Unbound Hearts

Kaelri’s obsession with the restoration of the lake is mildly contagious. Or maybe the imager in our Bevin showing his constant progress is just guilt inducing enough. Either way, I’ve been spending an awful lot of time in Er’cana. Problem is, when word reaches the most unstable of the Unbound Hearts that it’s possible to use the ovens to make things that go boom? The results are good or bad, depending on where you stand.

I was thinking, I don’t know… fireworks? Pretty sparks? Anything with fire floats my boat (and usually doesn’t sink it!) Maybe we could have a nice display in Bevin to celebrate the return to the cavern.

Kaelri caught up to me in Ae’gura of course. He’s usually so painfully polite, and still was… you could only tell he was angry based on the deadpan factor when he called my name across the courtyard.

First words as I walked up weren’t a surprise at all. “You blew up a silo.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back to feeding, and loving, and calling algae George soon enough.”

“You blew up a silo, dear.”

“There’s how many more of them around the outer edge of the lake? A bunch are wrecked. One more won’t make much difference, and I know to avoid THAT recipe now…” I’d already found another book to place in the Er’cana factory I’d taken up care of, and told him as much.

“You blew. Up. A silo.”

“It was a small explosion! No one even felt it. It’s just a crack really, and a few fallen stones. You make it sound like I blew the far wall half way to K’veer!”

It appears repair work is going to be my penance. Upon failing to find any heavy equipment the DRC may have abandoned, I’ve taken to using one of the “heavy” Maintainer’s suits. Going is slow, not least of all because I’ve next to no bloody clue how to use the thing. It’s more or less a rolling tank and survey machine, and if it had a mouth I’m sure it’d be telling me how perturbed it is to be put to this use instead of examining new ages. If anyone knows where the Guild of Miners stored equipment, I’d appreciate you dropping me a line. In particular, I’ve had my heart set on one of those devices that concentrates stone into liquid Nara. Not only could I use it to clear the rubble, I could then reinforce any of my repairs (which are sure to be amateur) with the Nara. Maybe stone that strong could even withstand a few more booms…

~ Clyde Craft

Let me be clear: when someone you thought was dead turns out not to be, it’s wonderful news. I had mostly left the cavern after Sydney Austin’s apparently-fatal accident in May of 2007, but before her reappearance the following July. As a result, I have spent the last three years believing that Sydney was dead.

You can imagine my disquiet, then, when I first heard of the Ranting Thespian.

I knew immediately that he was more than a rumor. I learned about the incident through Cactus Wren, a new explorer who joined the restoration through the MYSTcommunity sponsorship program. She saw it with her own two eyes. He was hysterical, it seems, and claimed to have seen Sydney. Recently.

(05/08 16:06:25) Kaelri: Hrm. What was his name again? RT something?
(05/08 16:06:46) Cactus Wren: Ranting Thespian? Something like that. “Thespian”, anyway.
(05/08 16:09:10) Cactus Wren: Some in this conversation last night were advocating a complete re-abandonment of exploration… if the D’ni had abandoned the City, we had no right to occupy or explore it.
(05/08 16:14:33) Kaelri: I’d like to meet this man.

I immediately contacted Chloe Rhodes. If anyone could confirm a Sydney sighting, it was her. Unfortunately, I received no response; she must have been on her way out of the cavern. So, I proceeded to Ae’gura on foot.

Read the rest of this entry »