It was three weeks after Catherine escaped from the Cage. Three long weeks, and so much had changed. The Moiety, whom Gehn had called his "sorry excuse for an enemy," really was an enemy now. The rebels, now that their leader, Katran, arrived, were sabotaging anything that the Guild owned, kidnaping whoever they could find, and doing anything they could do to prove that Catherine was superior to Gehn. In fact, many villagers began to believe that the rebels were spirits because they had strange uniforms, which concealed their features very well, they appeared mysteriously (perhaps out of nowhere, or perhaps out of a spirit world), and vanished as mysteriously as they came.
The worst of it: it was all Cho's fault.
Cho sighed at the thought of this. If only he had spotted the rebel before he darted him. If only he had protected the Fissure Cage more carefully. And if only he didn't ask for a promotion. He silently swore that he would never ask for a higher rank again.
Cho stepped out of the Maglev onto Temple Island. Gehn said that he wanted to go back to the Cage to see how they could prevent the Moiety from escaping again. After he got out, the Maglev turned around to go back to Jungle Island to pick up his master. It returned after a couple of minutes, but it did not carry Gehn. Instead it carried Rifih, who was sobbing.
"Rifih," asked Cho. He never saw Rifih cry before. Rifih was always in a good mood - he was known for bringing cheer at funerals, "Rifih, what's wrong?"
"Alatan," Rifih wept, "Alatan, my only son! He's- he's- he's gone."
"What do you mean?" asked Cho. Now that the Moiety were true enemies, someone disappearing wasn't a good sign.
"The Moiety," wept Rifih, "Either they took him, or... he joined them! I found this on his bed!" He held up a lone Moiety dagger. "But," he continued, "Life... goes on, doesn't it?" He attempted to smile, but then he burst out in tears and collapsed on the ground, sobbing continuously.
The Maglev arrived again. "Good morning, Guildsman," said Gehn, stepping out from the car, "Eh, where's Rifih?"
"You're stepping on him, sir."
"Oh," said Gehn, moving to the side, "Sorry Rifih. Oh, by the way, I heard about your loss. But don't worry, this will all pass. I lost a son to the other side."
"Did you love him as I loved Alatan," asked Rifih, still on the floor, soaked by his rivers of tears.
"Actually," laughed Gehn, "I was relieved to get rid of him. Who needs sons anyway?" Rifih burst into even more tears. Gehn wasn't really comparable to a healer, who mends wounds. Rather, he was like a politician, who claims to mend wounds but actually makes them worse.
"Now then," Gehn started, "Let's proceed to the Fissure Plateau, shall we?" He approached the temple door, and it began to rise. What he expected to see was a cornucopia of fruit offerings, clean, decorated walls and floors, and his great imager, waiting to spy on whoever came. However...
"KERATH PRESERVE US!"
The fruit offerings were either half-eaten, spoiled, or splattered all over the walls. There were rotting Sunner carcasses spread throughout the floor. All of the artwork in the temple praising Gehn were destroyed, and graffiti in praise of Katran replaced them. One of the most disturbing showed Katran, her outline was illuminated to show her godliness, holding a Moiety dagger in one hand and a hammer in the other, which was squishing what looked vaguely like Gehn. At least, it could have been Gehn. Cho did not remember Gehn having such a long nose and looking so old.
And covering the imager was a large black cover with a large white Moiety dagger. The Black Moiety were here...
"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE," roared Gehn, "MY TEMPLE! MY BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE! DESECRATED! THOSE BARBARIC REBELS WILL PAY! CHO, HELP ME LIFT THIS COVERING OFF MY IMAGER TO SEE IF THOSE FOREVER-BE-DAMNED MOIETY SUNK SO LOW TO DAMAGE IT!
Gehn and Cho lifted the covering, only to put it back up again. For the imager was bent and broken on some of the sides, and in the center was a Moiety dagger stabbing Gehn's pentagonal Crest. And the stained-glass crest behind the imager was damaged in a more disturbing way. Someone had carved D'ni words into the crest, saying:
"Atrus stripped Gehn of his power. Atrus is a true god and Gehn is false.
As a god, Atrus chose Katran, a spiritual misfit from a Rivenese womb, to be his wife.
Katran is our queen, and shall rule Riven forever."
Gehn dropped his jaw. "Oh," he gasped, "Kerath! Cho, please summon the Guild of Builders. Now."
Cho pulled a lever, directing stream to a large pipe next to the gigantic dome used to power up the fire-marble domes. Within minutes, the Maglev arrived at the Temple Island station again, and out came old Guildmaster Gallim from the Guild of Builders. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked.
"Eh," began Cho. Gallim was the most famous of the Guild of Builders because he designed the entire temple and built a large portion of it by hand. That was exactly why he had a crooked spine and needed to lean on a cane. Cho knew that he couldn't just say the news to him immediately, "Gallim, there is a bit of an error with the temple.
"Really," Gallim said, "Let me have a look."
"Actually," said Cho, "I don't think you want to look right away."
"Imager problem," chuckled Gallim, "Door's not opening? Well, no matter what it is, I could- HOLY GUILD! WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"It seems," Cho said, trying to comfort him, "That the rebels have had a bit of fun last night, and..."
"The temple," wept Gallim, "That I broke by back to build! Desecrated! But how? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" And collapsed into a sobbing heap next to Rifih.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the Moiety happened to play another practical joke. The Maglev, as it was entering with another Builder, skid off its tracks and flew right through the temple door. Gehn and Cho rushed to the Maglev. From the car, a voice weekly uttered, "I'm okay." Then, the Maglev door opened, and, since the side of the door was the side touching the ground, flipped the Maglev over. Cho hauled the Builder, who was knocked unconscious, out of the Maglev.
"What happened," gasped Gehn, more concerned about the Maglev that the person inside, "The Maglev is supposed to be only attracted to magnets!"
"It seems," said Cho, "that the motor used to propel the Maglev has been tilted a bit, and somebody sabotaged the magnet at this end of the track. The Moiety is getting clever!"
Suddenly, an explosion echoed throughout Riven. A Guildsman, probably of the Guild of Bookmakers, rushed in through the secret door of the temple. The man's face was blackened by soot, and he was coughing continuously. The man said, "Sir! (Cough) There was a bomb in (Cough, cough), your lab (Cough, cough, wheeze). Moiety!" And then fainted.
Gehn muttered, "Two unconscious, and two who need to get over it." He looked at Cho, and said, "Go to Jungle Island (the long way around, of course) and bring me several Builders and a couple of healers... or undertakers."
*******************************************
"What a long day," Cho muttered as he walked back through the Great Whark to the village. Cho was correct. The Moiety played four tricks in one day: kidnaping Alatan, desecrating Gehn's temple, sabotaging the Maglev, and blew up the lab. But now Builders were repairing the temple, Maglev, and the lab, and healers were assisting the two injured Guildsmen.
Cho was tired of these Moiety "surprises." All he wanted to do was go home, make himself some Sunner stew, and get a well-deserved nap.
He remembered walking through the woods as a child, but the forest looked different then. The forest used to look fuller; there were more trees, and they weren't stripped of bark above the trunk before. Cho knew that the trees were sacrificed to make Gehn's (mostly failing) Books, but he would love to have them back. That was why he preferred Jungle Island over all the others: the trees.
After walking through the central hut, he came to the area of the jungle cracked open to reveal molten lava. This area was warm, but it was more proof that Riven was dying. Yet Cho loved this little space; it was the perfect place to go to on a chilly day, and Cho liked the flowers that grew near the heat. Still, with many cracks like this, he knew that the island couldn't last too long.
As Cho opened the gate, an alarm sounded. He cried, "No! Its just me! I'm not a rebel!" And the alarm stopped. Cho really hated the sentry post that was recently put up in front of the village, but it was for a good cause: to alert the villagers when a Moiety "spirit" comes. Still, the Moiety managed to slip past it most of the time.
Cho climbed up the ladder to his hut. It was round, like every other Rivenese hut, and it was next to the lake. This meant Cho could enter his home by climbing in through the floor, instead on crawling on his hands and knees.
As he entered his home, he looked up at the five-part diorama of Gehn that everyone was required to have in their homes (also seen in the Gate Room). The first painting showed Gehn, looking regal, even godly, dispatching catastrophe. The sun was dark, a ball of fire fell from Gehn's hand, the sea was aflame, and in the center was a defeated Atrus, falling into the Fissure. The 3rd rule of Gehn: Gehn defeated Atrus.
The second showed the five guilds in order from left to right: Builders, Educators, Maintainers, Surveyors, and Bookmakers. All five were lead by old, bearded men - which was what Gehn wanted, for he considered them docile and controllable. And all five were under watch by Gehn.
The third showed the process of bookmaking: the stumps that used to be trees, logs being shredded, and the wood boiler that stood near the lake on Bookmaking Island. In the center, there was a large Book, held by the hand of Gehn (Gehn for sure, because on his hand there was the D'ni symbol of the number 5, Gehn's favorite number), and the people of Riven bowed down to it.
The fourth showed Gehn sitting at the desk, writing in a large volume - the Riven Descriptive Book. Out of the Book, poured humans, beasts, the stars, the sea... This was the 2nd rule of Gehn: Gehn created Riven.
And the final simply showed all the people of Riven bowing down to Gehn, who had a large medallion with the D'ni symbol for 5 on it and a large open book behind his head. The 1st rule of Gehn: Gehn is master of Riven.
Cho prayed to Gehn, though it felt strange to do so. After all, he saw Gehn himself today, and he could have just asked him for a blessing. Then, Cho ate and took a long nap.
**********************************
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! ALL MAINTAINERS MUST PROCEED TO THE 233RD AGE. EVERYONE ELSE, PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES. ONE OF THE SACRED BOOKS HAS DISAPPEARED," roared a voice from the direction of the sentry post. Cho got out of bed in a second to this rude awakening. He had no time to eat lunch or to pray to Gehn. He had to go immediately.
Cho took his Maintainer dagger, and unlocked the door on the bottom of his hut... except it didn't open. He kicked the door, but it still didn't open. Someone played another sick practical joke on him.
"I don't have time for this," yelled Cho, and he cut open the door with his dagger. He rapidly climbed down the ladder, and ran to the nearest fire-marble dome. When he got there, however, he noticed that he forgot the combination to gain access to the linking book inside.
He ran back to his hut, and realized that since he cut the door open, anyone could gain access to his possessions in his house - even the Moiety! Cho opened the desk drawer where he put the code to open the fire-marble dome, but the code was gone.
Frantically searching for the code, he found a note, which read:
Dear Cho,
Thank you for giving us the code to enter Gehn's realm.
We wonder what Gehn will promote you to now!
After the text was a sketch of a large Moiety dagger.
************************************
"You're late again, Cho," hissed Gehn as Cho linked into his 233rd Age. Cho apologized, and joined the other Maintainers who were standing by the back wall. He stood in an unusual silence, still not sure what Gehn would say if he knew that the Moiety found Cho's combination the week before.
Usually, Gehn had a cage lowered onto anybody who linked into the Age for security purposes, but this was urgent.
"Last week," said Gehn, "One of my Books vanished. I called you all here, but we could not find the thief, though we suspected Moiety involvement.
"And just a few hours ago, I noticed when I used one of the fire-marble domes that my linking book to the 233rd Age had been unhooked from the dome and knocked onto the floor. I am guessing that the rebels have been using the fire-marble dome, but I don't know why, or how. But I fear that Catherine is a tougher opponent that we thought."
********************************
We have stolen another Book. But I'm concerned; Gehn will miss it. We have also discovered the combinations for entering the domes, but we have not discovered the method for powering them. By powering our burnt Book with Gehn's domes, we will be able to link to this Age. But we will only have access to the domes for a short of time, before we are discovered.
- Catherine
*****************************
To be continued...
Thanks to Serpent Mage and Mitsuki Hoshiko for reviewing. I would like, no, need all who read this to review... please?
I will write Chapter 5 shortly.
The worst of it: it was all Cho's fault.
Cho sighed at the thought of this. If only he had spotted the rebel before he darted him. If only he had protected the Fissure Cage more carefully. And if only he didn't ask for a promotion. He silently swore that he would never ask for a higher rank again.
Cho stepped out of the Maglev onto Temple Island. Gehn said that he wanted to go back to the Cage to see how they could prevent the Moiety from escaping again. After he got out, the Maglev turned around to go back to Jungle Island to pick up his master. It returned after a couple of minutes, but it did not carry Gehn. Instead it carried Rifih, who was sobbing.
"Rifih," asked Cho. He never saw Rifih cry before. Rifih was always in a good mood - he was known for bringing cheer at funerals, "Rifih, what's wrong?"
"Alatan," Rifih wept, "Alatan, my only son! He's- he's- he's gone."
"What do you mean?" asked Cho. Now that the Moiety were true enemies, someone disappearing wasn't a good sign.
"The Moiety," wept Rifih, "Either they took him, or... he joined them! I found this on his bed!" He held up a lone Moiety dagger. "But," he continued, "Life... goes on, doesn't it?" He attempted to smile, but then he burst out in tears and collapsed on the ground, sobbing continuously.
The Maglev arrived again. "Good morning, Guildsman," said Gehn, stepping out from the car, "Eh, where's Rifih?"
"You're stepping on him, sir."
"Oh," said Gehn, moving to the side, "Sorry Rifih. Oh, by the way, I heard about your loss. But don't worry, this will all pass. I lost a son to the other side."
"Did you love him as I loved Alatan," asked Rifih, still on the floor, soaked by his rivers of tears.
"Actually," laughed Gehn, "I was relieved to get rid of him. Who needs sons anyway?" Rifih burst into even more tears. Gehn wasn't really comparable to a healer, who mends wounds. Rather, he was like a politician, who claims to mend wounds but actually makes them worse.
"Now then," Gehn started, "Let's proceed to the Fissure Plateau, shall we?" He approached the temple door, and it began to rise. What he expected to see was a cornucopia of fruit offerings, clean, decorated walls and floors, and his great imager, waiting to spy on whoever came. However...
"KERATH PRESERVE US!"
The fruit offerings were either half-eaten, spoiled, or splattered all over the walls. There were rotting Sunner carcasses spread throughout the floor. All of the artwork in the temple praising Gehn were destroyed, and graffiti in praise of Katran replaced them. One of the most disturbing showed Katran, her outline was illuminated to show her godliness, holding a Moiety dagger in one hand and a hammer in the other, which was squishing what looked vaguely like Gehn. At least, it could have been Gehn. Cho did not remember Gehn having such a long nose and looking so old.
And covering the imager was a large black cover with a large white Moiety dagger. The Black Moiety were here...
"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE," roared Gehn, "MY TEMPLE! MY BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE! DESECRATED! THOSE BARBARIC REBELS WILL PAY! CHO, HELP ME LIFT THIS COVERING OFF MY IMAGER TO SEE IF THOSE FOREVER-BE-DAMNED MOIETY SUNK SO LOW TO DAMAGE IT!
Gehn and Cho lifted the covering, only to put it back up again. For the imager was bent and broken on some of the sides, and in the center was a Moiety dagger stabbing Gehn's pentagonal Crest. And the stained-glass crest behind the imager was damaged in a more disturbing way. Someone had carved D'ni words into the crest, saying:
"Atrus stripped Gehn of his power. Atrus is a true god and Gehn is false.
As a god, Atrus chose Katran, a spiritual misfit from a Rivenese womb, to be his wife.
Katran is our queen, and shall rule Riven forever."
Gehn dropped his jaw. "Oh," he gasped, "Kerath! Cho, please summon the Guild of Builders. Now."
Cho pulled a lever, directing stream to a large pipe next to the gigantic dome used to power up the fire-marble domes. Within minutes, the Maglev arrived at the Temple Island station again, and out came old Guildmaster Gallim from the Guild of Builders. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked.
"Eh," began Cho. Gallim was the most famous of the Guild of Builders because he designed the entire temple and built a large portion of it by hand. That was exactly why he had a crooked spine and needed to lean on a cane. Cho knew that he couldn't just say the news to him immediately, "Gallim, there is a bit of an error with the temple.
"Really," Gallim said, "Let me have a look."
"Actually," said Cho, "I don't think you want to look right away."
"Imager problem," chuckled Gallim, "Door's not opening? Well, no matter what it is, I could- HOLY GUILD! WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"It seems," Cho said, trying to comfort him, "That the rebels have had a bit of fun last night, and..."
"The temple," wept Gallim, "That I broke by back to build! Desecrated! But how? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" And collapsed into a sobbing heap next to Rifih.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the Moiety happened to play another practical joke. The Maglev, as it was entering with another Builder, skid off its tracks and flew right through the temple door. Gehn and Cho rushed to the Maglev. From the car, a voice weekly uttered, "I'm okay." Then, the Maglev door opened, and, since the side of the door was the side touching the ground, flipped the Maglev over. Cho hauled the Builder, who was knocked unconscious, out of the Maglev.
"What happened," gasped Gehn, more concerned about the Maglev that the person inside, "The Maglev is supposed to be only attracted to magnets!"
"It seems," said Cho, "that the motor used to propel the Maglev has been tilted a bit, and somebody sabotaged the magnet at this end of the track. The Moiety is getting clever!"
Suddenly, an explosion echoed throughout Riven. A Guildsman, probably of the Guild of Bookmakers, rushed in through the secret door of the temple. The man's face was blackened by soot, and he was coughing continuously. The man said, "Sir! (Cough) There was a bomb in (Cough, cough), your lab (Cough, cough, wheeze). Moiety!" And then fainted.
Gehn muttered, "Two unconscious, and two who need to get over it." He looked at Cho, and said, "Go to Jungle Island (the long way around, of course) and bring me several Builders and a couple of healers... or undertakers."
*******************************************
"What a long day," Cho muttered as he walked back through the Great Whark to the village. Cho was correct. The Moiety played four tricks in one day: kidnaping Alatan, desecrating Gehn's temple, sabotaging the Maglev, and blew up the lab. But now Builders were repairing the temple, Maglev, and the lab, and healers were assisting the two injured Guildsmen.
Cho was tired of these Moiety "surprises." All he wanted to do was go home, make himself some Sunner stew, and get a well-deserved nap.
He remembered walking through the woods as a child, but the forest looked different then. The forest used to look fuller; there were more trees, and they weren't stripped of bark above the trunk before. Cho knew that the trees were sacrificed to make Gehn's (mostly failing) Books, but he would love to have them back. That was why he preferred Jungle Island over all the others: the trees.
After walking through the central hut, he came to the area of the jungle cracked open to reveal molten lava. This area was warm, but it was more proof that Riven was dying. Yet Cho loved this little space; it was the perfect place to go to on a chilly day, and Cho liked the flowers that grew near the heat. Still, with many cracks like this, he knew that the island couldn't last too long.
As Cho opened the gate, an alarm sounded. He cried, "No! Its just me! I'm not a rebel!" And the alarm stopped. Cho really hated the sentry post that was recently put up in front of the village, but it was for a good cause: to alert the villagers when a Moiety "spirit" comes. Still, the Moiety managed to slip past it most of the time.
Cho climbed up the ladder to his hut. It was round, like every other Rivenese hut, and it was next to the lake. This meant Cho could enter his home by climbing in through the floor, instead on crawling on his hands and knees.
As he entered his home, he looked up at the five-part diorama of Gehn that everyone was required to have in their homes (also seen in the Gate Room). The first painting showed Gehn, looking regal, even godly, dispatching catastrophe. The sun was dark, a ball of fire fell from Gehn's hand, the sea was aflame, and in the center was a defeated Atrus, falling into the Fissure. The 3rd rule of Gehn: Gehn defeated Atrus.
The second showed the five guilds in order from left to right: Builders, Educators, Maintainers, Surveyors, and Bookmakers. All five were lead by old, bearded men - which was what Gehn wanted, for he considered them docile and controllable. And all five were under watch by Gehn.
The third showed the process of bookmaking: the stumps that used to be trees, logs being shredded, and the wood boiler that stood near the lake on Bookmaking Island. In the center, there was a large Book, held by the hand of Gehn (Gehn for sure, because on his hand there was the D'ni symbol of the number 5, Gehn's favorite number), and the people of Riven bowed down to it.
The fourth showed Gehn sitting at the desk, writing in a large volume - the Riven Descriptive Book. Out of the Book, poured humans, beasts, the stars, the sea... This was the 2nd rule of Gehn: Gehn created Riven.
And the final simply showed all the people of Riven bowing down to Gehn, who had a large medallion with the D'ni symbol for 5 on it and a large open book behind his head. The 1st rule of Gehn: Gehn is master of Riven.
Cho prayed to Gehn, though it felt strange to do so. After all, he saw Gehn himself today, and he could have just asked him for a blessing. Then, Cho ate and took a long nap.
**********************************
"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! ALL MAINTAINERS MUST PROCEED TO THE 233RD AGE. EVERYONE ELSE, PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES. ONE OF THE SACRED BOOKS HAS DISAPPEARED," roared a voice from the direction of the sentry post. Cho got out of bed in a second to this rude awakening. He had no time to eat lunch or to pray to Gehn. He had to go immediately.
Cho took his Maintainer dagger, and unlocked the door on the bottom of his hut... except it didn't open. He kicked the door, but it still didn't open. Someone played another sick practical joke on him.
"I don't have time for this," yelled Cho, and he cut open the door with his dagger. He rapidly climbed down the ladder, and ran to the nearest fire-marble dome. When he got there, however, he noticed that he forgot the combination to gain access to the linking book inside.
He ran back to his hut, and realized that since he cut the door open, anyone could gain access to his possessions in his house - even the Moiety! Cho opened the desk drawer where he put the code to open the fire-marble dome, but the code was gone.
Frantically searching for the code, he found a note, which read:
Dear Cho,
Thank you for giving us the code to enter Gehn's realm.
We wonder what Gehn will promote you to now!
After the text was a sketch of a large Moiety dagger.
************************************
"You're late again, Cho," hissed Gehn as Cho linked into his 233rd Age. Cho apologized, and joined the other Maintainers who were standing by the back wall. He stood in an unusual silence, still not sure what Gehn would say if he knew that the Moiety found Cho's combination the week before.
Usually, Gehn had a cage lowered onto anybody who linked into the Age for security purposes, but this was urgent.
"Last week," said Gehn, "One of my Books vanished. I called you all here, but we could not find the thief, though we suspected Moiety involvement.
"And just a few hours ago, I noticed when I used one of the fire-marble domes that my linking book to the 233rd Age had been unhooked from the dome and knocked onto the floor. I am guessing that the rebels have been using the fire-marble dome, but I don't know why, or how. But I fear that Catherine is a tougher opponent that we thought."
********************************
We have stolen another Book. But I'm concerned; Gehn will miss it. We have also discovered the combinations for entering the domes, but we have not discovered the method for powering them. By powering our burnt Book with Gehn's domes, we will be able to link to this Age. But we will only have access to the domes for a short of time, before we are discovered.
- Catherine
*****************************
To be continued...
Thanks to Serpent Mage and Mitsuki Hoshiko for reviewing. I would like, no, need all who read this to review... please?
I will write Chapter 5 shortly.