Pantaleon - The Final Problem

Esto left.  He headed for the docks.  I'm sure he had a lot on his mind.  Laroon and Adelia wandered off together.  Midnight Sun stayed up on the roof.  There was still so much I didn't understand but I was exhausted.  I returned to the apartment laid back on my bedroll and closed my eyes.  My journey weighed heavy on my mind.  Strange and familiar images moved through my mind.  I saw the Cleft, flew through the earth, down The Great Shaft to the Cavern and its' golden lake.  Forward to Kerath's Arch.  Flashes of other places appeared in my mind.  The slave cages of Teledahn, Kadish's vault; the truth behind Ahnonay...

In the darkness I saw Yeesha fight a cloaked figure.  I heard a familiar voice.  What does it mean to walk the Path of the Shell?  The Yeesha hand glowed.  The fingers faded and a new line drawn from thumb to the center.   What does it mean to walk the Path of the Shell?  The Watcher's grew dim and soon the darkness was filled with sapphire eyes.  A Pellet dropped and the Bahro cave lit up.  The glyphs appeared on the wall.  What does it mean to walk the Path of the Shell?  The images on the walls glowed blue getting brighter and brighter.

I woke to the glow of the lake coming in through the window.  Esto had reclaimed his bed roll and Laroon was passed out on a cot in the center of the room.  I got up quietly, sat at the desk, and began looking through the notes - remnants of the journey that had reunited me with my friends.  What did I dream?  I looked through the images.  A red cloak and Yeesha.  Why Ages?  Then I realized what I had seen.  I opened my Relto outside so as not to disturb anyone and linked.

Using the Journey symbol I linked back into the vault filled with riches; The bones of Guildmaster Kadish garbed in red - a testament to D'ni pride.   He's still here.  I spent some time examining Kadish's possessions. 

I did not die with nothing.  I died with everything.

He certainly tried.  I continued searching through the boxes.  Soon I found a linking book.  I wondered if somebody moved the Gallery Linking book?  I opened it and found Yeesha's seal on one page and a paradox on the other.  This was impossible.  The linking panel appeared to lead back here, but why would one link to the same location?  I remembered my dream, checked my relto, and linked.

There was no corpse, there were no riches and wealth, just a few pieces of broken pottery.  I checked my KI.  This was the Vault.  What was Yeesha trying to show me?  Strange messages were scrawled across them.  I got a flash from my dream as Yeesha and the cloaked figure battle in the darkness; the strange figure in the bahroglyph… This message spoke volumes: I SAVED HIS LIFE.


I understood.  Words fulfilled.  A grower to move through time.  What does it mean to walk the Path of the Shell: to know that Yeesha is the Grower.  My journey was complete.

Esto - An Ending Has Been Written

Home.  How long have I been gone?  How many questions will need to be answered?  And once these questions are answered, will I be able to return here to D'ni?  My  journey has taken me far from where I expected.  Very quickly my responsibilities on the surface were left behind.  Now the question is: how do I pick them back up?  Can I pick them back up?  Tomorrow when I wake it will be the last day I spend in D'ni.  I hope to return some day, though said surface responsibilities make such things difficult; explanations make them even more so.

I could not stay up there on that Takotah rooftop.  After such events I feel I must think.  Alone.  I stand gazing across the lake at Kerath's Arch and find myself thinking about Yeesha.  In discovering that she was the Grower even she did not know what her journey would bring.  If we be the water that goes where it wills then downward is the journey.  I never expected this journey to go so deep.  Yeesha.  How many years have you been gone?  You told us to find a way.  You told us to make a home.  We have done that.

The explorers here will be safe.  He was delt with; the Triple Shell Journey is sealed and locked away; and the Bahro have found new allies in myself, Adelia, Pantaleon, Laroon, and MidnightSun.  It won't be so bad having to return to the surface.  I will return.  Saying this I feel even more now that She will return as well.  Yeesha is more connected to this place than any of us.  She will return.  Her journey has just taken her away for a time  She will return.  I feel it.

Pantaleon - The Result

I couldn't believe what Adelia told us.  Esto was the first to speak.  "That must have been the void.  If I'm understanding what just happened, He is trapped there."

"So that's it?" Laroon raised his arms in question.  "It's over?"

"It sounds to me like He is trapped there with a sealed book."  MidnightSun said as he rubbed the shell tattoo on his shoulder.  "No way in.  No way out."

The thought of the whole process gave me chills.  The Bahro stranded Him.  Stripped him of his linking.  But now what?

Laroon slumped to the ground.  "Now what?" he asked, echoing my own thoughts.

"Now we can finally go home." Adelia said.  She must have been tired.  Even after what they told me had happened, I cannot imagine what they went through.  Esto looked distant.  How long had he been away from home?  How long had I been gone for that matter?  Perhaps it was time after all these months in the deep to return to the surface.