Walking the Labyrinth of Light

The symbol for the pod ages is a Labyrinth. I would not have guessed that, given that we don't get to leave the pods, but still! Goodness.

I was browsing some of the other Explorer blogs while I was at lunch today, and found a reference to a symbol in the air for Negihlan, and a D'ni Clock. A clock specifically for that symbol.

Remembering a conversation I'd had with Jishin over the KI when she was in Negihlan and I was on the surface baking bread (yeasts wait for no man, woman, or D'ni) that ended in "what the heck was that!?" and a discussion of something quite shiny in the air, I put two and two together and got "interesting."

So, I went down to Negihlan and lurked about in the pod, climbing ladders, turning on the lights briefly and listening to the noises outside - nothing like hearing animals that I cannot see to make me feel very exposed, especially given that I was in a pod with a crack in it! But then I heard a shining sort of noise - which reminded me quite strongly of something the Great Zero did several years ago when I followed Sharper's directions and got it turned on briefly. Hanging in the air was a labyrinth symbol.

I remembered what I had done last time, and ran for it. There was a moment of disorientation - the usual slight uneasiness that hits my chi when I link - and then I was standing in a Bahro Cave. This one had the labyrinth symbol on the walls, and four stones. Hmm! There are certainly more than four pod ages, but I am left to wonder how many of the linking books the DRC has found - or how many of the Pods have been destroyed due to lack of proper maintenence.

I touched the mark, then went through the usual ritual to get back to Relto. And what is it about those caves that makes Relto go swirly?

Then I sat down to do math. Given the information that the Pod World has a 15.5 hour day, and given the map that we found last night that showed the D'ni measured it in approximately 13 increments, that works out to 1.21 (and a lot more decimal places) hours per increment. The Negihlan pod seems to be about one increment ahead of the Dereno pod on the map, so that meant that I had a little over an hour between when I found the one in Negihlan and when the hypothetical one in Dereno might appear. I'm curious as to whether this thing is similar to the Great Zero and calibrated along the line of Pod One, which seems very likely.

So I went sparkly-hunting, since we'd failed to find it last night. After sorting through the two original Journey ages that hadn't had a sparkly and finding nothing, I finally found it elsewhere. It will take some doing to get Jack there before this one vanishes. I shall have to be clever. We don't want a repeat of the original sparkly, where he reached the corridors a day after it vanished...

Then I went back to Dereno with a paperback book and sat down to read for a while. With the power off in there, it was pretty cold, but the lack of the wind made it certainly bearable, compared to what some of the winter weather has been of late. And eventually, I heard a shiny sort of noise - not the sparks, but something very like what I had heard in Negihlan. Only it wasn't up on the platform where I was!

I raced down the ladder, nearly taking the skin off my knuckles in the process, and indeed, found a shining thing in the air, a labyrinth symbol. I'd wanted to get a picture, but I was afraid it would vanish, so instead, I jumped for it.

Then I got to take the long panoramic view of the Cavern again, before linking back to Relto.

And now I have two floating stones.

I wonder if we will ever get to see the Pod World's Great Zero - studying it might give Laxman some clues on how to get our Zero functioning correctly in the long term again.

There are so many interesting things in the world, I'll never get to see them all!