Remember pipets!

Is it really true?  I have to go find out.

Rats, my KI isn’t working now.   That’s odd.  It worked a couple months ago…  Hmmm, maybe that earthquake shook a relay and the frequency shifted slightly.  We’ll see whether a new one fixes the issue.

Yes it does!  Hey, and there are others here! People — in the city!  Tai’lahr, and Witch, and JW, and CristGer, and Zrax, and … oh, my surface phone is beeping.  Hey, that’s nifty.  Since the Cavern closed technology has advanced quite a bit.  It sure makes cavern-to-surface communication much easier.

Jane and Ruby both called me to say they haven’t made it past the gate yet.  Apparently there are so many explorers there now that progress is incredibly slow.  Well, I can set up the Healers Hood and open the doors.   Oh neat, the stained glass hangings are still here!  I am so glad the earthquake didn’t destroy those, too.

There we go.  I am getting tired.  But I have to check….  That plant — is it still there?

It is terribly late.  I have to sleep.   I’m a little angry to hear that some DRC members have secret stealth KI’s that allow them to show up in our Reltos.  I hope they disabled them now.  Because I don’t have to sneak in here any more so tonight I sleep in my own home.

And I don’t really feel like having any DRC company.

Apparently the material was of some import, because whoever it was then took the whole box, the Little Box, but left the Big Box.  Empty.

Just looking at me, empty.  Just try returning the material now, clever woman.

Well, if they left that to ‘catch’ a thief, they succeeded.  At the same time, I did try later to put that box back too.  What am I going to do with an empty wooden box?  If I ever find that tavern and a chair like the other I will.  Now they are gone, too.  It seems the more I try to put things back the way they were the more they become irreversible.   I’d worry, but I don’t know what to worry about first.  A box, a box, or a tavern disappearing?  Pick one and worry.

If I hadn’t taken a sample would the box have disappeared?  That one will bug me.

All actions have an equal and opposite reaction.   All potentials manifest somewhere.

Oh boy, I really don’t like the thoughts I’m thinking.

Things had gotten so busy I nearly forgot the brief moment of wonder at Devokan last summer.  I’m still not sure it happened, but after talking with Dot today I don’t feel so much like I must have imagined it.

Last week, Jane and I spent some time with Dot discussing the upcoming GoH Ride for Joy on the 17th.  As we walked and talked, we passed by what looked like a natural stone wall.  The boulders were huge and rough — not weathered as if they’d been there a long time.  I didn’t think much of that until something triggered the memory of a fragrance I’d experienced last summer.  That itself was even a brief memory before I forgot about it as Jane and I walked on with Dot in search of suitable places for JoyRiders to gather before embarking on the ship and boat journeys.

Of course I couldn’t find the location of the flowers again.  And Jane wouldn’t remember — I had returned after she, I and LC had taken our own joyride on a sailboat around the rather bare island.  They were only there for a moment and I was so slow in remembering my camera…

I’ve never known a flower to bloom so beautifully for such a short time.  I might not actually have seen anything.  But today as Dot and I discussed the Ride for Joy yet again she did mention that the place where I remembered the fragrance had been affected by the land tremors.  Much of the land had been changed, and perhaps the flowers have been buried.

There was that deep pool… nearby…   I am certain I walked only a short distance from it before I spotted the blooming flowers.  The deep, rich, reddish, purple or blue hues amazed me because they seemed to be illuminated from within the petals themselves.  They were similar to Irises, but were not irises.  Akin to DayLilies, but not lilies of any kind.  The butterflies swarmed about them, landing, flitting, landing,settling, leaping… and suddenly they and the blooms had disappeared.  Dissolved, dissipated, vanished… I was stunned and saddened.  At least until the fragrance reached my nose.

I tried to sit and let the memory come to me, but couldn’t settle in one place.  I did finally sit on a wooden bench for a few moments, watching the sun come up. Then, again restless, I walked around the waterfall and turned around to watch it begin to sparkle and shimmer in the slow illumination of the morning. It was beautiful.  I sniffed, sniffed, hoping perhaps I could follow my nose to the flower patch of last summer?  I did follow the boulder wall around and back to the gate, chuckling at myself.  The yellow lilies were very pretty, but no fragrance there.

I’ve not smelled anything so heavenly before.  Not just a floral fragrance, but with a hint of fruit — exotic fruit I didn’t know?  Not just fruit, but a hint of earthiness that freshened the air around me?  I could not tell, but I knew it was something amazing.  I don’t know why I forgot, or why I finally remembered.  But now that I did remember, I am determined to find it again.

The quiet tink of glass rod on glass rim penetrated the drawn out wind-like sound I heard as I breathed in.

Chink…….

Leaning forward I inhaled the new combination of scents.  Ooof…  too much pine.

“Rats.”

Well, let it cook.  Smell it again in a few hours.  I thought about the painting — something different would be revealed today as the layers of oils and pigments interacted with each other.  These layers would interact, too, and in a day I would know in which direction the fragrance would go.  Perhaps it would not be so much for uplifting as for opening.  The pine would stay; maybe the rosemary would go.

I capped the test bottle and set it on the shelf.  “I’m sure you’ll let me know what you’ll be. “  For now it was test blend #54.

As I turned away, the cobalt bottle on the left caught my eye.  I nearly pulled away from it this time before reaching out to pick it up.  For some time I looked at the faded label, trying once again to make out the D’ni word.  It had sat on this shelf for a year now…. yes, it was nearly a year ago I had discovered it wedged between the rocks at the bottom of the ravine.  Holding it up to the light I could see the liquid inside and the thinness of the glass that belied the strength of the container.  I searched again for the scratch I knew wasn’t anywhere on the glass.

“How did you stay in there?” I asked again of the stopper.  The graceful curve of the three-edged stone top showed some wear, but gave no indication of its age.   There was one tiny chip in one of the edges that indicated it had fallen, but not the force of the impact.   In one moment the stopper seemed to have been carved, in the next to have been shaped and fired.  The ambiguity of D’ni materials no longer surprised me; still, I thought for the hundredth time about taking a needle tool to a very small section just to see if it would scratch.  Instead, I brought the bottle to my nose and sniffed the rim.  Such a faint scent that I couldn’t tell what it was.  Question after question marched through my thoughts — what was it?  Was it an absolute or a blend?  Cut or pure?  Was it dangerous?  A medicine?  A poison?  Who lost it?  Are they looking for it?

What does it smell like?

I could almost feel the intensity of the substance through the glass, at once beckoning me to make some use of it and warning me of its potential.  There was in it a feeling of something larger than affect — some power that was greater than any knowledge I had at present.  But for one thing I knew without doubt:

Opening the bottle would most certainly bring change.

Setting the bottle back on the shelf, I knew I would continue looking for answers.  The overgrowth on the road up above the rock outcropping had suggested a long duration of disuse.  What had been a small village some distance away was little more than crumbled huts abandoned for some time as well.  What timbers stood on their foundations of stone demonstrated the soundness of the construction.  Weeds, grass, thorny bushes kept prying hands from easily overturning its secrets.  Nothing had indicated who or what had been responsible for the bottle or its contents.

Travelers, perhaps, as I had been.

I breathed in again, enjoying the immediate sense of balance and peace that accompanied attending to the action.  Jurel was right about that — one cannot listen to their own breath and simultaneously think about anything else.  Or worry.  I nearly laughed at the simplicity of it and breathed in again, listening to the wind-like sound in my ears.

Yes, yes, ok, you are right about that one.  I will follow your advice this time.  Yes it does work.  Yes, yes, I’ll keep quiet about it.  Are you breathing or worrying about me talking too much?

We had both laughed that time.

The insight flashed and was gone before the smile on my face was fully formed.  An instant later it had given way to an open-mouthed “Oh….”

“No.”  I picked up test blend #54 and smelled it, opening my nostrils so the molecules of scent would reach the back of my nasal passages.  “Let it keep cooking,” I said as I replaced the bottle on the shelf and quickly exited the room.  “I don’t have time.”

Be careful, Ghaelen.  You’ll know things when you listen to your own breathing.  It’s the kind of knowing you can ignore, but you can’t un-know.

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  I mean, I know that you said that would happen, but not what it would… oh crap…

I heaved a breath, trying not to listen to it, knowing that, too, that I would listen.

I knew as well that I would go.  “Damn…”

To:  Ghaelen D’Lareh

From:  Gr’noreth Solaken

Ghaelen,

We’d like to nominate your latest fragrance blend, “Nee Lehnah,” for a Creative Alchemy Award from the Revnekan Institute of the Healing Arts.  If you are interested in this award, there are a few items we need from you by SD March 13 at 5pm.

• A sample of the fragrance oil
• A description of the fragrance, what flora in an age or ages inspired the creative process, and anything about the contents you are willing to explain.
• Testimonies from three to five people about the positive or negative effects of the fragrance (preferably positive).  These do need to be signed by the author.

My apologies for the delay in notification; the time got away from me and I thought you were still on the surface.  Please respond with your decision.

Best of luck,

GS

I know I should not be frustrated.  This could be a great honor.  He invited me to the institute and introduced me to all of those great people.  This could be a way to spend more time there…. Maybe they would allow me to see the gardens.  But by tomorrow?  I’ll never get all of those materials together by tomorrow!

This is a test.  Of course it is.  The lesson I attended on patience and peace.  I know there are always tests.

But by tomorrow?  It can’t be done!  How am I going to find five people to test and comment on the fragrance?  They are scattered around the ages and on the surface.  Man, I’m sunk on this one.

It will be such a loss for the blend to lose this potential.  I have to try.

Doesn’t he understand it takes time?

Check Teledahn again.

But I did. I realized there was a fragrance in the room. It was different from those outside, and couldn’t be coming from any plants. So, like I always do, I followed my nose. The dust was pretty thick, but dust there can get thick rather quickly. So that doesn’t tell me how long it had been in there.

I still can’t believe no one has ever made mention of it. I mean, as carefully as explorers have scoured the ages and any surrounding area, no one noticed it? I suppose it’s possible, since I wouldn’t have either had I not been sniffing for it.

Jeeze that’s embarrassing to say. Sniffing for it. I think it’s a good thing I haven’t said anything to anyone. Although now I’d like to tell Veralun. Since we’ve developed the Guild of Healers site a little, and there is some interest (positive, thank goodness) I am learning that there are other people who are interested in the properties of plantlife in and around the Cavern. That’s his area of expertise; maybe he will come back there with me and study the scene.

Ruby might, too, although she had something of a bad experience there last year.  Still, she might actually be willing to tell me about the area where I found the Big Box.

I really should go and talk to the people at the Zoological Society. They might know something about it. I have plans to get more involved over there now that I have studied some of the resins and extracted a few of the essential oils. I just need to decide what how to introduce my project.

Part of my hesitation with the DZS stems from the fact that I haven’t collected many essences, so I don’t have a lot to contribute yet to their database. I try not to disturb any of the living plants, since I don’t know what effect digging into them would have. I’m grateful that some ooze oil or resin and others flower and drop petals or leaves. I don’t feel nearly as guilty picking up petals or holding a vial up to running sap. Well, I don’t feel too guilty cutting a stalk or two, or picking a few blades of grass. I’ve picked up whole clumps of grass that had been uprooted, especially in Tsogal. People can really tear up the landscape when they take off running to get through the door. Delin, too.

And I didn’t really care at the moment I found it, I just got excited at a new find. Especially since that find came on the heels of the Lara Documents find. We all thought for so long that all we got was more DRC evasiveness and the nonsensical stories about Guild history (which didn’t do a thing for me, btw). I really wish people wouldn’t believe what they are told just because someone has been given a “title” and a script. Anyone can tell a story, but not many can tell a good one. And then there’s “delivery” which is often more important than the story itself. I mean, how often have I told a joke so badly that it was nowhere near funny? Too many — terrible at telling jokes. Or stories.

So I stick to telling what “is.” What I say I see is what I see.  Or what I smell, in this case. Besides, the truth has always been more interesting to me. So, no storytelling blather here — just the truth.

And the truth right now is: The Little Box is gone. I don’t know when it was taken. Sometime between infinity and February 3, 2008. Heck, I don’t even know when it was put there — centuries ago? Last October?

I was planning to say something about it when the gateway controllers announced they are closing the gate on April 4. You know, I thought about maybe getting some help. Or at least find out that someone had dropped it–

No…. they wouldn’t have dropped it….. can’t drop a box and have it land there.