I'm back on the past Ahnonay. So clearly there are three Ahnonays, past, present, and future. Something is at work behind all this, if I only knew what.
Judging by the looks of it, the clock in the center is the key here. For the time being, I'll have to assume that Ahnonay works by changing the climate or something, something that would be able to change everything about the Age, except the Age. If I picture Kadish leading people on some kind of tour through Ahnonay, then the center clock makes sense. Obviously I'm not actually travelling through time and space (if Kadish really was the Grower, he wouldn't be a skeleton now, would he?), but I am travelling through something. Something changes dramatically while I'm in the cathedral, and so it makes sense that Kadish would want everything that lives off Ahnonay before he brings them to the next "version", as it were. If one person stayed behind while everyone else followed the great Kadish, then he would know what happens between versions, and would threaten Kadish's claim to be the Grower.
So, if the clock detects no life other than someone at the linking book, then it changes up the versions (somehow, knowing Kadish it's possible, just way complex). Everyone links back in to the same place (as per the Rules of Linking), just perceiving it to be a different time than when they were previously here. Right.
But the presence and absence of the Shells doesn't get as easily explained. Sure it's Yeesha's magic at work, no doubt about that, so maybe she moves them between versions. But still, I just know there's something bigger at work here.
Regardless, I can use the Shells to my advantage. If I can advance Ahnonay to the future, the Shell I used in the present should point to the island where the tower will no longer be, thus bringing me there. I'd bet there's another Shell there. And then, when I return to the past Ahnonay (where I am now), the Shell from the future should bring me perhaps inside the tower here in the past. Which saves me trying to fight the current.
Well enough speculation, let's try it!