The Towering Yggdrasil

~ Xenoblade Chronicles 2


The flight to the root of the Rhadamanthus was a long one. Indeed it had taken them from Kyoto to Los Angeles, to the Rhadamanthus Authority Territory, which sat in the Gulf of Mexico. The Low Orbit Station Rhadamanthus was, in fact, part of a series of three Low Orbit Stations: Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus was the largest of the stations. And each station was in turn but a small part of the Aoidos Orbital Ring.

In the balmy weather, with its clear blue skies, as they waited for a taxi that would take them to the hotel where they would stay their last night on Earth, Maribel could almost pretend she could see the Orbital Ring that encircled the world. It had been a feat of engineering unmatched in all of history, a monument to end all monuments. But so high up, it couldn't be seen from the ground in daylight, which she felt was a shame.

What could be seen was the great tower that supported the Rhadamanthus, just one of the many towers that supported the Orbital Ring. Sitting in the ocean just off the coast, it rose higher and higher into the sky until it vanished beyond the point the human eye could see. Though it was relatively spindly, the space tower easily dwarfed and dominated the city that sat on the coast. It was like a great tree, Maribel thought, casting its long shadow.

As she stared at it, she could practically see the roots grow around the tower. Growing and coiling and strangling it, growing and growing until it had completely enveloped it. An epiphyte that had killed its host, a divine banyan tree that had enveloped the tower, its branches spreading from horizon to horizon.

When the sharp pain behind her eyes grew too much and Maribel blinked away, the world was once again sunny. The tower of Rhadamanthus was once more pristine like marble.

The flight had been a long one, and Maribel was tired. Perhaps she'd nodded off for a brief moment. Still, she couldn't help but stare at the tower, stomach suddenly heavy.

"There it is!" Renko grinned as she pulled along their luggage. "The Beanstalk!"

"That's what they call it, right?" Maribel asked, trying to forget what she had seen. "Naming such a thing after a children's story, isn't it rather strange?"

"No more stranger than other things, I should say," Renko said. "Besides, atop this beanstalk are giants, and something so precious that a golden goose would only be good for foie gras!"

"Poor goose," Maribel said. The breeze that blew carried with it the tang of the sea. Somehow it was different from the sea back home. "I should think at least to keep it for golden omelets."

"Perhaps even some gilded omelet rice?" Renko joked. "You've made me hungry for some real food now! Come on Merry! My Jack! Tomorrow we climb the Beanstalk!"