Place of Refuge

Distrykt
Segolene
Gwome
pSegolene
Rezhn
Estrelliia
dedication date
11/23/2008

Linear Location
On pillar in front of Straits Clan, Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore (1°16'45"N 103°50'25"E)

Overview

This is the place where two of the key characters of the xthaere finally met and, moving quickly towards their still evolving fates, changed the stories of many lives.

Access

Easily accessible. Underneath the overhang of 31 – 37 Bukit Pasoh Road, and by the front door to Straits Clan, you can read out of the Sun or rain—or both as happens sometimes in linear Singapore. Hats off to our new hosts for re-installing the marker so beautifully.

Public Dedication

Dedication was epic—storytelling and disputed likeness making at the Botanical Garden, then a bus tour (we needed two buses!!!) to the Marker—with the Geographer-at-Large telling stories and the transcendent Inch Chua singing songs Eliala might have sung. And one more song at the plaque itself. Last, we had a ceremony at the upstairs New Majestic Bar—fantastic.

Text of the Marker

The part of the story installed here:

Place of Refuge

After fleeing her last place of refuge (number 317,811, left crowned with the Crystals of Refrain), Eliala Mei-Ning, she whose voice was too beautiful to be concealed, found herself here—in the gwome of pSegolene, legendary as a land impossibly far to get to, yet, once leaving, just a short distance to every place else. The labyrinth on this spot was Eliala’s next, or 514,229th, home. She lingered, staying on for some time, helping at a kind of trade school in generous company. Eventually Eliala, eager at last to echo that spirit, transfixed them with her gift, even knowing that the merciless Puhnee would be resume their ruthless pursuit. But Nobunaga-Ventreven found her in time. Quickly he explained how she could turn the Battle of Some Times, saving not only his beloved Mlates, but complexity itself. In a flash, they stood at the Hub of pSegolene, less than half a day from anywhere, including what she sensed would be a very different kind of refuge: her 832,040th—an underwater desert battlefield off the coast of what we call Namibia.

And in Simplified Chinese characters:

庇方西地

逃离她上一处（第三十一万七千八百一十一处）冠名为「歌韵水晶」的庇栖地后，拥有天锁美声无以掩藏的伊莉雅娜·美宁来到了挚宫林，这个传说中远如天涯般难至，抵达后离天下任何地方却又近如恩尺的
「国亩」。这腮尺天涯的迷离所在，正是她下一个，第五十一万四千二百二十九处居所。她暂时留驻在一所职业学校帮忙，受到当地居民的关怀款待。终究敌不过内心的感激，伊莉雅娜决定涌泉相报，声展她震慑人心的天赋美音，明知此举必自曝行迹，让她再度陷于普尼人的无情追杀。所幸信长·梵特凡及时找到她，仓促之间，他指引她如何转移
「偶尔之役」的战势。这一来不仅拯救了他深爱的玛技堤丝，更转还了生命的复杂属性。电光火石之瞬间，两人现身千挚宫林的交通要枢。此处离天下任何地方皆不过半天行程，包括在她预感中将是截然不同的，第八十三万二千零四十处庇栖地，位千现今称作纳米比亚海岸外的海底沙场。