It had been eight years since Ann had first come to D’ni. Eight years of wandering the city occupied by some couple thousand lone adventurers with her friends, and the Ages beyond.
On the remnants of the DRC, the company Hart’s parents had once worked for, a few old D’ni neighborhoods thrived. Some members, like Ann for the time, were what the community called “Stonebirds,” coming to visit for only a portion of the year, something now far more feasible for the community of explorers with the mysteriously left Book in the Cleft, and its matching Book in the city to return to the surface.
Ann was, however, officially done with her Stonebird days after her graduation the last winter. Her apartment in D’ni was filled with everything she figured worth bringing down from the surface: a hundred or so books, a laptop that occasionally had signal to the surface, posters that seemed out of place in the relic of the house she had, and a whole wardrobe with clothes prepared for exploring all kinds of biomes.
It was this wardrobe Ann shifted through now, pulling a box down from the shelf at the top. A small lock jangled as she brought the little safe to her bedroom desk. Easily enough, the lock came off with a key Ann produced, the lid opening to a pile of documents that were safer this far underground than back home with her parents. She added a few more documents to the pile, though she doubted she would ever need her diploma as long as she was living in D’ni.
From the box she took two items: a leather bound journal tied with a simple cord and a stone looking watch. The first she set on her desk, ready to compare her notes from the last year with her theories while she had been on the surface wrapping up her business there, before she closed the lock box and returned it to the shelf.
The second she pulled off of its protective sleeve and rested it around her wrist. Explorers would be hard pressed to find much in the way of news around D’ni without the subterranean version of the Internet at their disposal. KIs like the one Ann had were vital to staying up to date with news across all Ages, something that made it more reliable than wifi to be certain, even if its uses were mostly for communication at the moment.
Running her hand over the flat surface, Ann watched as a panel reached out and formed a wall of interactive light. She flicked through the panels, remembering how to navigate the old interface again as she searched through messages.
Messengers Guild - Monthly BBQ Updates
Jean (4 new messages)
Hector ( 1 new message)
Viv
Makenna (2 new messages, 1 attachment)
Travis (7 new messages)
Age Alerts
Finally, the one she was really searching for, Hart. Ann tapped her friend’s name, typing into the KI on its holographic screen. “You back yet?”
The message joined the log from the last fall as Ann switched to review a few of the other messages. New Ages being stabilized, others have new instabilities, updated from the Guilds about Cavern events, a few congratulations about restored sections of the city or births. There was even a note about her recent graduation, which made her smile as she read over the well wishes beneath the listing.
Ann opened the log for Hector, quickly sending, “Did you tell the Messengers about my graduation?”
The reply was almost instant. “My Stonebirds are coming back! Come visit once you’re unpacked.”
Ann smiled wider, a warm feeling of family returning as she thought of all the days spent with Hector in his family’s home. He and his wife Isabell were the heart of their neighborhood, and ever since Ann had decided she wanted to move and live in D’ni, they had been with her every step of the way to her “citizenship” here.
“Checking in with Hart, will visit soon,” Ann sent back.
“Tell them we can fix the hole in their stomach before they can fix the hole between the Books, alright, Bird?”
“Will do.”
Ann switched back to her messages with Hart, a little upset when she didn’t see a reply. That wasn’t uncommon. When Hart was in D’ni, they were usually fairly lost in their work and Ann was used to hunting them down to make sure they ate. Still, it would nice to not have to spend her first day in D’ni on a goose hunt.
Quickly, Ann sent a few arrival messages to her other friends, though she knew Hector would have passed the news around already for an evening potluck for the summer Stonebirds’ return.
Ann pulled the door to on her little one floor home, turning the newly installed lock shut before making her way down the winding street out through the half finished repaired alleyways. A few residents were out walking between the streets, passing through the general store down the street where surface supplies and orders were hauled in, heading to work on some repair job, or working with the few reestablished Guilds who organized their community as a whole. Ann waved with a bright smile on her face, the excitement of being back in D’ni, of being home at last, finally setting in as she walked down the street towards the harbor.
In so many ways, D’ni was silent. There was nothing like the sound of bird song or wind between the stones or even the sounds of a city like Ann had grown up in. She was fairly certain they hardly qualified even as a small city, between their low population and the fact that they were building on ruins to make this community. Maybe during the summer when more people returned and explorers were more likely to venture into the city, but the rest of the year hardly.
And yet, Ann walked through the streets feeling it brimming with life. She passed under shattered archways and by split buildings and could imagine them filled with people in their glory days. Even as a ghost of a civilization, the city was humming with stories and legacies that Ann wanted to hunt down.
As she came out around the narrow paths and onto the main thoroughfare, Ann stopped. The worn stone beneath was polished smooth from millenia of travelers across the stones being tread again by this new settlement, and beyond it was the vibrant orange sea that lit much of the cavern. No matter how many times Ann got a clear look at the coastline, she was still blown away by the magnitude of it, and how small the spot where she was standing was compared to the vastness of D’ni itself.
The awe waned and the moment passed. Ann tapped at her KI for a moment before resuming her walk down towards the harbor. She took a picture of the sea, before swiping back through to her messages. There was nothing new, at least, nothing from people she wanted to hear from.
“Hart, come on,” Ann muttered, closing out of the display.
It was possible of course that Hart hadn’t gotten back to D’ni yet. With their studies, Ann certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they had been held up with some last minute assignment from one of the doctors they were working under. But considering Hart’s second “major” they were pursuing in D’ni and could only pursue in D’ni, Ann had never known them not to be back before her to continue practicing at it.
Down at the harbor was where the sounds of water overpowered the steady drone of the machines running in the distant walls of the cavern. It was also where it was easier to escape away from the life brimming around D’ni’s small populace when you could take out one of the recovered stone boats onto the water.
However, it wasn’t out on the water where Ann would find Hart. They had often come down to the remains of what must have once been a regular stop for dock workers when they needed a moment from exploring along the shore when they’d first started making regular trips to D’ni. Hart and Jean had found it mostly intact and structurally sound enough to frequent the place, something Jean had gone out of her way to check.
Now it was their little secret, a quiet workspace by the coast. Perhaps not entirely a secret, Hector knew about it for safety reasons, but it was at least observed as a space just for their little collection of high school friends and not as a hot spot for other explorers. In a city as big and empty as D’ni though, most people had such a space somewhere.
Crawling in through the half cover, half support crack in the wall entrance, Ann pulled her way along her back until she came out into a small stone public house. Shelves had been filled with books, split sources from the surface and from the Cavern, along with a well stocked bar, both with drinks and food of the long shelf life variety. On the other side of the chamber, all of the tables and chairs had been pushed away for a scattering of stars hung from the ceiling, papers spread over the floor as Hart sat bent over the piles in the center of the floor.
“Coming in,” Ann called as she pulled herself the last few scoots into the bar. Her voice hung in the air, and she watched it not even registering with her friend as she stood up and brushed herself off for a moment. “Hart, you with us?”
Finally, Hart pulled their attention away from the book, blinking for a moment before finally recognition began to show in their eyes. “Oh, Ann. I’m glad you’re back.”
Carefully navigating the papers, Ann came to sit down beside Hart. “You sound absolutely thrilled to see me.”
But Hart was already buried back in their work, jumping between three different open notebooks and more than twice as many reference books. They muttered, “Sorry.”
Ann leaned against her friend’s side, rubbing a hand against their back as she tried to look over the materials and see if she could figure out what Hart was working through. The notes were a smattering of sources, one written entirely in D’ni, a language Ann was still struggling with herself. Still, it wasn’t hard to guess what it was about based on the blank book in Hart’s lap.
“Hector invited us over to eat,” Ann said, pressing her hand on Hart’s far shoulder.
“In a bit,” Hart muttered.
“You’re not going to solve this in a day, Hart.” Ann pulled the other open book towards her. There was something about wormholes, though most of it admittedly went over Ann’s head even if she could read the text. Not her field. “You’re really looking into this?”
Hart looked up from their journal, leaning over to read the book. “Yeah, might as well rule it out.”
Ann grinned a little. “My stupid high school crack theory worthy of being test against the D’ni, huh?”
“Maybe not a crack theory. It’s like that...that book you told me about, the one about the kids going through a bunch of dimensions—”
“A Wrinkle In Time?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. The folding the napkin thing. That’s what the Books are right?”
Ann set the book down again. “But even in that book they only went between dimensions, which is the same as the Books too.”
“But what if, what if—” Hart got up and pulled out a loose piece of paper. They drew a dot on each of the far corners and folded them together. “This is how we picture the Books, it links two points in infinite universes.”
“Yeah, I follow that.” Ann leaned back, resting her cheek on her hand.
Hart unfolded the paper, scribbling something in the middle. “But what if someone figured out how to redirect that without having to go to a Nexus.” They folded the paper again into a trifold, pointing to the middle fold. “What if the Book we found in the Cleft could bring us here because we were linked to another Age and then immediately redirected again to D’ni?”
“Why not just link us to the Nexus?” Ann asked, taking the trifold from them.
“We couldn’t use the Nexus. We would have been trapped in there until someone with a KI came in,” Hart answered, before tapping the center of the folded paper. “This would speed everything up, people could get here in mass. I think someone wants more people coming down to D’ni. Someone who knows a lot about the Art.”
Ann held the paper up, quirking a brow. “You think someone would figure out how to make like a double layered wormhole just to bring more people to D’ni?”
“I think it’s possible.” Hart shrugged, nodding.
“Who would— No, wait, I came to get you for dinner.” Ann handed the paper back to Hart and then stood up. “Food first and then we can bounce it between each other.”
“Ann, I’m so—”
Ann put up her hand. “Nope, food. If you could figure it out now, you can figure it out later and faster with food in your stomach. Come on, before Hector starts calling.” She took her hand and held it out to Hart.
With a heavy sigh, Hart closed the journal in their lap and moved to close the other books. Collecting the pile, Hart took Ann’s hand and stood up. They grabbed a bag leaning against the side of the tables before returning the other books to the shelves. “Alright, alright, tell Hector we’re coming.”
“Will do,” Ann replied, opening up her KI again. She set out the message to Hector that they were on their way, hesitating to close the display as Hart started making their way out of the crack. A new message was sitting at the top of the display that left Hart’s comments tumbling in her mind as her stomach turned in knots.
“Guild Presentation Approved For Panel: Guild of Ambassadors.”