A/N: This chapter and "Divergence" were originally going to be one chapter, but if I had run them together it would have been a bit long.


11 – Convergence

"See this globe, little sister? See how round and smooth and empty it is?"

"What would your friends say," snarled Sirrus over the memory, "if they knew you condemned me to die?"

"When I turn this switch, the chair you're sitting in will activate."

"What would they say," said Jane, grim determination in her voice, "if they knew I left my best friend to the mercy of a psychopath?"

"Big words for a little girl."

"Lights will go on."

"Stop it, girl. Stop it now!" Sirrus' voice was edged with desperation now.

"And everything that's you will be sucked out of your body, leaving behind the perfect disguise for me to step into."

"Bite me."

"Father and Mother will teach 'you' the Art… never knowing it's really me who's doing the learning."

"Look. I'll make you a bargain. I can give you more power than you ever dreamed of. Just think of it. Endless possibilities. Anything you want in life. People bending to your will. And all you've got to do is stop playing that memory."

"Of course I'll kill them as soon as I know how to write ages."

"You think I'm a sellout now?" spat Jane, enraged but keeping her focus firmly on the memory.

"Then I'll put my new memories back in my body -"

"Please!"

"- and no-one will be able to stop me."

The memory shards faded from Jane's hands. She smiled grimly.

"Oh, you little bitch! God damnit!"

The space shuddered violently again.

"You've got my blood on your hands now. You'll have to live with that for the rest of your life, you know?. And I hope it haunts you until your dying day – that you held a man's life in your hands, and chose to kill him."

The squeezing and falling returned again, and Jane was back in the relative comfort of Dream. The remaining glowing tendrils had vanished, and the massive convulsing thing was drifting slowly away from them, now detached from Yeesha.

She is free, said the calm voice of the guide, which was a welcome relief to Jane after Sirrus' voice. You have done very well, Traveller. Yeesha has rediscovered her waking mind. She is returning now.

The white cloud was moving upward. As Jane watched, it was consumed by a sudden flash of white light and disappeared.

The Traveller cannot follow. Without a guide to shield him, he will be crushed by Dream's endlessly shifting waves of possibility.

The grotesque thing was a fair way away from them now, and Jane could no longer see it clearly, but she saw it lose shape as the grey tendrils closed in on it, and she watched it disintegrate into orange dust.

I will return you to Serenia now, quickly, before the fungus dies. Farewell, Traveller. I hope to see you again. If I do not, I wish you the best of luck with your waking life.


Rachel and Maddy sat, tense, in the dark upstairs room. It had been five minutes since Jane had gone into Dream, and there was still nothing.

They heard slow footsteps coming up the stairs, and a hacking, wheezing cough. They hurried to the door, where they found Achenar, crawling up the stairs. He accepted their help gratefully but collapsed on the floor again as soon as they got upstairs.

"Has…" Achenar's voice was hoarse and thick with pollen, and he coughed again. "Has she woken up?"

Rachel didn't know whether he was talking about Jane or Yeesha, but either way, the answer was the same. "No."

"Well… there's nothing more I can do… we just have to hope… that your young lady comes through."

Achenar braced himself on the control console and heaved himself up onto his knees unsteadily. He looked Rachel in the eyes for what she thought was the first time.

"You… take care of them… for me. Both of them… I would have liked… to know them better. My own fault."

"Don't talk like that, Achenar – we've got a Healer coming. You'll be fine."

Achenar tried to laugh, but wound up coughing instead. "You know… you know that's a lie. All the Healers in the world… couldn't help me now."

There was a small beep from the console next to them. The calm female voice returned to the speakers.

"Memory transfer succeeded for subject: Yeesha. Memories for subject: Sirrus could not be located."

Rachel's eyes flicked over to Yeesha. She hadn't woken up, but her breathing was noticeably deeper and more regular.

Achenar smiled. "We did it… it worked."

From behind Rachel, there was a sudden gasp and some panting. She turned around. Jane was sitting up in her chair, sweating. She swallowed and looked over at Rachel, who nodded. Jane smiled, and joined them. She was surprised to see Achenar.

"Achenar – are you -"

"Of course I'm not all right," coughed Achenar, pulling himself to his feet. "And don't look so surprised… you saw me do it. The stone had to be inserted… directly into the shrine… otherwise it wouldn't have worked. And there was no other way to do that." He turned to face Yeesha. "Better this way, you know… all the things I did… better my life than hers."

Yeesha gasped suddenly, and her eyes flicked open. Life came back to her body, and her eyes flicked between Achenar and Rachel, looking terrified. Achenar held up his hand.

"It's okay… Sirrus is dead… it's all over." He collapsed onto his knees, gasping for breath. "Everything's… going to be okay, little sis… it's gonna be okay… it's…"

Achenar's head fell in Yeesha's lap. He was no longer breathing. Yeesha looked at Rachel and Jane, pleadingly. All three had tears in their eyes.

Running footsteps echoed from the staircase, and Atrus burst into the room, followed closely by Jordan.

"Jordan told me what's – Yeesha!" Atrus spotted his (conscious) daughter and rushed in to hug her, then paused. "This is Yeesha – right?"

"Yes," replied Rachel.

"Thank goodness." Atrus embraced his shaken daughter, who was beginning to cry, and then seemed to see the body slumped in her lap for the first time.

"A – Achenar?"

Atrus bent down and checked his son's pulse, then straightened up again, lips pursed. Jane could see in his eyes that he was fighting for control over his emotions. After a few seconds, he swallowed, but did not speak.

More footsteps echoed from downstairs, and Anya entered the room.

"Yeesha! Thank god you're okay." The Protector hugged Yeesha as well, then looked down at Achenar's body.

"Achenar… my god…" She touched Atrus' arm. "I'm so sorry, Atrus."

"Thank you, Anya," said Atrus, slightly hoarsely.

More footsteps, and Brittany entered the room, followed by Irvan and Tamara. Brittany's eyes immediately went to Achenar.

"Shit, I think we might be too late."

Tamara moved Achenar down to the floor and checked him thoroughly, while everyone else watched in silence. It was a minute before she straightened up.

"Yes. I'm very sorry, Atrus."

Atrus nodded mutely, closed his eyes and steepled his hands below his chin.

"Excuse me… I need a minute." He left the room. They heard the door open and close downstairs. There was silence for several seconds, then Anya spoke.

"I hate to ask something mundane like this at a time like this… but… the life stone. Where's the life stone?"

"Oh!" Rachel had completely forgotten about the life stone. "Downstairs, in the chamber with the flower in it."

"Ah." Anya paused. "That poses something of a problem, then. But we really need that stone back."

"Some sort of noxious gas, is it?" asked Irvan. Anya nodded. "Child's play. Surveyors are trained to deal with that sort of stuff. Mining all the time, and suchlike. I'll run back to Releeshahn, round up some of the hazmat boys. They'll help you out. Give me three tahvotee." He went downstairs.

Tamara turned to Britt. "There's not much more I can do to help, Britt – sorry. I'm going to head home."

"Okay, Tam. Sorry to drag you all the way out here."

"Not a problem. Any time." She went downstairs as well.

Anya offered Yeesha her hand, which Yeesha accepted. They hugged again, then Anya turned to the strangers.

"Thank you all… for making sure Yeesha got through this. Perhaps you should escort her back to Tomahna. I'll wait here for your young man – I don't think I caught his name?"

"Irvan," replied Brittany.

"Right. Irvan. Well, thank you all again. I hope to see you again."


The strangers took Yeesha downstairs, where they saw Atrus, apparently unaware of them, standing in the corner, deep in his own thoughts.

"You guys go on ahead," murmured Brittany. "Take Yeesha with you to Jordan's; give her something to eat. You don't mind, do you, Jordan? Rachel?"

"Of course not."

"Cause I think it's best if we don't just leave her on Tomahna. I'll talk to Atrus."

The others left quietly. Brittany went over to Atrus.

"Atrus." He looked up. "I think you need to focus on the good here. What you've still got, and what you've gained, not what you've lost."

Atrus chuckled, weakly. "I'm trying, my friend. I really am. But I've lost so much, and gained very little."

"You've got to think of Yeesha. All this has… traumatised her. She can pull through, but she's going to need all the support she can get from you and Catherine." Brittany put her hand on Atrus' elbow and guided him towards the door. "Come on, let's talk."

As they walked up the stairs into the stone forest and over towards the plaza outside the Hall of Spirits, Atrus spoke again. "Can I tell you something, my friend?"

"Of course."

"When you four released me from my prison on K'veer twenty years ago, I went to Myst and burnt the red and blue books. You know that. But every day since, I've wondered if that was the right thing to do. I acted rashly, my friend. I was enraged. I had been betrayed by my own sons, who I had trusted with my life's work. To use one of your expressions from the surface, I saw red."

"What choice did you have? They did betray you."

By this time they had reached the Hall of Spirits. They sat down on the benches near the pond as Atrus continued.

"I had every choice, my friend. Preserve the books. Bring them to K'veer. And wait, to make the decision with Catherine. She… has never truly forgiven me for that. Yes, we've moved on, resolved to start fresh, wipe the slate, but that is impossible. We replaced our home, we had a daughter… we started a new life. But you can't erase the memories of what once was, and we have never forgotten what was, although we have tried. Eventually, we gave up. Perhaps, we thought, we can combine our new and old lives. Rebuild bridges once burnt… literally. We tried so hard to make things work. But we failed. And those three words, my friend, are the story of our life since Myst. We tried. But we failed. And I don't know where we can go from here."

Brittany sighed. "Atrus, I never thought I would say this… but you're wrong. You haven't failed. You didn't fail. Perhaps you didn't succeed in reforming Sirrus. But when it came down to it, Achenar laid down his life to save Yeesha's. Yeesha loved her brothers, and Achenar at least loved her back. You brought your family together. By bringing Sirrus and Achenar back into your life, you showed you were willing to leave the past in the past and move on with life. Achenar, at least, was ready to accept. Even if Sirrus wasn't, that isn't your fault. You tried. You can't make the past go away by ignoring it. You can only do that by embracing it."

"But what now, my friend? Where do we go from here?"

"You have to move on with your lives. Give Yeesha the love she needs to move on from this. Seeing her grow, seeing her move on… that'll help you move on."