Prologue
First Sight
Atrus walked away from me to his desk, searching the keys to unlock the book:
However, I'm interested in hearing what you've been up to, these months…
I was up to answer, but a linking sound echoed behind me, and I turned back: there was someone looking down upon the Releeshan book in the glass case. His clothes looked really worn, and his face betrayed deep anger, hate, confusion…
And even deeper, desperation.
"This man… Who is he?"
I stopped on his hair. Light brown, long and filled with nodes, like he haven't seen a single brush for years and years. First this disorder disturbed me… Then he looked up, seeming to notice me a few seconds.
This brief moment his eyes crossed mine, I felt something strange popping in… Was it my head? Was it my heart? I couldn't tell…
Atrus ran back to me, but the man took the fireball meant to light the room behind the glass case, and threw it to the green tapestry between the stairs and the desk, preventing Atrus from joining me on the other side.
No! NO!
I turned back to the man: the glass case was broken, and Releeshan…
"But… He's stealing the book!"
Being apparently delighted at what he was doing, the man opened another book on Releeshan and raised his hand, breathing so quickly I thought he was sick at the moment. A bit hesitative, he took a look at me, and finally put his hand on the opened book.
Linking sound. He disappears, sucked inside the pages.
"It's a book of Atrus ?"
RELEESHAN! Atrus shouted.
As the fire became to take more place each second it burns, I decided to link out of here, thanks to the book the Thief left behind him…
Part One
On J'nanin
… Wow, my stomach… Where am I…? Hey!
The Thief runs away. I try to get him, but he's too fast. I don't even believe he knows someone followed him. Now I run after him, but he has already climbed the high scale on my right. I look at him as he jumps on the higher platform and keeps running… He's so gracious, so savage, so fast, so strong, so agile, so…
What the hell I'm thinking about?!
Shaking my head in resilience to irrelevant thoughts, I quickly climb after him: he's already opening a large door on a weird tower. I follow him, but the door is locked from the inside. By looking through the round window, I can see him going from the left to the right… Is he waiting for someone, something to happen soon…?
No way here. I walk back. I don't know where I am. How this place is called. How I am supposed to get rid of this… Maybe I'm just here for a long time… I'd better find a place to build a small wooden house and things I could eat…
I was wandering in the sand since one hour, when I found a charming real house on the feet of the giant defense –the one that supports the tower where the Thief hides. Hoping there is somebody in, who could put a light on my condition, I open the door in front of me: everything's locked.
Maybe this mechanism is there for… Hurray! The fence behind me opens the way. Another fence in the middle… If I push this button… Win!
I enter what rather looks like a kind of laboratory with really special physical properties. I don't actually understand all this… What's this? A book? Carefully opening, I realize it's just a sort of diary. Instructive about this island… Pedagogic age named J'nanin, linked by Atrus to make his sons learn about… Pages are missing, well… But it wasn't the beginning…
Hey! It looks like it's the Thief's diary! Yes… Yes… Totally it.
I'm reading what he has written before coming and stealing Releeshan. I feel terribly shy and rude about it. It's private… Maybe I should give it back to him, instead of violate his intimacy. I put the diary in my bag and continue to explore the room, as a small closed chamber catches up my attention.
When opened, I find no stable floor, and this chamber looks even smaller… Maybe… An elevator! That's it!
I find the mechanism to make this thing go up, and as it stops, I see what's inside the tower:
"He's still here", my heart beats, feeling rejoiced for this only fact.
Yes, he's here. The Thief has been waiting…
Atrus… Is that you? Coming to rescue your book so soon? Not yet, old friend…
He probably can't see me: anyway, I don't know which kind of myopia could allow anyone to mistake me with Atrus! And… He's right, then: the door opens on the outside, and… Is still locked. Very well…
How am I supposed to enter this very tower?
Following instructions Atrus left in his diary, and adding what's on the Thief's, I'm now able to enter. But at the precise moment I arrived on the top, I could see the Thief putting his hand on a linking book in the center of the room, and disappearing.
"Too late!" my head rages.
I enter, feeling an abnormal presence in a place where nobody's left in.
"Think he was here since two or three hours only seconds ago…"
Yes, it's the reason. I visit. Nothing interesting, maybe I should try this blue button here…
My sons…
WAP!
Wow, it's scary! It's just Atrus… Sort of hologram of him.
He congrats his sons and tells them they have lessons to learn. Where did I hear that? The Thief's diary! It speaks about this long speech… Hey, what's happening now?
Hello, Atrus… Been a long time…
It's him! How did he change the holographic transmission to put his own instead?
He wants his story to be known: he's explaining what he did before coming to Tomanha and stealing the book. Atrus knew his own mechanisms… Not me… And to make it easier, this guy modified all of them…
Part Two
Two Weeks to Narayan
I'm lost in this stupid abandoned mine since two days, and I understand just NOTHING about it! No pressure, no electricity, nothing! How am I supposed to make this big useless thing work?!
I take a rest. That's enough.
What's in my bag now…? This juicy fruit I've picked up on J'nanin… I thought to preserve it in case of emergency… And I think this is the case. I haven't eaten these two days, and the salted water surrounding the mine of the Voltaic age is really too salted to satisfy my thirst…
I make an opening on the fruit, and put it on my lips to suck the juice off it…
Hey! That is delicious!
It drives me crazy, that's too great! Ooops, I'd better stop now, or I won't have anything left if I'm lost there for a long time… Let's moving…
I climb one more time this very scale and find this darn desk upon the sea... Turns, turns, turns… I'm tired of it.
I go down again, and on my way, I find a panel where lights seem to inform that electricity is on… Is that it?
I run to the old tower and try to open it: I get it! The door is open! I can go in! And inside, there's a strange monitor with a unique button down… I push it.
TWENTY YEARS, ATRUS! TWENTY LONG YEARS ALONE!
It's him. But at least, I don't call him a Thief no more: I found some pages he lost behind him, here, and now I know who he is, and most important, his name… A name that perfectly fits to him…
Saavedro…
Finally back to J'nanin, after four long days in the age named Voltaic, I've decided to take a rest in Saavedro's laboratory: the hammock where his diary was left invited me to sleep… Before closing my eyes, I count the fruits in my bag: I don't know what's waiting behind the two other linking panels. I could need something to eat and drink.
I close my bag and turn on my left: Saavedro's diary's opened on the chest next to the hammock. This is a bit rude from me, but I want to know his story… The scary fog he describes, for example… What is it actually? And why does he seem to lose his memory…?
Too much questions…
I've never seen such a beautiful place! It's what I ever hopped! No place on Earth looks like it… And this name… Edanna… Sounds like Garden of Eden to me. A real jungle, in a giant tree… Crazy, absolutely crazy… And those plants… I can't believe they are Saavedro's creations… He's not only a tortured and great artist, he's a pure genius!
And there are fruits here… Very similar to this kind I picked up on J'nanin…
Everything here is amazing and wonderful. I would live here if I had nothing to lose and nothing else to do for now… Everything is marvelous… Except the alarming message Saavedro recorded in the monitor in this age, as he nearly announces he wants to commit suicide, because he has lost everything… At the precise moment he told the solution he found is, that his life must end, my heart had jump like it wanted to join him through the monitor and prevent him from doing such a thing.
I feel really bad about it… Is he already dead?
Anyway, now I'm back on J'nanin after six days tripping on Edanna, I know what I have to do:
Find the linking book to the third last age, quickly solve the riddles Saavedro left behind him and reach for this book in the observatory, so I can link to this age Saavedro is probably still located.
Resting on the hammock, I wonder if he's alive. If he's sane enough to be… Receptive… To what I have to say, to calm down his anger against Atrus…
Saavedro… Don't you do that before I come, please…?
I don't know what's happening to me… It's just like I've learned to know him, these last ten days… What Atrus' sons did to him… How he survived… How he plunged into insanity and animalism…
Who's there!? Show up! AW!
I've felt down the hammock. There's nobody.
I'm sure I've heard someone… And I've seen…
Saavedro. He was behind the desk, in front of me, testing the plants on it…
A dream… It was only a dream… I was sleeping…
I return to the hammock and clench my head in my hands: what the hell is happening to me?!
I dream he's here… I dream about him… Why?
Suddenly, the vision of him I had in my dream appeared again.
He seems so real…
Saavedro…?
He looks up and smiles as his celestial blue eyes cross mine:
Everything is alright… You'll wake up in a few seconds…
What a charming place… Amateria, right? Looks a bit Chinese… And those glowing stones… Everything seems to work by pure magic, here. All those mechanisms… How did Saavedro managed to change all of them? The more I walk, the more he astonishes me.
It took me only two days to discover the secrets of Amateria, and I'm a bit sad it has been so quick. I would have been pleased to stay… But I have a mission. And no time left.
As I enter the third code on the rock panel, the last bridge to the central pagoda of the island raises in a heavy metallic sound, allowing me to enter by the roof… And it's a real mess, inside! Railroads, railroads, railroads everywhere I look!
I climb right to the top, where a comfortable chair waits for me. I take a moment to catch my breath again and push a button:
Saavedro!
My enjoyment has been short: it's only a recorded holographic message. I listen to it, hoping its owner is still alive at this moment. The record stops. I finally activate another mechanism that pushes me to the top of the pagoda: in front of me raises a panel which shows a real wooden maze.
Well, well… What am I supposed to do with this…?
I look up and notice that there are four colors on the panel... And four different machines I've already configured, in order to allow those fragile spheres to pass through those diabolic circles, force fields… Anyway, it looks like another sphere will have to do the entire ride around Amateria…
I try multiple random combinations and finally understand the logic of this. Suddenly, the panel tumbles down, and my chair goes higher, under a strange device that quickly creates a spherical transparent case around me… Oh no!
I'm the sphere that's going to do the ride! All the Saints, please help me!
Too late, I'm already on the railroads.
The sphere rolls even faster second after second, and I barely can keep my heart behind my ribs…
WOOOOSH!
Wow… It's over…?
The sphere is destroyed. I'm free… The symbol! Don't forget it!
The linking book to J'nanin! Ooops…
I turn and reject my last dinner of juice on the floor…
Now I'm just resting here, on this cold hammock where I feel so lonely, I just can hope Saavedro's still alive… Wherever he is now... And… It would be no use, I can't deny it anymore… I look up to the desk: he's not there, of course. A dream in a dream… Nothing more…
I hoped he would still be there since I open my eyes… But he disappears when I'm awake; leaving behind him this weird feeling I'm not so alone…
Saavedro…
All that he is, all that he represents for me, is just precisely all I've always dreamed of, when I was younger and hopeful enough to find someone a bit like me, to share the way of life I wanted to know for the rest of my life...
But this never happened.
Finally, I'm just a spiritually frustrated secretary, working for a stupidly big and capitalist society, behind a virtual desk… And this man… All that he knew before all this was a life in complete harmony with nature. And along the twenty last years, he lived like a savage trying to survive in the most hostile worlds…
I know there's no hope for me: he has a loving wife and two adorable babies he loves… I know he's practically sure they are dead… But I'm a dreamer. And talking about dreams…
His face comes back when I'm sleeping, his long shiny and light hair surrounding it so naturally, that it seemed he's always been like this; his puppy eyes practically screaming all his emotions that flow in my veins, like I was a part of him and felt everything he feels.
That's not fair… Why does it happen to me…?
I cry because of what I feel. Why haven't I notice it before it was too late?
I'm definitely mad about the way he moves, I remember every detail of each step he took when I was looking at him, even the moment he set Atrus' house on fire. The way he threw that fireball becomes slowly artistic and sensitive to me… I can't, and I won't deny it…
I love Saavedro.
Ending
The Final Confrontation
The book in the observatory linked me to an age called Narayan… All that I know about it: this is Saavedro's world… And it's really cold, there… A terrible question occurs to me: As he expects Atrus is behind him, how would he stand the fact it's me and not Atrus he will face when I'll find him?
By the way, where is he? Is he…
Where am I, first?
Linking chamber… Red tapestries filled with golden symbols translated in a human language. It looks like one of them is missing: someone has probably taken it off. But be serious: this chamber is trapped into two force fields, and those silly monitors bring no help to get rid of them.
Maybe I'll find it upstairs?
I climb the long stairs and find a platform. Looks like Voltaic… An iron door stands steps from me…
Maybe I should…
"This door moves! Someone's inside and going here!"
Saavedro… I let my heart saying loud.
As the large iron door opens, I can see a long red costume that looks like a dress, springing out from the dark of the room behind.
A sandaled foot. My heart quickens: I've seen this light shoe before. And this leg… The dress appears in entire… Wait a minute! Isn't that one of the tapestries I've seen in the linking chamber? Red, seems warm, golden fragmented symbols on it… That's right: it's this missing tapestry drew off from the top! What does it do there…?
Suddenly, an arm carrying a locked heavy red book leaves the dark chamber… This is…
Releeshan. It's written on it.
So, I'm right, this guy dressed up with the ceremonial tapestry… I can see his confusion and anger, behind his long savage hair…
God! It's him!
My blood surges in a mixed form of anxiety, fear… And joy: it's Saavy! I want to leave me falling in his arms, but the hammer he holds nervously in his other hand recalls me that: he's officially my enemy.
Cruel world… Why does it have to be like this? If only he could, just by taking a look at me, consider who I am, and see he has nothing to fear from me… Righty, he has nothing to fear… I'm the one who should be afraid to death: I saw him taking the fireball and quickly throwing it to the green tapestry in Atrus' Study, after all.
But… Just look at him: he's desperate, deeply sad and lonely… Why would I do wrong to him? He looks so tired… Briefly I imagine us on Edanna, lost in the nowhere of its virginal jungle, me sitting, back on a giant flower, and him, head resting on my knees as my fingers caress his hair…
Back to reality.
Now he's here, looking at me and realizing I'm not who he expected. He seems lost in his own thoughts, like my presence was more disturbing, than just surprising. Why? He saw me at the beginning, nope? He knows who I am…
Or maybe not? All he knows for sure, is that Atrus is a friend of me, and I was here when he stole Releeshan. Nothing more. Is that enough to know someone?
As for me: all I know from him is what I red on his diary. I should have known there's no hope…
You… I know you… I've seen you before…
His voice slides on the frozen air of the chamber, like an Edanna bird in the warm sky of the jungle. I'm shivering as the sound of it comes slowly to me…
Saavy, how could you know how I feel now we're so close, and I can't even touch you…?
Wha… What's your name…? Or first name… Something like this… Who are you?
Saaipiriya.
It jumped out from my mind to my mouth. He raises his eyebrows:
Saaipiriya…
Yes… It's my name… Is that me, or did he repeated it in an emotive tone?
It recalls me names of my people…
Aw, was just that… I thought…
You were in the Study in Tomanha, right?
I just waved my head to answer: yes.
Look… I've nothing against you… It's Atrus I want…
REALLY?
I looked up, surprised: there was nobody else but him and I, here, so whose was this voice I've just heard?
An eye on Saavy: he talks to himself or what…?
Shut up! I was expecting him, it was the plan!
DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU SAW HER IN HIS STUDY?
Shut up, I said! I want Tamra, and my girls…
I TOLD YOU THEY'RE DEAD… THEY'RE ALL DEAD… YOU'RE ALONE.
You're wrong! I'm sure they survived!
ADMIT YOU HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO CHASE HER FACE OUT OF YOUR MIND, THESE LAST TWO WEEKS! ADMIT YOU FORGOT EVERYTHING, NO EXCEPTION FOR NARAYAN AND YOUR OWN FAMILY!
I'm just… Disturbed and nuts. I'm not sane!
OH NO, YOU'RE PERFECTLY SANE. LOOK AT HER, JUST ONCE AGAIN… DARE TO TAKE A LOOK AND CONTRADICT ME.
What is he talking about… No…? He's looking at me? Is it possible that…
SO…? SAY YOU HADN'T DREAM ABOUT HER!
He shivers so much that I wonder if he's about to faint. His right hand releases the stone hammer it holds, Releeshan falls, and Saavedro hardly hits the iron grills of the ground with his knees.
I… I can't!
Still shaken by understanding what's happening, I approach him. He seems to be praying a voice in his head to leave him alone. Tears roll on his cheeks as he's still shivering. I look at him: he's obviously weak, he probably haven't eat a thing or take a little rest since days and days… He doesn't seem to notice I'm close.
In pure compassion, I take his left hand, and that seems to electrify him from the fingers to the heart. God, my very first physical contact with him… Try to calm down, my heart, you're about to burst… But his hand is so cold… Why?
Saavedro…?
His eyes move to me, finding mine, and what I see takes my breath off: he's in love with me!
Saaipiriya…
I'm down on my knees, and I feel we could never take our eyes off the other.
He whispers:
It's true… You're in my dreams… In my thoughts… In my any kind of word that doesn't reveal wishes of revenge or simple hate… Now I know your name, I can put a word on anything that's worth the pain to survive in every age…
The most beautiful things one has ever said to me… And it came from him.
Say something, please… Don't leave me trapped in my feelings like this…
I manage to take a deep breath in a way he couldn't feel my emotion:
I… I love you.
As his hand was still clenched in mine, I felt his heart quickens… Or maybe it was mine?
You… Are you serious?
I wanted to say how I felt since he suddenly showed up in Atrus' Study, how my feelings have grown anytime I watched him on this monitors, when he thought he was explaining to Atrus what he has been through… And how his explanations made me feel. But nothing came out. I took it easier:
I've been waiting for years for a man like you… I want you, just like you are now…
He looked at me like I had just raised a sensitive point:
Just like I am now… Who would appreciate a savage, brutal beast like me? Even Tamra won't.
Saavedro, I don't know who you were before all this. But all I know, is that this beast you've become, is the softest and lovely one I've ever met.
You… You're not afraid of me?
I see you now, and I don't think you're dangerous… I can't stand it… 'Cause I think you're dying.
He looked down on Releeshan:
Dying… What the hell… I'm giving this thing up. Everything is over.
Nothing's over, I'll take care of you... What about giving it back to its owner?
I don't know…
Look, I can explain him what happened to you. You were friends, I'm sure he will understand.
Saavedro turned the book to see its title, looked up at me and made Releeshan slide to my reach:
Take it. Nothing really matters to me, now.
Don't you say that! Did I ever mention I love you?
He shivered like it was the first time I said it:
Yes, you mentioned it. Are you staying with me for a lifetime?
I am.
Two short words spoken with an indestructible conviction…
Three letters of pure confidence in what I feel for him. He smiled:
So am I.
Together, we manage to find the way to open the first shield...
I knew a linking book would be in this opened chamber I've seen downstairs: Tomanha's. I open it for we could see the linking panel:
Here we are…
Together?
I strongly clenched his hand, confirming by shaking my head, and reached for the panel, at the extremely precise second he touched it too…
Part Four
A whole new life
SAAVEDRO?!
Atrus' scream rang in my head: Narayan's atmosphere was so tense and silent, that this brutal noise coming from nowhere gave me a headache…
… Saaipiriya? Wh… What are you doing?
I think he noticed our hands were still clenched together.
Atrus… I… I can explain…
No, Saavy, it's my turn to speak.
Atrus looked at me like I was just gone mad:
"Saavy"? Saaipiriya, you didn't even know he existed before he stole Releeshan… What…
You're right: I didn't know he existed. And since I've learned that fact…
I looked into Saavedro's eyes: how tender they are…
They cherish everything they sense in me.
… I did love him.
I hardly take my eyes off him and give Releeshan to Atrus:
Look, my friend. Here is what you looked for. It's intact.
Releeshan… Thanks… A thousand times…
Atrus, there's something important you must know about Saavedro… And Narayan.
At that point, I got all his attention.
I managed to explain what Sirrus and Achenar did in Narayan, and what they've done to Saavedro. What he had suffered from, all these years… Atrus couldn't realize all his own sons made… But he trusted me.
Well… Saavedro, I'm terribly sorry for all. But I can't rewrite Narayan. I'm not able to reanimate an entire population.
Doesn't matter, Atrus. I'm happy just now. Even Tamra would have rejected me, if she knew what I've become… Not Saaipiriya.
Atrus, could you rewrite a linking book back to J'nanin?
Saavedro looked at me:
What's on your mind…?
The sun downs between the giant leaves, five steps from us. Light begins to disappear in the purple taint of the skies. Its warm light touches my totally offered skin. Nothing moves but the plants under this whispering wind, announcing calm nights on autumn. My fingers caress a long light brown hair, like they were trying to undo the fine nodes in it:
You're right, Saavy?
Two loving eyes opened up, looking immediately at me:
Yes, Saaipa… You weren't lying: you take a great care of me. Definitely, Squee flesh isn't enough to keep a man alive… But I feel already better, you know… Anything wrong?
I smiled:
Nothing. I love you.
So do I.
My fingers found a fruit I've picked up from a giant plant. The nutritive juice in it has been my salvation on Voltaic, where no plant grows…
And now I'm giving it to my Saavy. He drinks in the palm of my hand: the sensation he's getting stronger thanks to me is so sweet…
Thank you, my love…
The eyes closed up. I sighed at the face of the sun remaining a simple candle in a dark manor:
Take a rest, sweetheart... I stay up your sleep…
I knew this would seduce him. Everything we need is down here. I left my parents. I left my very rare friends. I left my job. Left everything behind me…
No regret. I'm happy. Happy and ultimately pleased.
Saaipa…?
Yes, Saavy?
You look preoccupied.
Just thought about the life I gave up, nothing relevant.
It was too fast, too sudden. You should have made your farewells to your family…
Maybe… But I don't need that. I need you. No one else but you.
I need you too… I had nothing left to quit when we met… But I can understand…
He clenches my left hand, as it's caressing his hair, and kisses it:
Why did you do this for me?
Because I love you. No need to argue more.
Our eyes plunge into the others'.
I can feel his breath, like he has been running as fast as he could all day long through the jungle…
I fear what I want to do now… Would repeal the feelings you have for me.
It has been twenty long years. I can understand.
He smiles, seeming embarrassed… And his lips touched mine in a sudden ecstatic moment.
It is so intense, so strong and sweet… I can feel a shockwave flowing from my breast to my pelvis, electrifying my nerves and skin. His tongue skips between my lips, licking them in a way that makes me allow him to reach my tongue inside.
This kiss wakes up a part of my lower anatomy, like it was preparing to leave another kind of kiss on this precise point. It seems everything he touches receives ultimate benefactions. I put my hand behind his head, in order to prevent him from releasing me, and kiss him with all the passion I have ever put in a simple kiss. His so strong arms gently pose on my hips and tenderly caress me.
He releases:
I love you, Saaipa… Please, forgive me if…
Just kiss me, no more words.
He comes on my stomach, knees resting on the wooden floor of the giant tree, hands giving a light massage on my shoulders.
I put my hands on his hips, forcing him to leave our entirely free bodies to get a full contact…
Just like I always wanted to do it.
Savage. Bestial. Animal. Totally insane.
What? Me?
What we've done, Saavy… And that was agonizingly wonderful.
"Agonizingly"? Are we two crazy savage beasts?
If we are, I'm glad. And you…?
He smiles:
I love being savage and crazy. Especially with you.
"That's it. Perfect love. The perfect life I've always dreamed about. I get it."
That's what I got in mind, as the whispers of the nocturnal skies freeze our wet skins in partial merging; leaning on the soft and thick moss we had chosen for bedding… Even the cold air of Edanna wasn't enough to convince me I could be wrong.