Reviews, reviews, reviews for me! As a writer, I live for attention and praise and the knowledge that I'm leaving people in suspense. And it seems like everyone had something to say about that last chapter. (Oh, yes. I enjoy torturing those who have been tortured for more than a few years of their lives.) Don't get me wrong. I love Saavy – he's such an insecure and slightly nuts ball of nerves. -Huggles Saavedro-
This chapter will begin the journey beneath the auditorium to find the voice's evil lair! -Insert evil laughter here- Not only that, but Saavy will find it difficult to face the voice after some more torment (some graphic, some not so graphic), we'll find out what the Bahro actually did with Escher at the end of Myst V, and we might even gain some clues as to whom this mysterious voice is. (Here's a hint: The voice and one of the characters once lived in the same Age.) So, here's to another wild and wacky (and possibly sadistic? O.o) chapter of "Know Your Myst Stars!"
Disclaimer: I own none of this.
Author's Note: All of Cho's comebacks to the Know Your Stars voice will be translated to English and put in italics. This is for the ease of you, the reader.
This was it, thought Sirrus, as he stared at the trap door on the stage floor warily. One wrong move, and the plan could backfire. If the voice caught onto them…
Shaking the thought from his head, he looked across to the other end at Cho, who stood by, waiting for the signal to go onstage.
Sirrus turned his attention to watching for any camera activity onstage.
He found only one – a ceiling-mounted camera that watched the blank stage like an eye, overseeing everything.
Slowly, Sirrus raised his hand, signaling Cho to walk onto the stage and start distracting.
"Know your stars, know your stars, know your stars, know your stars, know your stars…"
Cho sat in the chair, a bit spooked by the voice from nowhere, but not really saying much.
"Cho… enjoys playing fetch with the mushrooms that grow in his house!"
"Cho?" Cho responded, obviously confused as to how someone could play fetch with mushrooms.
"Cho… nobody in the Myst fandom really cares about him, anyway!"
"What?" Cho asked in Rivenese. "Are you sure about that?"
"Absolutely positive," the voice responded.
Cho was astonished for the moment that the voice actually understood him, then glanced off towards the backstage area and remembered that he was supposed to be distracting the voice.
"Five eats wahrks for lunch at seven!" Cho shouted randomly.
"What?" the voice asked incredulously.
Sirrus took this opportunity to slip onstage and check the trap door. It was, mercifully, open. He quickly slipped through it.
"What was that noise?" The ceiling mounted camera swiveled to look towards the other end of the stage.
"Oh, nothing," Cho said. "Look! A pink and orange golden beetle!"
The camera swiveled to look out into the audience, where Cho had just been pointing.
Achenar ran for the trap door and opened it, then quickly shut it.
"I don't see any orange and pink-spotted golden beetle," the voice said in an accusing tone. "Were you playing a trick on me?"
"Nope, no trick. I assure you, that beetle's out there. I see it over on that seat, right… over… THERE!"
The camera swiftly spun back towards the audience area, scanning every single seat for the elusive bug.
Atrus and Catherine both ran out towards the trap door, opened it, and snuck down it.
"I still don't see anything." The camera had turned to face Cho once more.
"Oh, it must have flown off," Cho said, putting on the most innocent tone that he could.
"Oh. Very well, then. Cho… likes to swim in sunner poop!"
"Sicko! I do not!"
"Do too."
"Do not!"
"Do too."
"Do not!"
"Do too."
"Do not!"
"Do too."
"Do too!"
"Do not."
"Do too!"
"Do not."
"Ha, I just made you say that I don't swim in sunner poop!"
The voice, not very happy with being stood up, shouted loudly at the Riven native.
"Yeah… well… shut up!"
"You shut up!"
"No, you!"
Both people began to get into a massive argument once more, which was exactly enough time for the Stranger to run towards the trap door and slide under it.
The ride was long, dark, and treacherous, for what the six people had taken to be a hidden staircase was actually a long, slippery slide down several feet into a stone-walled tunnel. The ride ended abruptly with the Stranger landing upon a pile of people.
"Ow! Sirrus, get off of my arm!"
"I would, dear brother, but there are three other people on top of me that need to get off first!"
"Oh, sorry," the Stranger replied, jumping down from the pile and landing on the solid floor. Atrus and Catherine soon followed, with Sirrus and Achenar last.
"There, that wasn't so very difficult, was it?" Sirrus asked to no one in particular. "Now, does anyone have a light? We can't go anywhere in all this gloom."
"I have a firemarble," the Stranger said, fishing one out of her jeans pocket and lighting it.
"Thank you," Sirrus replied, taking the tiny light source between his fingers.
Of course, because the small orb produced so much light, it also produced much heat, making it hard for Sirrus to continue holding onto it as the group walked through the tunnel. It was, however, the only light source that they had, and if they lost it…
Suddenly, the group stopped. They had found themselves at a point where the road forked into four paths.
"Uh, anyone have any ideas where we should go?" Sirrus asked, turning to the group.
All of them stared blankly at him.
"Great. We're stuck here, then."
A sudden scratching and shuffling noise from behind Sirrus startled him and nearly made him drop the firemarble.
"What was that?" The Stranger asked in a slightly frightened tone.
"I don't know," Sirrus responded, "But I don't think that it sounds too friendly."
Meanwhile…
"Augh! I'm sick of this!" the Voice smacked the control panel of the security system angrily. "If that idiot keeps getting into more and more arguments with me, I'm going to go down there and tear him limb from limb! Only problem is, how should I do it?"
The villain turned to Saavedro, who was now bolted into a chair. No matter how much he struggled, however, the Narayani could not free himself.
"What do you think?"
"What do I think?" Saavedro asked incredulously. "You have me stuck in a freaking electric chair, for pity's sake!"
As if on cue, a sudden jolt of electricity traveled directly through Saavedro's entire body, shaking him like a ragdoll. It stopped just as abruptly, leaving him panting even though he wasn't tired.
"We can do this all day if you want," the Voice replied.
"I'd rather not," Saavedro responded.
"Sorry, I'm afraid that's not an option."
A second jolt sped through Saavedro's body, this one much briefer than the last.
"I'm not telling you where they are, forget it!" Saavedro yelled. "You can figure it out yourself!"
"You're stronger than I thought," the Voice said, half surprised.
"Well, let me tell you something, pal," Saavedro spat, "Living alone for twenty years doesn't exactly make a person a wuss."
Yet another jolt coursed though his body.
"And will you stop shocking me for no good reason!"
The Voice eyed Saavedro's now static-y hair and slightly charred clothing.
"Hmm… torture by electricity does get rather boring after a while…"
Meanwhile…
The strange scratching-shuffling kept up at a steady pace, as if it were some odd animal walking towards the small group of explorers, becoming louder all the while.
Nobody could tell where it was coming from. Sirrus dropped the firemarble, which fell to the floor with a small clink, extinguishing the only source of available light. Presently, the odd noises had stopped, only to be replaced by the gritty, heavily accented, and slightly sad-sounding voice of a man.
"Do not be afraid. I will not harm you. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you will see me."
The group looked about, allowing the darkness to become clearer and clearer to them, until they could see every nook and cranny of the walls, tunnels, and ceiling, then looked towards where the man stood, waiting patiently.
The man in question was dressed in what had probably once been nicer clothing that now hanged in tatters, faded with age. He was barefoot, and around both ankles was a metal clasp with dragging chains. His eyes were wide and almost haunted-looking, and he was very pale, almost resembling a ghost. Indeed, the man seemed so fragile that even the slightest touch could have knocked him over.
He bent to pick up the now forgotten firemarble, but as soon as he touched it, it lit up, filling the area with light and shocking everyone in the immediate area with the immediate brightness. The Stranger watched through blinking eyes, with a mixture of horror and astonishment, as the man's pupils narrowed into cat-like slits.
"Aghh!" The man screamed, "The light is too bright! Turn it off!"
Rubbing her own eyes, so as to alleviate the pain from the light, she squinted and picked up the firemarble, then turned it off with a swift stroking motion and pocketed it.
The remainder of the group blinked suddenly, allowing themselves to get used to the light as the odd man's eyes returned to normal.
"Thank you," he replied.
"Uh, no problem?" The Stranger half asked, half replied. She turned to look at the group, who now had regained their night vision, then turned back towards the man.
"Who are you?" she asked, half of her not wanting to know the answer.
The man sighed, a low, melancholy sound that immediately smothered all hope.
"My masters do not wish me to speak of myself," the man responded, "but I can tell you who I once was."
"Okay, who were you, then?"
"I was Escher, a very greedy, foolish man who thought that he could do no wrong. Now I am Escher, a humble man, doomed to wander these tunnels through eternity. It is my life sentence for wronging the Bahro."
Suddenly, he looked up at the Stranger and faltered a bit.
"You…" he started. "You… were the one that… freed them."
"Uh, I was?" The Stranger had never seen this person before, nor did she know what a Bahro was, except from what she had read in some of Atrus' older books.
Escher nodded his head slowly, then glanced downwards at the stone floor.
"You forced me into this fate," he said. "But how can I be angry at you? You simply showed me the error of my ways. I am too timid to face my masters. How can I explain that I am a better man, a changed man? Would they understand?"
A sudden screeching noise from the tunnels startled the man and made him crouch low, almost into a ball. Four large, beetle-like creatures appeared, one from each tunnel, and looked down at the man.
One spoke to him in a series of screeches and squeaks.
"It was my break time, sir," Escher replied timidly. "You said I could have fifteen minutes."
The same creature screeched accusingly at him.
"I know, I know, but I found them!" He pointed at the group, which made all of the creatures look up suddenly at them. "I was only going to help them escape!"
The Stranger was a bit nervous at seeing these creatures have such power over a human being, but even so, she managed to speak.
"Atrus," she asked in a shaky tone, "Are they…?"
"Bahro? Yes," he replied. "But last time I saw them, it was the other way around. It seems that the tables have turned. I do not know how this is possible. Unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Unless this switch happened in the distant future, which would mean that the Bahro have transported themselves and this man to our present – their past."
The Stranger blinked in confusion.
"Uh, what?"
"That's okay, my friend, I didn't exactly understand everything I just said, either."
A Bahro approached the Stranger, making her back away nervously. The creature made a soft crooning noise to itself, looking over the Stranger and the group as a whole. It finally decided that there was no harm in allowing Escher to escort them through the tunnels, and transferred this decision to the other Bahro, who seemed to argue for a bit, and then told this to Escher.
"I will do my best, sir," he said to the Bahro, who turned to leave through the left-most tunnel. "You wish to find something, but I do not believe it is an exit."
"No, it isn't," Catherine responded. "We're looking for a room in which a friend of ours is being tortured and kept hostage. The torturer has been after us as well, and we're trying to stop him. Have you heard any screaming or odd mechanical noises while wandering the tunnels?"
Escher thought to himself for a moment before responding.
"Yes," he replied. "I've heard some odd noises by the airshaft grates."
"There are airshafts in the bottom of the theater?" Achenar randomly asked. "Shouldn't they be in the walls?"
The rest of the group couldn't find an answer to this, nor did they get why the airshafts were in the floor.
"Whatever," Sirrus responded hurriedly. "Escher, can you take us to the grates? Maybe we can break them down."
"Very well, I shall bring you there," Escher responded. "Follow me."
Meanwhile…
"You… evil… heartless… cad! You know… how I feel… about Squees!"
Now poor Saavedro was strapped inside a big, glass tub with several hundred Squees running all over him. The small creatures were everywhere, and though Saavedro wasn't necessarily afraid of them, being surrounded by hundreds of the wriggling things made it hard for him to concentrate.
"Ready to talk, now?" the Voice asked.
"NO! Never!"
"Oh, come on. Surely you can be more dramatic."
"Sorry. I already had my big, famous dramatic moment between the ice shields in Narayan. The video game developers already beat you to it." Saavedro allowed himself a small, wry smile at this before a Squee latched itself into his face and he had to fight with trying to knock it off.
"Whatever. Those Squees could chew off your face for all you care."
"Squees don't eat me, I eat Squees. Hey, I didn't know that you were going to do water torture to me, too."
"I wasn't."
"Well, if you aren't, then…? Oh, yuck!"
Meanwhile…
"Here. The grates. Just be quiet about how you knock them down."
"Thank you, Escher," Atrus replied. "You had better get back to work or whatever before the Bahro find out what you're up to."
"Yes," Escher responded. "Farewell. I sincerely hope all goes well with your rescue attempts."
With that, the man shuffled back down the path, eventually fading into the surrounding darkness.
"Okay," Sirrus said, breaking the ensuing silence, "Now what do we do?"
"Want me to use my head?" Achenar replied mockingly.
"Why, you little… Wait… Maybe I do want you to use your head! Maybe if you bang into it hard enough, the grate will break."
"But won't that make too much noise?" Catherine pointed out.
Sirrus thought about this for a moment.
"As much as I'm afraid to admit it, you're right," he said. "There goes my ingenious plan."
"Not all of them can be gems," Achenar teased.
"Oh, will you just shut up for a second!"
"Boys," Atrus said threateningly.
"Sorry, father," they said in unison.
"Okay, so now what?" the Stranger asked. "We can't break the grate, and we can't squeeze through the grate. Does anyone have any tools?"
"I have a crowbar," Achenar responded.
"A crowbar?!? Achenar, where in the worlds did you manage to find a crowbar?"
"I found it when I first arrived in Haven. Now I always carry it with me. Safety first!"
Sirrus rolled his eyes.
"Well, okay, then," the Stranger said. "Here, let me see it."
Achenar handed her the crowbar, with which she began to pry at the grating with.
"Okay, it's working."
"Good," Sirrus replied. "Just try not to make too much noise, and we're golden."
The Stranger fumbled with the crowbar for a moment, then dropped it, producing a metallic clang.
"I thought I told you not to make too much noise!"
"Sorry!"
Meanwhile…
"No! Please, please stop it! I can't take this anymore! I'm really ticklish!"
Saavedro was now strapped to a metal platform with several feathers swinging from the ceiling above him in a less dangerous version of the swinging blade pendulum.
"Squeal! Tell me where they are! My gosh, this is the worst thing I've got!"
"I'm not telling you!" Saavedro gasped out between spasms of laughter. "I thought that we had that straight!"
"And I thought," the voice responded, "That you understood that I am not freeing you until you tell me where your friends are at!"
"I don't know!"
"We can go at this forever if you want."
"No! Please! They're… in the dressing room."
The Voice looked pleased with himself and shut the machine off, but left Saavedro tied up as he went to go look around the dressing room.
"What? It's empty!" He turned back to Saavedro. "You little liar! You said they were there!"
"They aren't? They're supposed to be! Why aren't they there? Where are they?!?"
"You are going to tell me the exact location of where they are, right now, or so help me, I will…"
"No! Please don't! I don't know, honest, I don't!"
The Voice's hand was holding onto the switch for the tickle machine threateningly.
"Tell me or else."
"I don't know! Really! Really, I…" The rest of Saavedro's sentence was drowned out by tears, which were quickly replaced by laughter as the machine started up one more time.
"No! Please, not again! NO!"
Meanwhile…
"What was that?" The Stranger asked, now partially finished prying the grate loose.
"I don't know," Catherine responded. "It sounded like 'Please, no, not again, no.' Do you think that Saavedro's in pain?"
"Probably," the Stranger said, "But that didn't sound like a pain scream to me. That sounded like a plea for mercy. Saavedro's in much worse trouble than I thought."
"What do you think that psycho's doing to him?" Achenar asked.
"Hmm… water torture?" Sirrus pondered.
"No, too mild for that kind of scream. Maybe he's being slowly sliced open by a swinging blade."
"You and your weapons. Nope, it's water torture."
"Blade."
"Water torture."
"Blade!"
"WATER TORTURE!"
"BLADE!"
"Guys, guys!" the Stranger said. "It doesn't matter what they're doing to him, he's still in trouble, and we have to get him out of there!" With that, she returned to her prying, and, with one final push, the grate fell to the floor with a crash.
All of the group members winced at this, then quickly, they clambered through the opening and fell to the floor.
"Nice," the Stranger said in a flat tone.
"Will you shut up for five seconds?" Sirrus responded caustically. "Here, follow me."
The group silently snuck around to the front of the evil lair, soon coming across a hysterical Saavedro being tickle-tortured.
"See? You were both wrong," the Stranger said to Sirrus and Achenar.
The group silently snuck around towards the back of the machine, whereas Achenar, spotting the lever, went towards it, reached up to it with his crowbar and pulled it, shutting the machine off.
Saavedro looked up at the four people staring down at him and nodded in silent thanks.
"Shh," he hushed. "We have to be quiet, otherwise he'll hear us. Quick, untie me so that we can get out of here!"
The group quickly undid the ropes that bound Saavedro to the platform and helped him to his feet.
"Saavedro, are you okay?" The Stranger asked. "What happened to your back?"
"It's a long story," he responded. "Sirrus, call your idiot brother over here so we can leave!"
"Leave?" said a voice behind them. "Aw, but I was having so much fun!"
"Oh, crap."
Ten Minutes Later…
"Well, now what?" The Stranger asked. "Now we're stuck here."
"Yeah, I kind of noticed that," Sirrus retorted.
"Hey, we tried," Achenar pointed out.
"Oh, shut up, Achenar!"
Now all of the characters were tied to gear-like objects, all arranged in a single mechanism. On the far end, there was a large, sharp drill-like object pointing straight at all of the trapped people.
"Ingenious, isn't it?" the Voice said. "I always have been fond of mechanics. You see this drill bit? Once I flip this switch, it will start turning and moving slowly forward. And when it starts moving… I'll be having a little shish-ka-bob for dinner tonight, won't I?"
"You monster!" Catherine spat.
"Yes, I know," the villain replied. "Isn't it marvelous, the things one can do when they aren't limited by the pressure to be good?"
"NO!" shouted everyone in reply.
"A shame that you don't understand my feelings," the voice said as his black full-face mask curled downward into a frown. "That's precisely why I must dispose of all of you."
He walked over to flip the switch, but something made him stop.
He slowly walked back and stood in front of the group.
"But before you die," he said smoothly, "Perhaps you would like to finally see who your tormentor is."
Slowly, the Voice reached up, pulled off his facemask, and looked at every single person with his pale eyes in turn. Every single person in the room had heard of him. Some even had met him. But only Atrus dared to say his name.
"Gehn!"
"Yes, Atrus. It is I. I was the one who bothered you. All of you. But you…" - he glared at the Stranger angrily - "You, of all people… a mere child… trapped me. I fell for it once. But not again. I only feel sorry for that poor child who stumbled upon my book…"
"Yeesha!" Catherine screamed. "No!"
"Yes, Catherine," Gehn continued. "I lured her – it was simple, really. Cho has the book. Speaking of which, where is the idiot? I wish to speak with him personally."
As if on cue, Cho leapt out from behind the gears and jumped, cat-like, onto Gehn's back. Both men struggled for some time, Cho trying to get Gehn to link into the green book he held in his hands and Gehn furiously struggling to refuse.
Suddenly, something flew out of Ghen's coat, a rectangular object that looked almost like…
A Linking book!
The struggle went on for some time before Cho ended up under Ghen's heel, scraping and clawing for a way to get him off.
"Foolish acolyte," Gehn said in a tone like ice. "You actually thought that you could overcome me? You know how I feel about those who step out of line."
Cho looked up at him, narrowing his eyes, and suddenly he said the longest sentence in English that he ever had.
"I am not your servant."
Ghen frowned at him.
"What did you just say?"
"I... am... not… your… servant," Cho repeated slowly, imitating how Gehn himself had taught him to speak to the person who first linked into Riven.
The entire room fell silent, except for the sound of Cho slapping the open green book's panel onto Gehn's leg.
"No. No!"
Gehn's cries were drowned out by the roar of the link, and the trap book fell to the ground as Cho got up.
Suddenly, a small figure appeared, faint at first, but quickly gaining substance. Within a few seconds, Yeesha stood there, looking around the room, completely and utterly confused.
"Where am I?" She asked. "What's going on? Why are mom and dad tied to that big gear?"
"Yeesha!" Catherine yelled joyously. "Honey, where were you? How did you get in that book?"
"I don't know," she said. "I couldn't find you anywhere after I came home from Serenia, and I saw this green book on the ground, and I figured that you must have gone somewhere. So I tried to follow you, but I got stuck. I was really scared."
"Oh, little bird," Catherine cooed. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. Here, let me help you get down."
Cho asked something in Rivenese, which Catherine translated as "Do you need help?"
"Yes, Cho, of course," Atrus said. "Here, will you come untie me, please?"
Within a few moments, all of the characters were freed and standing on the floor.
"There. All better!" Yeesha stood back to admire her handiwork and smiled at everyone.
"Atrus," Saavedro asked, "This is your daughter?"
"Yes," Atrus replied with a smile. "I'm hoping that she'll come out better. I can be rather… forgetful, unfortunately."
"Come out better?" Sirrus asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Yeesha smiled up at the Narayani politely.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Yeesha. Who are you?"
"Uh, hi, Yeesha," Saavedro responded. "I'm Saavedro. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too. Hey, do you like bugs?"
"Well, I'm not very opposed to them. So I guess I sort of do."
"I love bugs. I like to collect them and see what they do naturally. What do you like to do?"
"Uh, I like to paint."
"Oh, neat! What kind of stuff do you paint?"
"Okay, Yeesha," Catherine said kindly. "I think that's enough of that." She bent to scoop up the fallen linking book and opened it.
"Is everyone ready to go home?" she asked.
"YES!" Everyone replied in unison.
"Now all of you know how I felt," Saavedro joked.
Okay, ending the chapter here. My, that was lengthy! An epilogue is to follow, so stay tuned to this story, and keep sending those reviews. Speaking of which, I'd like to thank RandomLittleWriter and Halley for submitting the latest comments, and I'd like to thank RandomLittleWriter again for being with me at the beginning of this fic. Thanks as well to Rehia and CookieSpaz for reviewing as well, you guys are great.
Just a little endnote here for you. The reason the Stranger didn't recongnize Escher and the Bahro is rather complicated. This story takes place pre-Revelation (Myst 4), and for that reason, the Stranger has not yet met Escher or the Bahro or had the adventure in Myst 5 yet. In my version of what happened in the good ending of Myst 5, the Bahro transported Escher and themselves into the past so that even if Escher were to escape, he could never get back to his own time without a Bahro's help. Sorry for any confusion, but I found a bunch of plotholes and so I had to fill them.