Addendum: A short note regarding divisions of time

  Adeena, who has been reviewing this book’s manuscript, has pointed out that it might be somewhat difficult to parse for those who have never dwelt on tidally locked moons like Ruvera, due to the ‘strange’ nature of such pces. Personally, I find the time units used in my only slightly embellished novelisation of these distant events perfectly clear, and that any need to convert between cycles and gactic standard days can be accomplished easily in one’s head.

  But then again, my kind are a fair bit more advanced than most squishy bipeds. So, for the benefit of any such soft-brained readers, I have written this short addendum to clear up any confusions regarding the Ruveran system of measuring time.

  Ruvera does not have days, it has ‘cycles,’ each one taking roughly sixty ‘gactic standard days.’ These cycles are based on the rotation of Ruvera around its pnetary body, the gaseous Allfather, to which it is tidally locked – the same, inhabited side always facing inwards. In simple terms, your ‘year’ is probably somewhere around six cycles.

  As for rotations of the Allfather around the sun, these are known as epic cycles, which are eight hundred and seventy seven cycles, give or take a little, which works out to something like one hundred and forty five of your ‘gactic standard years.’

  On Ruvera there are minutes and hours, as you might be familiar with, but also trances, named for the elven equivalent of sleep, which refer to four hours; shifts, which are divisions of eight hours; and periods that st twenty four hours. These fourfold divisions are natural and intuitive to all normal species that have four talons on each of their paws.

  The reason that these ‘cycles’ are the most natural way for a denizen of Ruvera to measure time becomes obvious when one realises that the passage of a tidally-locked moon around a gas giant divides itself into several distinct ‘phases’ - each of which st around ten ‘gactic standard days.’ The phases are known as, in order: the Long Night, the Dawning, the Waxing, the Dreaming, the Waning, and the Setting.

  The first of these, the Long Night, is bitterly cold, with sunlight entirely blocked by the dark side of the Allfather. Temperatures plummet to forty or fifty below freezing, and howling blizzards rage across the inward facing surface of the moon. Anyone caught outside during these times will usually not survive long enough to find shelter.

  The Dawning brings with it relief from the pitch bck. The moon moves out from behind the Allfather and direct sunlight strikes Ruvera’s face, particurly strongly in the west. The snow melts, and eventually temperatures reach their second highest point in the cycle. Crops are pnted, and the long hibernation ends.

  Following the Dawning comes the Waxing, when Ruvera’s inhabited face passes from direct sunlight, and instead is warmed by the indirect light bouncing off the Allfather. Cool rain is typical of this phase, along with some storms, and the first harvest of the pnet’s fast-growing pnts takes pce.

  After that the rains ease with the coming of the Dreaming, a stretch of quasi-twilight as Ruvera turns it back entirely to the sun. During this time the air is calm and still, and temperatures cool further, with some light frosts and the occasional bout of gentle snow in its tter period.

  After the peace of the Dreaming, the Waning arrives with a vengeance. Thunderous storms sh the moon, and temperatures begin to pick up once again as more indirect sunlight reaches Ruvera’s face. It is thanks to the violence of the Waning that the second harvest of a cycle is always lesser than the first, despite the heat to come.

  Last in the cycle is the Setting, where once-again direct sunlight bears down upon Ruvera. The weather calms, and things begin to get progressively hotter and hotter, reaching as high as the mid forties in coastal areas, and more innd, until, almost from one moment to the next, the sun retreats behind the Allfather and the Long Night once again sets in.

  I hope that this short expnation serves to help any confused readers of this account, and, more importantly, to appease Adeena.

  Evie.

  A.N. Adeena's pocket watch, the help illustrate time.

  A Draft map of Ruvera.