Avishraa Reloaded

The vigils passed, though the time spent on Curiosity made it hard to track them unless Einriss thought to catch up with things when he returned to Avishraa. It had been late in the 28th turn when Dlyss had mentioned working with animals, and the entirety of the 29th had passed without further mention of the matter.

The experimental plant bed had progressed to the point where the vast majority of sprouts were surviving, and the focus had progressed to attempting to replicate in them the ability of a Chosen to sense the presence of another Chosen, so that they knew which potential targets to avoid when they were given offensive capabilities. In many ways, this was highly original work; this particular sensory capacity was not something that had ever been isolated before, mostly because it had never been studied. There'd never been a reason.

Dlyss' aid was particularly invaluable in this, because otherwise there were few clues as to where the capacity came from and, particularly, how it could be applied to plants. The process might have gone much faster if there had been an Unchosen about for Einriss to look at - to see where the differences were - but since that could not be done, precognition was the only feasible way of shortening the time involved. Through it all, Dlyss seemed as impassive as ever, but increasingly distracted and, it had to be said, also tired.

As the 30th turn began, some of their plants began to twitch when Dlyss or Einriss passed near, but not any of the few strange animals that roamed the chilly mountainside, and it seemed clear that the basic capability had been achieved.

One vigil soon afterward, when Einriss had come to Dlyss' house to enter Curiosity, he was met by the oracle's majordomo, who informed him that Dlyss wished to see him in the audience chamber. And so, Einriss was escorted once again to the room where he had first met Dlyss, though this time she was not reclining on her divan, but seated on the floor with an air of restlessness. She looked up at Einriss as the majordomo left them.

“Tell me,” she asked, “Would you be averse to a change of living arrangements in relation to your work?”

The question was not in any way offensive, but it was out of all context for Einriss, and he made no effort to conceal his confused surprise. And it was good that it did surprise him, since his mind would otherwise have remained firmly occupied with progress on the plants, and he might have otherwise only paid partial attention. “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

Dlyss was silent for a moment, and then said, “I believe we are approaching the point at which the aforementioned work with animals must commence, though I have not fully decided which routes should be focused on. But I feel that there will be a greater need for security from prying eyes, and I would prefer that the work take place somewhere more closely guarded. Having you live there would… simplify matters.” She stood up. “I wish to show you the place I mean. And, indeed, to have you meet someone who I think would be working with you.”

Being mostly absorbed in his work and not too in need of social connection, the suggestion seemed quite all right for Einriss - the question he might have, once he had seen the place, would be how convenient it would be to cart materials back and forth from it, not how often he could see the rest of the Citadel. He nodded curtly, meaning it as deferrence, ready to follow her lead.

And then she said 'someone who I think would be working with you', and something in his mind skipped a beat. A colleague? The thought had never seriously occurred to him, even though they'd discussed the possibility of him coordinating the work of other Lifegivers at some point. But even then, the phrasing had been different. Having someone else truly scientifically invested in these projects would be a great boon. She had his curiosity.

Somewhat to his surprise, Dlyss led him not toward the door of the house, but deeper into it, in a section that he had not previously entered. It became apparent, from the sights of well-appointed beds and cribs through various doors - not to mention the higher density of guards - that these were the personal apartments of Dlyss and her family. A teenage girl of a honey-yellow color poked her head out of one room, opened her mouth upon seeing Einriss, and then shut it again upon meeting Dlyss' gaze. She ducked back inside.

The doorway at the end of the hall appeared to lead into a master bedroom, but luckily they stopped shortly before reaching it; one of the side doorways was fully occupied by a stone door, into which some kind of strange mechanism was embedded. Dlyss said, as if to reassure him, “On those occasions when you would need to leave or depart, you would not ordinarily come this way. It is meant for my own use.”

She made a vague motion with one hand, and a hole - rimmed with silver-blue light - opened up in the air before her; with an air of concentration, she reached through it and began doing… something. The muffled sound of clicks and clunks emanating from the door suggested that she was manipulating some kind of lock or latch on the inside. At last, she withdrew her hand, and, as the hole popped out of existence, the door slid aside into the wall. Dlyss led him through briskly; after eighteen breaths, the door slid shut behind them.

Inside was a small and unremarkable room, unfurnished except for a podium supporting a book. Evidently, the place she wanted him to live was not on Avishraa at all.

“I should say that I would prefer that you not volunteer any information about the world we will be seeing,” she said as she opened the book. “Though enough people are involved with it that it is impossible to hide the fact that it exists, it remains prudent not to make information-gathering easier than it has to be.”

The lines swirling on the page looked promising. The coils of waves crashing against the jagged lines of rocky cliffs. Plants of strange shapes. A very prominent-looking sun over seas and islands.

That she had led him to a linking book was quite unsurprising. The Citadel was a wonderful place when measured against the rest of Avishraa for the safety it provided, but there weren't so many differences in safety between the different patches of their valley. Off-world was safest from prying eyes, not least because anyone coming into the world unexpectedly would be obviously trespassing and could be dealt with.

Einriss licked at his teeth. That he not share information about the worlds he was visiting with others was already known and went without saying - he didn't speak with random acquaintances about Bubbles in the Dark, either, and he wouldn't have started, any more than he would have told them about the arrangements of Dlyss's private quarters. It was less a consideration of fundamental sacredness, though, and more that he did not speak of environments much in general - and had enough presence of mind to understand the concept of privacy, if not necessarily always respect for it.

He was far more likely to tell interested parties about the plants he was working on, and there a bit of possessiveness and perfectionism helped him guard his tongue - he would feel comfortable speaking about them after they were complete and could be used, when the project was no longer at risk of yet running into an insurmountable obstacle.

“This looks interesting,” he said, and reached out for the page at an interruptible pace, just in case Dlyss wanted to tell him something else first.

She made no attempt to stop him.

When the new world swirled into existence around him, there was not much to see, for he had appeared in a room very much like the one he'd left. The main differences were a slightly different smell and feel to the air (his alchemist senses detected a slightly different mix of atmospheric gases, organic compounds elevated levels of moisture and salt… and it was obviously warmer than the Citadel was), and the fact that there was no door occupying the doorway. There were two guards, who were gaping at him in astonishment.

Before their surprise could turn to suspicion and anger, Dlyss appeared as well, and swept through the doorway, motioning for Einriss to follow. To the guards she said, without stopping or looking at them, “Kindly do be more alert.”

“This is Oghiras”, she said, using the Ghyezramsi word for purity. “It was written by and for my followers to provide… privacy from outside groups and concerns.” And, indeed, as they moved away from Dlyss' entry chamber, the halls became more populated. Men, women. Echoing from somewhere off in the distance, he could hear what sounded like the voices of many children.

She led him to a T-intersection where the unoccupied wall evidently had adjoined the outside, for a wide section of it had been removed to make way for a balcony overlooking the landscape. The sun, high overhead, was large and golden; the sky was not the blue of home, but a dull orange, as if in the grip of a weak sunset. Dim reddish light illuminated a landscape that was peculiarly dark; the water appeared black, and so did much of the ground, though as his eyes adjusted he realized that the blackness there was, in fact, foliage. Despite the grim appearance, the smell and feel of life was everywhere.

“It is very… different, I know. The intent had been to find a world more similar to our own, but the Writers did not have quite the same expertise as Enneth does. Though she had helped to train them, I had thought it best for her not to be directly involved.”