Chapter 31: Solving Contradictions

When we set off from Atene, we knew that our mission to find another of the seven hibernation chambers, or Potiora, would bring us into contact with one or more other races. However we never anticipated the amount of information the sentient machine that controls the Merope Potiora is able to tell us. It describes what it knows about the ancestry of our different races. The information appeals to the scholar in me, but it is of minimal use at the moment. Of greater interest, is our ancestor’s theories about how each of the Potiora races would survive in this new world.

Our group has met with the leaders of the race awoken from the Merope chamber. If their leaders are to be believed, their population is already several times larger than the combined populations of Thurn, Atene and Phebe. Furthermore, the Merope technology is more advanced than anything used by the Thurnian and Atenex races. We haven’t met the Phebes yet, so we don’t know their level of technology.

The Merope’s superior technology means that they are far better placed to help the other Potiora races, but they show no inclination to do so. While the Merope technology is impressive, it is clearly used by, and for the benefit of, those in power. The hypnotic effect of the purple light in the Sphere of Wisdom was an example of the misuse of advanced technology.

“The Merope senate may have expansionist ambitions, but they focus most of their resources towards preserving their own grip on power,” observes Cassandra.

“Even so, the Merope will be a dangerous threat if they choose to cause trouble for Atene or Thurn,” I reply.

The Merope people no longer visit their Potiora, believing they have extracted all they want to know from the vast knowledge stored in the intelligent machine that controls the tower. From my experiences during my interrogation of the Dioxippe intelligence in Atene, I think the Merope leaders are mistaken. They anticipate that in a few generations their population will grow large enough to expand into Atene and Thurn. We have yet to meet one of the Phebes, although I suspect the Merope leaders would be perfectly content for the Phebes to become extinct. Thurnians and Atenex may one day share the same fate if the Merope leaders have their way.

Despite the disgraceful treatment of the elves within Thurn’s borders, the survival of the Atenex race owes much to the rampant breeding of Elf Maidens in Thurn. Because all elves born in Thurn are clones of their mother, the combined Thurn and Atene female population of elves now exceeds the number of male elves by a considerable margin. Until recently, contact between elves in Thurn and the freeborn Atenex has been limited, so the gender mix among freeborn Atenex has always been more balanced. However, because of the poor fertility of Atenex males, the birth rate of freeborn Atenex has plummeted in recent years. In an effort to stem the decline, Thurnian men have been allowed to breed with freeborn Atenex females. While that should stabilise the Atenex population, it creates an even worse gender skew. Nor does it help a similar reproduction problem in Thurn. The static size of population of native Thurnians is a stubborn problem needing some serious research to solve.

We know very little about the Phebes. If those in Merope’s underground city, Pahuna, are to be believed, the Phebes are suffering a catastrophic decline in the size of their population, and may soon become extinct. The Merope machine suggests we help solve the Phebe’s problem in the same way that my forebears unintentionally solved the Atenex struggle to maintain a viable population. I’m unsure what good will come from us making contact with the Phebes, but we should at least try.

“We could learn a lot by spending some time here at the Merope Potiora,” says Cassandra. “Not least of which are answers the anomalies between what the Dioxippe machine told us at the Atene Poriora, and what the Merope machine is telling us here.”