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“Hard to keep track of distance on the tundra, isn’t it?” Jhon asked.
“Very,” she agreed.
“You come up with new landmarks,” he told her. “When your old ones don’t work anymore.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“The light, for one,” he told her. “As the afternoon comes on, 0-dette starts casting shadows. Those can help you estimate time.”
“Is that why it wasn’t fully dark last night?” Ella asked.
“You noticed?” he asked her.
“Not much,” she admitted. “I was still half-asleep when we headed in. But those creepy shadows were very strange.”
“0-dette is an ice moon,” Jhon explained. “Sol’s light continues to reflect in it, even after we’ve rotated enough to be in a darkness cycle.”
She nodded. That made sense.
“And for distance, the best landmarks are the floating islands,” he told her.
She looked up and shuddered at the sight of one of the massive things floating far ahead. It felt too large, too foreboding.
“How do they float?” she heard herself ask, wondering if she would even be able to understand the answer.
“Do you want the long version, or the layman’s version?” Jhon asked.
“Short version please,” she told him. “My education is… lacking in some areas.”
He frowned, but to his credit, didn’t ask her any follow-up questions.
“You’re familiar with magnetism?” he asked her.
“Sure, like two materials are drawn to each other,” she offered, thinking about how she seemed to be drawn to the burly warrior. “Or they push apart from each other.”
“Exactly,” he told her. “Do you know why?”
“Something about poles?” she ventured.
“Right again,” he said. “Opposite poles attract, and like poles repel.”
“Okay,” she said, wondering what that could possibly have to do with floating islands.
“Sigg-3 has veins of minerals that you could think of as magnetic,” he told her. “So magnetic, that when enough of the mineral is grouped together, and the poles line up, they can react with deeper deposits and propel each other enough to send an island of land into the sky and make it hover.”
“That used to be there?” she asked, pointing to the nearest island and the unbroken tundra below.
“A long time ago, yes,” he told her.
“What changed?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You said this happened a long time ago,” she said. “Why can’t it happen now?”
“Oh, it can happen now,” he told her. “Pieces of land can still break free and start floating. That’s why I keep my eye on the ground as we drive. A cavern in the ground like that can spook the deer.”
“The ground we’re on right now could just float away?” she asked.
