TOMAHNA
Tired. That was the best word to describe Atrus right now. He had been scrubbing all of his resources for inspiration for his new Age he was constructing a link to. The Age which, he hoped, would serve as a new home for the few remnants of the city of D'ni. He almost couldn't believe such a task had been placed on his shoulders, yet here it was, nonetheless. He had been looking through all the Ages he'd ever written, seeking inspiration to guide him in making this world for the D'ni. He was more frightened of failing this world than he had been of any other. Though he was nearly finished with his writing of the Age, he wanted to be sure it was as perfect as possible. This Age, Releeshahn, would be his magnum opus, and he couldn't let anything go wrong.
Along with the exhausting preparation going into writing Releeshahn, another thing to worry about was his new infant daughter, Yeesha. With the worries that naturally come from raising a baby, Atrus worried about what she would become in her adulthood. He constantly thought of what had gone wrong with Sirrus and Achenar, and he couldn't let it happen again. He knew his mistake, and it would not be repeated. The problem with Sirrus and Achenar was that Atrus had hardly ever been there for them. All his two sons usually ever had of their father was a note, or a recording, or some other version of him that wasn't really him. He wouldn't do that to Yeesha. A child was like a flower. You couldn't just plant it and then hope for adequate rain and sun to take care of it. If you wanted it to turn out well you had to be there to tend to it and see that nothing goes wrong. Yeesha was a new flower, and he would be there to take care of her.
And with this resolution being made in his head for the hundredth time, Atrus turned in.
Saavedro shook off the disorientation following his link to Tomahna. Much to his dismay, he'd linked directly into the house, instead of outside it, which would've been safer. He crouched by the floor like a frightened cat, ears pricked for any out-of-place sound. None came. Slowly, cautiously, he stood up and surveyed his surroundings. He appeared to be in a sort of study, but there were few books in it. There were some tapestries hanging on the walls, and a desk with a magnifying glass, an odd looking red stone, and...a picture frame, in which there were two pictures. Saavedro immediately recognized the subjects of the pictures. Sirrus and Achenar. He quickly turned away from the desk, and looked around some more. The only other distinguishing feature of the room was a glass safe in its center. He walked to it but found, to his disappointment, that it was empty. He left the safe and saw, in front of him...a door, slightly open. He strode over to it. Upon reaching the door, he didn't open it, but peered through it. From what he could see, no one was in the room. Saavedro then grabbed the door handle firmly, and flung open the door (opening it slowly would make it easier to creak). He smiled triumphantly as he walked in.
This was surely Atrus' study. At least three desks were in the room, each with various small contraptions and instruments on them, and along with these, books. Scores of them. Quickly but silently he strode over to one of the desks, flipping through books until he saw Atrus' handwriting. After finding one such book, he sneaked into a dark corner, and hunched down until he was hardly visible. Using a solitary beam of moonlight, he began to read.
Saavedro repeated the same routine, for several nights. He would spend the whole night sometimes at Tomahna until pale green sunlight began to sneak over the horizon, at which point he'd promptly link back to J'Nanin. He had yet to find anything truly valuable. Most of the journals he read were simply records of various experiments Atrus was conducting, either that or the entries were from years ago, and the contents probably no longer valuable. Saavedro began to get discouraged. Perhaps Atrus simply used his journals for scientific reasons, and he didn't believe in recording something as trivial (or as important) as feelings on paper. Still, Saavedro pressed on, hoping he would eventually stumble upon something.
And on his fifth visit to Tomahna, he did. He found a small, red journal, securely tucked away in the back of a drawer. It had no dust on it, a sign that it hadn't been there long. And upon reading it, he found something that was very current, and very important. Atrus was working on an Age, a great one, to house the remnants of D'ni. Saavedro had read of the D'ni over and over in Atrus' journals. Apparently, at one point, he'd been working on the restoration of the great city, but had given up. Now, it appeared he had instead decided to relocate it.
Atrus himself was trying to create a new D'ni, called Releeshahn. After reading this small journal, he suddenly remembered the glass safe in the room he always linked into. After seeing it empty the first time, he had usually disregarded it. But all of a sudden he felt certain he knew what the contents of the safe were supposed to be. Saavedro carefully replaced the journal to the drawer, and went into the safe room. He stood directly over the large glass dome, and underneath it, Saavedro could clearly see a huge, red book, with a large lock on it. And, as if he didn't already know what the book was, across the cover was the title:
RELEESHAHN
He wondered to himself just how stupid it would be to smash the safe, grab the book, and bolt. Yes, it would be very stupid. And, he had just decided, Atrus should follow him, and he probably wouldn't, as Saavedro currently had the linking book to J'Nanin hidden. No...next time, he would come to Tomahna in broad daylight, and he would leave the book to J'Nanin in plain sight, so Atrus would surely follow. Then, he'd make Atrus chase him through his ridiculous Ages, and let him obsess over the fate his precious book. And, at the end of the trail, he'd make Atrus set things right in Narayan, as a trade for Releeshahn.
Satisfied with that idea, Saavedro then quietly exited the house, and linked back to J'Nanin.