652. All there is to know, 8
R - What have you found my sweet?
Nokarlık stands over a city square, on the side of the river bed. The place looks mostly dry, but deep fissures can let you guess maybe the river isn’t really gone. It only sunk and now flows mostly one level deeper below.
The square has some desert plants growing shyly.
Nokarlık at the edge appears lost in thoughts. She didn’t quite hear me and I get closer.
She finally realises that I’m there and smiles.
R - What have you found my sweet?
N - Just a few seeds.
In her opening hand are weirdly shaped jewels. Artefacts... In twirling rings. They’re pretty.
R - Plants here gather enough T.I. to seed out artefacts? Or do you think they were made by a daiûa in a more common manner?
My curiosity got the best of me. I step back.
R - I mean... Congratulations! That’s quite a good find. What else do you have?
I’m a little embarrassed but she didn’t mind my manners.
She shows me a Persian rug lying aside. It’s beautiful, there is no other word for it. I can sew but nothing like that.
N - The third thing is...
She gives me a precious looking mirror. I see what I look like inside. I see... She played that well. And here I was planning to play the same card, since I’ve returned empty handed.
I... My reflection looks reasonably familiar but a little foreign as well.
R - I wish I could age as graceful as Zeslinry...
Feeling human again would be a stretch now. But feeling like my proper self, yes.
As the latest Rose Blume to inherit the identity of Rosemary Herson in this day and age.
R - I’m glad there were enough ribbons of T.I. around to make me become like this. Being just Blume was feeling cold.
N - You needed that time, I understand.
R - Nok... If you already understand these kinds of feelings and needs, you’re likely to be more intelligent than me already.
I was never smart. She could be far shrewder than I’ll ever be.
But where will that leave me as her mother? Proud, but a little lonely. Nokarlık had the same reflections I can tell. She comes to hug my arm, seeing it’s not carrying anything.
N - You didn’t bring anything?
R - The trails I followed proved inconclusive. You won.
I try to be cheerful but something is a little off.
N - Rose...
R - Yes? You know, did I ever told you how much I love this world? And how much I love you? A huge lot. As much as I can... You were saying?
She swallows the broken loneliness.
N - Nothing mom.
I love you so much.
I’m happy I inherited this as well.
~
We go looking for the next whimsical thing together, toward the undergrounds, Nokarlık is not familiar with them yet.
I nibble one of the seeds she found, having some weird craving for it. It melts slowly under the tongue like a candy.
We know it’s just a way of feeding myself, on the Blume side of things.
I tell a little more to my dear Nokaranlık about the aunt she’s never met. Bleue.
R - You grew up to be quite similar to her in some ways. I guess some personality traits can run down the family even for us as we are now.
N - It’s hard for me to relate since we couldn’t meet, but I would have liked to meet her.
R - You’re sweet to say that. Bleue... She would have loved you all the same as I.
My flesh and brain reach more maturity now that I’m full. From eating an artefact... Times have changed...
I create a small but bright bubble of light at the tip of my index. And we head into a tunnel of the undercity.
~
I think the big garden towers were also the main entry points to the rich undercity of lights. Things from the civilisation are generally better preserved underground. Maybe that was partially the intent.
This time, we head for the religions arborescence and enter it for what it is.
Along the walls are their respective sculptures in multiple languages, including old English on places.
We see here an history of humanity unfolding. I translate what Nokarlık can’t read well.
A retell of religious histories, somewhat centred around Hierosolyma.
R - That was a sharp choice from you.
Referring to it in her play at my return. It didn’t go as planned, but she had some twisted good ideas and real efforts put into it. She will do great things I can believe.
I hope her kingdom will work...
I’m concerned but also so proud and admiring of her. For she has a clear and rather kind ambition, a reasonable plan to achieve it, and enough patience and pragmatism to see it through I think.
I’m honestly a little jealous.
My lives ambitions and determinations pale next to hers. I’m somewhat still more juvenile than my own daughter? Goodness...
We visit the shops and businesses of the undercity we manage to enter. We found some good clothes for me. I’m not really picky, but it’s nice to wear some real clothes again.
Nokaranlık picks a huge load of the softest silk scarves. She has a new idea.
We find a library, with good shelves and thousands of books still intact. A real historical gold mine.
More than gold even. Almost the equivalent of Alexandria’s great library.
R - What would you like to do? Stay in the city a while and study all that we can?
N - ... Not really...
R - Oh.
N - But I’ll remember a treasure of the past knowledge lies here. We can preserve it.
It’s not what I expected, but that will do I suppose.
~
By twilight, we returned outside. We sealed and marked the historical treasure below. I understand that my daughter’s ambitions lie elsewhere and are not about the past. A past that ended long before her time. It’s rather normal truly.
As for my own ambitions for tomorrow...
I’m thinking about the promise Nokarlık forced me a little to make, with second thoughts.
I’m thinking.
R - You’ve won the game still. So what is you wish?
N - Hm... I know you like past history more than I do, but I loved your tales... It’s been a while you know?
I see... Alright then.
~
