Two Worlds

Two Worlds represents an attempt to overcome the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy. The story is set in a remote future, on an Earth very different from today: the Chimeric development has taken human evolution on strange paths, paths that have led to the advent of other races; hybrid species that possess in their modified DNA genes coming from birds and fishes. The presence of a mysterious Tower of Seeds—a long forgotten place—will rekindle in some people new hopes and the desire, perhaps utopian, to restore the ancient environmental balance with planet Earth.

alteration and an evolutional process millions of years long. Other sequences, a tough minority, took advantage of this situation to adapt, and incidentally, evolve into forms of life that from then onwards, populated the Modified Earth.
The "human race" in the form it presented before the Second Ecopoiesis, no longer existed. In their place, there were two races whose DNA shared 99.96% of their genes with the human race, but no longer walked the Earth. Because they had not discovered intergalactic flight in time to populate new worlds, human beings had discovered a way to bend the barrier of time and conserve their lives for centuries.
When the human genome was decoded in the Second Millennium, scientists were surprised to find that it consisted of a mere thirty-five thousand genes. So they enriched that sequence with a number of additional codes providing highly desirable qualities: qualities useful for adaptation and survival, values commonly found in species other than the human one.
Chimeric experimentation was the beginning of the end, when everything was mixed up together. The cancellation of the 2005 "Human Chimera Prohibition Act" was approved in accordance with the principle that human dignity should be applied exclusively to the individual and not generally to the whole species.
Even before Chimerism, it was common practice to exchange human cells with animal cells: cows secreted human proteins in their milk and sheep were the recipients of human liver and heart transplants. Vice-versa, many human beings possessed cardiac valves derived from pig and bovine hearts. Still, the phenomenon that followed chromosomic liberation -known as Genetic Confusion -was also the basis of our salvation.
It was demonstrated that there were no true genetic barriers between the different species, and the proof was that the human genome code clearly showed the presence of a genetic continuity between all the animate beings.
The high containment walls that had kept species separate for millennia crumbled within a few decades.
The Aeromancers learned to fly and oxygenate their blood better, enabling them to settle on the arid mountain tops. The Aquamancers became glabrous, acquired from fish the techniques of obtaining oxygen from water, and populated the seas.
This reconstruction is the result of a research study into how to ensure the survival of animate beings.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
On the twelfth day of nonstop flying over the Global Ocean, Aruna let herself fall, skimming over the surface of the sea. Exhausted, she succumbed to weariness.
Her worn out body, dehydrated and close to death, was intercepted a few hours later by a reconnaissance patrol who had never seen an Aeromancer before, except in films at school. Drawn to the surface by a shadow, Karia, Coorny and Tsai Chin, moved closer to the creature with feathered arms and a beak instead of a mouth: the shape was of an animate like they were, even though there were differences, like the nails on her hands and feet, more like talons than their webbed fingers and toes.
The wings, folded behind her arms like drapes, were a rainbow of green, yellow and red stripes, dirtied with dust and dulled by marine contamination.
Karia sniffed the stranger, and turned to Tsai Chin, the patrol's leader.
"Should we take her down?" "It could be risky." The youth's narwhal like face looked worried. Although quick to act, Tsai Chin thought carefully about every decision.
"But she's dying!" The girl's beak was withered and blackened. In some points, it shone like mercury.
Little Coorny looked towards the horizon and grimaced. Not only was there a storm coming that would generate fire twisters, but his nose could detect the stink of an enemy approaching.
"Quick ... That orcark knows exactly what to do with her." Hearing their conversation, the girl regained consciousness and opened her beak.
"The Tower… Do you know where…? I have to…" Then she was quiet, overcome by exhaustion. A big bubble of hydrogen from below reached the group and took them a few metres higher. Karia grabbed hold of the girl.
"She's raving, maybe she's ill." Tsai Chin's prudence had made him head of the team even though he was so young.
Karia, on the other hand, was naturally curious. Her webbed fingers were expert in investigating coralline encrustations and fields of kelp. She loved the spores, microbes, and even the viruses. Life under water was prolific, and she had fun riding rays, flying on the back of mantas, and drawing with the cuttlefish and octopuses.
Tsai Chin blinked his nictitating membranes uncertainly. Then the air valve in his neck vented vigorously; Karia smiled.
"All right… Your father will decide her fate." Coorny took a breathing kit out of his pouch. After uncurling the tube, he placed the mouthpiece on the girl's beak and the oxygenating bands behind her shoulders. The bands' tiny fissures, acting as artificial gills, would allow the outsider to breathe underwater.
The orcark approached with its comic movements: its head rocking drunkenly. It was its hunger that made it look so ridiculous.
The patrol formed a diamond: Tsai Chin in front, Karia and Coorny on each side, and the outsider last, towed by her arms. They dived quickly, heading towards Saxayé: their underwater bubble.
The orcark, its mouth hanging open expecting to feed, missed its prey and resigned itself to going hungry yet again.
Mnemonic Relic 2.98.36 (Source Underwater Architecture Project) The entrances to Saxayé were dug in the sand and its tunnels stretched across the seabed for several kilometres. Air was pumped into the corridors and the domes through porous walls made of osmotic membranes that absorbed oxygen from the sea water, releasing bubbles of carbon dioxide in the process.
Saxayé was situated close to two hydrothermal vents surrounded by prolific colonies of tube worms, bivalves, and an abundance of prawns and mussels.
It was a complete ecosystem based not on photosynthesis, but chemosynthesis. The hydrothermal vents were the ocean's alternative to the old power stations. The springs also served to purify the salt water. As the water penetrated the Earth's crust, it lost minerals, was cleaned, and released back into circulation by thousands of steaming vents. It was an incredibly slow process, but the Aquamancers were in no hurry, they preferred efficiency to imbalance.
References were found in distributed memories of supercomputers to a few populations on the east coast, who mindful of time spent underground during the war, had installed these structures as dormitories for immigrant labour.
What for the Aquamancers turned out simple to get up and running again, having access to technology they had found surviving in watertight depots and laboratories, turned out to be disastrous for the Aeromancers. They had had to find shelter in the few Solar Trees left standing, surviving on inaccessible semi-desert terrain which had resisted the rising levels of the Global Ocean. Forced to live on land as hard as rock, their population had remained stable for centuries. This meant though that any chance or unforeseen event could easily compromise their survival.
Growing food crops was only possible at a certain altitude to make the most of the weak solar heat: cassava, sweet corn, beans, squash, and potatoes could be harvested up to an altitude of 3600 metres. Between 3600 and 5000 metres, only potatoes would grow. Beyond that, every plant, even though modified by ancient biotechnology, stopped yielding any fruit.
According to local myths, the Little Ice Age had lasted for about 500 years, an exceptional phenomenon that had occurred at least twice. Yet, according to the same legends, when the climate stabilised again, the tundra would recede, the parting waters would uncover fertile lands, and the Aeromancers would be able to come down from their heights; the heaths would flower again and their Solar Trees would prosper once more.
They had been waiting for this moment for centuries.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
Karia entered the med-lab pushing the gurney. "Dad, we found this girl floating in the Ocean." The stout shape of Iguain Celcantoss turned towards his daughter, then towards Aruna. She had regained consciousness, but she still couldn't make her talons clasp.
"An Aeromancer? And the rest of the flight? What was she doing in the sea?" Iguain picked up a device and ran it over the girl's body. He stopped at her shoulders, where the inflammation was visible.
"There wasn't anybody else. She mentioned a Tower … She said she had to find it." He turned to the Aeromancer. For centuries the inhabitants of Modified Earth had been using the oceanic language which had become the repository of idioms from before the Second Ecopoiesis.
"What's your name?" She tried to grab his arm. At the sight of her talons, Iguain dodged out of the way and the young woman's hand dropped. The bone structure of her arms was elongated, especially near the hands where the metacarpals and phalanges were twice as long as those of an Aquamancer.
"Aruna Dalkey, of the Aeromancers of Kilimanjaro." Iguains's cutaneous crests suggested he was smiling. "You are not in danger… You're just very tired. How did you manage to get this far? We're 11 days travel from the nearest coast." "8 days… flying." He opened his eye membranes wide, exposing aquamarine irises. He was honestly surprised, as if Aruna had said something nonsensical. His surprise though owed as much to seeing an Aeromancer after such a long time; the floating bodies they sighted always ended up as food for the orcarks if the fire twisters didn't reduce them to shreds first.
"Where am I? And who are you?" " Welcome t o Saxayé, the capital of the Aquamancers. My name is Iguain Celcantoss and this is my daughter Karia." "Saxayé? Never heard of it… But thank you for all you have done. Now I must continue with my journey." "In your condition, you wouldn't beat your arms for a minute. It's better if you build up your strength before taking off again." As soon as he turned away, Aruna burst into tears. "You don't understand… My people are dying. Only the Tower can save us." "Calm down. Tell me about this Tower. Why are you looking for it? And why is it so important?" The Aquamancers, as far as airborne reconnaissance had shown, were peaceful people. Aruna needed to trust someone and Karia had saved her life. That had to be a good sign.
The Aeromancer told them everything about the threat hanging over all of them, and hoped she wouldn't live to regret it.

Mnemonic Relic 3.11.67 (Source Uncertain)
At the beginning of the third Millennium, on Spitsbergen, an island in the Svalbard archipelago, a building was erected, known to the future generations as the Tower of Seeds. Inside, thousands of samples of different varieties of seeds were stored in the hope that one day they would be able to survive an accident or natural catastrophe.
Following the Second Ecopoiesis, the island sank beneath the Global Ocean and from then on no-one heard about it. Despite this, the vault's construction and the care taken over its security led many Aeromancers to believe that if they could find the Tower, they would still be able to use the seeds.
According to various mnemonic fragments, the Tower, powered by a thermopile, consisted of three rooms located at the top of a 125-metre-long tunnel. The seeds were kept at − 20 degrees Celsius and sealed in specially designed containers of aluminium.
The low temperature and humidity levels in the Tower would limit the metabolic activity of the seeds and keep them integral. Preserved correctly, they could last for millennia.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
Aruna and Iguain meeting had unhoped-for consequences, the most important of which was their audience with the Council of Saxayé.
President Yecené Urus, in his uniform, a fluorescent overall with an opening on the back for his dorsal fin, had listened in silence to the words of the outsider.
"If I have understood correctly, you are saying that the existence of the Global Ocean is under threat?" Aruna was standing in front of the assembly. Her plumage had regained the vigour of her genetic line, and shone with a myriad of colours. She found Iguain's presence by her side reassuring. The medic, for some reason, had believed her and seemed happy to help her.
Together, they had spent hours sifting through the mnemonic relics, hunting for information about the location of the Tower. The Aquamancers' network was not extensive, and lots of scouts explored the submerged ruins to hook up to old databases.
The fact that she might be the only survivor of that year's mission kept a flame of optimism alight in Aruna. She and her companions had left the Nest without knowing what to do, nor how to proceed if they had succeeded in finding the Tower.
Their flight was more a test of faith than of hope. "Yes, the disappearance of humanity caused the evaporation of the coolant reservoirs of about 870 nuclear power stations and the meltdown of their reactors. The clouds that continued to form for decades afterwards turned out to be more of a problem than the radioactive material. 500 billion tons of methane deposits were released as the layers of ice they were trapped in melted. All that gas accelerated global warming to levels that had been unheard of since the end of the Permian period." "This data is known to us. There are no boundaries between the ecosystems. The Global Ocean was the origin of everything that breathes and reproduces, and it seems that it is also their future. We see no threats on the horizon." The round head of president Urus nodded up and down. The members of the assembly approved.
"Permit me to disagree." If the Tower existed, and the Aquamancers could be convinced of the danger, maybe they would be able to help her.
"Have you ever left the sea? Have you ever analysed the situation of the Risen Lands?" Some members of the assembly gasped, others vented their air valves, whispering to each other. Who did this outsider think she was to throw around accusations; how dare she seed amongst them doubt and fear about what the future might bring.
"Are you referring to the lands where you have made your nests?" "Yes, before the Second Ecopoiesis, the lakes and the river deltas were suffocated by weeds and fertilisers. Our ancestors witnessed everything from above. When the algae collapsed from the lack of oxygen, their decomposition intensified the process. The lagoons, once crystal clear, became great expanses of sulphureous sludge; the river estuaries spread for hundreds of kilometres in unending dead zones. The plants and animals survived according to their tolerance to UV rays, or mutated beneath a bombardment of electromagnetic radiation." Aruna's beak beat the words out with force. The Aquamancers kept listening.
"When the worst happened, life went on. It went on regardless, even though the parameters had changed. We, the animate races, are the result. Now though, the threat still hangs over us because there are no trees left to defend us." "What have the trees got to do with the disappearance of the Ocean?" "Like I said, our ancestors, on their first flights, saw everything from above. Their genetic memory preserved the memories of those events in the chemical composition of our plumage. If you don't believe my words, check the analyses against the fossils of the birds from the First Ecopoiesis." Aruna turned to Iguain who lifted a translucent plate. They had come prepared, knowing that the Council would insist that they look at the matter in a rational manner.
"All right, continue… We want to know about the trees." "The disappearance of the trees together with heavy use of engineered seaweed to produce fuel hydrogen, once the fossil fuels ran out, caused the Earth's temperature to increase, and in consequence the level of the Ocean to rise. There is a limit beyond which the biosphere ceases to provide protection from the effects of these processes, and starts to magnify them instead. The only way we can save the Earth is by replanting trees. The clouds will give us water once more, and the Sun will heat and produce vapour from the watery mass of the ocean. In this way, the Global Ocean can be made to recede and the Risen Lands become fertile again. With the seeds, we'll have seasons again. Do you know what seasons are?" The Aquamancers remained unmoved, like when the explanation about the mysteries of the universe, and the sheer size of the phenomena exceeds the mental capacity.
Aruna hoped she had managed to get the message across.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
At dawn of the following day, a squad left Saxayé heading northeast, towards the banks of Bioluminescent Plankton. Iguain had taken the place of young Coorny, while Tsai Chin had been moved down the squad's formation to Karia's side.
Aruna, unsuited to swimming, was transported in a capsule.
Their destination was a point near the North Pole. According to the mnemonic relics, this was a plausible position for the location of the Tower.
Iguain had managed to convince the Council to grant him permission to accompany the outsider, verify the entity of the threat, and "take possession" of the seeds. The risk that the legend might be true, must be taken seriously. Still, Iguain was not sure what meaning to attribute to the expression "take possession". He had a plan too, but of a completely different kind.
In the past, he had heard rumours about the Tower, but that information had been forgotten, until Aruna's story had brought it back and reactivated it.
Near Miami, the squad came across thousands of eels like silver ribbons, up to five metres long, swarming thanks to rudimentary fins and pointed snouts.
When they dived into the deeps, they saw the trail of pilings that had once held up a human civilisation's motorway. Following these, they reached a merchant ship resting on the seabed. Its corroded iron hulk fed a prolific mass of multicoloured seaweed. All around the wrecked ship, amidst statues covered with anemones, spores and starfish, spread a ten centimetre thick carpet of red seaweed. They decided to set-up their bubble and stop to rest.

Mnemonic Relic 4 (Source: Wikipedia Fragment)
Whoever wants to access the Tower must get passed four doors: the entrance, a second door in the tunnel, and a further two airtight doors.
Movement sensors are present all around the site. A work of art makes the vault visible from many kilometres away. The roof and entrance are covered with highly reflective mirrors and prisms designed by the artist Dyveke Sanne. This installation acts as a signal by reflecting the polar light in the summer months, whereas in the winter a network of 200 fibre optic cables illuminate the site with a colour changing light, varying from turquoise-green to white.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
On the seventh day of journey, beyond the Krill Fields, Aruna saw what must have been the beginnings of the fjords. Half hidden by teeming underwater life, she saw an encouraging sight. The images in the mnemonic relics that Iguain had shown her matched those from her childhood. Drawings and paintings that portrayed the Tower decorated the walls of the Aeromancer Academy and the Solar Tree Major.
Her people's dilemma consisted of having to make the terrible choice between sending its children out in search of the Tower, or hoping that it was all a lie, in other words the choice was between weakening the Nest or else seeing it destroyed within a few generations.
As old Canderum had explained, the decision to continue with the Ceremony of Flight was linked to the fact that legends needed to be valued according to their capacity to generate "morale" in those who stayed behind, rather than on the basis of their truth.
Because of the Flight, the life expectancy of the Aeromancers was shorter than that of their ancestors, though they had overcome this disadvantage by becoming sexually mature at an earlier age. They generally reproduced during puberty so the population had not shrunk as much as the elders had foreseen. The strongest individuals were excused from procreation, because of the risk they were to run. Candrum was known for saying "Better to raise heroes than orphans." However, it was also plausible that the Second Ecopoiesis was hurrying along their natural selection, increasing the probability that new generations would be born with a greater tolerance of radiation. The Aeromancers knew that they were a transgenic form of life, which had evolved to face an extreme and continually mutating environment. A mutation that was guarded inside the Tower now before Aruna.
The squad was moving forward holding its formation when Tsai Chin realised that below them an intertwined mass of plants was rising rapidly. It was an enormous macrocyst of kelp.
Iguain motioned the group to move swiftly. "Swim up!" was the sign he made to Tsai Chin, who vented his air valve as hard as possibile.
"No, we'll waste time." Tsai Chin pushed the capsule with Aruna in to the head of the group to help the three Aquamancers push their way through the columns of seaweed.
"It's not common kelp. It's carnivorous and will rip us to shreds." Iguain's mouth was clamped shut.
Tsai Chin shook his head, he couldn't believe that the seabed could rouse itself and grow before his very eyes. As Iguain knew, courage didn't always make up for inexperience.
Less than twenty metres from the Tower, a compact wall of lianas forced them to slow down.
"It's been crossbred and I don't want to know what with…" The lack of oxygen around them, so quickly sucked out by the kelp, would cause them to suffocate within a few minutes. Iguain distributed the breathing kits to gain time, but as soon as he did, a spongy tangle enveloped Tsai Chin and dragged him down with it.
Karia pushed Aruna ahead of her, while Iguain stopped and watched Tsai Chin armed with a dagger fighting those roots. If he went to help Tsai Chin, he would put the lives of the others at even greater risk.
Tsai Chin took out a bar of sodium, which on contact with the water, burned incandescently amidst a cloud of bubbles. The kelp, alarmed by his resistance, called up even more tentacles. At the sight of this, Iguain kicked his legs, beat his dorsal fins and resisted the tenacity with which the kelp was trying desperately to survive.
When he could no longer see Tsai Chin, Iguain filled his lungs, pushed with his pectorals, and swam away, helping his daughter and Aruna to safety in the narrow entrance of the Tower.

Mnemonic Relic 5 (Source: Paper Fragment)
The most alarming thing is that we have no idea about the mechanisms which enable a natural phenomenon to disrupt the Earth's temperature with such speed. As Elizabeth Kolbert observed in a mnemonic relic from the New Yorker "No known external force, or even any that has been hypothesised, seems capable of yanking the temperature back and forth as violently, and as often, as these cores have shown to be the case. [It seems] like some kind of vast and terrible feedback loop." We are a long way from understanding all of this.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Saxayé
Shaken by the loss of Tsai Chin, Iguain pounded his fists on the Tower's door to the disbelief of Karia and Aruna. It was madness to think someone would come and open the door, nonetheless a display lit up by its side.
"Welcome to Spitsbergen island, I am the Custodian of the Vault, its security AI, how can I be of service?" The girls came closer, intrigued. The supercomputer was still working, though it was not up-to-date with the situation on Modified Earth. The island no longer existed, covered by the Ocean.
"We have brought some seeds we'd like to deposit." Aruna shook her feathers, a gesture typical of her race. She opened her beak angrily and pounded her hands against the capsule.
"You've got seeds?! And you didn't tell me?" As soon as the doors opened, the three were pushed in by the pressure of the water. When they stood up again, after the doors had closed, they found themselves in a corridor sloping 20 degrees upwards. Emergency lighting indicated which way to go.
"I'm sorry, the Council forbade me from talking about it. It was the best way of getting us in." "You lied to me…" "No, I do have some seeds, but they are as old as fossils." Iguain opened a bag and showed Aruna the contents. A strong smell of rotting hit her. A slightly sweeter version of the stench was also present in the corridor.
The interior of the Tower was covered by a film of dust, and as the AI led them to the top of the vault, the smell became the stink of mould.
When they reached the Seed Room, they could not hold back their disgust and horror: their hopes lay there rotting in an unending series of carefully labelled containers.
"They're all rotten! The seeds are useless… We got here too late." Karia put her arm around the visibly upset Aeromancer. To return to the Nest only to tell her people that the seeds had turned to dust would throw everyone into deep despair.
"That is not exact. Some have survived." The AI opened a door and inside a few cases, some names lit up: Himalayan Cedar, Caucasian Elm, Whitebeam, and then Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Magnolias.
"The Barley seeds decomposed after 2000 years, the Wheat seeds after 1700, but the Whitebeam will last for another 10,000. You can leave your seeds here, I will take care to preserve them until the time is right for a new planting." Aruna ran to see close to, drying her tears as she did so. Iguain, laid down his package and was about to move away when she grabbed him by the arm.
"Where are you going? We haven't come all this way to leave empty handed." Iguain's eyelids dropped from the tops of his eyes until they were completely covered. The absence of eyelashes made him look strange to the Aeromancer.
"The aim of the mission was to verify the existence of the Tower and identify its position. Someone else will decide what to do with the seeds. We will report back to the Council and tell them what we have discovered." "But my people need these seeds. We must take them back with us!" "The Council will use its judgement to decide what to do. If it were not for them, we would not even be here." "I know… but the seeds don't belong to anyone. The seeds belong to the Earth, and they must be returned to the Earth. The seeds are like the force of gravity and sunlight, they existed before the human race came along, and continued after its disappearance. No-one can own them." "This is a decision the Council must make." Aruna let her beak hang open, then tilted it to one side and unfolded her wings threateningly.
"No Iguain, this decision belongs to you too! We are alone here, and I don't think that you came all this way, at your age, only to satisfy your curiosity and to put a cross on a nautical map." The Aquamancer vented his air valve. It was difficult to carry on doing his duty, now that he knew. The existence of the Seeds was a truth that could put his dream of repopulating the Risen Lands into motion.
When he was a boy, Iguain had loved to swim to the surface and gaze at the sky. The star fish were nothing compared to the stars that floated high above. During the night, under the spinning constellations, hypnotised by their mysterious movement, he would ask himself what was up there. On the edge of the outside world, he had never plucked up the courage to take the last step, the step that would have taken him out of the Ocean.
In the years that followed, his mind was often filled with thoughts of the Risen Lands. It was as if his memories held, in the folds of genetic memory, the panoramas and terrestrial landscapes that persisted with a certain melancholy within him.
This convinced him that his race should leave the Ocean, and that sooner or later the Aquamancers would return to dry land. It was a circle that would be closed.
He had taught Karia that the Risen Lands had been the cradle of civilisation, from where all the animate races had originated, and that that civilisation had walked, with its feet firmly on the ground.
Iguain couldn't get the mosaic of his thoughts in order.
As an Aquamancer he knew that the Risen Land Cultures had all ended badly, and that every land based civilisation was but a fragment in a distributed memory. They, vice-versa, were alive and would remain so until the Sun imploded.
For the Council, the Risen Lands were a fearsome environment, dry, exposed to intense radiation, and above all they offered none of that support provided by water that made moving in the sea so pleasant and less tiring than on land.
It was bizarre that a planet almost completely covered by the Ocean should be called Earth. Sooner or later it would have to be renamed "Aqua".
"I'm going to take the seeds anyway Iguain, with or without your permission. Even though you saved my life, you cannot expect me to sacrifice my people for a question of politics." Aruna addressed the display with a pleading tone. "Custodian, I beg you. The seeds must leave this place… I came here to take some samples. Allow my people to be able to plant them again." "I have awaited a Planter for centuries. Preservation is a means unto planting. You may take two seeds of each type left in the vault." Aruna was overjoyed, but did not know exactly what to do, nor did she have any idea how to transport the seeds. She was scared of ruining them, of accidentally destroying in an instant her own future.
Then Iguain had a change of heart, turning back with shuffling steps.
"Aruna, I have not told you everything. I did come here for another reason. I want to take us all back to a point when nothing had yet been compromised. I want to put evolution back on the right track." "What do you mean?" "I mean that any child born today inherits genes and learns from experience, but she also has the use of words, thoughts, and tools that were invented by others in other places and other eras. The animate beings exist because, on the contrary to other species, they know how to accumulate culture and pass on this information, not only across the Ocean, but also across time, from generation to generation. I think though, that this progress is cyclic, not linear. The human civilisation was a disaster for the biosphere. The next will be able to value the environment and read its signs.
"So, have you changed your mind?" "Partially. Karia will return to the Council, whereas I will come with you, if you have nothing against the idea." Iguain's daughter accepted the decision, perhaps she had already known in her heart that her father would not forgo this opportunity to finally leave the Ocean. "I'll tell them that I got separated from you. And you dad, you can come back to Saxayé when you have finished." As she said it, Karia feared that that day would not come any time soon.

From the Repaired Chronicles of Kilimanjaro
The altitude caused Iguain some days of nausea and spells of dizziness. Born to resist the pressure of the water, his body was vulnerable to the rarefied air. However, when he saw the great size of the Giant Sequoias, he forgot any suffering; these beings were the most incredible thing he had ever seen.
Aruna introduced him to her family and old Canderum of the Purple Feathers.
In the days that followed, the young woman was frequently away from the Nest, intent on coordinating the teams of planters that had started to work along the slopes of Kilimanjaro.
Returning in the evenings, tired but happy, Aruna told Iguain how in time every Aeromancer would inherit a mixture of seeds, a precious legacy to manage and make "yield". She imagined flights of Aeromancers flying around to pollinate plants and flowers. She imag-ined spreading the seeds to the other tribes. She imagined descending from the peaks, as the legend foretold.
Iguain, for his part, never went too far from the Nest, where the Aeromancers had prepared him a pool for his ablutions. He learned the local customs, he sat on the edge of the Solar Corolla contemplating the marine horizon, which, in his mind, would pull back and give way to a new unexplored Land, where people could return to walking.
He was not anxious to return to Saxayé, it did not worry him: he had initiated a process of transformation, and even though the consequences of his decision would take a very long time to reach their conclusion, he was at peace with himself.
Canderum glided down next to him. Standing on thin legs, he relied on the support of a stick.
"Look over there… On the left." The Aeromancer pointed with a finger, and Iguain, focussing, saw what the other was looking at: whole swarms of spores floating in the air.
"Our races will meet again, this time on the shores of the Ocean, Canderum." "And from there we will go on together." "As has already happened, but differently." The two elderly men did not have much else to ask of life, except to observe it continue and recreate itself.