Lenovoo 24, 9665
Dearest mother,
I have wonderful news to relate: There is a large community of D’ni survivors! I do not yet know how to reach them but it may soon be possible for you to leave Kedross and be among other D’ni at last. They have settled in an Age called Releeshan — written, as it turns out, by Atrus.
By the way, your speculation was correct: Atrus is indeed the grandson of Aitrus and Ti’anna, of — I almost wrote, “of infamy,” but really, what did they do that was infamous? It was the madmen who poisoned all of D’ni to spite them who deserve infamy. (Humans are not immune to this sort of madness, alas.) In any event, Ti’anna and their son, Gehn, fled up the Great Shaft after the Fall (settling after they emerged in the Cleft now guarded by Zandi in his metal caravan). Gehn married (I do not know yet whether his wife was D’ni), but his wife died giving birth to Atrus, their only son, and in his grief he returned to D’ni, leaving Atrus in the care of his mother.
Gehn, too, proved a madman — an incompetent Writer who nonetheless fancied himself a god, ill-using the natives of his Ages. Here I become less certain of the story — what I relate to you here is a synopsis given to me by one of my new neighbors, a woman named Catherine (!) (you will learn the reason for the exclamation mark shortly) — I will tell you more of her in a bit. But it seems that at some point Gehn resumed the upbringing of his son, teaching him the Art — and grew jealous as Atrus began to surpass him in skill. In the meantime, Atrus fell in love with a native of an Age called Riven (another part uncertain in the telling — I gather that Atrus wrote the Age but his father made disastrous modifications to it — I may be mistaken in this understanding).
As he and this woman — named Katran or Catherine (you see now the reason for the exclamation point) — realized the extent of his father’s madness, they decided to trap him upon Riven — ah, I realize now that I forgot to tell you one of the odder features of the land near the Cleft. On the other side of the volcano from the Cleft is some quite curious wreckage: the bones of a large sea animal, and the broken pieces of some sort of optical instrument. These, it turns out, are from Riven! Ti’anna and Catherine modified the Riven description book to include what was described as a “star fissure” — a rip in the substance of the Age itself. Atrus held the last linking book over this fissure so that it would fall in after he linked…
Ah, I am telling too long a story again. I had only meant to tell you that Atrus and Catherine had a daughter, Yeesha — the madwoman-prophetess of the imager in the Cleft — and that Atrus gathered a number of survivors unto himself and, after concluding that they could not resettle D’ni, wrote a new Age for them, Releeshan, and there he, and they, remain.
As I said, the woman (human) who told me this is also named Catherine, and is one of my new neighbors on “Eder Gira Island.” She is here after encountering a D’ni chamber during an archaeological expedition on the surface some distance away from the Cavern, in a place called Mexico. She had not previously heard of D’ni, and is now investigating the D’ni who went to the surface to live among humans. As you may well imagine, this line of discussion caused some discomfort, but I believe I was able to hide it. (I had thought at first that she had simply found a chamber linking to a family Age, as with the Kedross room when I first linked to the surface, but there are curious aspects to her story. It is tempting to try to learn more — do not worry, I have resisted the temptation; I recognize the risk of revealing myself.)
Another of my neighbors, Issis, was most welcoming; she supplied me with information on where to find good, inexpensive furnishings for my bungalow. The owner was present at one of the shops on her list, another lovely, welcoming woman named DeeAn who learned where I had rented and asked if I were an exile like herself! It turned out that she meant the humans forced out of the Cavern after the restoration council’s departure; I told her I was new to D’ni, which is true enough in its way, and she asked whether I had completed the Journey yet (Yeesha’s “request”).
I am hesitant to do so, and I am not entirely certain why. Yeesha scares me, I think; I fear falling under her spell and becoming a fanatic. I have seen well enough what fanaticism does, both in D’ni and on the surface (I see it even now, and fear it). But I think I will have to, eventually, if I am to understand these humans and what they are doing here — and, perhaps, if I am to understand D’ni… and myself.
Eventually. But not yet.
Your devoted son.
Naron
