Kitarak's Secret Canyon Home: The Darkness Before the Dawn Chapter 6
This chapter is basically a tour of the coolest home on Athas. And the fact that it belongs to a giant insect philosopher makes it even better.
The Canyon
They arrive at Kitarak’s place and it’s hidden inside a canyon carved into solid rock. You wouldn’t find it unless you knew exactly where to look. On a world where everything is sun-blasted and exposed, Kitarak has built himself a secret. The canyon walls block the heat, create shade, and keep out anyone who hasn’t been invited.
It’s the perfect home for someone who values knowledge over power. Hidden, protected, and packed full of wonders.
The Library
The first thing that hits them is the books. Kitarak has a library with more volumes than the templar archives. Let that sink in for a second. The templar archives are maintained by an entire bureaucracy backed by the resources of a sorcerer-king. Kitarak is one tohr-kreen living in a canyon, and he’s got more books.
Some of them date back to “the collapse.” That’s the cataclysm that turned Athas from a green world into the wasteland it is now. These books are ancient. They’re records of a world that doesn’t exist anymore, written by people who lived before the sorcerer-kings ruined everything.
For Jedra and Kayan, who grew up where most people can’t read, this is like finding a treasure vault filled with knowledge instead of gold.
The Workshop
Kitarak isn’t just a collector. He’s a builder. His workshop is full of tinkercraft inventions, mechanical devices that do things most people would assume required magic.
The kitchen is where it really gets wild. He’s got an indoor well pump. Running water, essentially, in a world where water is currency. And he’s built a psionic cold-box. Here’s how it works: he uses psionics to slow the motion of particles inside the box, which creates cold. A refrigerator powered by mind energy.
But here’s the detail that gets me. He can do it psionically but he can’t figure out how to do it mechanically yet. The “yet” is important. Kitarak isn’t satisfied with the psionic solution. He wants to understand the principle well enough to build a machine that does the same thing. He wants technology, not just power.
That’s a radical attitude on Athas. Most people with psionic ability use it as a shortcut. Kitarak uses it as a stepping stone toward understanding. He wants to know why things work, not just how to make them happen.
The Bedroom Situation
So Kitarak shows them the storage room that’s been converted into sleeping quarters. And he asks, completely matter-of-fact: “Will one bed be sufficient, or do you require two?”
Massive blushing from both of them.
Kitarak genuinely doesn’t get what the big deal is. He’s a tohr-kreen. Human mating customs are a mystery to him. He’s just being practical. One sleeping surface or two?
But for Jedra and Kayan, who have been dancing around their feelings across the entire desert, it’s the most loaded question anyone has ever asked them. A giant bug is forcing the issue by asking about beds.
Training Begins
They settle into a routine. Kitarak starts teaching them, and the lessons go way beyond psionics. They learn cooking. They attempt reading, working through those ancient books. They practice psionic control under Kitarak’s guidance.
And then they find the crystals.
Two mysterious crystals sitting among Kitarak’s collection. They seem to contain energy. Almost like they’re alive. The crystals pulse and react when touched with psionic awareness. Nobody knows exactly what they are yet, but they feel important. Like finding a locked door in the middle of a library. You don’t know what’s behind it, but you know it matters.
Things Fall Apart
Kitarak has to leave on a journey. He doesn’t explain much about where he’s going or why. He just packs up and heads out, leaving Jedra and Kayan alone in his canyon home with his books, his inventions, and those strange crystals.
And almost immediately, their personal conflicts surface.
Kitarak was the stabilizing presence. Without him, all the tension between Jedra and Kayan comes rushing to the surface.
They argue. And during the argument, Jedra accidentally creates a psionic mind-link with Kayan. His emotions spike and his powers reach out before he can stop them. Suddenly they’re sharing raw thoughts and feelings. In the middle of a fight. It’s like accidentally hitting speakerphone during an argument. Except a mind-link doesn’t share words. It shares raw emotion.
Things blow up completely.
This chapter gives them paradise and then shows they’re not ready for it. Kitarak’s home is everything they wanted: safety, knowledge, a mentor, a future. But you can’t enjoy paradise when you haven’t dealt with your own damage. The safest place on Athas, and they still turned it into a battlefield.
Title: The Darkness Before the Dawn | Author: Ryan Hughes (Jerry Oltion) | Series: Dark Sun, Chronicles of Athas #2 | ISBN: 0-7869-0104-7
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