Author's Note:

I've been holding onto this for an extra two months or so, since I can't remember the name of Atrus's family age. (Not Gemedet—the one they almost lose for him teaching Ti'ana to write.) My friend lost the Myst book she's borrowing from me & so I might as well ask you readers... I also need the name for where Eedrah's from, if anyone has it. Thanks! :)

Thanks, Audreidi, for your much-needed input :) ...I've been trying to figure out how to put that in there ever since you gave me that review & think it might be easier to have a little more material to work with, first, since I don't want the reader completely inside Yeesha's head...

Sorry for losing you, Taren Whin Dosgeno (though I doubt you'll ever read more of this)—or should I call you Bandit? Thanks for the encouragement & see you elsewhere.

Chapter three isn't even started yet, & as I've said before, this is not my main fanfic—it's just an idle bystander, really. So expect a very long wait. (I hate stories like this, myself, but I'm sorry! I'm only one person & have an overactive imagination which I overindulge with started stories! Including my original, I have 13 stories going—& then my craft projects are in a similar or worse state...)

I have three rules for reviewers:

-1. Don't blaspheme.

-2. Don't swear.

-3. Don't even cuss. If that's the only way you can adequately express yourself, you need to read more published works. (No, comics don't count.)

I have one request for reviewers: be blunt. I don't care if it ends up a flame—I want your input.

Enjoy! :)

— 2 —

'An Age describes a world that did exist, exists or shall.'

Her great-grandfather's quote echoed in her mind. Her theory lay within. Was anything wrong with this definition of an Age, her efforts would be futile, producing unstable Linking Books more likely to cause her death than anything else.

Yeesha brushed a bang out of her eye. Though only one-eighth D'ni, she had inherited the unusually light coloration and angular thinness common to her great-grandfather's people. As for her eyes... Her light eyes almost looked D'ni.

The problem was, they didn't.

Their whitewashed gray color was laced with the green common to her great-grandmother and mother. Outsiders.

Her eyesight was only slightly weaker than theirs, not enough to genuinely need the special D'ni lenses used to filter out sunlight. This could present a problem. If her scheme worked...

She could destroy her very existence.

Yeesha huffed, blowing another misbehaving bang from her face. She'd come up with the theory years ago, but had been unable to explore it. Her father had kept a close eye on her, so she'd been careful not to put any hints in her journals as to what she wanted to do. Meeting Pello had changed all that. She'd could go somewhere where no one would find her, and explore.

As for acting on her theory...

She wasn't sure if she wanted to risk it.

That would involve more than just her life, after all.

Yeesha smiled bitterly. Yes, that would be the perfect climax to her grandfather's actions. Play goddess and destroy not just her world, but generations' existence?

Care, therefore, characterized all her actions. Though the people back home undoubtedly considered her flight hasty and irrational, she knew otherwise.

She had to be alone. Purely alone, with no one anywhere close to her work.

Three skeletons sat around the table, their hands clasped in the love they shared while dying. These macabre neighbors she welcomed, for the dead told no tales.

She found it relaxing, as well, to study the plague that had destroyed D'ni, sparing her grandfather because of his mixed blood.

Yeesha was comfortable with death, for she'd long expected her own. The slightest misphrasing or damage in a Book could kill her. Unstable worlds could easily kill the visitor, as could poisonous atmospheres, unexpected predators...

"Toxic foods, alkali water..." Yeesha unwittingly muttered to herself as she worked, penning carefully in a mere copybook to plan for the all-important Linking Book. A Linking Book that would be unlike any other ever written.

She reached for one of the many old notebooks at her side, flipping the pages till she found the right one and carefully wrote a few words down.

Yeesha wondered how long it would take for her father to miss this particular journal, the first one he'd ever written. It was painful reading at times, especially while Atrus had been convinced to blame his grandmother for D'ni's fall and when he realized his father was mad.

The next notebook she chose was decades older than all the rest. She smiled, knowing her father would be frantic for its whereabouts. A hand she now recognized with ease had marked on this journal: The Book of Aitrus.

Great-grandfather's journal, filled with his notes on how to get to the surface. She planned to go there, to get an idea for where her great-grandmother, Ti'ana, had lived; where her father had grown up. Afterwards, she would return this to her father, give him back his one link to his grandparents.

Her taking the journals had not risen out of selfish ambition; on the contrary, she'd left her father a note saying she'd borrowed some of his books for her own safety. Had he not been so against her coming to D'ni, he would have allowed her to take them, she was sure.

What did her father have against the D'ni Books? There was more to it than his weak "not our culture" argument, surely?

Yeesha sighed, and kept working on her masterpiece.

Tap tap tap!

Yeesha groaned as she awoke, lifting her head from her arms.

Tap tap tap!

She leapt to her feet, grabbing a vial from her belt. She'd hoped not to need its calmative contents, but if someone came...

Tap tap tap!

Yeesha frowned, eyes narrowing. That sounded suspiciously like—

"Hey Yeesha, want some—"

She bowled him over, restraining and muffling him. "You fool!" she hissed in his ear. "They'll send another search party for you! These stones carry sound!"

"Didn't you ask me to come with you?" Pello's muffled voice came through her sleeve.

"When I left, yes. Now they'll search twice as hard."

"But they won't find us, will they? This isn't K'Veer."

"No, it's just the Ink-Making district."

Thankfully, she didn't have to spell it out to him. Her grandfather had been an apprentice here. "Oh." Pello slowly got up. "Sorry. Want me to go back?"

Yeesha rubbed her eyes. "How long did it take you to find me?" She'd given him a list of where she might go. Mentally she reminded herself to change camps.

"Uh... A day or two. ...I think."

She sighed. "It's too late, then. You'll have to stay." As much good you'll do me.

"Thanks!"

The idiot couldn't even see that she didn't have a choice. "You're welcome."

Her sarcasm was completely lost on the recipient. Pello was already eyeing the journals stacked by the desk, and the huge knapsack she'd brought with her.

"Never mind," she grumbled. "Help me pack."

"You're going back?"

She resisted the urge to slap him. "We're breaking camp." There went her trip to the surface. "It'll be harder for them to follow us if we're in an Age."

Pello visibly paled. "Don't we need a Linking Book?"

"Any Maintainer-approved Age will already have one, but yes, I have an extra."

His response was to dump her lab kit in a bag.

"Watch it!"

She caught his swinging arm, glaring at her unwanted assistant. "When I said that stuff's fragile, I meant it."

Pello glanced sheepishly aside. "Sorry," he mumbled, and carried the lab equipment more carefully. "Where are we, anyway?"

Pello looked at her blankly.

Yeesha sighed. "It's my family's Age."

"My dad had it?"

"No." She didn't tell him that she'd written this Linking Book from the descriptions in her family journals. It was , too—the Linking Book back to D'ni identified it as such. A minor victory, compared to what she wanted to accomplish, but it was a step forward in recovering the lost Ages.

"Pello?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"If you ever find a journal or notebook, bring it to me."

He blinked, his eyes barely visible behind his D'ni glasses. "Don't you just want Books?"

She shook her head, saving her breath. "Here looks good."

"Looks good for what?"

Yeesha sighed. "Camp."

"Two moves underneath..."

Pello jolted awake. "Huh?"

Purple rings surrounded Yeesha's eyes. "Go back to sleep," she grumbled.

The alert Pello stared with wide eyes at the three-demensional cube before her. "What's that?"

"Gemedet."

"The D'ni game?" His voice was awed. "Where'd you find it?"

"J'Taeri."

Pello blinked. "Huh?"

"Back in D'ni. Where the wealthy ink-makers lived."

"You mean the ink-making district?"

"I mean J'Taeri." Yeesha didn't favor him with so much as a glance. "That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Uh, yes..."

"Then that's what I meant."

"Right," he yawned. "When's breakfast?"

"Whenever you make it."

Pello blinked. "You're pretty grumpy," he commented. She looked at him, her purple eyes speaking more than any words. "But—but that's okay," he said quickly. "I'll manage."

She refocused on the game. Tweezers in hand, she carefully dropped another stone chip in place...

Bread landed beside her. Still chomping his own, Pello sat across from her. "How do you play?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

He eyed the 3-D board. "Looks like you gotta get... one, two, three..."—he counted the places across—"six in a line."

"I know that. I'm working on proper technique, now."

He swallowed, frowning. "Technique?"

"How to properly hold the tweezers, common strategies, et cetera." She dropped another piece in. "This way when I meet another D'ni, my mannerisms won't scream 'Outsider'."

"But there aren't any more D'ni!" laughed Pello. "We're all that's left! Everyone else is dead!"

He suddenly gave Yeesha a measureing look. "You're not going to reopen where Eedran's from, are you?"

"Of course not."

He scratched his head. "Then what are you going to do?"

Yeesha smiled slightly. She didn't reply.