It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
-Ursula K. LeGuin
On Wednesday I linked back to Teledahn. The humid, swampy air… the slow, gentle glide of the mushroom spores, falling like a light snow… the rapid changes in lighting as the sun swept overhead every half a minute or so… it had been ages (no pun intended) since I had visited Teledahn but abruptly it felt as if I had never left at all.
Not so with the machinery. It took me hours to figure things out and start up the spore-gathering equipment running, and then to figure out where to go from there. It drove me crazy, but I was having tremendous fun experimenting with trial and error, reliving the Journey and remembering the secrets of Teledahn. I rediscovered Sharper’s office and pressed all the Journey Cloths along the way, marveling at D’ni ingenuity and the exotic-ness of the Age. It was a fantastic feeling, to rediscover this Age and witness its beauty, uncovering its secret and bringing myself back to when I was younger and experiencing all this for the first time. It was like being born again.
Upon reaching the slave cages, the day took a somber turn. It was a stark reminder of the Journey’s purpose; not just the joy of discovering the D’ni and their Ages, but also the revelation of the darkness that brought about that proud civilization’s fall. The D’ni were but men, as are we; capable of such incredible achievements, but also of all the cruelty, ignorance and arrogance that being human entails. It was their arrogance that led to their demise; their stubborn belief in their own supremacy, in their glory and omnipotence, corrupted them, like a cancer. The D’ni did not deserve their fate, but they had lost their way.
It was a disquieting thought, and I understand now why Atrus believed the D’ni should not return to the Cavern. Its ruins serve as too much of a reminder of that flawed past, of the ways of the proud. It made me wonder… would a similar fate befall us, we the Explorers who are trying to rebuild the great city, restore it and make it our home? Only time will tell. I choose to believe however that we will succeed where the D’ni failed, that we will overcome those flaws in our nature, remember that we are not the same as those who came before. As I stood in the Bahro Cave listening to her words, I realized just how much in awe of Yeesha’s wisdom I am, how grateful I am for her guidance and her reminding us of the dark side of the D’ni. The Journey is more than a series of puzzles to solve, a scattering of Cloths to be pressed; through it, we have an opportunity to avoid repeating the same mistakes, to break the cycle and begin anew.
Running over Yeesha’s words, I returned to Teledahn after spiriting its totem away to my Relto. The Bahro Stone that would take me to Gahreesen was behind some crates in the green room, and touching my hand to it I was transported to a cell in the Maintainers’ prison there, a fortuitously placed drainage cover open beneath me. Navigating my way out of the labyrinthine drainage tunnels beneath the prison was challenging, to say the least, but eventually I made my way out and up onto the rooftop. From here I was able to access the last two Gahreesen Journey Cloths, and return to my Relto so I could link back in and take the long way to the door. Yeesha’s words again inspired me. She spoke of King Kerath, calling him one of the great kings, but also calling him the maker of the proud, having established the guild-led government system that would lead to D’ni’s fall. I am reminded of the guilds we have established in the Cavern, and how the danger of becoming proud plagues us even today. It is with humility that we must move forward, careful to leave the pride and the arrogance of those who have come before us where it has fallen among the ruins. There is no place for it in our D’ni.
