Conditions were quite hospitable and there were a great many natural resources. The communities grew their own food, they mined and manufactured, and were self-sustaining. Ga'nerin had contracts with many of the major guilds to supply them with resources and those guilds had established a presence on Tigano to facilitate their work.
There were no natives of other races there, and there was a great need for workers. Many of those on the lowest rungs of D'ni society who had shown a willingness to work and better themselves had been given permission to live on Tigano and had taken advantage of the opportunity to learn trades that would improve their lot.
If one could become accustomed to living out in the open like that, I suppose it was a very nice place to be. I missed living in D'ni, missed my family and the Guild House, but everyone was very nice to me and I have many friends on Tigano. I think that helped cushion the blow or I don't know how I could have gone on when I heard that D'ni was destroyed and we'd never return.
As I said, I was in Tigano when it happened and knew nothing of it until I heard it from the Master's Steward, Filps. Some were there in D'ni when it started and fled to Tigano after the first quake or two. The Master put out the word that no one was to link back until we received word that it was safe. The last one to link in had reported great destruction to the house just before he linked, and it was feared that any person linking to D'ni would find themselves flattened under a pile of debris.
We waited for weeks, not hearing anything and not knowing what had happened. The D'ni are a patient people, so we simply continued to wait until it looked as though we would never be contacted again! There was a lot of speculation about the Book having been destroyed, but it turns out that wasn't the case, or the Linking Books wouldn't have continued to work.
The Master had made several Linking Books for Tigano. Most were in the antechamber to the family's Book Room in their home in the City. He had locked the Book itself away safe in a deep vault, but kept the Linking Books lined up in the fore-room as a convenience, since there was sometimes heavy traffic to and from D'ni.
Being a merchant, Ga'nerin had fashioned his D'ni home so that the entrance on one street acted as a business entrance, and on the opposite side of the house, the entrance was on a private street and served as the entrance for the family's private quarters. It was a very spacious place by City standards, and lent itself to the division nicely. Only business of a bookkeeping nature was conducted there, not at all troubling to the family.
Ga'nerin had made a Book Room when he'd been presented with his own Age, and shortly after had made the antechamber so that any traffic to and from Tigano of a business nature would go through there, rather than the family's private Book Room. The Linking Books on Tigano to bring goods back to D'ni were linked to a different locations down by the harbor so that Tigano products never went through the house.
The young man who had been the last to link to Tigano during the disaster was one of two set as guards in the antechamber. His fellow guard never linked after him, and we all suspected the worst. Just as we were about to despair of ever hearing from D'ni again, two guildsmen linked in!
We were overjoyed to see them until we heard of the terrible destruction. It seemed that the quakes in the beginning had flattened Ga'nerin's house and only a last terrible quake weeks later had cleared a hole in the rubble for men to get through. They'd found one of the Linking Books intact and had used it.
Master Ga'nerin went back with them to D'ni, and when he returned he told his wife that the City was in ruins. The quakes were still occasionally active, though the cavern seemed intact. He said he'd agreed to host the gathering of guildsmen who would decide what was to be done.
It is so hard to imagine D'ni ruined. So hard to imagine those millions of citizens dead. I am glad I didn't see it that way, though it's hard to believe my heart could ache any more than it does, or that my nightmares of the destruction could be any more vivid.
The guildsmen came, bringing all the Books of undamaged Ages they could find in their hurried search. The survivors organized themselves within their guilds first, choosing the requisite Grand Masters, and electing members to serve on the new Council. Then the Council deliberated over the situation, deciding to commission a new home for the D'ni.
It broke my heart when they burned the last linking book back to D'ni. There weren't many dry faces in the crowd that day. The ceremony took place in Tigano's huge city square on a raised platform so all could see the Book destroyed.
I took to my bed ill for a few days afterward. It was only the knowledge that I was needed that made me leave it. I was ready to let go of life, but that was selfish when so many of my people were clinging so fiercely to theirs and trying so hard to make our culture survive. We D'ni are so much more than our buildings and our Ages. We have so much more to offer in the universe than was destroyed in our old home. I really feel we are a force for good and, it is important that our culture continue to exist and even to influence others.
I have reaffirmed my devotion to the Guild of Healers and our work. I am a Master of Nurses, trained in the old guild college, and I've been training young ones in all that I know. The new Council and the Five have relocated to Araya'dora, where our capital is to be. The Guilds are establishing their Halls there as well.
When I heard that the first section of the underground city on Araya'dora was ready for habitation, I asked to go and see it. It is so like the old style of building, that I can almost fancy myself having moved to a new cavern a good distance from the old D'ni. I am so much more comfortable underground, living by the light of the firemarbles and the new lighting system.
They've filled huge tanks with a type of plankton very similar to that which lived in the old cavern lake. The transparent containers are on a huge system in all the major public areas. The water flows gently thoughout the system, keeping it all healthy. The plankton follows a waking and sleeping cycle that corresponds to the rotation of the planet. Best of all, its orange glow is a sight I never thought to see outside my dreams. I can see it now from my window as I write, getting slowly brighter as the day dawns, a tribute to the resilience of my people and the generosity of the Maker.
I am deeply comforted to know that we have a future, and in such a good place. Someday, as the generations continue to be born here, this place will be as dear to them as the old cavern on Earth was to me.
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