David Silberstein wrote: > > [Note: This contains spoilers for /Lord of Castle Black/, and > perhaps /Five Hundred Years After/, if you haven't read that one > either] > > This occurs as Zerika is communicating with Sethra Lavode. My inner > nerd said "Aha!". > > I think someone was watching das blinkinglights on die aethernetzisch > cardt. The link & transmit transmit lights are almost always green > and amber, and (obviously) blink furiously when data is being > transmitted and received. > > This newest version partly reflects reports that the > word 'blinkenlights' is (in 1999) undergoing something > of a revival in usage, but applied to networking equipment. > The transmit and receive lights on routers, activity lights > on switches and hubs, and other network equipment often blink > in visually pleasing and seemingly coordinated ways. > http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/blinkenlights.html When you were going thru the book, did you see anything about how the Orb is connected with the Cycle? More specifically, if the Orb can be new and improved, would that imply the Cycle can be as well? (This possibly being an explanation as to why Adron could be, ahem, good friends with a goddess and yet think the Cycle could turn to Dragon rather than Reborn Phoenix with a little pre-Imperial sorcery). Or is the Orb more something that can keep track of what the Cycle looks like now, but it can't actually affect it (in which case, what is the Cycle, and who created it?)