I realized the moment I fell into the fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse, of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit that such a conjecture is futile. Still, questions about whose hands might one day hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written.
- Atrus
"Hey, Cho!" Cho turned around, and saw Rifih running towards him.
"What happened," gasped Rifih, noticing his cuts, scratches, bruises, torn and singed clothing, and... ah, yes... third degree burns.
Rubbing his foot on the ground, he replied, "Remember the job Gehn assigned me?"
"Oh, yeah! How did it go?"
Cho's mouth dropped to the floor, "How... did it go," Cho breathed, "How... did it go," he began to approached Rifih in a menacing way, and Rifih began to step backwards, "HOW DID IT GO?! I was dangled like a flag on the back of a mine car, had to walk through a stuffy vent, got really, REALLY tired from walking all day and hiding behind anything in sight, got CAPTURED by the MOIETY, peeved Gehn for the last time, failed the Guild and let KATRAN GET AWAY, and you ask HOW DID IT GO?!?!"
Sweat drops dropped like autumn leaves from Rifih's face, "I just thought that I..."
"You just thought like an idiot," roared Cho, approaching Rifih like a vicious beast cornering his prey, forgetting that Rifih was a friend and thinking of him as a fly ready to be swatted, "I did all this just for Lord Gehn's sake, and what do you do to help me? NOTHING! All you do is whine about your oh-so-precious Alatan, who left us for the Moiety and LIKES IT!"
Rifih stuttered, as if he was suddenly pierced by a Moiety dart, and slowly said, "Leave him out of this!"
"Oh, yeah?! Well how about this?" Cho took a deep breath: "ALATANALATANALAT- ANALATANALATANALA..."
Rifih couldn't take it anymore. He yelled and lunged toward Cho, but was pinned to the ground. Cho held his dagger to his throat. Rifih gasped, "How can you do this? We're friends, remember? Buddies! Companions! Pals! Whatever you want to call it, but how can you do this?"
"How?" hissed Cho, "You have everything. Respect from Gehn. Respect from the community. A family. A real life! And I? What do I have? Nothing, that's what. Do you know what my dreams were ever since Katran arrived? I dreamed that I would finally have Gehn's respect after giving him a Linking Book to D'ni. I would be the vice-ruler of a thousand Ages. I would have 10 Ages all to myself, with golden palaces, each 1,000 spans tall. I would roll around in gold; it would be so plentiful that they would be like mere play-toys in my eyes. I would have a bride in each arm. I would sip wine like it was water. I would wear jewels and hides of all sorts, and all would bow down to me. I can hear the commoners chanting, 'All hail Cho. All hail Cho! ALL HAIL CHO!'"
Rifih gasped, "What has become of you? Cho, look at yourself! You're a monster!"
Cho paused. What had happened to him? He had become greedy and selfish - he was no longer the kind and humble servant he had been made to be. He had become a shadow of Gehn!
He said, "Sorry. Here, let me help you up." And he helped Rifih up. Now he understood the error of his ways at last. "So..." he sighed, "How exactly are we going to get out of here?
Rifih said, "There's always Age 233..."
KABOOM! An explosion rocked the side of the gigantic dome on the other side of the island, probably caused by a disturbance in the power-marbles on top of it. "But," Rifih quickly added, "It wouldn't have supplied us for more than a day, anyway."
"I have another solution."
The two turned around to see who said this.
"You..." hissed Cho. It was Nelah. He and Rifih unsheathed their daggers, but Nelah just laughed.
"What's so funny," said Rifih, sheathing his dagger. Nelah said, "Its just funny how you should threaten me, who bears the ticket to starting your new lives." She then took a Book out of her robes: the Tay Linking Book.
She held the Book open for a minute. Rifih, after examining it for a while, said, "So. The Moiety does have an Age after all. That explains everything! The Book thefts, the fire-marble dome usage, the disappearances."
He looked at the giant tree of Tay, and sighed, "I do not have much of a choice. But how can I trust the Moiety? But how can I not? There is nowhere else to go." He extended his hand towards the Book.
"Rifih," gasped Cho, "You can't! You're a Maintainer!"
"Alas," sighed Rifih, "I must renounce my title and move on to this new future. Besides, I only want to see my son once more." The last two words seemed to echo as Cho's best friend left to the Moiety Age.
The Moiety woman tilted the Book towards Cho, and said, "Would you care to follow?"
Cho snapped, "Why should I?"
"Well, your friend linked, so I assume..."
"You assume that I will embarrass myself by joining my enemies?"
"We are not trying to insult you. We just..."
"Forget it!"
Nelah rolled her eyes as she linked away.
The Book to Tay lay on the sandstone of the Fissure Plateau. Cho could have picked it up. He could have linked. He thought about it once or twice. He almost actually entered. But he refused. He had no honor in him to do so.
Honor. A funny thing. It could be built up for so many years, taking ages to do so, yet in a few bizarre incidents in could get up and leave like steam from boiling water.
Cho tried so hard and so long to gain honor. To receive his well-deserved respect from Gehn, from his friends, and all of Riven.
And then he asked for a promotion.
And then he got darted.
And then he let the Moiety find the access code for the domes.
And then he freed Katran.
And then he let the stranger escape.
And then he let Riven be destroyed.
He was the only one left. The village was empty. The temple lay in ruin; perhaps as one last prank by the Moiety. Cho saw a villager earlier; he looked like he was more devout towards Gehn. But when Cho followed him, the man vanished, though Cho saw unusually large bubbles in the lava on Jungle Island and he heard a loud shriek. Gone.
How could he start over again? How could the people of Tay not recognize him as the fool who let Riven die? There was no future for him. Nothing.
"Arrrggggghhhhhhh!"
In his frustration, Cho kicked a rock into the water, but something strange happened. The water that flew upwards as a result of the splash began to float. But there was no heat source... right? Then, the ocean began to rise. Something had to be pushing it upwards... or pulling it.
He looked up. The moon! The Rivenese moon! It was gigantic, taking up most of the sky. Cho remembered it at least five times smaller when he was younger, and it slowly grew due to its defected orbit. Its gravitational pull was so powerful that bits of sand and small pebbles began to rise into the air!
A great flood began. To protect himself, Cho ran into the first, but probably not best, place he could find: the Fissure Plateau Cage. There! That was good shelter from the water!
CRASH! Cho looked around. The Cage was closed? But how? It was stuck in the open position! Perhaps a drifting rock knocked out the Moiety dagger that jammed it, and another one pushed the level to the closed position. What horrible luck!
Could this get any worse? Yes it could. The Cage fell over and began to roll... and roll... and roll. Cho worried were he was going. Maybe he would hit a rock, giving him to cut open t the bars with his dagger? No. The bars were too hard, and with Cho's luck he knew the rolling wouldn't stop. Maybe he would fall into the ocean? Uh, Oh!
Cho suddenly felt a sickening feeling of falling of a pit. Then, the Cage stopped moving. But then it turned so that the bars faced the ground...
The Star Fissure! Cho was lying on top of the Fissure! What could he do now? He already felt the cold breath of the expanse of stars. If he tried to cut open the bars, he would fall in. He couldn't choose. The choice was already made for him: the bars were breaking under him. Not that he was heavy, but the Fissure was pulling him in.
He heard the bars groaning, ready to plummet into the space. Cho held his breath. SNAP! He was living his worst nightmare.
This was it. The Fissure. He recognized this inside of the expanse from his dreams. Once, he dreamed he was walking with Rifih on the Plateau, and the steel plate covering the Fissure gave away under him. The dream continued. He hit a bottom, but bounced back up to the top. And before he reached the top, he fell back down.
In another dream, he was chasing a rebel across the Plateau, and the steel once again collapsed. He looked down as he fell, and there was a large, hard, dark surface, filled with spikes. He was so relieved when he realized that the fall into the Fissure was actually the fall off of his bed.
And in the last dream, he was eating lunch very unwisely on top of the Fissure, and it... you know. And Cho just kept falling...
But now he was living his dream! He couldn't find himself on the floor of his hut again, unless that's what lay on the bottom.
A feeling of drowsiness went over Cho, as well as a multitude of thoughts. What would Katran do now that she's free? Would Alatan accept Rifih as a father again? What would happen to the Rivenese in Tay? He didn't know. Perhaps whatever happened was the will of Yahvo, whatever the end was.
"Rifih, my friend," Cho whispered as the opening to the Fissure grew ever distant and he became even more drowsy than ever, "I wish you the best. Good luck."
One last thought passed through his mind: of how funny it was how a random guard could affect the course of fate.
Now I understand. Endings and beginings are within the Fissure, that Riven cleft of stars that acts as both wall and a bridge. And though I am unable to understand how, the very flow of stars that brought my Myst book into worthy hands I am sure served as a safe passage home for my friend. The Age of Riven is closed forever, but the people of Riven are free. And now I am at rest, understanding that in Books, and Ages, and life the ending can never truly be written.
- Atrus.
The End
Thanks to all of my reviewers. You've been a great help! I'll write a new story soon (but not about Cho), if I could think of it first.
As Atrus says, the ending can never truly be written!
(P.S. I forgot to add in the disclaimer that I do not own Nelah and I do own the portable imager in chapter 8)