The sixth age - the first.
I wonder?
I want to know what would happen to an age if I were to corrupt it with the curse of human kind.
Not the D'ni, a race which has obtained understanding of there own world through ages, but the humans who wonder in foolish awe at the intricacies of the ages and try to copy the script with there own frail language. Only to realize that it could not be done and so they burn or destroy the equipment in there own subtle attempt to feel powerful in a universe they no nothing about, and when they are done they feel good again and so continue their lives. This is why they will not find the cavern. But first I must do another experiment.
And so I did it I came up through a vent hole into their stinking city. The world is so bad now that I can hardly see more than a few meters in front of me and I almost choke. But I stumble blindly forward and eventually I find a building. I know the building from their maps; I know how to get to the office I need without attracting attention. I merely need to get the book into the office and onto the desk and their stupid curiosity will bring them to use it, not realizing the fate that will happen if they do touch the panel, and no doubt even if they did try to turn the page they would be stupid and touch the panel by accident. Well I did it the bate is on the desk now we hope only one goes through, but if more do go through the experiment is not lost so long as I can get the book soon after they travel through. If not then I need to destroy the book I have the page flame in the sphere and ready for use. But it is ok only one has entered lets hope he sees the book or I'm going to have to stay in this place for a lot longer than I want to. As it is the end of the day the man walked in a picked up his case a coat as I suspected, but not looked at his desk, this could be a problem. But wait the natural human instinct is to check to see if they have forgotten anything, and so he looks at his desk for a quick scan to see if he can see anything out of place when he notices my book, as I predicted he picked it up but did not open it at the first page! He opened it about the middle and so was not attracted to the panel could all be lost. He started to leave his office and my heart skipped a beat, which I don't think is good for it, but then he closed his office door and went back to his chair where he got out some sort of lens and examined the text he flicked back through the pages and suddenly he reached the front page and was captured by this panel which he could not explain. All his instincts told him to find out what this was and so in the only way he knew how he reached out and put 1 finger on the panel and with that he was gone. The book fell to the floor with a heavy thud and I quickly slid out to retrieve the book from where it lay. I made it almost by stumbling back to the vent hole and used it to work my way back into the cavern. I moved over quickly and as quietly as possible to the Releshan book and used it to link back to the main gate of Releshan, there are not enough words in the D'ni language to describe in pronounceable terms the beauty of Releshan and so I wont try to. I moved slowly through the quite streets and into my study. It was early morning here and very soon the streets would be crowded with all manner of people, all the guilds would be out, and they would be making the royal sweet back to its near perfect standard even if they had to work all night to do so. This was one of the D'ni traits they, on request of honor, would work until their job was done and this was the reason that the libraries were again full of worlds and treatise's. The D'ni civilization is finally becoming its original splendor. It is becoming perhaps even greater than our brothers back in the sealed tomb of D'ni. But back to the topic in hand, tomorrow Atrius, our great patriarch, arrives. He is currently working on a new civilization on another age and he holds all the keys to the age no one is allowed in or out, except for Atrius. Perhaps when his civilization matures we may be allowed to go and see them, but Atrius feels they are too fragile to be exposed yet. But he, after over 3 months with the Lesten's as he has named them, is returning to see what the great city of Releshan looks like, after nearly 2 years in this age. And this is not good for my experiment, there will be a celebration and all writers will be requested to attend and when Atrius requests you, you do not say that you cant. But it had to be done today and so I have all of tomorrow to view my subject and then return in the evening to talk to Atrius. I was very proud he wants to see some of my works so I have prepared the 3 age I wrote again it is once again the magnificent world it used to be and I am positive Atrius will like it. But now I must rest for a few hours the confused human will not do anything of interest until he has realized there is only one way out, via the book suspended on a platform 70 feet above his head in the clearing I linked him to. However following Atrius' rules I cannot kill him so if he fails miserably and starts to die or go crazy then I will have to release the book and set him free. Even if he does tell his story no one will believe him and so he will keep very quiet.
I woke 2 hours after I started to sleep. All the preparations are underway and I won't be missed until this evening, but still I think ill leave a linked sign on the book. Bud hopefully no one will follow me through. If they do ill have to link them back out again. Well I have prepared everything I need. Knife incase he tries to go through the jungle and a link book back to Releshan, I am also taking a page fire so he cannot use the book incase he finds it. And finally I am ready to go through the link I'll just stamp it and then we will be ready. I once again pressed my hand to the surface of the book and felt the same falling sensation I always do as I link and then I braced as I arrived at the other age my sixth age, The experiment age. The first. The age its self takes the form of a large 30 meter diameter circle covered in dense rainforest type trees with a 5 meter diameter radius clearing in the middle of the age. The whole of the age is a huge column of rock, which is in the middle of an endless supply of lava at the bottom of the tower. Suspended above this clearing nearly 70 feet up, as I have said before, are several wooden walkways and in the center of these walkways is a platform with a linking book on it. My experiment is to see what damage the human will do to the age in order to escape. All he has to do is escape and it looks like he has already started to think about this. There are rough drawings all over the ground piles of food that he has scavenged, and he has taken off his work clothes and adjusted himself to the slightly warmer conditions of my age. I seam to have picked a fairly intelligent human who realizes what he has to do and takes the necessary steps to save himself. He has started to try and cut down small trees in the hope of trying to build himself a ladder to climb up to the platform, I want to see how this progresses but now is not the time to waste watching him try something futile. I believe it will take him far to long without cutting equipment to build a ladder of sufficient height to reach the walkway even the lowest point of it. So I will return in 2 hours to see the progress of my subject. So far the experiment is going well, but I have other matters to attend to. I opened the linking book and placed it in my hand then in my other hand I held the sphere and place the back of my hand on the panel. As I linked the book drops and the sphere drops onto the book. The sphere smashes and the flame licks over every page destroying the writing but leaving the book intact and so I can pick it up later. When I go back later today. As I arrived at Releshan something unexpected hit me in the face, figuratively. Atrius was sitting in my chair reading the linking book for the 3rd age the age I was taking him to later today. Atrius started to tell me about how he liked my age already, but in his eyes all my ages were failures. At first this angered me until he told me why. His reason was that an age was a failure unless it was habitable by a civilization of some sort. And so that rendered at least 10 out of 12 of the great libraries failures. However he did say I was only young and still had time to write some great ages for the libraries and become a great writer if I started to work on a habitable age now. And then he asked me where he could rest where no one would find him as they did not know he was there. So I showed him to my bedroom and thanked him for not entering my sealed age, to which he replied that he would not enter a sealed age to save all of the D'ni civilization. This was a bit of an overstatement but he got across his point he was a man of honor not one to be blinded by curiosity. And he made me think about my own life and how I should start on a habitable age.
I headed down some streets and arrived at the great libraries. As I walked in many of the people turned to look at me and then bowed there yes and the ones standing all dipped their heads. Being a writer under the constant apprenticeship of Atrius even after becoming a fully fledged writer was something which meant you deserved a lot of respect, for your potential. Although I was only young around 16 years of age, some of the greatest and oldest writers would come to ask me questions and feel very humble around my presence. But soon with Atrius returning, or so they thought, the spot light would be off me for a short time as everyone flooded to Atrius to get there question answered before he left, and complicated phrases, which required me to think so hard that I got a head ache which lasted for days, would be posted to him and he would answer instantly. This is what made him such a great writer he knew every phrase every thing that an age needed, a civilization needed that he could just answer any question. But this new age I had seen it. It was requiring all his knowledge he was writing a treatise a day with the knowledge he gained and I knew for a fact that this would be his last age and, because he was Atrius, he would go out with a bang. He would recreate D'ni, and they would once again learn the art of writing and then the 2 civilizations would join and the 2 ages would work together, one as father teaching the son the art. And I would become patriarch of the twin civilizations and Atrius' work would be done. He certainly had his life and, sometimes it seemed my life planned out to the finest point. And this would become one of the greatest stories ever told and the master copy written by the greatest scribe in the land would be at the head of the great library age of Metit. I had only seen this age twice. And on the highest pillar of the highest bookcase was the holy books the Master copies of Myst, Riven and D'ni. These were the books that all the linking books referred to the books of Atrius' life and by now the 4th and 5th books would have been added to it. Firstly the book of Nyrayan, this was there as Releshan was stolen by one of its inhabitants and so Atrius went, after the book was returned to Atrius, and promised that the world would never be forgotten and so it was added to the library. And the 5th book would be the book that the whole of Atrius' life has been about for the past 4 years. It is suspended high above the other 4 books and is on a golden pedestal and it is the Releshan book it is locked and guarded by the staff of the guard guild. They live in the age and will guard it even if it costs them their live for the whole of D'ni lives for these books. But the strangest thing about this age is the fact the D'ni lexicon is nowhere to be seen. Actually it is everywhere to be seen but you would not see it unless you were told that it was there. There is no book for the lexicon in the age the fact of the matter is that on all the walls and ceiling and floor, and every bookcase is carved in the writing of the lexicon. And so the age I in its self a book underlining for the D'ni the emphasis of their culture and civilization. But I knew exactly what books I needed and they were not in Metit, they were only tiny insignificant reference books written mainly by Atrius but also by some other authors. I was quickly served and so I left and headed with both my arms full of books. On the way home I was helped by an underwriter, who was still being trained and who liked me a lot. He was fun to be with and so I tried to help him with his ages he was currently on his second and so was close to becoming a fully fledged writer, but I knew that no one would carry of training him and so I asked Atrius If I could do so. Even though Atrius was still teaching me he said that it would be fine for me to do so as long as I continued my writing and didn't just teach my pupil. I knew that I could not just stop writing and so this would not be a problem to me. When I arrived home I told my friend not to stop at my house but to go and continue his writing, to which he replied he would. I quite liked his second age it read well and sounded like a paradise. Everyone's second age is a paradise and everyone's first is a sanctuary, its just the way the D'ni think. I was about to start writing when I decided it'd be better to check on my subject and so I resealed my age and headed in with the same equipment as last time.
My subject had made good progress. He maybe finished quicker than I expected. Realizing his mistake he had built his ladder up to the first branch of a tall tree. This branch was still at least 10 feet high and so he had done a good job of making his way up to the platform he was currently eating some of the food he had scavenged and he had several long pieces of cord. The cord was actually a plant he had striped off the trees but it was very strong and he had drawn of the ground his idea for what he was going to do. It looked like a fairly good idea too he was going to try and hoist himself to the next branch and then reassess the situation from another 20 feet up this would mean he was 30 out of 70 feet up and he would have made good progress. I was impressed by his progress and as he started to build his hoisting mechanism I realized I should have brought my age to work on. This seemed to be a good idea and so I turned to the back of my notebook and started to write my age in rough in there. The beginning of an age is easy it is just planning the dimensions of the age not even including hills or rivers and so I can just plan one easily off the top of my head. I planned my age to be a very mountainous age and a sphere much like earth where the D'ni cavern is situated it was not huge but about one thousand miles surface area. It will have one main river, which will carve its way through the mountains all the way round my world. This is where the people will live I have made a wide flood plain at the bottom so they will have a good wide flat area to farm on and it will replace the minerals annually. So I have supplied the basic necessities of a civilization, a place to live and food to eat. This is where I got stuck I did not know what to put next or if there was any special phrase I needed to use in the land building. So I would have to return home, I also needed to the celebrations began in about 2 hours and I needed to be ready for then it was going dark here and the man had found something I had left for him 3 pieces of flint. This was not odd they were just lying on the ground and I observed that he had quite wisely built himself a fire and was working on his hoisting mechanism still. But was not going to try to and hoist himself up until morning and so I could quite happily leave until the morning and still observe his actions.
I linked back once again to Releshan, Atrius was awake and changed into his favorite writing clothes. Most people didn't know he only wore these for writing and celebrations, they thought he wore them all the time. It was funny to think about how Atrius looked when he was exploring or even just moving around but still he was Atrius. As I expected he asked me how my age was getting on, I knew he meant the age I kept linking to, so I said it was finished and I was writing a treatise based on an experiment that I was performing in my age. He was impressed and then I went on to explain the piles of books which were covering my desk. Atrius liked a tidy desk to write on and could not cope with the fact that you could not see my desk for books. He was again impressed that I had started writing an age so soon after he had suggested it and asked if he could see the beginning. At this request I had to confess that I had written it in my notes and he would have to read it from there he did not seem to mind to much and so he made comments but said that my set up for the world was good. I was pleased; it is the case that so often an age is ruined because of the set up the age is not capable of supporting life. But then I had to get changed and so Atrius said he was going to link into the square in the center of Releshan and he would see me later. And so he did I collected his book and went to get changed. Half an hour later I walked quickly to the square where Atrius was in the process of telling a story. I knew full well was just to keep the audience happy as it was about his arrival to Releshan. Atrius did not lie rather than mix his life together as the crowd always wanted a tale of excitement and so Atrius gave it to them. When I walked into the square Atrius called me over and asked me to tell the crowd and himself about my latest works. And so giving Atrius time to soak up the atmosphere and recover from his story telling. The crowd cheered at the promise of a new treatise from me, as I was one of the favorite writers in Releshan. And when a popular reader writes a treatise the scribes have fun writing hundreds of copies for the libraries and the bookshops to sell and lend out. They were also pleased at having another civilization to treat like their children. And so all in all I was still a hero, which I kind of liked. Atrius then went on with me still sitting with him going on about how great the decorations are and how the city was thriving. But he must make his way to the great hall as there must be lots of questions to be answered and he felt that he ought to answer them.
One hour later question time was underway and even I was drafted into it Atrius directed any questions I could answer easily to me and so I found that I had made some new friends by the end of the evening. But the highlight was my friend Timeral who I met in the street earlier in that day having his second age read by Atrius and being promised that Atrius would visit it when it was finished which sent him beaming over to my table. I said I was highly impressed and that I was going top help him finish the age before Atrius' next visit in 3 months. I knew this would be a hard task but I also knew that Timeral needed this to boost his confidence enough to handle the responsibilities of being a writer. He was so pleased that he asked if he could stay and listen to the advice I gave. I am not one to turn down people without a good reason so he stayed and his eyes remained open wide the whole time he was there. Around 2 hours after sunset with the city ablaze, torches on every door and light emerging from every window giving a kind of artificial light which made traveling through the city easy and safe. Not that there was any violence in Releshan, everyone knew his or her place and so everyone worked together to make Releshan the place they wanted to live. This was the kind of piece you can only have when you have only one city in your world and was essentially the reason that the humans kept having wars. But it was safe from crashing into anything or falling down a pothole, not that that would happen if one was careful when traveling. The questioning stopped and Atrius was led to his chamber in the high palace. Timeral and I walked to my house where he was staying for the one and a half hours until the great feast. We talked for nearly half an hour until I said I had to check on my experiment.
I only Linked in for half and hour and he was just getting ready to sleep having built himself some kind of weapon ad shelter he put out his fire and was laying down to rest. I watched until I was sure he was ok and then left the world assured that he would be fine during the night. When I arrived back I found Timeral examining my 4th age it was my favorite, a small study high up in the tree canopy of the age and I had spent a long time watching the animals and birds which were forming there. I said he could keep it and write a linking book back to his house ore edit mine. I already had plenty of ways to it and I had the reference book for it so I had not lost an age. Although writing ages was becoming easier and less time consuming or at least the simple ones like my 5th and 3rd ages, the next age I just started work on could take many months, maybe even years. But it would be finished and it would work. Timeral was pleased and I said he should take it with him to the feast, as I doubted he would have time to come back to my house after to collect it.
This was only my second great feast but I already knew what I had to do and where I had to sit and so I directed Timeral to the seat next to his tutor and then moved to mine on the right side of Atrius. As I entered the hall stood and clapped and cheered which surprised me but then Atrius stood and told them to settle down and when I arrived at my place he explained all to me. Apparently the people who had started the cheer were fanatic followers of mine who at the promise of a treatise spent all day thinking of the proper way to show their appreciation. This was very flattering but not quite what I wanted, I would have liked it more to have my book finished and nominated for inclusion in the grand library of Releshan. But still this may happen and I should probably learn to accept the praise I get for when Atrius hands me his job. For this will mean a lot more praise and more standing ovations and possibly if I am lucky an age in Metit. This is my goal in life from ever since Atrius took me on, and this is the real reason behind me starting my new age. I need all the practice I can get and even though when I get Atrius' job I will have full access to Metit and I will be able to look at some of the greatest books ever written. I will have more information a link away than most people could imagine, I still need the practice and the basic knowledge of how the books work and how ages are written or I will never succeed. I think though I will need a trip to Metit before Atrius leaves to read a book on civilizations. It is illegal to remove a book from Metit because they are so rare. I will have to make notes from the book and then wait till Atrius arrives back again should I get stuck on that section of the book. Nearing the end of the feast someone stood up and taped very gently on the edge of their glass. The Echo went round the room and everyone heard it and fell silent. The room was silent for a few minutes and then suddenly out of nowhere a single voice said the word "Speech." And suddenly the room lit up one by one people added their voices until it seamed the whole room was chanting the same word and then the strangest thing happened. A smile appeared across Atrius' face and he stood up and the whole room exploded into a cheer. But only Atrius could brake this cheer buy saying only "It was about this point we got killed all those years ago." Some people where shocked but most laughed and Atrius continued with his speech. It was mainly about how well D'ni had survived and how Releshan now looked better than D'ni it self. At which many people cheered and a few booed. But Atrius removed all doubt by saying how D'ni was always their home and so in some way it should be remembered. At which lots more cheering happened. And so Atrius suggested may be they could ban cheering for D'ni, and the whole hall burst into laughter. Atrius' speech went down very well and when he finally finished and sat down the standing ovation went on for at least 2 minutes. And then another glass was tapped but this time from the other side of the hall and again the chant of speech began. After a few moments Atrius lent over to me and said they mean you! This shocked me so much as I did not know what to say and had no idea what they wanted to hear. Atrius leant over again as the chant intensified and said they want to hear what projects you have planned and then I will ask you about my succession. And finally after 3 whole minutes of chanting I rose to my feet and the cheer that went out was louder than anything that had happened all night. I was blown away but the affect I had on the citizens of Releshan, it suddenly seemed clear to me, the city was crime free and extremely happy cause of heroes like Atrius and myself and most of the other writers. And so I began my speech I went on first about the difficulties of writing ages and about how I had dedicated my life to it, and when I said that I had vowed never to stop writing the room erupted once more. I began on how I was beginning a civilized age where I hoped people would grow and become another friend to the D'ni and again the room exploded people were now genuinely pleased to hear what I was writing. Then I moved onto my treatise which I promised would be like nothing the D'ni had ever seen and so I would strive to finish it as soon as possible. At this point some shouted to ask if it would be done before Atrius next arrived to which I said truthfully some would be done but I rather doubted it would be finished. And then another question will Atrius be able to be there at the first official reading read by me. To which I said in all certainty that I would read at least some of it at the next great feast, and once again the room cheered as I sat down. The applause went on for nearly a minute before Atrius stood up and the room fell silent as His hands went up towards the ceiling. Atrius as he promised then spoke about handing over his leadership role to me and then the whole room silent turned to look at me. I stood up and everybody took a sharp intake of breath in the whole room. I said "I will take the role of Atrius when he chooses to step down, But let us hope that is not for a good long time." To which the room cheered and I was given the new robes of office without a border to show I was only the underpatriarch. The room cheered once again and Atrius said that he and I should leave and so to a huge applause we left side by side. When we went outside Atrius told me I had done the right thing as the D'ni wanted me to become the patriarch and so I had fulfilled there dreams so far, I could not do any more until Atrius stepped down. I was exhausted and so I went straight back to my house and moved into my bed my mind drifted toward the human I had left in a strange unforgiving world without really telling him why. I almost felt sorry for him, and then my eyes slid shut and my mind cleared of all conscious thought.
I woke in the morning refreshed and ready to go. I should have been it was 3 hours after sunrise and I meant to leave at sunrise, I quickly got ready and collected a backpack which I filled with my writing equipment. I sealed my book once again and then checked I was ready to link through. After 10 minutes of preparations I finally decided to link through and I did so laden with everything I needed for the days observing. Hopefully the first section of my treatise would be done today or in the next few days so that I could get on with writing my age as this I felt was more important I had only promised the first section. This meant I didn't even need to start my second experiment for 3 months but I probably should have all the experiment age and the test and plan in place before then so I can start after the next great feast. Yes this is what I'd do I thought as I reached where I wanted to observe from and sat down taking off my bag as I did. I knew exactly what would happen today and is I guessed he was awake and had eaten some of his food stock and been out to collect more food for the day. And now he was trying hard to get the harness that he had made for himself, on to his body. He then attached one end of the very long rope; he had made last night to his harness, and throw the other end of it over the branch above him. After 3 or 4 tries at this he got it over but then it would not come down it remained stuck at the branch so he pulled it down and climbed down the ladder. I decided that he must have a fairly good idea of what he was doing, as he immediately seemed to have a plan of what to do. He tied a short log to the end of the rope and then threw it over the branch and with the added wait of the log it came down to his level and he gripped the rope. It was then I winced at the realization of what he was about to do, he held onto the rope and pulled down hard and the rope took his weight. He carried on doing this until about 20 minutes later I heard a shout as the man heaved himself up onto the branch and shouted in victory. He sat at the branch for about 5 minutes and I realized he must be planning his next move I then saw the coil of rope around the mans body. This might be over very soon he uncoiled the rope and pulled the rope he just climbed up towards him. When he had hold of the log he unattached it and then threw the rope down to the ground again and then tied the log to the new rope. The next branch was only 10 feet up and so he got the log over on his first try and then he celebrated with another long shout. He did the same thing again but, and I was highly expecting him to, he did not pull out yet another coil of rope. This time he just looked and then lowered himself down both ropes and arrived at the ground. After a short brake he wrote some figures on the ground and the started striping off the plant to make more ropes he realized he only have another 30 feet to go and I anticipated that he would complete his task tomorrow. I watched him as he created 3 more ropes one 40 feet and 2 10 feet long this took him most of the day and I continued with my age. It progressed very well and I started to build the landscape, each individual plant and tree. Even the plants that were not directly necessary to the civilization them selves must be written in as an animal may not be able to survive there and the civilization may not ever evolve or survive cause of this single animal, stemming from a single insignificant plant. There was a lot more of an art to writing habitable ages than pleasure ages, all the treatises said so and I was finally starting to see why. Because everything needs to be in balance which stopped you from just writing in everything you can think of. The world would not survive and kill itself; this was the difficulty in any age but especially in habitable ages. But the world was going well and it was only because of a huge racking sound, which made me look up from my work. This is when I panicked only for a few seconds but panicked never the less. The crack had been his final 10 foot rope splitting where he had not attached it well enough. He fell and luckily for him caught hold of the next branch just 2 feet below him he went down to the ground and as I understood went back to making his rope but checked every seam very well and this I knew would take all night he would leave early tomorrow. He had in my eyes at least done very well, and was worth remembering.
I linked out of the world and went straight to Atrius. I asked about going to Metit and examining the book that I wanted to see. And to my surprise he said he had something for me something he had been working on all day. He handed me a linking book and on the cover emblazoned with the patriarch symbol was written in gold the single D'ni symbol which meant great world of knowledge, the symbol which was pronounced Metit. I was shocked and he said I could now travel there whenever I liked. This had 2 implications for me it meant that I could now go and visit the age and take reference whenever I liked but I could no longer go with Atrius. There would be no more asking Atrius to translate a carving or asking him which book was his favorite, but most of all there would be no more looking in wonder at the great books and then wondering how such a humble man wrote such great books. This was the beginning of a new era in my life but as always as one thing ends another begins and I must try to find a way through this ending and make the most of it. I will strive to become like Atrius so that I can show Timeral the same beauty that Atrius showed me. But now I don't need to go today. I can go in 2 days when my experiment is finished and I am once again only thinking about my age. I can even work in a Metit study and get the books brought to me. This means that I can increase the speed of my writing without having to stop to find a new book. I have heard the staff at Metit are fantastic and will find any book you want. Except of course for the great books although it would be nice to take a look at Nyrayan. What am I thinking I can't look at a great book it would not be sensible. I could end up creating an elaborate linking book to one of them and that would ruin several months work and destroy what I set out to do or worse destroy what someone else set out to do and succeeded. To destroy an age is a crime worse than murder, but to destroy a great age that is a crime that does not bare thinking about. No I should just use the treatises and that's it. I got back to my house and put the linking book o my prime bookshelf next to my 6 ages, and this made it seam all the more real. Later on that evening as the sun was setting just behind the palace I left my house to go and see Timeral. I arrived at his house and knocked on the door, no one answered but this is usual with writers they seam to shut out the world when they are thinking and this is one trait that worked for them. So I entered his house only to see a book closed shut on the desk I knew in all certainty that this was Timeral's first age and as his writing equipment was still all stowed away in its case I had a suspicion that something was wrong. So I linked through the book and for only the 3rd time ever saw the inside of the cavern that was Timeral's first age. The first had been when he showed it off to me his eyes still not believing what his hands had built, the same as all writers were at there first age. The second was when I needed something stowed inside the cavern and Timeral said I could collect it both times had given me enough time to guess where Timeral would be. There was something about water that Timeral was attracted to. He had only had 3 dates and all of them had taken place near rivers and ponds. He was a shy boy and still only young, although only a year younger than me, I seam to have grown far too much in the 2 years since my apprenticeship. But Timeral's obsession with water led him to put some in each of his ages and so I walked slowly and calmly down to the river he had put in to his age and on the opposite side of was Timeral. He had his head between his legs and was crying very, very hard. I took off my shoes and waded across the river to where Timeral was sitting, and then sat down next to him. I asked him why he was crying and when he looked up he could hardly speak, and when I heard the reason why I could understand. He had gone out during the day to collect more writing material, and when he had gone back his 2nd age had gone from his desk and a letter had been written to him saying that he would never become a writer. This is the kind of abuse that nobody should endure and the kind that the D'ni frowned apon greatly. So I promised Timeral that if he would come out of his age then I would help him to find his 2nd age no matter how long it took and so we set off
We linked out of Timeral; he named it after himself some thing something that shocked a few people. And we went back to my house where I put down my shopping and showed Metit to Timeral, and promised him we would go look at it when we found his book. This pleased him greatly and we set off in search of his book. We searched the main streets for the book but it was nowhere to be found. So we went to all the libraries and still it was not there. I fact it was on the way to the meeting point that I noticed where it was. I ran to the meeting point and found Timeral almost crying again. I told him I though I had found it and he came silently with me. I was right the gang of boys mainly writer fanatics and in favor of the old writers, they had taken one of my ages and page flamed it the same as they were preparing to do to Timeral's book. When Timeral saw this he screamed not the girlish type of scream I suspected from him rather more of a war cry. The boys turned round and saw Timeral charging straight towards them and the panicked. The boy with the page flame however was the first to see me, and he charged at me. I dodged him but he grabbed my journal. Timeral who had by now recovered his age and fought off most of the gang turned in time to see my journal in the hands of the leader. This is where Timeral had the hardest question of his life asked its yours or the patriarch's. Suddenly Timeral threw his book and the boy but before the boy could catch the book I kicked the page flame sphere and it smashed and went all over my journal, my whole experiment once again note less. But the boy who snatched up Timeral's book and was about to run with it but he turned round and ran headlong into a librarian. He had been attracted from the library next to the alley we were in and had witnessed most of the action, or at least enough to realize what had happened. He roared "You are going to see Atrius now, All of you." Timeral dipped his head, in shame to which the librarian said kindly don't worry Timeral you will be fine I have your age here you can have it back after we have spoken to Atrius. The thought of an after Atrius pleased Timeral greatly. When we arrived at Atrius chamber in the palace, we were escorted in. The librarian explained the situation, and for the first time in my life saw Atrius shout, in fact he roared and bellowed for 5 minutes at the boys, who seamed to be reduced to quivering wreaks after what Atrius had to say to them. They would not be causing any more trouble for a long time. Then Atrius invited Timeral and I to sit down, and we talked for a great length about Timeral's age and the books that he should look at in Metit. And then Atrius suggested he should come along to Metit with us, and help Timeral on his age, so I could get on with my age quietly. Timeral's eyes lit up like never before the legendary Atrius helping him in the legendary library. This is when Atrius told Timeral my plans abut his apprenticeship, and Timeral again began to cry. This time though it was out of shear joy that someone wanted to carry on teaching him especially someone as important as me. We went our separate ways and I decided to stay up for the rest of the night and try to reclaim the notes I had lost, and also then I wouldn't loose my one chance at seeing the man link out. And so I stayed up all night and reclaimed a large portion of my notes.
It was just going light when I linked into the 6th age and to my surprise a new rope had been made over the night the man had got a rope over the walkway and I spanned all the way to the ground. The rope was huge but the man had now become experienced at using them. This meant when he woke up half an hour after I arrived he eat the last of his food and gathered together his work clothes wrapped them round his waist he then got into his harness and attached it securely. It took him 45 minutes moving slowly and checking there was too much wear on the rope, to reach the walkway. When he reached the top he stood up and shouted some words to the world I presumed they were good-byes. And the he walked over to the pedestal and opened the book. He pressed his hand firmly onto the page and disappeared, he had successfully found his way and the only way out of the world and the linking book had worked properly. The experiment was a success and all that was left to do was bid the age good bye forever as it had fulfilled its purpose and was no longer needed. It would remain on my bookshelf I case it ever needed to be viewed again. And with that thought I linked out. I arrived in Releshan about 2 hours before I was dew to head to Metit and so I went back to sleep.
I woke up 2 hours later to the sound of knocking on my door I got up and went to the door and opened it. My heart lurched it was Atrius and Timeral. I invited them in and told them to wait whilst I got some new robes on this highly amused Atrius who said, as I immerged from my bedroom, cant take fighting all night and doing your job in the morning eh?" both him and Timeral laughed very hard. But I had realized the same thing I needed to stop my little escapades at night because the last 2 nights although vital were not the first or a rare occasion. I spent nights wandering the city talking to people I met in the street, and occasionally going to parties and not sleeping as I should to keep my concentration levels high. I vowed after today I would sleep properly and go out only 1 day a week or may be if I was not very busy 2 but I would not return to my old way of life. I think loosing my journal and all of the work from 6 months of toil thinking of this experiment was the reason for this change in me. We set off for Metit then, well I say set off really we linked in and were searched at the gate and all complete linking books were taken from us along with page flames and our outer robes, the last for out comfit. And then we entered Metit chamber and my eyes immediately looked directly at the great books. Atrius asked if I would like to see the great books and had them brought down to where we were working and I spent at least an hour examining Myst alone. Atrius said he was thinking of getting Tahoma brought to the library and then Timeral and I could link to it whenever we liked and I was surprised Tahoma was Atrius' sanctuary his first age although it was not his first age but it may as well have been. But Timeral was to busy thanking Atrius for me to have time to ask him about his sanctuary age. But then I need to use some of Atrius' exclusive books mainly ones he has picked from other writing races, including one on the humans, which I would find very helpful in any future experiments. And so I quickly thanked Atrius and moved on to trying to find any mistakes in Riven that had not been already underlined. This I worked on for over 4 hours and I found 3 errors that were not underlined so I corrected that and signed and dated them like everyone else. But something occurred to me the ages of old broke for the pure reason that none of them were designed to inhabit life and yet were forced to this was one of the errors I underlined. Strangely I believe this is what helped me to continue with my age after not working on it for 5 hours I suddenly realized what was needed in my age. And so put it in my age as I thought about it, and the words seamed to role off my hand and onto the page like it was no trouble for them to do so, and so page after page of my age rolled out. Unlike normal I could see exactly what my age would look like and I realized what Atrius saw when he read the books of others he could see everything. And this allowed him to see the fault of the age and what would cause it to fail and why he tried so hard to fix Riven. But it was too difficult there was just too many errors although he had fixed most it was the prime fault of the writer that the age failed. But then I heard Atrius talk about his human friend who had visited Myst, Riven, Tahoma and Nyrayan. He was better traveled than most D'ni, and Atrius said that this human knew D'ni. May be he could teach me the human language and then I could communicate with them. And finally understand what they meant when they spoke. That would be something that until now I had only dreamed of and soon I believe that my dream may become a reality. We spent all day in day in Metit and Timeral had nearly finished his age by the end of our stay but Atrius did not return with us to Releshan but rather to Tahoma and onto his fledgling age. This meant we would not see him for 3 months more and so I would act on my self promise and sleep properly until the weekend when I may stay up and party with Timeral on the celebration of his completed age. Yes that sounded like a good plan.
I headed back to D'ni and this is where I had my idea for the D'ni memorial, I would get Timeral to write an age which was a replica model of how D'ni was in its grand form before the people fled. That way Timeral would get known I would show leadership and the city would not forget D'ni. This was going to be done a public world in the center of the city 4 books of 4 pedestals linking to the model of D'ni. Obviously it would have to be to scale D'ni was a huge world and it took hours to move through the city and the model would have to represent this with out actually taking hours, I would leave it up to Timeral. I moved quickly to the vent hole and started to make my way up to the surface. Once again I immerged on the surface and the thick smoke screen blinded me and I was thankful to live in Releshan. I moved back to the office of the worker and he was sitting at his desk writing and then, finishing his sentence he looked towards the sky and whispered 2 words which ill never forget, although I do not know what they mean. The man left taking his essay with him and I realized that this would be his story even if he doesn't say it happened to him. He left the office and so did I we went different ways and I got to the vent and headed back to D'ni where very shortly I linked back to Releshan. I went into my bedroom and for the first time changed into my bed robes and got into my bed I removed my lenses and shut the door. My room was completely dark and I though about the past 3 days and then I slowly slipped into the best sleep I had had all year.
I wonder?
I want to know what would happen to an age if I were to corrupt it with the curse of human kind.
Not the D'ni, a race which has obtained understanding of there own world through ages, but the humans who wonder in foolish awe at the intricacies of the ages and try to copy the script with there own frail language. Only to realize that it could not be done and so they burn or destroy the equipment in there own subtle attempt to feel powerful in a universe they no nothing about, and when they are done they feel good again and so continue their lives. This is why they will not find the cavern. But first I must do another experiment.
And so I did it I came up through a vent hole into their stinking city. The world is so bad now that I can hardly see more than a few meters in front of me and I almost choke. But I stumble blindly forward and eventually I find a building. I know the building from their maps; I know how to get to the office I need without attracting attention. I merely need to get the book into the office and onto the desk and their stupid curiosity will bring them to use it, not realizing the fate that will happen if they do touch the panel, and no doubt even if they did try to turn the page they would be stupid and touch the panel by accident. Well I did it the bate is on the desk now we hope only one goes through, but if more do go through the experiment is not lost so long as I can get the book soon after they travel through. If not then I need to destroy the book I have the page flame in the sphere and ready for use. But it is ok only one has entered lets hope he sees the book or I'm going to have to stay in this place for a lot longer than I want to. As it is the end of the day the man walked in a picked up his case a coat as I suspected, but not looked at his desk, this could be a problem. But wait the natural human instinct is to check to see if they have forgotten anything, and so he looks at his desk for a quick scan to see if he can see anything out of place when he notices my book, as I predicted he picked it up but did not open it at the first page! He opened it about the middle and so was not attracted to the panel could all be lost. He started to leave his office and my heart skipped a beat, which I don't think is good for it, but then he closed his office door and went back to his chair where he got out some sort of lens and examined the text he flicked back through the pages and suddenly he reached the front page and was captured by this panel which he could not explain. All his instincts told him to find out what this was and so in the only way he knew how he reached out and put 1 finger on the panel and with that he was gone. The book fell to the floor with a heavy thud and I quickly slid out to retrieve the book from where it lay. I made it almost by stumbling back to the vent hole and used it to work my way back into the cavern. I moved over quickly and as quietly as possible to the Releshan book and used it to link back to the main gate of Releshan, there are not enough words in the D'ni language to describe in pronounceable terms the beauty of Releshan and so I wont try to. I moved slowly through the quite streets and into my study. It was early morning here and very soon the streets would be crowded with all manner of people, all the guilds would be out, and they would be making the royal sweet back to its near perfect standard even if they had to work all night to do so. This was one of the D'ni traits they, on request of honor, would work until their job was done and this was the reason that the libraries were again full of worlds and treatise's. The D'ni civilization is finally becoming its original splendor. It is becoming perhaps even greater than our brothers back in the sealed tomb of D'ni. But back to the topic in hand, tomorrow Atrius, our great patriarch, arrives. He is currently working on a new civilization on another age and he holds all the keys to the age no one is allowed in or out, except for Atrius. Perhaps when his civilization matures we may be allowed to go and see them, but Atrius feels they are too fragile to be exposed yet. But he, after over 3 months with the Lesten's as he has named them, is returning to see what the great city of Releshan looks like, after nearly 2 years in this age. And this is not good for my experiment, there will be a celebration and all writers will be requested to attend and when Atrius requests you, you do not say that you cant. But it had to be done today and so I have all of tomorrow to view my subject and then return in the evening to talk to Atrius. I was very proud he wants to see some of my works so I have prepared the 3 age I wrote again it is once again the magnificent world it used to be and I am positive Atrius will like it. But now I must rest for a few hours the confused human will not do anything of interest until he has realized there is only one way out, via the book suspended on a platform 70 feet above his head in the clearing I linked him to. However following Atrius' rules I cannot kill him so if he fails miserably and starts to die or go crazy then I will have to release the book and set him free. Even if he does tell his story no one will believe him and so he will keep very quiet.
I woke 2 hours after I started to sleep. All the preparations are underway and I won't be missed until this evening, but still I think ill leave a linked sign on the book. Bud hopefully no one will follow me through. If they do ill have to link them back out again. Well I have prepared everything I need. Knife incase he tries to go through the jungle and a link book back to Releshan, I am also taking a page fire so he cannot use the book incase he finds it. And finally I am ready to go through the link I'll just stamp it and then we will be ready. I once again pressed my hand to the surface of the book and felt the same falling sensation I always do as I link and then I braced as I arrived at the other age my sixth age, The experiment age. The first. The age its self takes the form of a large 30 meter diameter circle covered in dense rainforest type trees with a 5 meter diameter radius clearing in the middle of the age. The whole of the age is a huge column of rock, which is in the middle of an endless supply of lava at the bottom of the tower. Suspended above this clearing nearly 70 feet up, as I have said before, are several wooden walkways and in the center of these walkways is a platform with a linking book on it. My experiment is to see what damage the human will do to the age in order to escape. All he has to do is escape and it looks like he has already started to think about this. There are rough drawings all over the ground piles of food that he has scavenged, and he has taken off his work clothes and adjusted himself to the slightly warmer conditions of my age. I seam to have picked a fairly intelligent human who realizes what he has to do and takes the necessary steps to save himself. He has started to try and cut down small trees in the hope of trying to build himself a ladder to climb up to the platform, I want to see how this progresses but now is not the time to waste watching him try something futile. I believe it will take him far to long without cutting equipment to build a ladder of sufficient height to reach the walkway even the lowest point of it. So I will return in 2 hours to see the progress of my subject. So far the experiment is going well, but I have other matters to attend to. I opened the linking book and placed it in my hand then in my other hand I held the sphere and place the back of my hand on the panel. As I linked the book drops and the sphere drops onto the book. The sphere smashes and the flame licks over every page destroying the writing but leaving the book intact and so I can pick it up later. When I go back later today. As I arrived at Releshan something unexpected hit me in the face, figuratively. Atrius was sitting in my chair reading the linking book for the 3rd age the age I was taking him to later today. Atrius started to tell me about how he liked my age already, but in his eyes all my ages were failures. At first this angered me until he told me why. His reason was that an age was a failure unless it was habitable by a civilization of some sort. And so that rendered at least 10 out of 12 of the great libraries failures. However he did say I was only young and still had time to write some great ages for the libraries and become a great writer if I started to work on a habitable age now. And then he asked me where he could rest where no one would find him as they did not know he was there. So I showed him to my bedroom and thanked him for not entering my sealed age, to which he replied that he would not enter a sealed age to save all of the D'ni civilization. This was a bit of an overstatement but he got across his point he was a man of honor not one to be blinded by curiosity. And he made me think about my own life and how I should start on a habitable age.
I headed down some streets and arrived at the great libraries. As I walked in many of the people turned to look at me and then bowed there yes and the ones standing all dipped their heads. Being a writer under the constant apprenticeship of Atrius even after becoming a fully fledged writer was something which meant you deserved a lot of respect, for your potential. Although I was only young around 16 years of age, some of the greatest and oldest writers would come to ask me questions and feel very humble around my presence. But soon with Atrius returning, or so they thought, the spot light would be off me for a short time as everyone flooded to Atrius to get there question answered before he left, and complicated phrases, which required me to think so hard that I got a head ache which lasted for days, would be posted to him and he would answer instantly. This is what made him such a great writer he knew every phrase every thing that an age needed, a civilization needed that he could just answer any question. But this new age I had seen it. It was requiring all his knowledge he was writing a treatise a day with the knowledge he gained and I knew for a fact that this would be his last age and, because he was Atrius, he would go out with a bang. He would recreate D'ni, and they would once again learn the art of writing and then the 2 civilizations would join and the 2 ages would work together, one as father teaching the son the art. And I would become patriarch of the twin civilizations and Atrius' work would be done. He certainly had his life and, sometimes it seemed my life planned out to the finest point. And this would become one of the greatest stories ever told and the master copy written by the greatest scribe in the land would be at the head of the great library age of Metit. I had only seen this age twice. And on the highest pillar of the highest bookcase was the holy books the Master copies of Myst, Riven and D'ni. These were the books that all the linking books referred to the books of Atrius' life and by now the 4th and 5th books would have been added to it. Firstly the book of Nyrayan, this was there as Releshan was stolen by one of its inhabitants and so Atrius went, after the book was returned to Atrius, and promised that the world would never be forgotten and so it was added to the library. And the 5th book would be the book that the whole of Atrius' life has been about for the past 4 years. It is suspended high above the other 4 books and is on a golden pedestal and it is the Releshan book it is locked and guarded by the staff of the guard guild. They live in the age and will guard it even if it costs them their live for the whole of D'ni lives for these books. But the strangest thing about this age is the fact the D'ni lexicon is nowhere to be seen. Actually it is everywhere to be seen but you would not see it unless you were told that it was there. There is no book for the lexicon in the age the fact of the matter is that on all the walls and ceiling and floor, and every bookcase is carved in the writing of the lexicon. And so the age I in its self a book underlining for the D'ni the emphasis of their culture and civilization. But I knew exactly what books I needed and they were not in Metit, they were only tiny insignificant reference books written mainly by Atrius but also by some other authors. I was quickly served and so I left and headed with both my arms full of books. On the way home I was helped by an underwriter, who was still being trained and who liked me a lot. He was fun to be with and so I tried to help him with his ages he was currently on his second and so was close to becoming a fully fledged writer, but I knew that no one would carry of training him and so I asked Atrius If I could do so. Even though Atrius was still teaching me he said that it would be fine for me to do so as long as I continued my writing and didn't just teach my pupil. I knew that I could not just stop writing and so this would not be a problem to me. When I arrived home I told my friend not to stop at my house but to go and continue his writing, to which he replied he would. I quite liked his second age it read well and sounded like a paradise. Everyone's second age is a paradise and everyone's first is a sanctuary, its just the way the D'ni think. I was about to start writing when I decided it'd be better to check on my subject and so I resealed my age and headed in with the same equipment as last time.
My subject had made good progress. He maybe finished quicker than I expected. Realizing his mistake he had built his ladder up to the first branch of a tall tree. This branch was still at least 10 feet high and so he had done a good job of making his way up to the platform he was currently eating some of the food he had scavenged and he had several long pieces of cord. The cord was actually a plant he had striped off the trees but it was very strong and he had drawn of the ground his idea for what he was going to do. It looked like a fairly good idea too he was going to try and hoist himself to the next branch and then reassess the situation from another 20 feet up this would mean he was 30 out of 70 feet up and he would have made good progress. I was impressed by his progress and as he started to build his hoisting mechanism I realized I should have brought my age to work on. This seemed to be a good idea and so I turned to the back of my notebook and started to write my age in rough in there. The beginning of an age is easy it is just planning the dimensions of the age not even including hills or rivers and so I can just plan one easily off the top of my head. I planned my age to be a very mountainous age and a sphere much like earth where the D'ni cavern is situated it was not huge but about one thousand miles surface area. It will have one main river, which will carve its way through the mountains all the way round my world. This is where the people will live I have made a wide flood plain at the bottom so they will have a good wide flat area to farm on and it will replace the minerals annually. So I have supplied the basic necessities of a civilization, a place to live and food to eat. This is where I got stuck I did not know what to put next or if there was any special phrase I needed to use in the land building. So I would have to return home, I also needed to the celebrations began in about 2 hours and I needed to be ready for then it was going dark here and the man had found something I had left for him 3 pieces of flint. This was not odd they were just lying on the ground and I observed that he had quite wisely built himself a fire and was working on his hoisting mechanism still. But was not going to try to and hoist himself up until morning and so I could quite happily leave until the morning and still observe his actions.
I linked back once again to Releshan, Atrius was awake and changed into his favorite writing clothes. Most people didn't know he only wore these for writing and celebrations, they thought he wore them all the time. It was funny to think about how Atrius looked when he was exploring or even just moving around but still he was Atrius. As I expected he asked me how my age was getting on, I knew he meant the age I kept linking to, so I said it was finished and I was writing a treatise based on an experiment that I was performing in my age. He was impressed and then I went on to explain the piles of books which were covering my desk. Atrius liked a tidy desk to write on and could not cope with the fact that you could not see my desk for books. He was again impressed that I had started writing an age so soon after he had suggested it and asked if he could see the beginning. At this request I had to confess that I had written it in my notes and he would have to read it from there he did not seem to mind to much and so he made comments but said that my set up for the world was good. I was pleased; it is the case that so often an age is ruined because of the set up the age is not capable of supporting life. But then I had to get changed and so Atrius said he was going to link into the square in the center of Releshan and he would see me later. And so he did I collected his book and went to get changed. Half an hour later I walked quickly to the square where Atrius was in the process of telling a story. I knew full well was just to keep the audience happy as it was about his arrival to Releshan. Atrius did not lie rather than mix his life together as the crowd always wanted a tale of excitement and so Atrius gave it to them. When I walked into the square Atrius called me over and asked me to tell the crowd and himself about my latest works. And so giving Atrius time to soak up the atmosphere and recover from his story telling. The crowd cheered at the promise of a new treatise from me, as I was one of the favorite writers in Releshan. And when a popular reader writes a treatise the scribes have fun writing hundreds of copies for the libraries and the bookshops to sell and lend out. They were also pleased at having another civilization to treat like their children. And so all in all I was still a hero, which I kind of liked. Atrius then went on with me still sitting with him going on about how great the decorations are and how the city was thriving. But he must make his way to the great hall as there must be lots of questions to be answered and he felt that he ought to answer them.
One hour later question time was underway and even I was drafted into it Atrius directed any questions I could answer easily to me and so I found that I had made some new friends by the end of the evening. But the highlight was my friend Timeral who I met in the street earlier in that day having his second age read by Atrius and being promised that Atrius would visit it when it was finished which sent him beaming over to my table. I said I was highly impressed and that I was going top help him finish the age before Atrius' next visit in 3 months. I knew this would be a hard task but I also knew that Timeral needed this to boost his confidence enough to handle the responsibilities of being a writer. He was so pleased that he asked if he could stay and listen to the advice I gave. I am not one to turn down people without a good reason so he stayed and his eyes remained open wide the whole time he was there. Around 2 hours after sunset with the city ablaze, torches on every door and light emerging from every window giving a kind of artificial light which made traveling through the city easy and safe. Not that there was any violence in Releshan, everyone knew his or her place and so everyone worked together to make Releshan the place they wanted to live. This was the kind of piece you can only have when you have only one city in your world and was essentially the reason that the humans kept having wars. But it was safe from crashing into anything or falling down a pothole, not that that would happen if one was careful when traveling. The questioning stopped and Atrius was led to his chamber in the high palace. Timeral and I walked to my house where he was staying for the one and a half hours until the great feast. We talked for nearly half an hour until I said I had to check on my experiment.
I only Linked in for half and hour and he was just getting ready to sleep having built himself some kind of weapon ad shelter he put out his fire and was laying down to rest. I watched until I was sure he was ok and then left the world assured that he would be fine during the night. When I arrived back I found Timeral examining my 4th age it was my favorite, a small study high up in the tree canopy of the age and I had spent a long time watching the animals and birds which were forming there. I said he could keep it and write a linking book back to his house ore edit mine. I already had plenty of ways to it and I had the reference book for it so I had not lost an age. Although writing ages was becoming easier and less time consuming or at least the simple ones like my 5th and 3rd ages, the next age I just started work on could take many months, maybe even years. But it would be finished and it would work. Timeral was pleased and I said he should take it with him to the feast, as I doubted he would have time to come back to my house after to collect it.
This was only my second great feast but I already knew what I had to do and where I had to sit and so I directed Timeral to the seat next to his tutor and then moved to mine on the right side of Atrius. As I entered the hall stood and clapped and cheered which surprised me but then Atrius stood and told them to settle down and when I arrived at my place he explained all to me. Apparently the people who had started the cheer were fanatic followers of mine who at the promise of a treatise spent all day thinking of the proper way to show their appreciation. This was very flattering but not quite what I wanted, I would have liked it more to have my book finished and nominated for inclusion in the grand library of Releshan. But still this may happen and I should probably learn to accept the praise I get for when Atrius hands me his job. For this will mean a lot more praise and more standing ovations and possibly if I am lucky an age in Metit. This is my goal in life from ever since Atrius took me on, and this is the real reason behind me starting my new age. I need all the practice I can get and even though when I get Atrius' job I will have full access to Metit and I will be able to look at some of the greatest books ever written. I will have more information a link away than most people could imagine, I still need the practice and the basic knowledge of how the books work and how ages are written or I will never succeed. I think though I will need a trip to Metit before Atrius leaves to read a book on civilizations. It is illegal to remove a book from Metit because they are so rare. I will have to make notes from the book and then wait till Atrius arrives back again should I get stuck on that section of the book. Nearing the end of the feast someone stood up and taped very gently on the edge of their glass. The Echo went round the room and everyone heard it and fell silent. The room was silent for a few minutes and then suddenly out of nowhere a single voice said the word "Speech." And suddenly the room lit up one by one people added their voices until it seamed the whole room was chanting the same word and then the strangest thing happened. A smile appeared across Atrius' face and he stood up and the whole room exploded into a cheer. But only Atrius could brake this cheer buy saying only "It was about this point we got killed all those years ago." Some people where shocked but most laughed and Atrius continued with his speech. It was mainly about how well D'ni had survived and how Releshan now looked better than D'ni it self. At which many people cheered and a few booed. But Atrius removed all doubt by saying how D'ni was always their home and so in some way it should be remembered. At which lots more cheering happened. And so Atrius suggested may be they could ban cheering for D'ni, and the whole hall burst into laughter. Atrius' speech went down very well and when he finally finished and sat down the standing ovation went on for at least 2 minutes. And then another glass was tapped but this time from the other side of the hall and again the chant of speech began. After a few moments Atrius lent over to me and said they mean you! This shocked me so much as I did not know what to say and had no idea what they wanted to hear. Atrius leant over again as the chant intensified and said they want to hear what projects you have planned and then I will ask you about my succession. And finally after 3 whole minutes of chanting I rose to my feet and the cheer that went out was louder than anything that had happened all night. I was blown away but the affect I had on the citizens of Releshan, it suddenly seemed clear to me, the city was crime free and extremely happy cause of heroes like Atrius and myself and most of the other writers. And so I began my speech I went on first about the difficulties of writing ages and about how I had dedicated my life to it, and when I said that I had vowed never to stop writing the room erupted once more. I began on how I was beginning a civilized age where I hoped people would grow and become another friend to the D'ni and again the room exploded people were now genuinely pleased to hear what I was writing. Then I moved onto my treatise which I promised would be like nothing the D'ni had ever seen and so I would strive to finish it as soon as possible. At this point some shouted to ask if it would be done before Atrius next arrived to which I said truthfully some would be done but I rather doubted it would be finished. And then another question will Atrius be able to be there at the first official reading read by me. To which I said in all certainty that I would read at least some of it at the next great feast, and once again the room cheered as I sat down. The applause went on for nearly a minute before Atrius stood up and the room fell silent as His hands went up towards the ceiling. Atrius as he promised then spoke about handing over his leadership role to me and then the whole room silent turned to look at me. I stood up and everybody took a sharp intake of breath in the whole room. I said "I will take the role of Atrius when he chooses to step down, But let us hope that is not for a good long time." To which the room cheered and I was given the new robes of office without a border to show I was only the underpatriarch. The room cheered once again and Atrius said that he and I should leave and so to a huge applause we left side by side. When we went outside Atrius told me I had done the right thing as the D'ni wanted me to become the patriarch and so I had fulfilled there dreams so far, I could not do any more until Atrius stepped down. I was exhausted and so I went straight back to my house and moved into my bed my mind drifted toward the human I had left in a strange unforgiving world without really telling him why. I almost felt sorry for him, and then my eyes slid shut and my mind cleared of all conscious thought.
I woke in the morning refreshed and ready to go. I should have been it was 3 hours after sunrise and I meant to leave at sunrise, I quickly got ready and collected a backpack which I filled with my writing equipment. I sealed my book once again and then checked I was ready to link through. After 10 minutes of preparations I finally decided to link through and I did so laden with everything I needed for the days observing. Hopefully the first section of my treatise would be done today or in the next few days so that I could get on with writing my age as this I felt was more important I had only promised the first section. This meant I didn't even need to start my second experiment for 3 months but I probably should have all the experiment age and the test and plan in place before then so I can start after the next great feast. Yes this is what I'd do I thought as I reached where I wanted to observe from and sat down taking off my bag as I did. I knew exactly what would happen today and is I guessed he was awake and had eaten some of his food stock and been out to collect more food for the day. And now he was trying hard to get the harness that he had made for himself, on to his body. He then attached one end of the very long rope; he had made last night to his harness, and throw the other end of it over the branch above him. After 3 or 4 tries at this he got it over but then it would not come down it remained stuck at the branch so he pulled it down and climbed down the ladder. I decided that he must have a fairly good idea of what he was doing, as he immediately seemed to have a plan of what to do. He tied a short log to the end of the rope and then threw it over the branch and with the added wait of the log it came down to his level and he gripped the rope. It was then I winced at the realization of what he was about to do, he held onto the rope and pulled down hard and the rope took his weight. He carried on doing this until about 20 minutes later I heard a shout as the man heaved himself up onto the branch and shouted in victory. He sat at the branch for about 5 minutes and I realized he must be planning his next move I then saw the coil of rope around the mans body. This might be over very soon he uncoiled the rope and pulled the rope he just climbed up towards him. When he had hold of the log he unattached it and then threw the rope down to the ground again and then tied the log to the new rope. The next branch was only 10 feet up and so he got the log over on his first try and then he celebrated with another long shout. He did the same thing again but, and I was highly expecting him to, he did not pull out yet another coil of rope. This time he just looked and then lowered himself down both ropes and arrived at the ground. After a short brake he wrote some figures on the ground and the started striping off the plant to make more ropes he realized he only have another 30 feet to go and I anticipated that he would complete his task tomorrow. I watched him as he created 3 more ropes one 40 feet and 2 10 feet long this took him most of the day and I continued with my age. It progressed very well and I started to build the landscape, each individual plant and tree. Even the plants that were not directly necessary to the civilization them selves must be written in as an animal may not be able to survive there and the civilization may not ever evolve or survive cause of this single animal, stemming from a single insignificant plant. There was a lot more of an art to writing habitable ages than pleasure ages, all the treatises said so and I was finally starting to see why. Because everything needs to be in balance which stopped you from just writing in everything you can think of. The world would not survive and kill itself; this was the difficulty in any age but especially in habitable ages. But the world was going well and it was only because of a huge racking sound, which made me look up from my work. This is when I panicked only for a few seconds but panicked never the less. The crack had been his final 10 foot rope splitting where he had not attached it well enough. He fell and luckily for him caught hold of the next branch just 2 feet below him he went down to the ground and as I understood went back to making his rope but checked every seam very well and this I knew would take all night he would leave early tomorrow. He had in my eyes at least done very well, and was worth remembering.
I linked out of the world and went straight to Atrius. I asked about going to Metit and examining the book that I wanted to see. And to my surprise he said he had something for me something he had been working on all day. He handed me a linking book and on the cover emblazoned with the patriarch symbol was written in gold the single D'ni symbol which meant great world of knowledge, the symbol which was pronounced Metit. I was shocked and he said I could now travel there whenever I liked. This had 2 implications for me it meant that I could now go and visit the age and take reference whenever I liked but I could no longer go with Atrius. There would be no more asking Atrius to translate a carving or asking him which book was his favorite, but most of all there would be no more looking in wonder at the great books and then wondering how such a humble man wrote such great books. This was the beginning of a new era in my life but as always as one thing ends another begins and I must try to find a way through this ending and make the most of it. I will strive to become like Atrius so that I can show Timeral the same beauty that Atrius showed me. But now I don't need to go today. I can go in 2 days when my experiment is finished and I am once again only thinking about my age. I can even work in a Metit study and get the books brought to me. This means that I can increase the speed of my writing without having to stop to find a new book. I have heard the staff at Metit are fantastic and will find any book you want. Except of course for the great books although it would be nice to take a look at Nyrayan. What am I thinking I can't look at a great book it would not be sensible. I could end up creating an elaborate linking book to one of them and that would ruin several months work and destroy what I set out to do or worse destroy what someone else set out to do and succeeded. To destroy an age is a crime worse than murder, but to destroy a great age that is a crime that does not bare thinking about. No I should just use the treatises and that's it. I got back to my house and put the linking book o my prime bookshelf next to my 6 ages, and this made it seam all the more real. Later on that evening as the sun was setting just behind the palace I left my house to go and see Timeral. I arrived at his house and knocked on the door, no one answered but this is usual with writers they seam to shut out the world when they are thinking and this is one trait that worked for them. So I entered his house only to see a book closed shut on the desk I knew in all certainty that this was Timeral's first age and as his writing equipment was still all stowed away in its case I had a suspicion that something was wrong. So I linked through the book and for only the 3rd time ever saw the inside of the cavern that was Timeral's first age. The first had been when he showed it off to me his eyes still not believing what his hands had built, the same as all writers were at there first age. The second was when I needed something stowed inside the cavern and Timeral said I could collect it both times had given me enough time to guess where Timeral would be. There was something about water that Timeral was attracted to. He had only had 3 dates and all of them had taken place near rivers and ponds. He was a shy boy and still only young, although only a year younger than me, I seam to have grown far too much in the 2 years since my apprenticeship. But Timeral's obsession with water led him to put some in each of his ages and so I walked slowly and calmly down to the river he had put in to his age and on the opposite side of was Timeral. He had his head between his legs and was crying very, very hard. I took off my shoes and waded across the river to where Timeral was sitting, and then sat down next to him. I asked him why he was crying and when he looked up he could hardly speak, and when I heard the reason why I could understand. He had gone out during the day to collect more writing material, and when he had gone back his 2nd age had gone from his desk and a letter had been written to him saying that he would never become a writer. This is the kind of abuse that nobody should endure and the kind that the D'ni frowned apon greatly. So I promised Timeral that if he would come out of his age then I would help him to find his 2nd age no matter how long it took and so we set off
We linked out of Timeral; he named it after himself some thing something that shocked a few people. And we went back to my house where I put down my shopping and showed Metit to Timeral, and promised him we would go look at it when we found his book. This pleased him greatly and we set off in search of his book. We searched the main streets for the book but it was nowhere to be found. So we went to all the libraries and still it was not there. I fact it was on the way to the meeting point that I noticed where it was. I ran to the meeting point and found Timeral almost crying again. I told him I though I had found it and he came silently with me. I was right the gang of boys mainly writer fanatics and in favor of the old writers, they had taken one of my ages and page flamed it the same as they were preparing to do to Timeral's book. When Timeral saw this he screamed not the girlish type of scream I suspected from him rather more of a war cry. The boys turned round and saw Timeral charging straight towards them and the panicked. The boy with the page flame however was the first to see me, and he charged at me. I dodged him but he grabbed my journal. Timeral who had by now recovered his age and fought off most of the gang turned in time to see my journal in the hands of the leader. This is where Timeral had the hardest question of his life asked its yours or the patriarch's. Suddenly Timeral threw his book and the boy but before the boy could catch the book I kicked the page flame sphere and it smashed and went all over my journal, my whole experiment once again note less. But the boy who snatched up Timeral's book and was about to run with it but he turned round and ran headlong into a librarian. He had been attracted from the library next to the alley we were in and had witnessed most of the action, or at least enough to realize what had happened. He roared "You are going to see Atrius now, All of you." Timeral dipped his head, in shame to which the librarian said kindly don't worry Timeral you will be fine I have your age here you can have it back after we have spoken to Atrius. The thought of an after Atrius pleased Timeral greatly. When we arrived at Atrius chamber in the palace, we were escorted in. The librarian explained the situation, and for the first time in my life saw Atrius shout, in fact he roared and bellowed for 5 minutes at the boys, who seamed to be reduced to quivering wreaks after what Atrius had to say to them. They would not be causing any more trouble for a long time. Then Atrius invited Timeral and I to sit down, and we talked for a great length about Timeral's age and the books that he should look at in Metit. And then Atrius suggested he should come along to Metit with us, and help Timeral on his age, so I could get on with my age quietly. Timeral's eyes lit up like never before the legendary Atrius helping him in the legendary library. This is when Atrius told Timeral my plans abut his apprenticeship, and Timeral again began to cry. This time though it was out of shear joy that someone wanted to carry on teaching him especially someone as important as me. We went our separate ways and I decided to stay up for the rest of the night and try to reclaim the notes I had lost, and also then I wouldn't loose my one chance at seeing the man link out. And so I stayed up all night and reclaimed a large portion of my notes.
It was just going light when I linked into the 6th age and to my surprise a new rope had been made over the night the man had got a rope over the walkway and I spanned all the way to the ground. The rope was huge but the man had now become experienced at using them. This meant when he woke up half an hour after I arrived he eat the last of his food and gathered together his work clothes wrapped them round his waist he then got into his harness and attached it securely. It took him 45 minutes moving slowly and checking there was too much wear on the rope, to reach the walkway. When he reached the top he stood up and shouted some words to the world I presumed they were good-byes. And the he walked over to the pedestal and opened the book. He pressed his hand firmly onto the page and disappeared, he had successfully found his way and the only way out of the world and the linking book had worked properly. The experiment was a success and all that was left to do was bid the age good bye forever as it had fulfilled its purpose and was no longer needed. It would remain on my bookshelf I case it ever needed to be viewed again. And with that thought I linked out. I arrived in Releshan about 2 hours before I was dew to head to Metit and so I went back to sleep.
I woke up 2 hours later to the sound of knocking on my door I got up and went to the door and opened it. My heart lurched it was Atrius and Timeral. I invited them in and told them to wait whilst I got some new robes on this highly amused Atrius who said, as I immerged from my bedroom, cant take fighting all night and doing your job in the morning eh?" both him and Timeral laughed very hard. But I had realized the same thing I needed to stop my little escapades at night because the last 2 nights although vital were not the first or a rare occasion. I spent nights wandering the city talking to people I met in the street, and occasionally going to parties and not sleeping as I should to keep my concentration levels high. I vowed after today I would sleep properly and go out only 1 day a week or may be if I was not very busy 2 but I would not return to my old way of life. I think loosing my journal and all of the work from 6 months of toil thinking of this experiment was the reason for this change in me. We set off for Metit then, well I say set off really we linked in and were searched at the gate and all complete linking books were taken from us along with page flames and our outer robes, the last for out comfit. And then we entered Metit chamber and my eyes immediately looked directly at the great books. Atrius asked if I would like to see the great books and had them brought down to where we were working and I spent at least an hour examining Myst alone. Atrius said he was thinking of getting Tahoma brought to the library and then Timeral and I could link to it whenever we liked and I was surprised Tahoma was Atrius' sanctuary his first age although it was not his first age but it may as well have been. But Timeral was to busy thanking Atrius for me to have time to ask him about his sanctuary age. But then I need to use some of Atrius' exclusive books mainly ones he has picked from other writing races, including one on the humans, which I would find very helpful in any future experiments. And so I quickly thanked Atrius and moved on to trying to find any mistakes in Riven that had not been already underlined. This I worked on for over 4 hours and I found 3 errors that were not underlined so I corrected that and signed and dated them like everyone else. But something occurred to me the ages of old broke for the pure reason that none of them were designed to inhabit life and yet were forced to this was one of the errors I underlined. Strangely I believe this is what helped me to continue with my age after not working on it for 5 hours I suddenly realized what was needed in my age. And so put it in my age as I thought about it, and the words seamed to role off my hand and onto the page like it was no trouble for them to do so, and so page after page of my age rolled out. Unlike normal I could see exactly what my age would look like and I realized what Atrius saw when he read the books of others he could see everything. And this allowed him to see the fault of the age and what would cause it to fail and why he tried so hard to fix Riven. But it was too difficult there was just too many errors although he had fixed most it was the prime fault of the writer that the age failed. But then I heard Atrius talk about his human friend who had visited Myst, Riven, Tahoma and Nyrayan. He was better traveled than most D'ni, and Atrius said that this human knew D'ni. May be he could teach me the human language and then I could communicate with them. And finally understand what they meant when they spoke. That would be something that until now I had only dreamed of and soon I believe that my dream may become a reality. We spent all day in day in Metit and Timeral had nearly finished his age by the end of our stay but Atrius did not return with us to Releshan but rather to Tahoma and onto his fledgling age. This meant we would not see him for 3 months more and so I would act on my self promise and sleep properly until the weekend when I may stay up and party with Timeral on the celebration of his completed age. Yes that sounded like a good plan.
I headed back to D'ni and this is where I had my idea for the D'ni memorial, I would get Timeral to write an age which was a replica model of how D'ni was in its grand form before the people fled. That way Timeral would get known I would show leadership and the city would not forget D'ni. This was going to be done a public world in the center of the city 4 books of 4 pedestals linking to the model of D'ni. Obviously it would have to be to scale D'ni was a huge world and it took hours to move through the city and the model would have to represent this with out actually taking hours, I would leave it up to Timeral. I moved quickly to the vent hole and started to make my way up to the surface. Once again I immerged on the surface and the thick smoke screen blinded me and I was thankful to live in Releshan. I moved back to the office of the worker and he was sitting at his desk writing and then, finishing his sentence he looked towards the sky and whispered 2 words which ill never forget, although I do not know what they mean. The man left taking his essay with him and I realized that this would be his story even if he doesn't say it happened to him. He left the office and so did I we went different ways and I got to the vent and headed back to D'ni where very shortly I linked back to Releshan. I went into my bedroom and for the first time changed into my bed robes and got into my bed I removed my lenses and shut the door. My room was completely dark and I though about the past 3 days and then I slowly slipped into the best sleep I had had all year.