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Tainaron - Mail from another city { 1 }
by Leena Krohn { 2 }
Dayma - the twenty-second letter { 425 }
{ 425 } |
For my part, I did not notice any such effects. But everything I see here is strange, even without drinking a drop of dayma. | { 427 } |
{ 431 } |
{ 432 } |
'That is not why,' he said. 'No comprehensive map of Tainaron has ever been made.' | { 433 } |
'What? No proper map has been made? But that is very strange,' I said, dissatisfied and astonished. | { 434 } |
'It is not at all strange,' Longhorn said abruptly. 'It would be sheer impossibility to draw up such a map, a completely senseless project.' | { 435 } |
'Why so?' I asked, increasingly irritated. 'To me a kingdom which has no map is not a real kingdom but barbary, chaos, mere confusion.' | { 436 } |
'You still know very little about Tainaron,' he said quietly. 'We too have our laws, but they are different from yours.' | { 437 } |
I felt a little abashed, but that did not wipe away all my irritability. | { 438 } |
'A map cannot be made,' he continued, 'because Tainaron is constantly changing.' | { 439 } |
{ 440 } |
'None as fast as Tainaron,' Longhorn replied. 'For what Tainaron was yesterday it is no longer today. No one can have a grasp of Tainaron as a whole. Every map would lead its user astray.' | { 441 } |
'All cities must have maps, at least of some kind,' I continued to argue. | { 442 } |
Longhorn sighed and looked at me kindly, but a little wearily. | { 443 } |
{ 444 } |
{ 445 } |
'We are going to the observation tower,' Longhorn said. 'To make you understand.' | { 446 } |
Midway, I said to Longhorn: 'Now I cannot climb any farther. Let us stay here. We can see enough from here.' | { 448 } |
{ 455 } |
{ 457 } |
'It is not a storm,' he said. 'Worse. It is winter. Although it will be a long time before it reaches us. But when it is here, I pity those who have not already gone to sleep!' | { 458 } |
I already felt cold now, in full sunlight. We looked in silence at the majestic shape of snow and ice. To me it still did not look as if it were changing shape or approaching Tainaron. | { 459 } |
'Perhaps it will not come this time, after all,' I said to Longhorn, half in earnest, and hopeful. 'Perhaps it will stay up there in the north.' | { 460 } |
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{ 464 } |
{ 466 } |
'Not an earthquake, surely?' I asked fearfully, although I could not yet feel any tremors. | { 467 } |
'No, they are merely demolishing the former Tainaron,' Longhorn said. | { 468 } |
{ 470 } |
{ 471 } |
I looked. There, where a straight boulevard had run a moment ago, narrow paths now wandered. Their network branched over a larger and larger area before my very eyes. | { 472 } |
'I am thirsty,' I said to Longhorn, longing once more for the foam of dayma. | { 475 } |
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