Deep Plains

One of two things must be true. Either our memory is failing, or the side of the world is widening. It's a slow change, difficult to measure even over thousands of part lives, and that only when we know it's happening. Without any idea that the world could change its size, it isn't any wonder that it took so long for us to notice.

We might have seen this sooner if we had not been so careful of the heat seam. That's the first of the places we marked as too dangerous to approach, after it ate some of our parts. We told our swarms to avoid it, and they did, but perhaps with more distance than was necessary. We set landmarks as the nearest safe approach, rather than identify the conditions near the seam, and thought no more of it until a swarm came to inquire exactly which ridge was that limit, because none matched the description well enough.

We rarely explore places we have already seen, but in this case we felt it was important enough to send a swarm of swarms. How can we trust our memory of the Singer if we can't remember the shape of a ridge? And it was true, the ridge that we thought was just far enough away from the seam was not as tall as it had been. Furthermore, there was another ridge beyond it that was closer to the right height, but the wrong pattern of peaks. And there was still another ridge that we did not remember having been there before at all.

The swarms crossed two more unknown ridges before reaching the slope of the heat seam. All along the side of the seam is terrain that was entirely new to us. How can we have forgotten so much landscape? It is easier--much less impossible--to believe that the heat seam itself is retreating.

Considering the breadth of the deep plains surrounding our wall, the increase in size isn't that significant. What is significant is the reassurance this discovery gives us. For as long as the plains keep growing, there will always be new places to find, and no fear of coming to the end of the world.

Time frame: ~1 million years in the past