加百列笔记内容全辑!翻译整理[双语]

我仍记得我在自己的产权地上工作的日子。 我靠着自己的双手从大地上挖取财富。 然后那群盎格鲁人从我这里夺走了一切，包括我的财富、土地以及生命。 在那之后，我坠入了黑暗，再次醒来时却发现自己身处炼狱。 在那里我发现自己被来自异世界领域的癫狂的妖怪和恶魔们包围着。 当我挣扎着寻找我的救赎的时候，一位天使来到了我的身边，并用一个女性的声音向我诉说激励的话语。 她请求我加入与她并一起与她的宿敌展开搏斗，但是我选择听从第二个声音，那个声音许诺会给予我重生和补偿。 于是，我在天国的花园里又一次醒来，我新生的手臂中还嵌着一块闪闪发光的宝石。 这时属于我救世主的声音传来回到了我的耳边，带我找到了一套和我在来世中穿的一模一样的魔法铠甲。 那个时候我明白了，属于我的试炼并没有结束。

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I remember the days spent working my claim. With my own two hands, I dug my fortune from the earth. Then the Anglos took that from me, along with my land and my life. And so I fell into darkness, only to rise again in Purgatory. There I found myself beset by monsters and demons in a delirium of otherworldly domains. While I struggled toward my expiation, an angel joined me and called out words of encouragement with a woman's voice. She asked me to join her in mortal combat with her adversary, but I chose to follow a second voice that promised me reincarnation and restitution. And so I woke again in a celestial garden, with a shining gem set in one of my new forearms. The voice of my deliverer returned then, to guide me to a set of the same magical armor I'd worn in the afterlife. I knew then my trials weren't over.

我在花园中毫无目的地游荡了一阵子，被它那不可思议的天空惊呆了，以至于我迷失了很长一段时间。 我能看到我身边的所有东西都躺在一个闪闪发光且顶部呈拱形的圆环的內侧，从地平线的一端一直到另一端。 在这个圆环的旁边还有另一个圆环，它们一起在苍穹中滚动着。 这副景象让我回想起那些奴隶们在盎格鲁人的金矿场中唱的歌谣：“以西结看到了一个圆轮，高高地悬挂在空中...” 然后我想起了一幅旧时的景象，一条蛇盘旋着试图吞噬自己。 我曾经在哪里见过这副光景...？ 在我成年以后，我还以为我已经把所有和宗教信仰有关的东西都从我的脑海里抛了出去，但这是我被放逐到炼狱之前的事。 我放空了我的脑海，静下心来尝试倾听神明的声音，却只听见了另外一个迷失在花园里的灵魂的声音。 我的魔法头盔向我标记了出附近地面上的一扇隐藏的门。 我是否有勇气进入？

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I wandered lost in that garden for some time, transfixed by its impossible sky... I could see that everything around me lay on the inner rim of a gleaming wheel that arched overhead, from horizon to horizon. There was another wheel alongside this one, and together they rolled through the firmament. The sight of them brought back something I'd heard slaves singing in the Anglos' gold mines: "Ezekiel saw a wheel, way up in the middle of the air..." Then I recalled an old image of a snake looping around to devour itself. Where had I seen that...? In my adult life I figured anything spiritual had long since been ground out of me, but that was before I'd been banished to purgation. I quieted my mind to listen for the voices of the exalted, only to hear from another soul lost in that garden. My magic helmet showed me a hidden door in the ground nearby. Did I dare enter?

我羞于承认，我花了好长时间才鼓起足够的勇气冒险进入地下。 活板门通向一个类似矿井的地方，用于支撑加固它的是一种光滑的金属，其材质和头顶上方旋在天空中的圆环的材质相同。 我又一次感到了恐惧，但随后一个年轻的女孩子在房间的另一头和我搭话了。 一开始我还无法理解她话语的意思，但不知道怎么回事，她的话语逐渐开始变得合理而清晰起来。 我想我有听到她管我叫“征服者”，这一开始让我感到很困惑，但是随后我就想起来了我的头盔，我便摘下了头盔好让她放松下来。 不过当我这么做的时候，我意识到她说的那个词更像是“殖民者”。 我并不喜欢扮演恶棍，但我看她似乎根本不害怕我。 我告诉她，她不应该冒险把我带到她的藏身处来，因为她现在孤身一人还手无寸铁。 她挥手驱散了我的顾虑，并自称妮达，随后她给我提供了一些水和食物。

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I'm not proud to admit it took me a long while to work up the courage to venture underground. The trapdoor led down into a sort of mineshaft, shored up with the same kind of smooth metal making up the wheel in the sky overhead. Again I felt fear, before a young girl spoke to me from across the chamber. At first I had trouble understanding her, but somehow her words gradually became sensible. I thought I heard her call me 'conquistador', which confused me until I remembered my helmet, and removed it to set her at ease. As I did that, I realized she'd said something more like 'colonizer'. I resented being cast in the role of villain, but I saw that she wasn't afraid of me. I told her she shouldn't have risked leading me to her hideaway, since she was alone and unarmed. She waved away my concern, and introduced herself as Nida before offering something to eat and drink.

妮达声称自己是一名古老的看护者的后人，她们世世代代都致力于照看他们的空中花园。 她说我们正在遭受某种入侵的邪恶势力的攻击。 她向我展示了在另一个花园圆环中的异幻的生物以及扭曲变形的大地。 等我明白自己到底是有多么不适应现在这个时代和这个地方的时候，我感到可悲和无力。 妮达告诉我，我在地狱的审判就是她所谓的被称为创世纪的虚空之地，我在那里所经历的试炼本应该能让我为即将到来的战斗做好准备，可我并没有太大的把握。 然后她向我展示了看护者们用于打理这片土地的巨型机械骡子，它们可以使用如太阳一般耀眼的光矛切割坚硬的岩石。 然后我就意识到，我们或许并不像我所担心的那样弱小无力。

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This Nida claims to come from a long line of caretakers who lived out their lives tending their gardens in the sky. She says we're under attack by some kind of invading force. I was shown visions of creatures and lands twisted out of shape in the other garden-wheel. I felt pathetic and weak, once I understood how far outside my own time and place I truly was. Nida told me my trials in the netherworld that she called Genesis should have prepared me for our coming fight, but I was less sure. Then she showed me the colossal mechanical mules the caretakers use to work the land, how those can cut through solid rock with spears of light as bright as the sun. And I saw how we may not be as powerless as I'd feared.

我终于向妮达问起了那个被她称为能量元素的奇怪的金属。 我一直都无法把我的视线从能量元素上移开。 她说这是有史以来发现过的最坚硬的物质之一，而它能够给我们周围所有的东西供能，小到我的魔法铠甲，大到她的巨型机械跨步者。 当我意识到我可以用这些金属干些什么的时候，我感到曾经的自己是多么的愚蠢，为了那么几磅黄金就去冒险并最终丢掉了性命。 如此的奇迹很容易让人垂涎三尺，但是妮达说它们创造的奇迹是需要付出可怕的代价的。 她声称能量元素污染了地球，而现在它正在污染他们的天空花园。 我问她那个侵占了她的圆环的入侵势力是否把污染一同带了过来。 妮达似乎对我的问题感到很惊讶，但是她也认为这似乎非常有可能。

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I finally asked Nida about the strange metal she calls Element. I've been unable to keep my eyes off it. She said it was among the strongest substances ever discovered, and that it powers nearly everything around us, from my magic armor to her giant, mechanical stryders. I felt foolish for having risked and eventually given my life for a few pounds of gold, now that I see what can be done with this metal. It's hard not to covet such wonders, though Nida said that their miracles came at a terrible cost. She claimed Element polluted the Earth, and that now it was polluting their sky-gardens. I asked if the invasive force taking over her wheels had brought this pollution with it. Nida seemed surprised by my question but agreed that did seem like a strong possibility.

那天晚上，我梦见自己在一口坩埚中加热妮达所谓的能量元素，将它从易挥发的不稳定的形态固定成为具有无限潜力的金属。 我把最终成果倒入了一个模具中铸成刀刃，一次又一次地捶打金属，强化它的同时去除其中的杂质。 当我举起刀子并审视它的刀刃的时候，我在它那镜子般的表面上看到了一个陌生的倒影——是一张属于巫师或是邪教徒的脸。 我环顾四周，发现自己正身处于某个黑暗的地下墓穴中的拱室中时，一轮明亮的满月正在天花板正中央的开口处倾撒下月光。 透过房间里的阴影，一个无形的声音赞赏了我的锻刀工艺... 然后我在花园下方狭小的房间中醒来，对自己产生了怀疑。 我到底是一名来自黄金之国的被盎格鲁暴徒伏击了的探矿者，还是一名藏在地中海海岸下磨炼秘术的古老的炼金术师？

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That night I dreamt I was heating Nida's Element in a crucible, fixing its volatile form into material with endless potential. I poured the result into a mold to cast a blade, hammering to fold the metal again and again, to strengthen it and work out its impurities. As I lifted my blade to inspect its edge, I saw an unfamiliar reflection in its mirrored surface-the face of a sorcerer or cultist. I looked around myself and saw that I was in a vaulted chamber of some dark catacomb, the center of its ceiling open to the bright, full moon overhead. From the shadows of the chamber, a disembodied voice praised my work on the blade... I woke in the warren of chambers under the garden, unsure of myself. Was I a prospector bushwhacked by an Anglo mob in the country of the Mother Lode, or an ancient alchemist honing his mystic arts under the Mediterranean shore?

妮达最近一直在教我了解那些在我们上方的花园中游荡的跨步者的工作原理。 她说它们按照自己的意愿行事，但是我们可以像驯服巨大的野生骡子一样驯服它们，然后利用它们对另一个圆环发动突袭。 我试图提醒自己，她是一个来自遥远未来的聪明女孩，但是有时候她好像把我当成了一个笨小孩，居高临下地和我说话，这让我感到很恼火。 这或许就是为什么我不相信我需要去帮助她对抗那个入侵者。 但是换个角度来说，虽然我没有参加那场在盎格鲁入侵者的攻击下保卫上加利福尼亚的农场的战争，然而那些混账东西最终还是为了我的财产杀而了我。 现在我有一个可以向入侵势力复仇的千载难逢的机会，虽然我无权索要这些花园或是其中的矿产资源。 也许我能够在我们最终定居的星球上获得一块更大的土地...

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Nida's been training me on the workings of the stryders wandering the gardens above us. She says they follow their own will but we can break them like gigantic wild mules, and use them to storm the other wheel. I try to remind myself she's a clever girl from a time long after my own, but still it irritates me when she talks down to me as if I’m some niño tonto. Maybe that's why I'm not convinced that I need to help fight her invader. On the other hand, I sat out the war to defend the ranchos of Alta California from Anglo invaders, and those malparidos ended up killing me for my property. I have here a rare chance to revenge myself on an occupying force, even if I have no claim to these gardens or their mineral wealth. Maybe I can earn a larger plot of land on whatever world we eventually settle...

我们为了寻找跨步者而冒险来到了地表，并且立刻就发现有两只跨步者正在朝着一片裸露的岩石漫步。 靠近它们的过程会是一次漫长的徒步旅行，但妮达却坚持要我们趁着夜色动身。 这是我第一次想到这些圆环中到底要如何产生昼夜交替？ 当他们驶向群星的时候，是否把太阳给一起带上了？ 在我们登上地表之前，妮达向我展示了该如何使用她那可以在黑暗中看得一清二楚的魔法装备。 这使得我分心——因为我会时不时地停下来，目瞪口呆地看着那些我本来应该看不见的东西。 因为我穿着盔甲，所以我负责带头，但那个小姑娘依然能够跟上我的脚步。 当我们追上那两只跨步者的时候，他们正头靠头地站在一起，就好像它们在用某种方式交流一样。 它们是如此的巨大，靠近它们使我有些喘不过气来。 现在我只需要相信那个女孩明白如何驯服这些机械巨兽了。

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We ventured above ground to look for styders, and spotted two right away, roaming toward an outcropping of rocks. It was a long hike to reach them, and Nida insisted on doing it by night. For the first time, it occurred to me to wonder how there could even be day and night on these wheels. Did her people take the sun with them, when they flew off into the stars? Before we'd come topside, Nida showed me how to use her magic gear to look around in the dark. It was distracting - I'd keep stopping to gawk at things I shouldn’t be able to see at all. I took the lead since I was the one in armor, but the girl managed to keep pace with me. We caught up with the stryders while they were standing snout-to-snout, as if they were conversing somehow. They were so massive, it took my breath away to be close to them. Now I just had to trust that the girl knew how to tame those mechanical hulks.

妮达站在巨大的四足机械的脚边，摆弄着她手中的某种装置。 其中一台跨步者冲着地面低下了它的头，而我就像个傻瓜一样在她的面前蹦来蹦去。 虽然我清楚那只是个机器，但是我依然有点担心它会不会用金属嘴把她叼起来生吞了。 她傻笑着冲我摇了摇头，随后便转过身拉住把手，爬到了那东西的脖子上。 从那个位置上，她成功地攀登到了它的背上，一种折叠型平台鞍具似乎凭空在它的背上展开来，为她提供了落脚点。 过了一会，第二只跨步者低下了头方便我爬上去，但是我选择跟着那个小姑娘，爬到了她在第一只跨步者上所站的那个平台。 毕竟在我自己尝试之前，向她学习如何驯服和骑行这些庞然大物似乎才是更明智的。

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Nida stood at the feet of the colossal four-legged machines, and fiddled with some device in her hand. One of the stryders dipped its head toward the ground and I made a fool of myself by jumping in front of her. Even though I knew it was a machine, I'd still half-expected it to snatch her up in its metal jaws to eat her alive. She shook her head at me with a smirk, and then she turned to grab handholds to haul herself up onto its neck. From there, she was able to scramble up onto its back, where a sort of saddle platform folded into place seemingly from nowhere for her to stand on. After a moment, the second stryder dropped its head for my benefit, but I opted to follow the girl up to where she was standing on the first one. It seemed wiser to learn from her how to tame and ride these behemoths before attempting it myself.

在接下来的一两天里——或者按照妮达的说法叫做一两个周期——我用了大量的时间在那个小姑娘调试跨步者的时候向她学习。 骑在这只机器的高高的脊背上，我们登上了山丘，进入了一片似乎是被水渠分隔开来的崎岖不平的地方，她希望这里的地势足够深，能够让我们避人耳目。 她向我展示了如何哄劝机器，来让它用一束明亮到足以炸飞岩石的光束穿刺峭壁。 我知道采矿并不是她演示给我看的目的，但我无法抵挡这种诱惑，于是我让妮达操控跨步者低下头，好让我爬下去检查那些被粉碎的岩石中是否含有珍贵的矿石。 我没在碎石堆中找到任何黄金的痕迹，但是一块明亮的紫色碎片吸引了我的目光。 不知道出于什么原因，我在妮达能够注意到它之前一把夺过了碎片，并将它藏了起来。

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I spent the better part of the next day or two-or cycles, as Nida would say-learning from the girl, as she put a stryder through its paces. High on the machine's back, we rode it uphill and into what looked like scablands riven by channels she hoped were deep enough to conceal us from view. She showed me how to coax the machine into spearing canyon walls with a light bright enough to blast away rock. I knew mining wasn't the point of her demonstration, but I couldn't resist asking Nida to drop the stryder's head low enough for me to climb down and inspect the rock cut for valuable ore. I didn't find any trace of gold in the rubble pile, but a bright violet shard caught my eye. Something made me snatch it up and hide it away before Nida could notice it.

那天晚上，在我的梦里，我发现自己又回到了那个地下墓穴......好像是在亚历山德罗港？ 不——是亚历山大港，在埃及的沿海。 哪怕是在城市的地下深处，我还是能够闻到海水的味道。 我的火把照亮了环绕在四周的岩壁，壁上雕刻着头戴两顶王冠的蛇的形象。 我的肩膀上扛着一个重物——那是一个孤儿，从上面的塞拉皮雍神庙的阶梯上抓过来的。 地下墓穴最深处的那些墙壁已经被水部分浸没了，冰冷的咸水拉扯着我长袍末端拖到地面上的衣褶。 随着一阵困惑的呻吟，我肩上的孩子正在徒劳中苦苦挣扎以此来抵抗曼德拉草根的效果。 我对我下药的剂量很有信心——她是无法及时地从神志不清的状态中清醒过来的。 不——我是在干什么？ 我在峡谷的地面上猛然惊醒过来，抬头看见我们的跨步者站在一边照看着我们，在黑暗中它们闪烁着蓝色的灯光。 我发誓，我仍然能够感受到梦中的那把匕首就绑在我的腿上。

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In my dreams that night I found myself back in the necropolis under...Alessandro? No-Alexandria, on the coast of Egypt. Even that deep under the city, I could smell the sea. My torch lit sculpted images of double-crowned snakes, carved from the bedrock walls around me. I was carrying dead weight over one shoulder-an orphan, taken from the steps of the Serapeum above. The deepest halls of the catacomb were partially flooded, and cold salt water tugged at the trailing folds of my cloak. A groan of confusion, and the child at my shoulder struggled in vain against the effects of the mandrake root. I was confident in my dosage-she wouldn't be able to rouse herself from her delirium in time. No-what was I doing? I jerked awake on a canyon floor, staring up at our stryders standing watch over us, flashing their blue lights into the darkness. I swore I could still feel the dream-dagger strapped to my leg.

在接下来的一整天里，我一直都被我的梦境所造成的不安的感觉困扰着。 妮达试图向我解释她的花园现在的处境是有多危险，而花园本身又有着一个多么崇高的目标，但无论她说什么都无法让我集中注意力。 我们现在正骑着巨大的机器穿越这片由她的同伴们发射到太空中的大地，而我居然还在因为某个来自几千年前的神秘主义者的阴谋诡计感到焦躁不安。 我已经无法确定这是否真的只是一场梦。 我已经有两次亲身体验过那个人的人生了，透过他的双眼我能看到来自另一个时代的光芒。 他的人生似乎更为久远，应该是在我定居到美国的河岸边之前。 我是哪个人？ 两者都是？ 或是两者都不是？ 我是否真的有从虚空中被拉了回来，就是为了在这我不曾料想到的未来为了人类而战斗？ 我是否注定会像打着水漂的石头一样，穿越历史就为了弥补我自己所犯下的连我自己都记不清的罪孽？

---

All through the next day, the unease of my dream sat with me. I couldn't focus on whatever Nida was trying to tell me about the dire threat to her garden and its noble purpose. We were riding giant machines across a landscape her people had managed to launch into the void, and still I was fretting over some occultist's scheme from thousands of years gone. I couldn't be sure it was just a dream anymore. I'd returned to that man's skin twice now, seen the light of another time through his eyes. His life seemed no more remote, no less my own than the one I'd lived by the Río de los Americanos. Which of these men was I? Both? Neither? Had I really been dragged back from oblivion to fight for the people of this undreamt-of future? Was I damned to skip like a stone across history for my barely-remembered mortal sins?

天快黑了，那个女孩兴奋地想要给我看一样东西。 她撬开了一扇暗门，把她的魔法装置按在了门后的机器上。 我没能理解她接下来试图向我解释的东西... 妮达说我连上了她制作出来的某种游戏，这个游戏是根据那个被她称为“创世纪”的东西做出来的，就是我曾经到过的那个暗影之地。 然后她做了些什么，突然间我就来到了另一个世界，还拥有了一个全新的身体。 头顶上没有巨大的圆环，只有一轮点缀着云朵的落日。 我试图理解这一切——我是否从未真正踏足过妮达的天空花园？ 我呼唤着她，但是却听到了我曾在炼狱中听到过的那个天使的声音。 天使告诉了我一件重要的事。 然后我就被猛地拉回了现实，如果这真的是现实世界的话。 妮达冲我露出了笑容，并问我有何感想，而我在峡谷的地面上吐得一塌糊涂。

---

Near dark, the girl was excited to show me something. She'd pried open one of her hidden doors and pressed her magic device against the machinery inside. I didn't follow what she tried to explain to me next... Nida said I was wired to connect to a sort of game she'd made, from my time in the shadowland she called Genesis. Then she did something, and all at once I was on another world, in a new body. There were no wheels overhead, only a setting sun scudded with clouds. I struggled to understand-had I ever truly been in Nida's sky-garden? I called to her, but instead heard the voice of the angel I'd met in Purgatory. The angel told me something important. Then I was yanked back into reality, if this was actually reality. Nida grinned at me and asked what I thought, and I got sick all over the canyon floor.

现在还来得及放下我心中的怨恨。 这就是在妮达把我丢进了那个有落日的梦境世界中的时候，那个天使告诉我的。 说到妮达，我对于她强塞给我的幻象的反应很差，这让她闹了好久的脾气。 我不理解为什么她希望我能赞赏她的所作所为。 我无法相信我自己的感官和记忆。 我怀疑自己是否从未逃离炼狱，而这个环状的花园是否又只是另一个为我那万劫不复的灵魂所准备的刑具。 我躺在一片黑暗中，头脑清醒，害怕再次做梦，并怀疑这个小姑娘是否是被派来折磨我的恶魔。 突然，他的声音悄悄地在我耳边低语，就是那个让我从创世系统中醒来，并带我找到我的铠甲的那个声音。 他告诉我说，天使在撒谎。

---

It wasn't too late to let go of the malice in my heart. That was what the angel assured me in the dreamworld that Nida dropped me into, the one with the setting sun. Speaking of Nida, the girl pouted for hours after I reacted poorly to the hallucination she forced on me. I couldn't understand why she seemed to expect praise for what she'd done. I don't trust my own sensations, my own memories. I wonder if I've ever left perdition, if this ring of gardens might not be another breaking wheel for my infernal soul. In the dark I lie awake, afraid to dream again, and wonder if this girl is some demon assigned to torment me. And then his voice whispers to me, the one who woke me from Genesis and led me to my armor. He tells me the angel lied.

我太粗心大意了，那个小姑娘发现了我藏起来的宝贝。 趁她还在睡觉的时候，我取出了那块能量元素碎片，试图回忆起在梦中的另一个我所做的事情，将它从不稳定的状态固定为可以进行加工的金属。 在黑暗中我来来回回地把玩着它。 它发出的光芒是如此令人着迷。 我肯定是在努力回忆起我的梦境记忆的时候睡着了，并把那块碎片放在了我的身边。 妮达警告我说这种金属在这种状态下接触人体是非常危险而且不稳定的。 她要我告诉她，如果我被碎片锋利的边缘割伤了的话，我会打算怎么处理它。 她训斥我的口吻就好像我是一个被人逮着在玩火的小孩子，而我就像一条受伤的狗一样冲她大吼大叫。 在那之后的很长一段时间里，我们两人都没有再说过一句话。

---

I was careless, and the girl found the treasure I'd been concealing. I had taken out the shard of Element while she was sleeping, trying to remember what my other self had done in my dream to fix its volatile form into workable metal. I turned it back and forth in the dark. Its glow was mesmerizing. I must have fallen asleep trying to recover my dream-memory, and left it laying out by my side. Nida warned me that the metal was dangerous to human flesh in this form, unstable. She demanded to know what I was planning to do with it, if I'd cut myself with its sharp edges. She scolded me like a child caught toying with fire, and I snapped at her like a wounded dog. Neither of us spoke again for a long time after that.

当我和妮达默默地向圆环边缘骑行的时候，那个声音又在我耳边响起了。 它向我保证，我所发现的能量元素碎片是属于我自己的，并询问我为什么要让这个小姑娘为了一个本就不该由我来操心的目标而将我卷入这场战斗。 在重返生者的世界后才过了这么一小会，我就真的那么着急地想要再次寻死吗？ 我们在一片高山草地上停了下来休息和用餐。 在妮达采集浆果的时候，我找到了我的机会。 我运用了她前几天教给我的方法操控了一头跨步者，骑着它独自一人朝着峡谷的方向出发了。 我不确定她能否在远处把跨步者召唤回去，但是也有可能她只是决定放我走罢了。 现在我可以自由使用她的这台巨大的机器来达成我自己的目标了。

---

That other voice whispered to me again while Nida and I rode in silence toward the edge of the wheel. It reassured me that the Element I'd recovered was my own to keep and asked why I'd let this girl draft me into fighting for a cause that was none of my concern. Was I really in such a hurry to die again, after so little time back among the living? We stopped to rest and eat in an alpine meadow. While Nida was gathering berries I saw my moment. I took advantage of the training she'd given me over the previous days to take one of the stryders and ride it away on my own for the canyonlands. I wasn't sure if she'd be able to call the stryder back at a distance, but it's also possible that she decided to just let me go. I was free now to use the power of this great machine of hers to my own ends.

我驾驶着偷来的跨步者，朝着我认为的峡谷所在的方向前行，一路寻找我们以前所探查过的矿石山脉。 我会时不时地让这个大家伙停下来，命令它粉碎一些裸露的岩石，然后跳下鞍座在碎石堆里寻找纯能量元素那标志性的紫色光芒。 很快我就意识到，在这个地方，我用来估算方向和距离的所有方法都不管用。 到了晚上，这个地方没有可以为我指明方向的北极星。 事实上，所有的星星对我而言都是那么的陌生。 而到了白天，他们那个神奇的迷你太阳则会遵循它那条奇怪的笔直的轨道穿过整个圆环，根本不分东西南北。 在这个花园里，我又一次彻底地迷路了。 我不知道那个小姑娘没了我的陪伴，现在是否正在继续前进，去和位于另一个圆环中的入侵者作斗争。 如果她有试图在这浩瀚的空间里寻找过我，我也没有看到任何相关的迹象。

---

I rode my stolen stryder back toward where I thought the canyons might be, searching for the vein of ore we'd found before. Every so often I'd stop the mechanical juggernaut and force it to blast at the rock outcroppings, dismounting to dig through mounds of rubble looking for the telltale violet glow of pure Element. It didn't take me long to realize that all my methods of reckoning direction or distance were useless in this place. By night there was no polestar to follow north. In fact, all the stars were strange to me. By day their miraculous miniature sun threaded the wheels on its odd, straight track with no regard for east or west. I was utterly lost again in the garden. I wondered if the girl was pressing on without me, to fight the invader in the other wheel. If she ever tried to find me in the immensity of that landscape, I saw no sign.

在我逃离了妮达的过程中，我的梦境里充斥着懊悔。 在黑暗中，我感到一阵无助的狂怒。曾经，那些想要抢夺我的财产的伏击者尾随着我，想要搜查我的帐篷的时候，我也感到了同样无助的狂怒。 我跑出去和他们进行交涉，那些人说我无权待在属于他们的新美国州中。 他们威胁说要把我带到当地的执法部门那里去，随便编造一个罪名然后判我绞刑，他们人多势众，而我孤身一人。 我逃走了，在树林里兜了个圈子绕回来要杀了他们。 但是他们发现并压制了我。 我冲着他们吐口水，并告诉他们，如果我能够趁他们落单的时候逮着他们，我会对他们每一个人都干些什么，这给了他们一些不好的想法。 他们说要让我后悔说过这种话。 我用最后一口气诅咒了他们，并向他们发誓，他们从我这里偷走的东西只会给他们带来无尽的痛苦与折磨。

---

My dreams were fevered by regret during the time I fled from Nida. In the dark I relived the helpless rage that set me after the claim-jumpers who followed me to search my tent. Those men said I had no right to stay in their new American state. They threatened to bring me to the local authorities to hang for some invented crime, their word against mine. I broke away and circled back through the forest to kill them. But they saw me coming and overpowered me. I spat at them, gave them ideas by telling them what I'd have done to each of them if only I'd managed to catch them alone. And they made me regret that. With my last breath I cursed them, promising them that what they'd stolen from me would only bring them sorrow and torment.

到了白天，我对自己一个人跑出来感到愤怒。 我的骄傲和顽固的自力更生只给我带来了毁灭。 我把我的跨步者转向我离开妮达的地方，靠近这个圆环的边缘。 我把自己想找回曾经失去的财富的愿望放在一边，还有我对前世追求权力的些许记忆。 只有这一刻，还有这个机会，能让我这个悲剧的存在做一次正确的事情。 我把机器推进了极限，催促它全速奔向那个被我抛弃的, 在进行着一场不平等战争的女孩。 当我再次穿过那片土地的时候，我感到一阵羞愧，因为我对她为我绘制的那场梦境的态度并不好。 她只是想要向我展示一个注定属于我的世界的落日而已，远离这些她和她的同伴们为未来而精心维护的花园，而他们从来就不认为自己还能见到这个未来。

---

By daylight I fumed at myself for running off on my own. My pride and stubborn self-reliance has only ever brought me ruination. I turned my stryder back toward where I'd left Nida, near the edges of this wheel. I set aside my own desire to recover the mineral wealth I had lost once, and my half-memories of a previous life's pursuit of power. There was only this moment, and this chance to do something right, for once in my miserable existence. I pushed the machine to its breaking point, urging it into a full gallop toward the girl I'd abandoned to an unfair fight. As I re-crossed that landscape shame gnawed at me, for the way I'd reacted to the dream she'd painted for me. She'd only wanted to show me a sunset on the world I was destined to tame, far from these gardens she and her people had kept alive for a future they never thought they'd see.

当我在圆环的边缘附近追上妮达时，我的心中充满了恐惧。 我不得不压抑住想再次撤退的强烈冲动。 这么近的距离，我可以清楚地看到玻璃有多么薄，把所有的土地、水和空气都挡在了冰冷的虚空之外。 她在某种金属平台旁跳下了她的跨步者。 我从我的机器上爬下来走向她的身边。 她对我的走近毫不在意，继续摆弄着靠近平台底部的东西。 我尴尬的在她的背后做了一个可怜的道歉，她好像压根没听见。 最后，妮达站起来，触动了平台上的一个开关，打开了我们面前的一个巨大的圆形门。 那个女孩一言不发地乘上了她的跨步者，并朝门口走去。 我手忙脚乱地跟了上去，和她一起进入了另一个圆环。

---

Fear gripped my heart as I caught up with Nida near the edge of the wheel. I had to fight my overwhelming urge to retreat again. This close, I could plainly see how thin the glass was holding back all the land, water, and air from the cold void beyond. The girl had dismounted her stryder by some sort of metal podium. I climbed down off of my machine to join her. She paid no mind to my approach, and went on tinkering with something near the base of the podium. I fumbled through a pathetic apology directed at the back of her head, with no sign that she'd heard me. Eventually, Nida stood up and touched a switch on the podium that opened a huge, circular door in front of us . The girl climbed back onto her stryder without a word, and headed through the doorway. I scrambled to catch up and follow her into that other wheel.

我们乘着庞大的机器通过了一间又一间头顶上方充满着蒸汽和刺眼的灯光的前厅。 在道路的尽头，另一扇圆形的门打开了。当我们穿过那扇门后，呈现在我们眼前的是一片腐坏的花园。这片花园里充斥着令人作呕的病态香气。 之后映入我们眼帘的便是一副亵渎的景象——棘刺上全都是被钉着的天空子民的尸体，散落在入口处。 毫无疑问，这是对其他还活着的闯入者的警告。 虽然我离妮达太远，看不到她的表情。但是我能想的到她的惊恐。 这些人很可能就是最后一批她的同伴们。 她从跨步者上爬下来后我便立刻跟着她。 她的脸被泪水打湿了，但她全身都在散发出一种正义的怒火，这一点我也是一样。 我们一起在沉默中把她的同伴们埋在了这片有毒的大地之中，而我们的机械坐骑则在我们的头上紧张地晃动着它们的金属臂。

---

All manner of steam and blinding lights played over us as we passed through a series of antechambers astride our colossal machines. At last, another of the circular doors opened and we passed through the portal into the befouled gardens beyond. The sickly sweet stink of this place was nauseating. We were confronted immediately by a vision of desecration-corpses of the sky-people hung on spikes and scattered about the entrance. A warning for any remaining interlopers, no doubt. At my distance from Nida her expression was unreadable, but I could imagine the girl's horror. This might prove to be all that was left of her crewmates. I dismounted to join her on the ground after she climbed down from her stryder. Her face was wet with tears, but she radiated a righteous fury that I identified with all too well. In silence, we buried her friends in the poisoned earth while our mechanical mounts shifted nervously above us on their bechromed hooves.

在那个不洁的地狱中度过的每一刻都需要为了保持理智而挣扎。 我所经历的已经不是可以用恐惧来形容的了——那个地方压迫着我，就像骷髅的手指在捏我的头。 入侵者对这个圆环中的大地所做的一切简直就是在亵渎神明，他贬低了上帝创造的一切。 有东西在破坏自然秩序，把它熔铸成一种亵渎的新形态，以达到某些不可告人的目的。 那些可怜的天空子民被屠杀殆尽就已经够糟了，但我们现在可以看到，从地平线的一端到另一端，他们世世代代的努力都被付之一炬了。 妮达悲痛欲绝，而我却无法给予安慰。 因为我的脑海中有谁一直在说着什么与我的决心背道而驰的话。 它说，你知道你应该干什么。 我把你带回了这个世界。 我可以让你变得完整，只要你按照我的命令去做。

---

Every moment spent in that unhallowed hellscape was a struggle to remain sensible. What I experienced was beyond trepidation-the place pressed on me, like skeletal fingers were squeezing my scalp. What had been done to the lands in that wheel was profane, a debasement of creation itself. Something was unmaking the natural order, melting it to fix into unholy new forms for some unknowable end. Bad enough that those poor sky-people had been massacred, but we could see now that all their generations of endeavor had been undone, from horizon to horizon. Nida was inconsolable, not that I was in any shape to give comfort. Not with that metronomic drone in my head, throbbing against my resolve. You know what you need to do, it said. I brought you back into this world. I can make you whole, if you just do as I command.

在这片有毒的废土上，我失去了所有的时间感和方向感，不再确定为什么我们会来到这里，也不知道妮达认为我们此时能做些什么来扭转灾难。 我脑子里的声音让我筋疲力尽，它要求我服从，在某些时候我清醒的头脑陷入了沉思。 我又一次迷失在亚历山大港下被淹没的迷宫中，肩负着我那可怕的重担前往她的最终目的地。 前面的黑暗中有一束阴森的光，那是来自一个秘密墓穴的紫光。 我丢下了我那忽明忽暗的火把，任由它落入在我腿边拍打着的油腻腻的海水中，以便更紧地抓住我怀里的那个没有知觉的孩子。 在那个密室里，我把她作为祭品献上。 我的主人承诺对驱逐了我的阴谋家进行报复。 那吟诵声是来自我记忆中那墓穴的阴影处，还是来自我所锻造的那把发光的紫色刀刃，还是来自载着我和妮达进入虚空的被玷污的圆环？

---

I forfeited all awareness of time and location in that toxic wasteland, no longer sure why we were there or what Nida thought we could do at this point to roll back catastrophe. The thunder in my head exhausted me with demands for obedience, and at some point my waking mind fell into reverie. I was lost again in the flooded labyrinth under Alexandria, shouldering my terrible burden to her final destination. There was an eerie light in the darkness ahead, a purpurate glow from a secret sepulcher. I dropped my guttering torch into the oily seawater lapping at my legs, to get a tighter grip on the insensible child I was carrying. In that hidden chamber, I offered her up as sacrifice. My lord promised vengeance against the cabal for banishing me. Was its intonation coming from the shadows in that remembered vault, the glowing violet blade I'd forged, or the defiled wheel that was carrying Nida and I into the void?

在我脑海中回响的那些不间断的命令让我不得安宁。 它们似乎来自各个地方。 如果妮达听到了，她也没有在意，这个女孩全神贯注地投入到了一些未知的行动方案中。 她为什么不与我分享她的计划？难道她看不出来我加入了她的行列，提供了我力所能及的帮助？ 同时，我们周围的非自然环境似乎也在向我们发出警告。这里不欢迎你们——请不要来干涉。 这个小姑娘仍然没有反应。 她一定有注意到了这些警告——那么她是怎么能够如此专注于她的目标的？ 最后，我再也无法忍受这种紧张气氛了，于是示意她停下来商议。 我们下了坐骑，在我们的跨步者的脚边碰头，尽管妮达她保持着一定距离。 我问她有什么打算，她也问我为什么要大喊大叫。 她真的没有听到我所听到的声音。 就在那时，那些奇怪的有鳍生物袭击了我们。

---

I had no peace from the unceasing demands echoing in my mind. They seemed to be coming from everywhere. If Nida heard, she paid no mind. The girl was locked into some unknown course of action. Why wouldn't she share what she was planning with me? Couldn't she see I'd joined her to offer what aid I could? At the same time, our unnatural surroundings seemed to be pulsing a warning at us: YOU ARE UNWELCOME HERE-DO NOT INTERFERE. Still the girl didn't react. She must have seen-how could she remain so fixed in her purpose? Finally I couldn't abide the tension any more, and signaled for her to stop and confer. We dismounted and met at the feet of our stryders, though Nida kept her distance. I asked what she was planning, and she asked why I was shouting. She really didn't hear all the yowling. That was when those strange finned creatures attacked us.

就在发生袭击之前，我们的跨步者从高处发出了尖锐的警告声。 我很庆幸妮达有向我展示过该如何将我们坐骑的武器系统调整为待命模式，如此一来当我们跌跌撞撞地寻找掩护的时候，跨步者们就能够及时地朝着入侵的掠食者们开火。 我们四周都发生了爆炸，一片片黏糊糊的地衣喷了我们一脸。 妮达开始朝着我们的右边跑，然后改变主意，转而弯腰躲回了左边。 她手脚并用地在脚下的泥土中挖掘着，然后转头问我还愣着干什么。 我帮她撕开粘稠的淤泥垫，露出一个隐藏的舱门，就在这时，那些袭击了我们的生物气势汹汹地爬到了我们上方的山脊上。 当它们发现我们时，它们那怪异的、带刺的鬃毛兴奋地颤抖着。 妮达撬开了舱门，我们跳进了地下的黑暗中。

---

Just ahead of the attack, our stryders sounded a shrill warning from on high. I was glad that Nida had shown me how to rig our mounts with weapons at the ready, because they were able to open fire on the incoming predators while we scrambled for cover. Explosions erupted all around us, spraying us with gobbets of the slimy groundcover. Nida began to run to our right, then changed her mind and ducked back to the left. She got to her hands and knees to dig in the muck underfoot, then turned to ask what I was waiting for. I helped her rip away mats of gluey sludge to uncover a hidden hatch, just as the pride of attacking creatures crested the ridge above us. Their weird, spiny manes thrummed with excitement as they spotted us. Nida pried open the hatch and we dove into the darkness under the landscape.

那个被玷污的花园圆环下的隧道里一片漆黑，散发着污水的恶臭。 我们失去了立足之地，两个人无助地在泥浆瀑布中翻滚着，腐臭的气息裹挟着我们冲出了好远，远离了袭击者。 我们拼命寻找固定点或是抓手，希望能够减缓我们落入无尽深渊的速度，但都是徒劳的。 我们在那满是粘液的管道中越陷越深，就像是被幽冥巨兽吞噬的一小点杂碎似的。 感觉像是上万英里长的充满恶意的管道正在粉碎我生存的本能，并用恐惧把我压垮。 我的意志屈服了，我感到绝望，呜咽着，用指甲抓挠这些肠子的内壁以图逃脱。 忽然我感到我的手中摸到了某个尖锐的东西，于是我撕破了那几层厚厚的膜，使我们两个都流到了一个深渊里的房间的地板上。 我已经彻底精疲力尽，随后便失去了意识。

---

The tunnels under that defiled garden wheel were pitch-dark and fouled with sullage. I lost my footing and we sloshed helplessly into cataracts of sleetch and putrescence that carried us leagues away from our attackers. We scrabbled for purchase or handhold to slow our descent into the immeasurable depths, to little avail. We slid further and further into that muculent ductwork, bits of flotsam devoured by a stygian monstrosity. It felt like untold miles of malignant vasculature were crushing out my instinct to survive, overwhelming me with dread. My wits caved in and I became desperate, mewling and clawing at the lining of those guts to escape. I found something sharp in my hand and tore through those thick membranes, discharging the girl and I onto the floor of an abysmal chamber. Exhausted beyond reason, I fell into unconsciousness.

哦，塞拉皮斯，亡灵之王，财富的赐予者，愿我的声音能够穿过您那位于深渊中的虚空领域来到您的耳边。 我是您卑微的仆人，我给自己改名为艾克西恩。 您肯定知道，我所做的一切总是，总是为了您的荣誉。 其他神职人员把我从他们的学术圈里赶出去，强迫我偷走他们的纸莎草文稿，这样我就可以在他们对您的艺术作品的一知半解的情况下建立起我自己的研究成果。 在梦中，您告诉了我该如何提炼能赋予我神性的紫金金属——在您的祝福下。 我现在请求您借给我力量，以摆脱这种屈辱。 我向您奉上这个女孩，在您的祭坛上放干了她的血，在您的炉灶中将她焚烧。 我把她从凡人的躯壳中解放了出来，展现出她那圣洁的能量。 帝国士兵们已经在您的神庙周围将我包围了。 我恳求您，当他们找到我并放倒我的时候，请用您那神秘的智慧让我如愿超脱尘世。

---

O Serapis, King of the Dead, Giver of Wealth, may my voice reach you in the depths of your chthonic dominion. I am your humble servant, I who renamed myself Ixion. Surely you are aware that all I have done was always, always in your honor. The other adepts cast me from their circle, forced me to steal their papyri, so that I could build on their incomplete understanding of your arts. In dreams, you told me how to refine the purpureal metal that would grant me divinity-with your blessing. I ask you now to lend me the power to escape this indignity. I gave you the girl, bled her at your altar and burned her in your hearth. I freed her from her mortal tegument to reveal her holy energy. Soldiers of the empire have me surrounded in your temple. I beseech you to grant me the transcendence I sought from your arcane knowledge when they find me and cut me down.

我在刺眼的光线中苏醒过来。 在一阵虚弱感和逐渐增强的绝望感中，我拔掉了阻塞着我的气管的几根管子。 在我快要溺毙在粘稠的血浆里的时候，一个盖子打开了，我便从金属茧里掉了出去，令人难以适应的强光刺得我睁不开眼睛。 一个菱形的东西从我前臂的肉里突了出来。 我不明白，片刻之前我还在一个被怪物侵占的来世之地中。 而现在我在某个由金属做成的护理所中，这里全是和我刚刚离开的那个金属茧一样的东西。 我擦拭着一个又一个的茧上的玻璃，看到茧里的人漂浮在液体中，身上穿插着各种管子和线。 这是什么地方，我怎么会到这里来？ 然后有一个声音在我的脑海中响起，指引我穿上了一套超自然的盔甲。 我穿上它，那个声音说："现在去找她。"

---

Life returned to me with a shrill brightness. Weakly but with increasing desperation, I pulled out the tubes choking my airway. I was drowning in viscous plasma, and then a lid opened so that I fell from my metal cocoon, blinded in the unaccustomed glare. A diamond protruded from the flesh of my forearm. I didn't understand-a moment ago I'd been in an afterworld populated by monsters. Now I was in some metal nursery of cocoons like my own. I wiped at the glass of one after another, to see people suspended in fluid and shot through with tubes and wires. What was this place, and how did I come to be here? Then there was a voice in my head, guiding me to a suit of supernatural armor. I put it on, and the voice said, "Go now and find her."

车轮滚滚。 一条蛇吞噬着自己的尾巴。 虚无吞噬了意识。 在我的救星的那地狱般的王座厅中我再次醒来，在一面如同洞穴般的墙面上，他那巨大的肉瘤占据了从地板到天花板的整个空间。 这个地方的每一个部分都是他，许多眼睛从溃烂的血肉鼓了出来，俯视着我们；伤口变成了许多扭曲着怪笑的嘴，在高处心满意足地笑着；长着触手的肢体从四面八方冲我们抓过来。 这个令人头晕目眩的洞穴中有太多的墙面了，数量多到不可思议的不相交的转角。 我大叫着警告那个小姑娘，但是显然她已经完全了解当下的情况了。 她正朝着我们的折磨者那张巨大的脸大喊着表示反抗。 他的声音如同一阵令人震耳欲聋的合唱般从四面八方传来。 他命令她屈服于他，并帮助他通过编织新的梦境的方式来孵育他那些可怕的孩子们。 他还命令我帮助他在花园中开采一种被他成为“艾德蒙金属”的珍贵资源。 我们两人当然是全都拒绝了。

---

Wheels chasing wheels. A serpent devouring its own tail. Oblivion swallowing awareness. I woke again in the infernal throne room of my deliverer, his titanic excrescence exploded up one of the cavernous walls from floor to ceiling. Every part of this place was him, eyes bulging from ulcerated flesh to gaze down on us, wounds become rictuses of triumph grinning from on high, tentacular limbs reaching for us from all sides. There were too many sides in that vertiginous cavity, an impossibility of angles that never met. I yelled to warn the girl, but of course she'd already taken it all in. She was shouting her defiance up at the monumental face of our tormentor. His voice came from all around as a deafening chorus. He demanded that she submit and help him nurture his monstrous children by giving them new dreams. He demanded that I help him mine the garden for a precious resource he called "Edmundium." Of course we refused.

在那个伪神的肉瘤圣堂中，我们承受了他巨大的愤怒。 他那如雷鸣般的怒吼声一阵阵地冲击着我们。 我们算是什么，怎么能够违抗他那极端的恶意？ 他向我们保证，不管怎么样我们最终都会屈服的，此时有什么东西爬上了我的背部并附到了我的头上。 我感觉到我反抗的意愿被抽走了，我跪了下来，而整个周遭环境中的所有东西发出了胜利的吼声。 这玩意确保了我现在会去挖出更多属于他的原材料。 我想起了握在拳头中的能量元素匕首，并把它朝着那个小姑娘扔了过去。 “走吧。”我用我最后的力气沙哑地说道。 当黑暗淹没了我的时候，我听到随着妮达的逃跑，四周传来了愤怒的嚎叫声。 我希望她能够杀出一条血路，并找到方法修复这个毁灭之环。 生命应该在阳光下健康的绽放。

---

In the sarcoid cathedral of the antigod, we endured his seismic wrath. Thunderous peals of his fury buffeted us. Who were we to defy his cosmic malignity? He promised we would submit one way or another, as something crawled up my back and attached itself to my head. I felt my will to resist being drained away, and fell to my knees as the entirety of our environment roared in triumph. It assured me I would go now to dig up more of the prima materia that belonged to him. I remembered the elemental dagger clutched in my fist, and threw it to the girl. "Go," I croaked with my dying strength. As darkness overwhelmed me, I heard indignant howls follow Nida as she fled. I hoped she would cut her way out and find a way to reverse this cycle of destruction. Creation deserves its rightful turn in the sun.