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A.R.Yngve

DARC AGES
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Osanna, Eveli & Bwynn Damon

Chapter 6


Darc's English Diary, June (Iunna) 21st, 2897 AD (940 Aw Monro):

I've finally gotten the hang of the Castilians' blasted grammar. I guess the way they construct sentences is a product of the great migrations that followed upon the Ice Age; I've found traces of Chinese, Russian, and lots of plain old English in their language. One thing worries me: not many people around for conversation in my old language. When I get tired of writing a diary, my English will deteriorate...

Last night I managed to get through the last of Al-Masur's History... strange reading indeed. It's rather obvious the poor man mixed up fact and fiction -- but who can blame him? There was nobody around to help him sort out between old novels and genuine historical records. No film, no disk drives -- Bor's cellar is full of ancient CD-ROM discs, and I can't read a single bloody one! Besides, I think they're too scratched to play even if I had a CD player.

The History Of The World According to Al-Masur, and this age, can be summed up as follows:

First, there was the Green Age -- the "immeasurably long time of standstill between the Earlier Ice and the Eternal Ice," as Al-Masur puts it. "The Earth was green and fertile. The people were simple farmers living off the wild crops and half-wild cattle. They were heathens, worshipping innumerable pagan gods such as Christos, Butta, and the many-armed Konshivius."
(I think Al-Masur's sources have confused Taoism with Hinduism somewhere here.)

Then came the Steel Age, when man first learned to use artificial power to build self-propelling machines. "The early robots poured smoke into the sky, until the trees turned black and the children fell ill from breathing the air. But the people continued to feed the smoking robots, which produced ever more clothes, food, and houses for the growing population. The power of the old gods began to weaken under the rule of the robots. New prophets came -- Tarwin, Marx and Spencers. They preached that the gods did not exist, that the world belonged to the humans and the robots in alliance."

(This must refer to the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Fairly easy to follow up to here -- but then it gets all screwed up.)

Oops, time to go to sleep. The city lamps will soon be turned off by Lord Damon himself -- sole proprietor of the fusion reactor under the castle. The greedy old fellow leaves nothing but the castle's heating system and a few street lamps on. The time is -- they don't use mechanical watches, but I guess the sundial is better suited for a life without offices and factories -- about nine, I think. Over and out.



Darc's English Diary, June (Iunna) 22nd, 2897 AD (940 Aw Monro):


Today I was introduced to Bor's family. I'd better write that down, so I won't forget those weird names. Amazing, what power Bor's got, he actually ordered his wife to avoid me and was obeyed. This age might not be so bad after all, ha ha.

OSANNA is Bor's wife -- she's a few years younger than him, but in pretty good health. Is she his second? Hard to tell. Osanna's in charge of the household, but keeps away from Bor's servant robots. She seems very nice, but these people are quite formal so you don't get to know them easily.

DOHAN is their son, seventeen years old -- he spends very little time in the castle or the library. His main interests seem to be martial arts, fencing and flying around in his dad's private jet machines. Dohan's not a bad kid, just a little wild -- he'll probably settle down once he gets married to the daughter of some neighbouring city-state noble-nose.

EVELI is Dohan's kid sister. She's being raised as a lady, and it shows. One can see in her eyes that she thinks I'm a lousy commoner, an upstart who's fooled her father into thinking I'm a time traveller. Well, you can't win'em all.
Then there's Bor's own younger sister BWYNN and her husband ANDON PASKO. Nothing remarkable about them, really -- they don't speak much. There's some family feud between the Paskos and the Damons, reaching back a few centuries. Librian warned me about mentioning this to Bor -- he can get nasty when he's angry.

And speaking of family -- LIBRIAN is an old widower since many years, and married to his books anyway. His apprentice, 15-year-old AWONSO is the son of a common craftsman.

Al-Masur's history book continues in SOD IT! The lights went out. Over & out.