between then and know

[intricate_engineer]

It was a trap.
Glen should have seen it coming, but she'd thought the offer might be genuine. Wasn't the possibility of immortality worth the risk?
Well, not this time.
Her pendant, her way out, was broken.
She tried to use it anyway.

Comments

[intricate_engineer]

Glen heads to the water and dips in fingers in and touches one to her tongue.
Is the water still? Is it clear? How far in can she see?

[pythbox]

There are gentle swelling waves that mostly don't obstruct the view through the water, and it's clear enough that she can see the bottom for about thirty feet out if she stands just above the line of wet sand where the waves strike. In that interval, there is no visible sea-life of any kind.

The water is too cold to taste of much, but definitely salty.

[intricate_engineer]

This isn't good.
Glen doesn't want to go swimming, so she decides to walk along the shore, heading North.

[pythbox]

The shore curves slightly, wobbling inward and outward in long arcs.

There's not a whole lot to see except dead plants and water.

[intricate_engineer]

How dead are the dead plants?
Glenn digs up a couple, looking at their roots and seeing if they have any seedpods or dried fruits.

[pythbox]

They look pretty dead. The roots are dry and brittle; there are no obvious fruits or seeds.

[intricate_engineer]

Well, this is just wonderful.
She takes out her translator. It's not finished, though it does seem to be making progress. It had tentatively identified several common words and the basic grammatical structure.

She decides to keep walking along the shore. Maybe there's something to see, and she'd hate to make a return trip.

She'll head back to the hill later, at an angle that will intercept the odd splotch she saw from the hill.

[pythbox]

There is nothing to see along the shore except more shore.

The odd splotch, when she gets close, turns out to be a pit so deep that even with the sun high overhead she can't see the bottom. It's maybe ten feet across, irregularly shaped, and since most of the edge is made of solid stone it's even safe to walk right up to. Probably.

(The translator, meanwhile, has verified to its satisfaction that this language uses a base 16 number system. Now it understands all the numbers.)

[intricate_engineer]

Glen lays down near the edge and scoots forward so that her head hangs over empty space. She peers into the depths.

[pythbox]

It sure is dark down there.

[intricate_engineer]

Glen fumbles around until she finds a pebble and drops it into the darkness.

[pythbox]

Tink... clack...

[intricate_engineer]

Glen is not jumping down there then.
Back to the hill it is. That was a rather futile expedition. At least she knows she won't run out of water.

[pythbox]

Back at the hill, everything is (very predictably) just as she left it. And the translator has figured out a bunch more words.

Those circular diagrams are recipes of some kind.

For example, the first one in the book: 'Rich Soil'. The diagram depicts an arrangement of interlocking squares traced in green and brown ink; the legend describes the brown ink as 'Essence of Earth' and the green as 'Essence of Life'; the partly-translated blurb advises, "Draw on an 8- or 12-[unit of distance] [noun] in an open space. Produces 16-24 [unit of volume]s of soil depending on diagram size. Draw quickly to avoid unwanted [action]."

[intricate_engineer]

Magic. This world has magic.
That's unexpected, but exciting.
Maybe this won't end in disaster after all.

Fortunately, the translator has a search function.
Glen looks for any mentions of the ink, specifically how to make it.

[pythbox]

The essences appear in the chart at the end of the book, and in many diagram legends where they are associated with a consistent selection of ink colours, and in a few other places that haven't been translated well enough to do her any good.

That coloured-and-labelled sixteen-circles diagram, partly translated, now looks like this.

And the first sixteen entries in the chart look like this, with small appropriately coloured circles next to each row:

Number	Essence Name	[noun]	[noun]
0	[essence 0]	0
1	[essence 1]	0
2	[essence 2]	0
3	Light	0
4	Matter	0
5	Air	1	Matter + [essence 0]
6	Water	1	Matter + [essence 1]
7	Earth	1	Matter + [essence 2]
8	Fire	1	Matter + Light
9	[essence 9]	1	Light + [essence 0]
10	[essence 10]	1	Light + [essence 1]
11	[essence 11]	1	Light + [essence 2]
12	[essence 12]	1	[essence 2] + [essence 0]
13	Life	1	[essence 2] + [essence 1]
14	[essence 14]	1	[essence 0] + [essence 1]
15	[essence 15]	1	[essence 0] + [essence 1] + [essence 2] + Light + Matter

[intricate_engineer]

Glen is fascinated.
There is a logic here, one she hopes she can unravel.
The large outer circles might be the basic elements that make up the Universe.


Eight elements lead directly to the center. Those eight elements are formed by different intersections of the five basic elements.
There is Light and Matter. It follows that there may also be Time, Space and perhaps Energy. Would Energy be separate from Light? One element could also be Nothing.

The smaller circles seem to represent the more complex elements.
There is Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. She remembers that some philosophers also included Soul, but, depending on the society, that might not follow.
If there is Life there is likely also Death. But that is only 6. She needs eight. The two remain are likely a pair or share some common logic.

It would help if she could place her guesses.
Could Matter and Nothing make air? Perhaps. She tells the translator to input Nothing for [essence 0] and to report whether that returns logical results.

[pythbox]

Nothing for [essence 0] is a tentatively promising substitution, according to the translator.

[intricate_engineer]

Light and Nothing could be Death.
Glen tells the translator to test Death as [essence 9].

Energy and Time could make life.
White seems more like Time than green.
If green is Energy, Energy + Matter could = Earth.
Could Time + Matter = Water? She doesn't know.
She tells the translator to test [essence 2] as Energy and [essence 1] as Time anyway.

[pythbox]

[essence 9] as Death: ambiguous results. Not right, but not totally wrong either.
[essence 2] as Energy: pretty clearly negative.
[essence 1] as Time: slightly less negative, but still probably not right.

[intricate_engineer]

Perhaps one of the smaller circles is Thought or Conscious. One may be emotion.

She tells the translator to test Darkness for [essence 0]. Is it a better match than Nothing?
She attempts Time for [essence 2] in case she just got Time and Energy switched.

While the translator works, she tries to understand the relationships between the circles.
What does it mean that Matter goes through Life to reach the center? Life is the sum of [essence 1] and [essence 2], but relies on Matter? Or perhaps it means nothing.

Essence 9,10,11 all use Light. Does that mean they are less physical than the four elements formed from Matter? Fire is less physical than Earth, Water, or Air.

What does Light and Nothing (or Darkness) become if not Death? But then Light wasn't a component of Life.

Glen sighs. She's having trouble thinking metaphorically.

[pythbox]

Darkness is a much worse match than Nothing for [essence 0].

Time is a poor match for [essence 2], about as bad as it was for [essence 1].

[intricate_engineer]

Glen doesn't think she'll make much progress guessing.
Instead she searches for use of [essence 0] and [essence 9] in the books.

[pythbox]

Lots and lots of recipe-diagrams. So many recipe-diagrams.

And:

"As the zeroth essence, [essence 0] represents the [state or condition] at the beginning of all things, even before the first essence, [essence 1]: the [state or condition] before the [noun]. [essence 2] brings the possibility of [noun] to the [adjective] [essence 1], and Light and Matter [act on] that possibility..."

"...[essence 0] is often [sensed] to [act on] other essences in combination, such as for example when it combines with Light to form its [noun], [essence 9], or with Life to form [essence 56]. But sometimes the result is more [adjective], as when [essence 2] and [essence 0] combine to form [essence 12], or more [adjective], as when Matter and [essence 0] combine to form Air..."

[intricate_engineer]

The book is talking about this universe's Big Bang. The people here are advance then or at least understand a lot about the universe.

She tries Space for [essence 1].

It seems the essences are number in the order of their creation which is interesting. Whatever 15 is, it's the most recent. 13 is Life, so perhaps 14 is intelligence or self-awareness? She tells the translator to try both for [essence 14].

She gets out her computer and makes a few notes while she waits for the translator to finish. She guesses at a few of the gaps. It seems like there's enough information to figure this out, she just has to put it together.

[essence 2] brings the possibility of <existence/life> to the <something> Space. Light and Matter <act on> that possibility.
<Nothing> represents the condition before <Space>, the state before <the universe>
What is essence 2? It isn't time, but it came before Light.
Heat? Growth?