Day 3 | Morning | There Is No Faith That We Betray

[Kannon]

Just as Efren found his centre, Yar Zell came to drop two large budles of rope.

"[Eph Ren. Mountain. First?]" He struck a conversation.

[Efren Lanville]

He nodded and stood up, placing the remaining food on the stone where he had been sitting.

"[I go. Attach rope for friends.]" He said as he picked up one of the bundles of ropes.

"[You bring other to start? Please.]" He gestured towards the other bundle.

[Cuyler Gray]

"Was there something we needed solitude for, or you just wanted to see the place, Ms Gray?"

"I'm just here for you." she answered. "For anything you need."

[Kannon]

"I don't know what I need. Or rather, what I can need." Sinsei chortled. "Maybe a glass of Kirana brandy. I don't suppose you've got a bottle on you?"

She gestured around. "I'd like to evacuate this. So much of my work, and my father's. But it's not a task for today, so I just have to count on that this village remains hidden."

[Kannon]

He nodded and stood up, placing the remaining food on the stone where he had been sitting.

"[I go. Attach rope for friends.]" He said as he picked up one of the bundles of ropes.

"[You bring other to start? Please.]" He gestured towards the other bundle.

"[Need Walk Up First.]" He nodded, pointing to the mountain range to the north of the village. "[I carry.]" His cousin, Yar An, joined them with hooks made of antlers.

[Cuyler Gray]

"I don't know what I need. Or rather, what I can need." Sinsei chortled. "Maybe a glass of Kirana brandy. I don't suppose you've got a bottle on you?"

She gestured around. "I'd like to evacuate this. So much of my work, and my father's. But it's not a task for today, so I just have to count on that this village remains hidden."

"Not on me, no." She shook her head. "It didn't seem like something to take on a rescue mission."

She looked around. "What would you consider most important?"

[Kannon]

"Just my luck."

She shrugged.

"I don't know if I can choose. Perhaps... this section?" She waved at one of the walls. It was well beyond what a single person could comfortably carry. "It's mostly raw data, something I hoped to run by a mentat back on Kaitain to give me a preliminary collation."

[Cuyler Gray]

"We'll just have to make sure you can come back for it." She said, still taking in the volume of data. "I wish we could do more now."

[Kannon]

"We can do more now. Just not for this. For my father."

She paused.

"...One of the lessons my father has ingrained in me is the falsehood of the self-regulating, autopoietic ecosystems. They stabilise at some equilibria for a time, but they can still be tipped into cascading collapse at any point or fall victim to runaway effects. Nor are those equlibria usually conducive to what advanced life needs or desires. This jungle may be an interesting odd case, but only up to a point. The agents of ecological sustainability and transformation are always people who know what they are doing and have the persistence to do it. The scientists of the Old Imperium knew this, and hence we have so many habitable planets, each a reflection of at least centuries, often millennia of cautious terraforming work that the Thinking Machines made us disremember. Even now and here, the subtle, mostly instinctive, habitual workings of the Muadh amount to the stewardship of this jungle. It looks like a primeval wilderness, Ms Gray, but in fact it is just a very old garden in which new properties have bloomed and can still bloom. By saving my father we save this drive and this awareness. Ecology is the pinnacle of sciences as it can bring comprehensive understanding of consequences the human and the environment enact together. My father's mind is more precious than all these writings."

[Cuyler Gray]

"Let's go get him."

[Kannon]

"Let's."

Sinsei led them out of the hut, back to the waterfall.

[Efren Lanville]

He nodded and stood up, placing the remaining food on the stone where he had been sitting.

"[I go. Attach rope for friends.]" He said as he picked up one of the bundles of ropes.

"[You bring other to start? Please.]" He gestured towards the other bundle.

"[Need Walk Up First.]" He nodded, pointing to the mountain range to the north of the village. "[I carry.]" His cousin, Yar An, joined them with hooks made of antlers.

He thanked both the men and nodded his agreement with the general sentiment. He had questions for them... and he tried to approach it the best he could while they would walk.

"[You kin to Young Mother?]"

[Kannon]

"[Me not so. Dy Goll. They took. Sure with spirits now.]"

[Efren Lanville]

The memory of the man in the cave flashed into his mind.

“[Was he son?]” He asked.

[Kannon]

Yar Zell nodded and yelped mournfully.

"[The Young Mother took young. Sister death.]"

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded solemnly.

“[He with spirits. I find. Demons kill.]”

He then attempted to yelp in a similar manner to his guide.

[Kannon]

The Muadh accepted the vocalisation with a rueful nod. In sadness, Yar Zell defaulted to the gesture of submission to God, even if syncretised with ritual animistic vocal signal, accepting pre-ordainment, as most Buddhislamics since the time of Maometh, the Third Muhammad, on Old Terra. There was no anger in him thus, as one cannot be angry at God lest it tarnished the soul. Only sorrowful acceptance. But in this, there was also no anxiety about walking toward one's destiny. So he grabbed the rope as the others, including Sinsei and Cuyler, had gathered.

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler studied the mountain with some apprehension. It was intimidating, but she was derermined.

[Kannon]

The time has come for them to set out. They wouldn't be blinfolded this time as the labyrynthine ascent into the mountains would make any outsider do confused they could not retrace it even if they tried hard.

[RP on the way.]