Forrest Cameranesi Geek of all Trades

(6x08) The Magic of Antiquity: Part 3, Episode 2

But there Keius hits a snag, for not long before those times, the Ehrban did not have language at all; and so the memories of those so distant ancestors are unorganized and difficult to access. So Keius travels to the site of those earliest accessible memories, to see if the sight of once-familiar landscape will jog his ancient memories. But those lands are now the center of the densest part of Ehrban civilization, so he ventures to the Great Library to access a historical simulation of what these lands once looked like. It works; the sight of familiar landscapes conjures images of what once transpired there. While conducting his research at the library, Keius encounters Tatia, who is now a professor at the prestigious university adjacent to the library. She says it is thanks to some favors from Goran, but Keius assures her it is her own abilities that got her this position. Keius, no longer in any dire urgency, decides to postpone further research for the day, to share a meal with Tatia instead. Over the course of his return visits to the library, he meets with her many times, and the seeds that lingered so long during their days together on Asira finally begin to grow and bloom.

Via the library's simulator, Meij continues to trace his ancestry back, through the days before civilization, when primitive Ehrban lived in fear of the great dragons which once ruled the whole of Ehrba. Back and back further, and across the lands, watching Ehrban kind grow larger and less upright, and less intelligent, devolving back into their raptor-like ancestors, as the dragons they so feared likewise grew smaller and smaller, returning to their bipedal ancestry, and the lines of Ehrban and Dragon converge once again. This fact is of course no surprise to Keius, who as a biologist is quite familiar with his species' evolutionary history; though witnessing geological time unfold in reverse in such vivid memory is thus an even more fascinating experience to him.

By this point Keius has traced the migration of his ancestry back into lands which are still to this day wildlife preserves, lands where the few surviving dragons and other megafauna still survive, just barely, under the watchful care of endangered species wardens. So Meij leaves the Great Library and travels to these wild lands, to witness the world he seeks to remember first-hand rather than only in simulation. Tatia wishes to come with him, and has leave time she can use; but Keius fears for her safety, expecting trouble along the way, the likes of which he will not specify for Tatia, except to say that is not the wilderness that he fears for her – he knows she can handle herself in the jungle just fine. Though disappointed, Tatia heeds his warnings, and remains at the university.

Next: The Magic of Antiquity: Part 3, Episode 3