Now, with less bandwidth suckage! The images look beautiful, even in the lossy .jpg format, so the posts should load faster. Also, a new userpic, though I have to admit, I really do look like Uncle Fester in that picture.
One of the most serene places in D’ni Ae’gura is the Kadish Gallery. It is filled with beautiful stained glass art, like you see here and below. It’s got this haunting song playing from the moment you enter, and as you stare at the craftsmanship that went into making the art, you cannot help but be in awe at its skill and complexity. I found this place while I was still exploring the city, before I started on Yeesha’s Path. It has a linking book into Master Kadish’s Age, which I explored only halfheartedly. I was still enraptured by the city, and not yet ready to wander through and between Ages. I was, however, surprised to see a book show up on my Relto shelf, with a black viewing panel. I’d returned several times to the Kadish Gallery to soak in its serenity and beauty. When I later began to follow the first Path, I guessed that the gallery would become important.
The D’ni always leave solutions to their puzzles. Even when things break down, they build in ways to get around and through and to solve the intricate puzzles that they’ve created. I can only imagine that they found some joy hiding rewards for those with the tenacity and focus to think like the D’ni thought. Or, for that matter, as the individual D’ni thought. Just like Atrus, Guildmaster Kadish doesn’t include, or exclude, anything that’s not important. Even his serene gallery, filled with beauty as it is, has purpose. It is no coincidence that the linking book to his Age lies there, or that his Age is part of the Path. The solutions to all of the puzzles in his Age lie inside the artwork of his gallery. I’m not certain if it’s an American trait, or a Michigan one, but I notice that we tend to separate beauty and function, art and pragmatism. The D’ni integrate them, over and over, in their city and in the Ages to which they link.
Why had Yeesha sent me to this Age? Why was this one on her Path? The puzzles are extremely challenging, even with the solutions that are provided within the artwork. Decoding them and applying them takes contemplation, sketching or recording, and taxing one’s brainmeats to their limit. Well, for me, anyway. But there were no signs here of mistreatment of the Bahro, like there were in the other three. There were no prisons, no sign of Bahro enslavement, and no results of D’ni pride gone wrong here. That’s what the Path was becoming; a showcase of D’ni ego resulting in their undoing. But what had Guildmaster Kadish done that fit the bill? I didn’t discover the answer to my own question until I reached the end of the convoluted journey through the Age: Guildmaster Kadish’ vault.
The vault was suspended in the center of an enormous cavern by a masterfully engineered system of supports. There was only one path up to the door; any other way was empty space. Inside the vault, I found answers and questions. I discovered what had happened to the Guildmaster when the plague had struck down the D’ni. I discovered that he hoarded treasure beyond counting, rather than sharing it with all. Even in the end, when the D’ni were being forced to give back their very lives for all that they had taken from the Bahro, from the Ages that they had linked to, and from each other, Guildmaster Kadish sought solace in his gathered treasure. If Yeesha had intended to show how the great become pathetic, how the brightest and strongest fall the farthest, she had succeeded. Her methods, however, left quite the bitter taste in my mouth.
Why am I chasing after the Path of the Shell, if Yeesha’s methods (and yes, her arrogance as well) rubbed me the wrong way? Why, when she thinks that she is the Grower, just like Guildmaster Kadish did? Yeesha’s message is true, and is not a mistake that the D’ni are alone in making. Entitlement brought on by pride or ego is a plague among our own society. She has learned new ways of writing, she has broken all of the D’ni writing rules, and done it successfully. She has learned from the Bahro. I would learn these things. The Tehranee book was not written in D’ni, according to the novel. That means that the D’ni language is not the only one that can be used to write links to Ages. The Bahro link without books full of descriptions. They create links on stone tablets, and can link with will alone. She understands the intricacies of a world, a universe, a multiverse, in ways that I can only dream of. Retracing her steps feels right.
I’ve completed the first step of three on the next Path. Each of the stones on the bottom carries the hand print that came with the first four Ages. The next stone up carries a spiral. It comes from a cooperative puzzle-solving excursion into one of the garden Ages. I got it early on, exploring with others, before I had even visited Teledahn. Now, I wonder. The topmost stone bears the symbol of the shell, and represents Er’cana. Other explorers have wondered in their blogs about whether it’s right to take those stones before Yeesha guides us there. She handed us the symbol of the shell after we took what we were given, and then returned it. The end must now connect to the beginning. The DRC has released the garden Ages for us to explore and enjoy, but what damage does taking these stones do? From what I’ve gathered, Yeesha and the DRC have been at odds since the explorers began to arrive. What are we taking from the Bahro when we take the spiral stones from the garden Ages?
For that matter, what lesson are we learning on the Path of the Shell? Er’cana provides us a way to bring the algae in the great lake back to its former health, and through that, brightness. The hope is that its cycle of night and day will return, and the cavern will be properly lit. Are we now to focus on the good that we can do? Now that we have acknowledged the horrific pitfalls of undeserved pride, are we to attempt to be positive? Are we to attempt to make D’ni our home? When I had found and touched all of the shell tapestries, the hologram completed. I walked through it, because, you know, it’s a hologram. How can you NOT walk through a hologram? Anyway, it linked me to a place much like where the pillars were on the first Path, and where the stones for the garden Ages are. There was a shell symbol carved into the wall, and I pressed it, which sent the stone to my Relto. But, there was no speech, and no guidance from Yeesha. Where are the other linking books to the two other Ages in this Path? What now?