Alrighty next up is Voltaic : The Age of Energy. I personally liked this Age a lot. I liked the scenery of the canyon walls and the contrast of the open ocean beyond. And I liked all of the machinery. It gave the Age a steam-punk feeling. Of course a lot of Myst has a steam-punk feeling. Its one of the reasons I like it so much. :)
Looking through the red telescope got her a view of something that looked like a sail off of a boat. She fiddled with the levers until the sail was lined up with the one on the window of the tusk. She left the observatory and made her way toward the tusk. She was surprised to find her way was completely clear. Surprised and suspicious…
Once she reached the door she realized her suspicions were well-founded. It was locked.
Five buttons were arranged in a circle on the door. Great, a combination lock, her favorite.
Turning she spotted some kind of funny machine pointed at the door. It looked sort of like the one she had seen on the other side of the crater, near the linking spot. She shielded her eyes from the sun to gaze across the gap toward the other machine, also spying several of the stands with colored marbles on top of them.
Melody groaned. Something told her she was going to be a lot of walking for this puzzle.
The other machine was actually extending out of the water a few feet from the island. By turning a wheel nearby, the machine turned and opened. Melody cried out and covered her eyes as bright light blinded her. She moved away and blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the spots. Once her vision returned to normal, she glared at the machine.
"Nice."
The machine was silent.
Following the beam of light, Melody saw that it was shining directly on one of the stands. By turning the stand (carefully) she could direct the beam wherever she wanted it to go. That was it! She had to direct the light from reflector to reflector until it hit the door of the tusk.
Looking out over the crater Melody plotted out the path the light would have to travel in her mind. Of course it couldn't just go directly to the door. Of course not. Because Saveedro had broken the one reflector/stand it looked like she was going to have to use all of the remaining reflectors on the island.
Yep… she was going to be doing a LOT of walking…
As she made her tedious hike around the island to redirect the reflectors, Melody noticed that each reflector had a different colored marble on it. Since that was probably very important to solving the lock, she made note of each color in the order she came to. It did take every reflector on the island and by the time she was done she was hot, tired and very annoyed with Saveedro. Honestly, couldn't he have just left everything alone? Atrus' puzzles and locks were hard enough without Saveedro messing with them.
Finally, FINALLY, she finished aligning the reflectors and headed back to the door. The light passed through the machine and hit something that she guessed was a prism inside. It projected onto the door in a rainbow of colors, each color covering a button. She guessed the combination for the door must have been the order of the colors on the reflectors she had used:
Yellow, blue, green, red, yellow, purple, red.
When she pressed the final button the handle turned and the doors folded open. The red linking book sat on the pedestal, the word Voltaic inscribed on the top along with a picture of a sail that matched the one in the window.
Melody didn't hesitate before linking into the book.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was that she was on another island, standing on a metal platform that didn't look all the sturdy. The island itself was mad of red rock that reminded her of Arizona. On a small rocky island off the side there was a tower made out of rock. Well, to be honest it wasn't that much of a tower. The top half looked like it had fallen in a storm, but the large circular door was still standing. Melody didn't have to test it to guess that it was locked.
A small metal stand near the door held a J'nanin linking book. Melody liked having the linking books so close to the start of a new Age. It meant she wasn't stranded and that she had a way back in case things drove her a little too crazy and she needed a break.
She examined the large door and saw that it didn't have a regular lock, but several bolts that extended out from the center. It was probably an electric door that wasn't getting any power. The symbol was probably inside. Oh well, at least she knew from the get go what she had to do and wouldn't need to wander around like she had in Edanna.
Now to figure out how to get power to the door.
Several cables ran from the tower and through the winding canyons beyond. It looked like there was going to be several machines she would have to activate, each generating different kinds of power. Why wasn't she surprised?
Following the metal walkways of questionable integrity, Melody began to explore the area. She hadn't followed one very far before entered a tunnel and spotted a paper on the walkway.
She picked up the page and read it:
It is coming back to me. Slowly. The knowledge of who I am. How long have I been trapped here? So much of it is blurry. Whole blocks of time still floating in the fog that eats my mind. But if I concentrate, I get pieces of it back.
It was the dream that first helped me remember. I was lying in the reeds near the tusk. I don't know for how long or how I got here. I am staring at the sky. Seeing a man grow out of the cliff. First his head. Then his shoulders. Then his torso. Sunlight rims his body like a halo. I cannot move. I think that Death has finally come for me.
The man stands on the cliff with a book in his hand, staring down at the lagoon as if something mad him sad. I wanted to call out to him. To tell him it was me he's come to find. But my mouth is dry. I cannot remember any words. And before I think to stand, he opens his book. Puts his hand on the page. And fades to dust.
I thought he was a dream. It was only later… hours? Or weeks later?... that I find his swirling book atop the cliff. And when I reach down to grab it, it is real.
The fog tried to swallow me then and there but I held on to the firm reality of the book and did not let it. I did not let the numbness steal my mind.
The more pages she found the more concerned she got. Just how far gone was Saveedro's mind? How much of it had he gotten back? Did he still have these blackouts when he didn't know what he was doing? What if, in one of these blackouts, he lost or destroyed Releeshan?
Worrying wasn't going to get her anywhere. She had to focus on the task at hand.
This entry answered the question of how Saveedro got a linking book to Tomahna. It must have happened when Atrus had visited his Ages to check on them after she had freed him from D'ni. She really needed to have a talk with Atrus about leaving linking books lying around.
Melody followed the walkway until it veered off to a door. The handle was red hot so she didn't try to open it. There was either fire or lava behind the door and Melody wanted to avoid both. Burning to a crisp was not how she wanted to die.
She continued to follow the blue lit walkway around to a large chamber made out of rock. A few stairs led upward into a circular tunnel. There was a diagram on the wall to the right with five symbols that were all interconnected. To the left was a ladder that led upward to a control tower. The top of the tower over looked a structure that reminded her of a dam. One of the power sources must be Hydro-electricity generated from the cylinder-like tunnel below.
Climbing back down the ladder, she decided to explore what was on the other side of the tunnel before activating the cylinder. The tunnel opened out to a platform with another large circular door at the other side. A ladder led down a hole, but it was flooded.
Knowing that she probably wouldn't know what to do until she explored the entire area, Melody went back through the tunnel and past the ladder to the walkway. It continued around and out into a large open canyon-like area with several large machines. Cables ran high above the canyon floor. The walkway split in the middle, with one side going to an elevator that didn't work and the other going toward a large cave with machinery inside.
Had Atrus written all of this complicated machinery into the Age or had he built them himself? She didn't see how he could have accomplished it by himself, given the size of the machines. Had his sons helped him? That seemed unlikely as well.
At the beginning of the cave she spotted something interesting. A small airship, its balloon deflated. It was attached to the cables. Well know she knew what the cables were for. It looked like the ship lead back to the little island where she had started. At least she wouldn't have to walk back, that is if she could find out how to inflate the balloon.
Moving past the airship, she came to a platform with a lever that faced a console with four wheels and a gauge. She tried turning one of the wheels, but nothing happened. Something needed to be running through the pipes connected to the wheels, but what?
A rickety ladder next to the platform led upward to another platform. This one had a page from Saveedro's journal on it:
The cavern wall is almost ready. For weeks I have been polishing it, rubbing away at the cracks to obtain a smooth surface. I haven't been able to sleep much these past weeks. I was afraid I might never wake up. But if I can make him see all that happened… if I can show him the pain his family has caused… it will be worth it.
Tomorrow I begin mixing the paints.
He must have been talking about the mural she had seen in Edanna. Had that been the only mural he had drawn? Were there others here and in the final Age? She would have to keep an eye out. She wasn't really sure she wanted to see what Saveedro had drawn though.
A large circular door across from the platform rotated to reveal a tunnel that lead to one of the larger pipes she had seen. Melody stared at the pipe and frowned.
Was she supposed to cross that?
She was supposed to cross that.
Melody then did something she wanted to kick herself for.
She looked down.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she gulped and gripped the large pipe, wrapping her arms and legs around it. Slow and steady, that's how she would get across. Slow and stea-
She gasped and shrieked as she foot slipped. Thankfully she caught herself before she could fall off. She hugged the pipe tightly, afraid to look or breathe. This… was… not… fun…
She had already decided to kill Saveedro, but now Atrus was started to move up her hit list. Why couldn't he, for once, write an Age where everything was accessible without doing something that could cause her death? She couldn't decide if it was an accident, that he was just overly dramatic at times or if it was on purpose and he was fond of life or death situations.
Focusing on her inner rant, she was able to make it to the other side fairly quickly. The pipe ended at another circular door, but this one opened normally. When she climbed inside, she realized the 'door' was actually a vent. Hot air blew in her face, making her feel a little woozy. Thankfully she didn't have to go very far before she spotted another opening leading down into a room. She was sweating profusely, even though she had only been in the tunnel for a few seconds. Unfortunately the room was only slight cooler than the vent had been.
The room was small. A glass window looking into another larger room with a fan took up one wall. A ladder led down into a hole in the floor. The door on the other side of the room looked familiar. It was the door with the red-hot handle that she had seen before. So there wasn't any fire or lava, but it sure felt like it. Melody wiped her forehead. She needed to figure this room out fast before she got heat stroke and passed out. Being baked alive was right up there with burning to a crisp in her book.
She climbed down the ladder, which was even hotter if it was possible. When she looked through the small window on the circular door at the bottom she realized why. The room beyond was filled with lava.
Melody climbed back up, relieved to be back in the room. Since her vision was starting to swim a little, she climbed back into the vent and headed back outside. The canyon air felt cool and refreshing now. As Melody cooled down, she thought about what she had seen. A room filled with lava. A large fan. A pipe leading back to the wheels and gauge. The other source of power must be steam. The fan blew the hot air into the pipe, which ran to the gauges which, when set to the right setting, filled the airship and inflated the balloon.
She wiped her forehead again. She was still sweating. Maybe she would leave inflating the balloon for later. She moved back across the pipe and was grateful to be back on the platform. She walked all the way back to the water wheel. She would solve that problem first.
It turned out the water wheel wasn't broken at all. The metal flaps that extended to catch the water and make the wheel move were closed. Flipping them open and turning the wheel at the top of the tower to move the gate and get the water flowing was all it took and presto! : Hydro power.
She could only hope the rest of the power generators were as easy to figure out.
Now that the gate was shut on one side, she could now climb down the ladder into the hole she had seen before.
Unfortunately once she climbed down she realized something. At the bottom of the hole was a crack to lift a large gear to connect with the water wheel. With the water wheel spinning, the gear couldn't connect with it.
Melody groaned and rolled her eyes. So far Voltaic was proving to be a gigantic pain in the butt.
By the time she had climbed back up the tower, turned the gate, climbed back down, closed the flaps, climbed back up and turned the gate, climbed down the hole, raised the gear and opened the flaps so the wheel could turn again she was hot, tired and highly annoyed. Heaven help Saveedro if he decided to drop in on her.
And heaven help Atrus once she got back to Tomahna.
Now that the gear was in place and being turned with the water wheel, the heavy circular door on the other side of the water wheel opened easily. Beyond the door was a ladder leading down into a chamber. A tunnel with cables above it led off to the right and a video monitor was in the corner. The monitor looked exactly like the one she had seen in Edanna, so she had no doubt there was another message from Saveedro on it.
Just because she wanted to rest for a minute, she pressed the button.
Saveedro's face once again appeared on the screen. "Twenty years Atrus," he snarled. "Twenty long years alone! They tied me to a post. They burned their Myst linking books in front of me. They took everything I had! My wife! My two baby girls! And then… when I finally made it back to Narayan and I saw… I saw…" his face creased with pain and his eyes shut, as though to keep a terrible image away. "It would have been better," he finally said through gritted teeth, "if I had died."
The message faded to black.
Despite her anger, Melody felt her eyes sting a little. What had he seen? His wife and children dead?
Sirrus and Achenar. The sound of their names sent a new wave of rage and revulsion through her. It was a good thing they were dead and out of her reach. She would have happily killed them with her bare hands.
She shook it off as best she could and headed off into the tunnel. It led back toward the island she had seen when she'd first arrived. It ended at a large cavern underneath the island. There was a large machine in the center. A large panel showed several lines of circuitry and buttons on either side. When she pressed one, the entire machine rotated to a new set of circuits.
If she had to guess, it looked like a giant magnet. Electromagnetism was a type of energy source, so it would make sense if that was what it was. But why was it built under the island? There had to be a reason. With Atrus, there was ALWAYS a reason.
Because there were several panels she had to complete it took a while to get everything matched up properly. By one of the panels she found a page from Saveedro's journal:
It is taking me too long! Every minute I spend searching his house runs the risk of someone walking in and finding me. I would bring his journals to the tusk, but I'm afraid he will notice them gone. Already, I'm afraid of what he knows. Of what his wife might know. And the young woman. Who is she? Atrus did not mention having a daughter and I did not see her with Sirrus and Achenar, neither did they mention her. So who is she?
It doesn't matter. If she is staying with them, then she is one of them. She will suffer as well.
She almost caught me last time. I linked directly into the sun room. I was walking toward his study when I heard footsteps coming down the hall. She was talking with someone. She was laughing. And for one heart-wrenching moment, I thought she was Tamra.
Then I remembered my Tamra is dead. I left her to die when I went after the brothers. I told her to go to the reef, to take our two girls there and hide. I took the necklace she gave me to remember her and I told her… Oh god Tamra! I told you it would all be okay! For years I prayed that my words were not a lie. That you had made it to the reef. That you were tending the ailing Lattice roots. By the weaving Tamra, how I prayed.
Until I opened his machine.
I saw Narayan through his shield. And even though the barrier kept me locked inside, I knew… I knew the Lattice Tree had died. Narayan can't survive without the Tree. No one can be alive outside his shield.
Standing in Atrus' home, knowing that my wife and children were dead, I felt the fog roll toward me again. And as much as I wanted to give into it's numbness, I couldn't. I couldn't let the woman find me standing there. Somehow I waded through the haze. I made my way to the study, found the book that would take me back to J'nannin. It was right where I had left it. Where they might not see it fall. I placed my hand on the panel. Heard the door behind my opening. And then the study disappeared.
She almost saw me. I know it. It was much too close this time. If the book hadn't been where I had left it…
Next time, I'll bring a book from one of his other Ages with me. Just in case it happens again.
Melody felt a chill go through her. She remembered that day. She had been walking with Catherine, laughing about how Atrus was so wonderful at writing Ages yet couldn't manage to make a meal without burning it.
When they had entered the study, she had felt that something was off. Something in the air that didn't feel right. She had brushed it off as Atrus' paranoia getting to her.
So close… Melody and Catherine had been so close to running into Saveedro. What would he have done to them had they caught him in the study? Would he have harmed them? Catherine had been carrying Yeesha. Would he have hurt the baby? With the state of his mind, there was no telling.
She hadn't missed the threats he had made against her. So she was marked to suffer as well? He didn't even know who she was, yet the bitterness of his revenge covered her in his mind.
By the time she had thought this through and was mad at Saveedro again, the electromagnet was connected and humming with power. The cables led upward towards a metal circle on the ceiling. Why would a simple metal circle need so much power? She supposed she would eventually find out.
Now that the electromagnet was sending power throughout the Age, Melody went back to test the elevator she had seen before. This time, to her delight, it worked perfectly. She rode the small elevator down with a sense of accomplishment. She was actually getting somewhere with all of these energy puzzles.
The elevator stopped at a walkway that had a tow cable attached to it. The same tow cable the air ship she had seen before was attached to. A lever at the end of the walkway opened the large wall, that turned out to be a large gate, in front of the air ship. But since the air ship was deflated, it didn't move beyond the gate.
Melody looked across the canyon and frowned. She had a pretty good idea where the steam to power the air ship needed to come from. It looked like she was heading back toward the lava room.
When she went back to the elevator, she spotted another page of Saveedro's journal stuck in the bottom of the shaft:
I see it all so clearly now. So clear, without the fog to sweep it away. How the young men in the village don't want to listen to the Elders. How they stand together at the back of the room, a growing knot of anger twisting inside of them. 'Why should we abide by your rules, old men?' they scream. 'You have no life inside you left to live! You gave it up decades ago to the Tree!'
Tamra wants to take the children home. She doesn't like the way the tempers are rising. 'Do something Saveedro,' she whispers. 'Tell them to stop shouting and make them listen. Tell them.'
What, my love? Tell them what? That their young lives do not belong to them alone? That our people are meant to be slaves to our world?
Sirrus and Achenar can see the confusion they are creating. I catch them looking at faces, measuring which men are most dissatisfied. Later they will approach these men in secret. They will urge the malcontents to boycott our rituals. They will prey on their youth and dissatisfaction. And the young men will begin forming gangs. They will throw off our traditions, rise against the Elders and follow the brothers. Riots will start and the Tree will be neglected.
Oh Tamra. It is so obvious now. But why couldn't I see it at the time? Every lie the brothers told. Every whisper made to put themselves in power. And when our world started collapsing around us, why didn't I see how Sirrus and Achenar didn't care? They never believed the truth behind our traditions. They never understood the work we had to do. They only knew the time had come to leave.
And when they did they left their linking book behind, knowing I could use it to chase after them. They lured me to this world, tied me up and left me to die here.
Because I didn't stop them when I should have.
It looked like there was plenty of blame to go around in Saveedro's mind. Was that the source of his bitterness against Atrus? This deep-lying sense of guilt for believing Sirrus and Achenar's lies, the torment of asking himself what if: What if he had stopped them? What if he had known?
She thought of the weathered face and hard eyes in her mind. Didn't he realize there was no way he could have known? That there was no way any of them could have known? Even Atrus hadn't known what his sons were capable of.
It was scary to think about how much destruction was caused and how many lives were lost because of two greedy men.
These sobering thoughts accompanied her as she made her way back toward the lava chamber. Because she had left the vent open the room had cooled somewhat, but was still incredibly hot. Melody felt so sweaty and dirty, she was glad Trace wasn't around to see her. Maybe she could wash in the lagoon when she returned to J'nanin.
The fan inside the lava chamber had to be connected to the air ship. The only problem was turning it on. A single red knob sat on a circular panel. Turning the knob counter-clockwise caused the walkway inside the lava chamber to lower and the lava to drain out. Turning the knob clockwise caused the walkway to rise, but the lava did not return. There was a notch for the knob to slide through the middle of the panel, but this was impossible because of the large bolt that had been forced into the notch, blocking the path of the knob.
Saveedro strikes again, Melody grumbled inwardly. She was ceasing to be surprised by his sabotage. It looked like she was going to have to do this the hard way.
Now that the lava was drained from the chamber, she was able to go down the ladder, open the door and enter the large chamber. She walked out onto the walkway and stopped short. A painting covered the wall on one side of the walkway. It matched the one in Edanna as far as style and she recognized several of the figures. Saveedro was obviously the artist.
She saw the landscape of Narayan, but this time it was very different. Homes were burning. People was fighting and killing each other. Saveedro and his wife Tamra stood off to the side. Tamra was holding two small girls close to her, all three looked terrified. Saveedro looked on the scene with a mixture of surprise and anger. Above it all, two laughing figures sailed away on what looked like a gondola attached to an overhead cable.
Sirrus and Achenar.
The whole scene made her sick and she had to look away. Although Saveedro had described it in his journals and she had imagined it in her mind, seeing it was a different matter entirely. Melody looked back at the small, frightened faces of Saveedro's daughters. She saw Yeesha's face reflected in theirs. No child should have to go through such horror. Were they still alive, or had the sight of their friends and family killing each other as their home burned been the last thing their young eyes had seen?
Melody looked away as tears stung her eyes. There wasn't time for this. She had to complete the power grid and find the symbol so she could return to J'nanin.
Another panel with a red knob stood at the end of the platform, only this one was noticeably bolt-less. Turning it counter clockwise caused the walkway to rise and lava to fill the room again. The heat hit her in waves and she felt nauseous. Gripping the rail for support, she slid the knob through the center notch. The gear that had lifted the walkway moved to the other side of the platform. By turning the knob clockwise again, she raised the walkway all the way up to the fan. She opened the flaps and flipped the switch. The fan hummed to life, sucking the hot air out of the room. By doing all of the steps in reverse, she got back into the control room. She turned the knob counter-clockwise to open the lava gate and fill the room once again.
She wiped her forehead and made her way out through the vent and across the cavern to the air ship.
Hot air was moving through the pipes, but in order for it to pump into the air ship the pressure had to be set to just the right amount. That was where the valves she had seen earlier came in. According to the hash mark on the reader, there needed to be 19 units of pressure. If all of the valves had been operational, this wouldn't have been a problem, but since one was jammed (Saveedro yet again) Melody had to reset the pressure manually. It wasn't difficult so much as tedious. She had to ride the platform up and down to reach the other valves, as each level controlled a different amount of pressure. The bottom level control 10 units of pressure, the middle level controlled 4 and the top controlled 1. Some quick math did the trick and before she knew it the air ship was pumped and ready to go.
This time when she went back around, down the elevator and opened the gate the air ship coasted on through along the cable and stopped next to the platform she was on.
How convenient.
She didn't trust it.
After inspecting the air ship thoroughly and finding nothing wrong, Melody decided to take a chance and board it. She sat on the little wooden seat and pushed the pedal at her feet.
The air ship followed the overhead cable away from the machinery and off into another canyon. There was nothing for Melody to do but sit back and enjoy the scenic ride to who knew where.
The ride turned out to be shorter than she expected. The air ship turned the corner of the canyon and Melody immediately spotted the water wheel she had fixed earlier. The air ship glided over the rushed water and came to a stop on a raised platform next to the small island.
Well that was interesting, but thoroughly pointless. Melody thought. Where is the darn symbol?
Melody had folded her arms and was tapping her foot in annoyance when she spotted something at the end of the platform.
A lever.
She eyed it warily. Then skeptically. Then curiously. Slowly unfolding her arms, she took slow deliberate steps toward the lever, like it would attack at any moment. She stared at it and bit her lip.
Should she do it?
She really didn't know what it did.
It might be dangerous.
She shouldn't do it. She needed to be careful and responsible. She was an adult after all.
An instant later, she pulled the lever.
A low rumbling made her release the lever and jump back. A loud cracking sound had her turning toward the island.
A large crack was forming around the little broken half-tower. Melody's mouth dropped open as it rose into the air. She could see the metal ring from the electromagnetic chamber underneath the floating island. A large, thick cable kept it from flying away. The gap between the floating tower and what was left of the island was filled with small bits of floating rock.
As she stood staring with her mouth open, something she had read appeared at the back of her mind:
I'm not sure what to do about the island. I don't know how to alter the current.
Perhaps if I bring in some of the unusual floating stone from Amateria? Something about the molecular composition of the rock in that Age causes it to attract and repel other stone quite forcefully. Maybe if I introduce some of it to the soil on the island, it will interfere just enough to damage the last poem.
Was this what Saveedro had been talking about? Was she seeing the floating rocks from Amateria? That explained it. The rocks were magnetic. Polar magnets. They repelled each other.
A slow grin spread on her face. She couldn't wait to see Amateria.
Since the cable that anchored the island was also the one the air ship was on, Melody had a ride up to the floating island. Thanks to her playing with the electromagnets, the huge door to the half-tower was now receiving power. Using both hands to turn the large handle, Melody cheered when the massive bolts slid away and the door rolled open.
"Take that Saveedro!" she shouted. "Mess with me will ya?! You have no idea who you're dealing with!"
Once she was done with shouting to no one, she went inside. She hadn't been expecting much so she wasn't disappointed when all the half-tower contained was more machinery and magnets. What did interest her was the large hole in the floor with a ladder leading down into daylight. She moved forward cautiously and peeked over the side.
And gasped.
The floating bits of rock made a specific pattern. It was too defined to be a coincidence. She had found it! The second symbol! What a way to hide it! If Saveedro hadn't gone completely insane she would have called him a genius!
She committed it to memory and went back outside the half-tower. The podium with the book was right where she had left it.
Feeling very proud of herself, she linked back to J'nanin.
In what was becoming a routine, Melody drew the symbol on a piece of paper from Saveedro's room, returned to the observatory and placed the symbol in the scanner.
After scanning it, the machine beeped a couple of times and the cage around the book opened. It was still too far away to reach though. She would still need the last symbol.
Melody looked up as a message from Saveedro began to play.
"Is this what you expected Atrus? When you followed me here, hoping to reclaim Releeshan? This classroom what you expected to find? I read your journal, you know. In Tomahna. After I found your linking book abandoned outside this conservatory. I read all about the D'ni. How you started their world again. Can you really do that Atrus? After everything that's happened to Narayan, could you start their world over again?"
Melody gasped. Had that been his plan all along? To hold Releeshan captive to force Atrus to re-write the Narayan world? Didn't he know the Ages didn't work that way? Even if he could re-write Narayan into what it had been before, Atrus couldn't bring back those who had died. He couldn't bring back Saveedro's wife and children.
She tried to focus as Saveedro continued. "I don't think so. I think there's too much blood on our hands. Too many ghosts. Surely you can't change that with a pen stroke. One more symbol Atrus. Narayan is waiting."
The message faded.
Melody shook her head. Saveedro had gravely misunderstood Atrus' journals. Atrus was trying to restore the D'ni, but that had nothing to do with re-writing the D'ni Age. Atrus had written a new Age for the D'ni, completely separate from their old world. Atrus had explained to her that writing a descriptive and linking book to an Age did not create the Age, but established a link to a pre-existing world. With hundreds of millions of stars and countless universes there were endless possibilities for any number of different worlds. That was the mistake Atrus' father Gehn had made, which had led him to having delusions of god-hood.
However, if changes were made to the Age's descriptive book, one could alter certain properties of the Age. But that was dangerous, as it made the Age unstable and prone to collapse as Riven had.
It was an easy misunderstanding to make and it was very fortunate that Saveedro had made it. From the earlier passages in his journal, it was clear that Saveedro's first plan when he had originally come to Tomahna had been to kill everyone. Not only Atrus, but Catherine, Yeesha and Melody herself. But from the message she had just watched, Saveedro had read Atrus' journals and gotten the idea that Atrus could re-write Ages.
That was what these 'lesson' Ages were all about. That was what the murals and messages and journal pages were for. Saveedro was trying to guilt Atrus into re-writing Narayan. And if guilt didn't work, he had a back-up plan in holding Releeshan hostage to force Atrus to do the impossible.
New resolve formed in Melody's heart.
She had to rescue Releeshan before Saveedro realized the truth and decided to go back to his original plan.
Okay so this chapter is extremely long. Sorry about that.
So we all know what the third Age is and it is another of my favorites. See you there.