Author's Note:
This chapter covers Melody's trip to the Mechanical Age. I am going to go through the Ages in the way that made the most sense to me for story progression, while saving my favorite Age for last. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what it's going to be.
Also, there is going to be major romance elements in this story. Between Melody and who, you might ask. Well that is also going to be a surprise :) Will it be a cannon character or one of my own creation? You'll just have to wait and find out.
Unlike her arrival to the island, her trip to the Mechanical Age was a rush of wind and darkness. When the darkness cleared, she was standing on an extremely small island in the middle of a vast ocean. Giant gears decorated the landscape. To her left was a gear-shaped platform that had four green buttons. By pressing them she changed the picture on them to different shapes. Deciding to leave it alone until she knew what it was for, Melody made her way across the walkway to the fortress Atrus had described in his journal.
Her first thought was that it looked small from the outside. There were gears on top of the water underneath the fortress and a large metal ring around it. She could see another small island off to the right across the water. According to the journal the islands she was seeing must be the three hills that were left above water. There must be another island on the other side of the fortress.
Entering the fortress, she was greeted by a V-hallway. She decided to go to the left first. The room she found surprised her. It looked like a throne room, but for a child. To her immediate right was a marble throne, next to it was some kind of wind up bird toy. In front of her, lining the opposite wall, were three cases, each with a crystal inside. One was yellow, the other blue and the last was red. To the left of the crystals were a couple of models : a clock tower, a ship and a rocket. In the clock tower model and the ship was a telescope set up in front of the only window.
But something bugged her. In the journal, Atrus had said that there were people here when he had left. Where were they? She looked through the telescope and gasped.
The telescope was pointed at the ruins of a ship. Hanging from the crow's nest, a skeleton swayed in the breeze.
Melody grimaced and turned away. Something bad had happened here. Where was everyone?
Going over to the throne, she wondered who had sat there. Obviously he hadn't been a very good ruler.
By turning a crank she made the mechanical bird bob and flap it's wings. Her eye caught something behind the bird. The wall was a slightly different color. Touching it, she gasped as a panel slid open revealing crawlspace to a secret room. Melody crouched down and went inside.
She had never seen so much gold in her life. There were chests everywhere and gold coins littered the floor. Apparently she had just found the royal treasury. On top of one chest, next to some solid gold bars, sat a red piece of paper. Picking it up, she folded it carefully and placed it in her pocket.
Turning to leave the room, she spotted a wooden rack filled with wine bottles. Stuffed in one of the holes was a rolled-up note. Since everything could be important, Melody read it:
Sirrus, your greed sickens me! Your desire for wealth and plunder is never satisfied. I will instruct my subjects not to pay your new tax and you know they'll listen to me. Regards, Achenar
Huh, Melody thought, this is interesting. So this must be Sirrus' room. Subjects? Did that mean that Sirrus and Achenar were rulers here? Had they been chosen or had they elected themselves was the question. In either case, it looked as if Sirrus was the greedy, King John type. What kind of a person was Achenar? If Sirrus had a room, his brother must have one too. Going back into Sirrus' throne room, she went through the doorway on the other side and continued exploring the fortress. It led down another hall which split off to the right. Going right led to her an elevator. There was only one more floor above.
The room at the top of the elevator was circular and contained only a console with two levers. Pulling one, she grabbed on to the console when the whole fortress rotated 90 degrees. Not sure what she had just done, Melody took the elevator back down and continued down the hallway.
She found another throne room, but if it was Achenar's it worried her. Weapons hung from the walls, two lengths of chains hung from the ceiling across from the throne, animal skins covered the floor at the foot of the throne and decorated several of the walls. A mace, a knife and a cross bow lay on the floor. A bench next to the throne had what looked like a jack-in-the-box sitting on it. The item was so oddly childish compared to the rest of the room it made her curious. Picking it up, she turned the crank.
Melody shrieked as a snake popped out and struck at her before going back into the box. She dropped it, a hand over her heart. What kind of a sick toy was that?!
Once her heart rate had returned to normal she noticed that, as in Sirrus' throne room, there was an area of the wall that was a different color than the rest. Touching it caused a panel to slide up as expected. Melody hesitated briefly before going in.
If the throne room had worried her, the secret room terrified her.
A large cage took up most of the room. Flipping the switch attached to it caused the cage to become electrified. She gasped and stepped back as a shower of sparks exploded from the cage. A row of shelves next to the cage held too many bottles to count, all of them marked as poison. A blue piece of paper rested between two bottles. Melody took it and put it in her pocket with the other paper, but she was starting to wonder about freeing Achenar.
Another knife lay on the floor next to the shelves. She lifted the lid on a box, then wished she hadn't.
Inside was a human skull.
The worst came when she turned to leave.
Next to the opening sat a butcher's block, a meat cleaver rested on top. Both were covered with blood.
Melody scrambled out of the room, her face turning green. Never again, she thought. She was never going in that room again.
When she completed the circle and returned outside, she found that the fortress no longer face the island she had arrived on. By pulling the lever up in the top of the fortress, she had rotated the entire building. It now faced another island. The only thing on it was a plaque that showed two symbols, one resembled the moon over two mountains and the other looked like half a pizza. She made a mental note of them and went back inside and up to the top. By rotating the fortress again, she went out to the third island. Like the second, all it had was a plaque with two more symbols, a C facing down and two triangles with a rectangle between them. She had to rotate the fortress twice to get back to the first island.
Going to the console she'd found when she'd first arrived, she matched the symbols she had seen to the four buttons and pressed the red button.
A platform next to the console that she hadn't seen before opened. Stairs led down to a small room that held a book with a faded black cover on a pedestal. The word Myst was on the cover. Opening the book, she saw a moving picture of the island she had been on before. She looked back at the cover. Myst? Was that the name of the island? Well, she decided, that was what she would call it from now on.
Placing her hand on the page, she was transported back to the island. When she opened her eyes, she was standing beside the giant gear once again. She made her way toward the library.
She had a few questions for Sirrus and Achenar...
Melody went to the red book first. Placing the page inside, she opened it to the picture.
She could make out Sirrus' face a little better. She didn't know what she expected, but he was actually quite handsome.
He smiled when he saw her. "You've returned. Thank you for bringing... red page. You must con... to help me..."
"First I have a few questions for you," Melody said.
"... name is Sirrus."
"I already know that," she told him. "I want to ask you about some things I saw in the Mechanical Age."
"I beg you... find the remaining red... release me from... I need more red pages..."
"Not until you answer me."
"... waste time!... brother is..."
"Your brother?" she asked. "Do you know that Achenar is imprisoned too?"
"... I wrongfully imprisoned..."
With that, the picture faded.
Drat, she thought. He had never said anything about the Mechanical Age. Maybe she'd have better luck with his brother.
After putting the blue page in, she flipped to the picture.
Achenar came into focus. She could see the resemblance between the brothers but while Sirrus had an air of dark charisma about his features Achenar looked bigger and stronger, almost like an ox. His face was wider and he had a strange laugh.
"You've returned!" he said excitedly. "... afraid you... please rescue me..."
"Answer something for me first," Melody said.
"I'm Achenar..."
She shook her head. "I figured that out on my own. I want to ask you about those torture devices in the Mechanical Age. And the poison. And the weapons."
"... time. You must... blue pages..."
"You and Sirrus, I swear!" Melody said, exasperated. "Getting a straight answer out of you two is impossible!"
"Don't... to my brother, I beg you!" Achenar exclaimed, panic in his voice. "... be complete... blue pages... do not listen to my brother..."
"Why?" she asked, wanting to know anything they could tell her.
"... fool and a liar..."
Melody frowned. "From what I've seen so far about the two of you, I'm still not sure about either of you. Until I get a straight answer I'll keep bringing both kinds of pages."
"Don't bring the red... implore you!... wrongfully imprisoned... pages... please!"
That was all she got before the picture went dark.
Melody shut the book with a snap. Things were getting more muddled by the second. She had both brothers begging her to help them and pleading with her not to help the other. Well, at least Achenar had given her a reason not to help Sirrus. At least a reason in his opinion. Achenar was the one who had a room that looked like it should belong to a homicidal maniac, so she couldn't really rely on his word.
Each time she put another page in the book, the brothers came in a little clearer. She would just have to continue to collect pages for each book until she could hear each of their stories.
Don't forget to read and review! It encourages me to keep going.