7/12
Must hurry. Even as I
make these scant scratches in my
journal, D'ni is being enveloped by a large green cloud
of some
unkown origin. It appears to be coming right from
the very walls
surrounding the city. From my window, I can see
the people
fleeing just as the first tinges of the noxious vapor
reaches their
olafactory nerves. Cannot write any longer, must
Link to
Kormeka...
7/26
I have spent the past fourteen
days "tidying" up my family's
Age. I don't believe I have been back to Kormeka
since my father's
death on the day of the Third Feast of the Maker so many
years
ago. I recall the funeral well... he requested
to be lowered into the
large churning caldera boiling on the edge of the island,
dressed
entirely in his Guild robes. I remember looking
down, feeling the
raw heat of the roiling lava, watching as the guild robes
ignited and
my father slipped below the lava...
Since then, no one in my family
has returned. My mother
gave me the book to Kormeka just before she and my sister
escaped D'ni through the winding tunnels to the Surface
World. I
opted to stay in D'ni, to protect the wonderful Ages
my father
wrote, and the feeble attempts I had made.
I was turned down time and again
each time I tried to join the
Guild of Writers. I know I have the talents, my
father told me so.
He said I have great potential... but as I am now looking
through
some of the books he wrote in his lifetime, I see some
very
detrimental errors he made. If given enough time,
each of his Ages
would simply self-destruct, collapsing in on themselves.
I am currently copying over
one of his most striking Ages,
Go'arsa. Beautiful tropical beaches, striking blue
waters, and a
mountain covered in green vegitation. But there
is a fatal flaw
deep in the soil of Go'arsa, a chemical imbalance that
will
eventually turn the ground sour, causing all life to
die. I will be
spending my time restructuring my father's words until
it is safe to
return to D'ni, so I can save his most wonderful Age.
8/??
I believe it is time to return
to D'ni. My experiments have
failed with all my father's books, and they seem to be
irreparable.
All except for Go'arsa. That Age did not self destruct
catastrophically, as I had expected. The soil samples
I retrieved
from there after my changes are striking: I repaired
the line that
contained the fatal mis-write!
Except now the tropical paradise
Go'arsa once was no longer
exists. In a strange result from my repairs, Go'arsa
is now
completely covered in thick ice floes and hip-deep snow
drifts. I
was forced to rename the Age Taiga, to fit with its new
appearance.
I will be taking Taiga back
to D'ni with me, where there are
more books to continue my studies.
8/26
I believe others have survived!
I discovered several books,
one a gilded family book. The name of the Age is
Amerak, and as
I scanned the pages, I found it more flawed than many
of my
father's books. If I didn't do anything, it would
soon self-destruct.
I am sure I got all the symbols right. Now I just
need to transfer
them from the training book to the one containing Amerak.
I am currently looking at the other linking book
as I am
writing this. The Age, like the others, is flawed,
but the large
gilded dome on the edge of the island has grabbed my
attention. I
must Link to it, if not only to search for survivors,
but to see that
dome.
Next to the linking book was
a journal, written by a man
named Agmis. He, like myself, found barely enough
time to
scribble a note in it to future visitors to D'ni.
He said he was going
to Link to G'nidih, to escape the gas cloud.
I will be leaving my journal
and the book to Taiga here in
D'ni until I return.
9/2
Agmis annoys me. He has
his mind closed shut, yet he still
allows his mouth to stay wide open. He doesn't
deserve such a
beautiful wife as Noira. I believe we have formed
a connection of
sorts, one she and Agmis never had. My heart leaps
to my throat
each time she looks at me and smiles, the edges of her
mouth
curling up coyly. I do believe I am falling in
love, and I think the
feeling is mutual. As an act of kindness towards
the siren called
Noira, I am currently making corrections desperately
needed by
Agmis' obviously flawed Ages. I am going to spend
the most time
on the Age that requires my talents most: Amerak.
9/7
I must plan carefully now.
Only yesterday, as I was going
through one of D'ni's many abandoned private libraries,
Agmis
stormed in, clearly angry. He asked me if I had
tampered with his
Ages; I simply replied that, "No, Agmis, I did not...
I corrected
them." He actually had the gall to inform me that
I ruined his
family Age, and many other books he had written himself.
One, he
said, was almost completely destroyed.
Amerak.
My plans were actually to restore
the world to a balanced
state, but I must have mis-written a symbol or two.
Ah, well, it was
a learning experience. Now, however, I can use
my blunder to my
advantage. All I have to do is lure Agmis to Amerak
some way,
and trap him in the ruined world.
Then Noira and I could be together...
forever.
9/9
Ah, my Noira! I love her
more and more each day... as my
contempt for Agmis grows. Why must he always be
there,
stopping my love from something that is obviously right?
No matter. Noira agreed to my plan of trapping
Agmis last
night. She is to write a letter to Agmis, telling
him to come to
Amerak right away. Several days before that, she
and I will retreat
to a secluded Age, most likely Taiga. Let him snoop
and probe all
he wants; I will be taking this journal with us.
Noira will then leave the note
in G'nidih, and we will wait for
Agmis to link to his impending doom. We will then
live out the
rest of our lives in Ages of splendor crafted from my
pen.
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