How NOT to walk the Logrus in five EASY steps
On the way to the entrance of the Logrus, Alicia reiterates her earlier instruction that the most important thing to remember is not to allow yourself to be distracted from your objective. It seems likely that she is telling the truth, since the Logrus is by all reports a dangerous place, and giving me false information could easily lead to my death. But I will remember to question everything and use my best judgement as she taught me.
At the logrus, we are met by Suhuy Sawall, the Keeper of the Logrus, who looks me over and then asks emotionlessly if am ready to attempt walking the Logrus, "knowing that to fail means death". I answer in the affirmative, of course, and he nods once to Alicia, who returns the nod and leaves.
The Keeper then tells me that I will sense various things, such as sounds or smells, when I enter the labyrinth. It is important that I always follow these "trail" when I am presented with a choice and always to keep moving. He says that I should not be alarmed at anything I see, that the logrus may trigger my shapeshift, and that I should not attempt to invoke any other powers inside the labyrinth. Except for what to follow, Alicia had already told me all this, and from the KeeperUs tone of voice, I assume that these directions are largely a formality.
This confirms a suspicion of mine that the true test in walking the Logrus is something that no one can ever describe. The reasoning is that since these instructions are overly simple and given to everybody, and yet some people fail and others succeed, there must be some tricky elements that have not been discussed. And the tricky elements are presumably different for every person who walks the logrus. If not, specific directions could be given for walking the logrus and it would no longer be difficult. Therefore, no one can ever say what the true test will be for a given person.
The Keeper points towards a round stone arch through which I can see nothing but black, and says, "Enter when you are ready."
I nod, and not wishing to be encumbered by things of this world, remove all my belongings and pile them neatly beside the gate. The Keeper looks startled at this: a typical reaction from humans. It seems unfortunate that a human with such obvious psychological limitations would be named "the Keeper of the Logrus". But I am sure there are aspects of the situation of which I am not aware, so I focus on my task and step through the round stone arch, into the blackness.
The first thing that I notice is the distinct smell of almonds from ahead. The light is quite dim, and I cannot hear a sound. However, I can just barely make out another arch ahead of me. In order to size up the level of temporal and geometric, I look back over my shoulder. There is no arch, just a vague sense of a horizon leading of into the distance.
And now the arch ahead of me is two rectangular doorways. As I expected, the Logrus is not very consistent. However, things have only changed when I was not looking at them. Potentially, it is my attention that keeps them from changing. Perhaps discovering what rules govern the consistency of the Logrus is essential to walking it.
I check the door on the left first, sticking my head through the doorway. There is a faint sounds of bells in the distance, a gentle, but changing breeze, and a shifting pattern of colors. But no smell of almonds. I then check the door on the right, though which there is an open flat landscape. I can vaguely make out a horizon and it's slightly lighter that it was through the door on the left. There are a great many scents, but none are quite almonds. This is interesting. There are trails to follow through both doors. Since I started off with scents, perhaps the door on the right would be a better choice.
Before comitting to a course of action, I should first perform a few tests. I still do not know whether I should trust the instructions given for the test. It may be that I am not supposed to actually step through either of the doors. I need to find some logic to the chaos of the logrus. Chaos does not imply lack of order, just events that are imperfectly predictable with finite observational capabilites.
I look around behind the doors, and there is no sign of the doors at all from behind. I move halfway through the door on the right and step back. I am still in the same place, but things are getting a little fuzzy. I go all the way through the door on the right, except for one hand and discover on returning that there appear to be more doors than there were before and the area looks different.
In addition, the scents through the right hand door have rapidly been fading away. This may be a side effect of standing still. Since both Alicia and the Keeper advised me to keep moving, that would probably be a good thing to do now. There will presumably be plenty of time to experiment later.
I step through the door on the right, and find a featureless, wide, flat, dustly plain. The sky is faintly lit, as if from the glow of a distant Stratan city. I begin walking away from the door towards the light, but everything is uniform. There are no sounds and no smells. Perhaps in waiting too long at the door, the smells and sounds moved on, and are now too far away to sense.
However, it is possible that I can create some small change in the Logrus through force of will. I concentrate very hard, as I walk, on a small airlock, like you would find for evacuating a space station. I envision it appearing in the dustly plain ahead. After an hour, I have a slight headache, and no airlock has appeared. Unfortunate, but hardly suprising.
It is intriguing that this area of the Logrus is so different. Before there were many sights and sounds and things varies continually, and here there are no sounds and nothing changes. Even when I clap or shout, the sound is quickly muffled. One possibility is that I am supposed to follow the sense-gradient, and that the area I am in is a very shallow local minimum, in which it is difficult to determine the gradient. Perhaps what I need are better sensors.
Luckily I am skilled at designing such things, and the use of shapeshift was not prohibited by the Keeper. So I make some ultrasensitive ears and a nose for myself, and continue on, looking for any hint of something different from the dustly plain.
I have taken just short of 20 thousand steps, but now I think that I am tracking a very faint smell of almonds. I know that even my improved nose will only sense concentrations of greater than 4 ppm of likely aeromatics, so the smell could have been there before, and I wouldn't have been able to sense it. I continue following it for another 36 thousand steps, and eventually it looks like the ground is becoming slightly less featureless than it was before.
Now things are definitely changing. There are small pebbles scattered around on the plain, and now bits up upturned, damp earth. Grass is starting to grow, about a foot high. Suddenly, I nearly stumble across what looks like a young human female lying on the grass, hands behind her head, staring up at the sky and smiling.
I have certainly entered a more interesting region of the Logrus again. Now the only question is whether this is what I'm supposed to be following, or simply a "distraction". "Hello, my name is Corrigan," I say, "Do you have any useful information about travelling the Logrus?" Although I doubt she'd reveal it to me, it is worth a chance. Based on my previous experiments, I have at least a few minutes before everything becomes barren. But even then I do seem to be able to work my way back to a more interesting region, though it did take a while.
She looks up as if noticing me for the first time, though this seems a little unlikely. Probably a test of some type "Hello," she says with a look of some concern, "You don't look very happy. Are you lost?" She glances around. "You certainly are." She looks up. "The clouds are lovely though." She smiles, and looks back at you. "I think you're too dryly logical and orderly." She picks up a tiny flower and looks at it. "No, dry and pedantic, that's it. Not very adaptable at all. What do you say to that, sir?"
She certainly does seem to have a good source of information. Talking to her could be useful, though she could easily be powerful enough to kill me. I respond without hesitation, correcting her on her final point, which was slightly innacurate "I am dryly logical, orderly, and may be perceived as pedantic. I am quite adaptable, but have not had very many experiences to adapt to. Most people switch between previously learned adaptations. I am learning new adaptations as I go, so it takes somewhat longer."
She doesn't react especially to that, so I add a more controversial remark, "You are an artist and a dreamer. You see life in terms of beauty and happiness, concepts of questionable utility. Do you think that viewing things in such a light would help me understand?"
The girl gets a look of scorn on her face. She says, "You are quite wrong in all your assesments," which is good. Maybe she'll correct me and reveal some useful information. She crushes the flower, and it erupts into a tiny swirling flame which quickly dies out, leaving a tiny writhing creature. She tosses it aside and it takes wing. She stands up. "You have admitted to being logical and orderly and dull as a board. Why should I let you out of the mess you have gotten yourself into?"
She either misunderstood my remark or is pretending to, answering a question with another question. I shrug, "I would be dissapointed if walking the Logrus consisted of convincing others to help me,S and look around to see in which direction lies the most variation in the plain, or perhaps the most intense almond smell. The woman does not seem inclined to reveal any good tidbits, and so this is not a fruitful conversation, whether or not it is a distraction.
"You seem to think that I am a person who may or may not be able to help you," she says. "You are once again, quite wrong. Do you know where you are?" As she says this everything goes completely flat and featureless in all directions. The grass is gone, the sky is gone, the clouds are gone. Everything has been replaced by a very pale grey, almost white, which confirms the theory that she is powerful. Of course, as the Keeper advised, I am not alarmed at anything I see. It is too late to leave now, but she has given some information away, if only in passing. That might be a good sign.
I smile, now that she has said something at least bordering on usefulness. "Of course I do not think that. I have many theories, but do not have enough evidence to support one over the others."
"I had hoped that I would see things in the Logrus that I could never even have imagined previously. Instead, I am subject to questions such as 'Are you lost?' and 'Do you know where you are?'. OF COURSE I do not know where I am. You must know this. Or, should I assume that your question was rhetorical and that you will answer it now yourself?" A fairly transparent ploy, of course, but once again worth a chance.
She replies arrogantly, "Fool, you enter the Logrus, attempting to gain some measure of its power for yourself and claim to not know where you? An amusing notion." And she actually seems to consider the idea as if having never thought of it before. Obviously she has not had the benefit of Alicia's lesson in not assuming that one knows everything.
Coming out of her brief reverie, she says "Very well, show me how you adapt," and I look pleased because that sounds very promising ...
I have failed. I paused too long and the logrus became angered or amused with my behavior and threw me out of the logrus. Alicia was very dissapointed. Even though I may have gained control of the Logrus, Alicia has advised me not to attempt using it, and therefore I have failed. I am still without the power that I will certainly need to carry out my orders. Under normal circumstances, failure of an azi to complete such an important task would suggest remeidal reprogramming.
It seems that walking the Logrus is actually easier than I had surmised. Apparently, simply following the instructions given is often sufficient to successfully complete the test. The instructions can be trusted for what they are. Unfortunately I was decided to test the instructions as Alicia had taught me. This was an instance of a test when the rules should not be tested. However, it is still not clear how one would determine this during the test. In fact the situation is reminiscent of Kerniggan's Paradox, where it is impossible to make a measurement without having an effect on the environment.
My situation is unique, as far as I know. Anyone else who has ever attempted to walk the logrus has either reappeared, sucessful, at the entrance, or has been killed by the Logrus. I was concerned, once I realized what had happened, that people would find the uniqueness of my situation interesting and investigate who I was to a greater extent. I must avoid appearing to be quite so unique, since careful investigate might reveal that I am not human.
Since I had been seen entering the Logrus and not exiting, I decided the chance of concealing my outcome at less than 3 percent. Therefore I decided to make the information public, exagerating the incongruity of my story. The others that I have told my story to appear to think that it is humorous and that I am merely naive or eccentric. Hopefully this will bolster my image as different and separate from House Nyborg. This impression was further bolstered by the lucky fact that Alicia did not try to find me by searching through the Logrus. Therefore Shoshana and Morley and later Galiena were able to find me, making it appear that House Nyborg really does not care what happens to me. Perhaps in the future it could be beneficial to contrive an event where I do not get support from my House.
Unfortunately the immediate situation is even worse than the previous description has indicated. This is due to the fact that during the period of several days while I was unconcious after arguing with the Logrus, the Keeper of the Logrus was badly injured, seemingly by Tomas Ardas, who is himself in a coma. This is unfortunate because now it is not possible for me to immediately try walking the Logrus again, as Alicia has indicated should be my course of action. Instead, I must wait for for the Keeper to either recover or die and another Keeper of the Logrus to be appointed, which may be a lengthy process. I will ask Alicia when I talk to her next whether there are any other techniques that might be used to determine whether it is safe for me to attempt to use the Logrus before attempting to walk it again.
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