10 – Fragments, Part 2
The rhythmic humming of the ring changed pitch as Jordan moved the switch into the correct position. He turned to look up at Rachel and Maddy, who were waiting by the control panel.
"Okay, next?"
Rachel gave him the thumbs-up and pulled the switch on the board. Another iceball flew down the track. It passed safely through the first of the sonic rings, and the second one, where Jordan stepped sideways to dodge it as it flew past. As it reached the third ring, however, it shattered.
"Okay, it's the second from the right," called back Rachel. "Yeah... no, not that one. That one! Yeah."
Jordan recalibrated this third ring, and Rachel sent another ball through. This time it made it through the third ring, only to be stopped by the fourth.
"Almost there now, Jordan," called down Rachel. "Second from the left."
Jordan found and recalibrated the fourth ring, then walked over to the last remaining ring and recalibrated this too. He gave Rachel the thumbs-up, and another iceball dropped from the central building. This time, the ball passed through all five rings safely. Jordan rejoined Rachel and Maddy at the control panel.
"I sometimes wonder what goes on inside this man's head."
"Which man?" asked Rachel. "Saavedro or Atrus?"
"Atrus," replied Jordan. "I mean, look at this age. The puzzles are – well, they're enigmatic. They're clearly Atrus' style – even if we didn't know that he'd written this world, we could guess, couldn't we? But what goes on inside his head to create such devious puzzles in his ages?"
"I agree," chimed in Maddy. "Remember how we had to gain access to Selenitic? Not only did we have to get 59 volts into the rocket, but we had to get those musical notes to match exactly. I mean, sure, it was themed to the age – all sounds and suchlike – but it was hard."
"Do you think he takes after his father?" asked Rachel. "After all, Gehn had some pretty devious ways of protecting his age from unwanted intruders. The marble puzzle coupled with the colour puzzle."
"He probably learnt a few tricks from Catherine, too," said Maddy. "After all, the puzzle we had to solve to get into the Moiety's age – with the wooden eyes and all – was just crazy. Tougher than Gehn's or Atrus', I reckon."
Silence fell between them, broken only by the distant rumble of thunder. After a minute, a cold wind blew through, making them shiver and move on.
{Atrus' journal, 26.7.27}
I cannot concentrate on this book. I try, but every time I try to design this new Age I think of Releeshahn. I cannot write like this. I cannot write like this. I cannot -
Enough! Grandmother would be disappointed if I continued to mope like this. I must try to avert my mind. But how?
Brittany pulled back into the volcano compound with a sigh. Turning the engine off, she sat back in the seat for a minute, then got to her feet. The sun was setting, and the temperature was very pleasant. Brittany paused in the last rays of the sun for a moment, then gathered up her bags and went inside.
The Myst book lay open on the table. Finding a free hand somewhere, despite all her baggage, Brittany touched the book and let spinning blackness swallow her and spit her out on the island dock.
A wave of nostalgia struck her as she surveyed the island, having her first good look in quite a while. She sighed deeply and staggered up to the library. She put her bags down and straightened up with a groan.
The island was much the same as it had been ten years ago when she had first followed Jordan, Rachel and Maddy through that very same book. She walked slowly through the pine forest, running her hand over the smooth stone of the fountain and finally stopping at the cabin. She pushed the door open and went inside.
The furnace still worked – she turned it on and heard the tree rising outside. She turned it off again and went outside, stepping into the dropping tree and out again at the bottom. The Channelwood book still sat there – dusty, but functional. Brittany touched its page and allowed the blackness to swallow her again.
Jordan, Rachel and Maddy stood on the platform above Amateria's third puzzle. It was probably the most complicated of all of them so far, and they were trying hard to find the right combination.
"This is a head-scratcher," conceded Rachel. "We know that we have to put the pegs in the holes to make the ball fly over and land in a hole with a bottom so it doesn't fall through into the sea."
"Right," said Jordan. "Easier said than done, though. Let's watch it again."
Maddy pulled a switch on the control panel and an iceball flew down into the track. After the spindle that it was resting in completed a full rotation, the ball shattered.
"So..." muttered Maddy, who had a head for this sort of thing, "we need it to end up there... if it goes around to there it'll go to the finish... but that hole is blocked. If we go just one further it'll end up in that hole. Let's try that."
She put a single peg in a hole on the panel and pulled the switch. Another iceball dropped into the puzzle. This time, it was catapaulted over and onto the second spindle, before shattering after a full rotation.
Maddy continued to mutter to herself as she worked out the next step, and eventually she flicked the lever again. This time, the iceball was thrown between the spindles a few times before landing on the tracks leading back to the central building.
"Nice one, Mop," said Jordan. "So... now what do we do?"
Brittany breathed the clean Channelwood air and exhaled with a sigh. This had always been her favourite of the Myst ages. She walked the wooden paths slowly, until she came to the place where Maddy had landed after she fell out of the tree. She smiled bitterly, remembering that day with some mild amusement. Oh, here we go, she thought, I'm getting all nostalgic again.
She spent a while longer roaming the age aimlessly, before riding the elevator up to the room with the Myst book and returning to the island. She gathered up her bags and linked to Tomahna.
I feel nothing today.
I am nothing today.
I sit here, so close to and yet so far from my dead world.
I sit here, so close to and yet so far from his world that I have stolen.
I feel no hate, no anger, no sorrow. I feel nothing. I am nothing.
Let him come. I will tell him. And then we will see.
Jordan, Rachel and Maddy stared down at the hexagonal grid. The answer came to Jordan first.
"This is where we must have to use those patterns on the top of each control box. If we put them in here, then we might be able to get inside."
"Makes sense," replied Rachel. "Anyone remember any of them?"
When the consensus was no, they didn't, they decided that in the interests of speed they would each go to one of the puzzles and collect the pattern. They dispersed as the thunder continued to rumble ominously in the background.
Rachel returned from the sonic rings first, and keyed the appropriate hexagons in. The first section of missing bridge popped into place, and she crossed over to wait at the second box.
Jordan was next to return, from the balance bridge. He crossed over to where Rachel stood and pressed the appropriate buttons. The second bridge section clicked into place as well, and the two of them crossed to stand near the third box.
Maddy returned a minute later from the pinball puzzle. She crossed to where Jordan and Rachel were waiting for her and keyed in the pattern. The last of the missing bridge sections appeared, and they stepped up to the door of the central building. Rachel pulled it open and they climbed inside.
The building looked even bigger on the inside than it did from the outside. As they closed the circular door behind them, a set of stairs they hadn't even seen before swung around invitingly, leading up to the very centre of the building where they found a small purple chair.
"Okay..." muttered Rachel. "This is clearly a one-person thing. So one of us has to do this, and meet the others back on J'nanin. Who's it to be?"
"Not it," said Maddy immediately, touching her nose. Jordan and Rachel looked at each other, and Jordan produced a coin.
"Right... Mop, you toss, Rach, you call."
Maddy took the coin and flicked it into the air.
"Tails," said Rachel. Maddy caught the coin and flipped it onto her arm.
"Tails it is," announced Maddy, looking at the coin. "Looks like it's you, Jordan."
Conceding defeat, Jordan sat in the chair, which was not particularly comfortable. In front of him now was another of Saavedro's imagers.
"Oh god, here we go," muttered Maddy. "Time for another angry rant."
Jordan pressed the button, and Saavedro's face swam into focus in the imager. He didn't look angry, though. Quite the opposite.
"This morning I woke up," said the imager, "and I couldn't... picture Tamra's face." Saavedro's voice was distant, and he didn't seem to be talking to them. "The little line at the corner of her lip that pulls her whole mouth down when she smiles... the flutter of her eyelashes... I tried so hard to picture her in my mind... to put her down on paper as if that might bring her back." The image of Saavedro looked up at them, and his face was melancholy. "I couldn't do it. Atrus, I'm not you."
The image swam back out of focus and faded to black. Rachel had a tear in her eye. Jordan turned to Maddy.
"Still don't feel sorry for him?"
Maddy sighed. "Okay... maybe a little."
Brittany and Catherine sat in the sunroom with Jane and Yeesha. Brittany had always admired Catherine. Any other woman who had been treated like she had been at the hands of Gehn would probably be suffering badly from depression at least, but not Catherine. It was quite amazing.
"Catherine," said Brittany. Catherine looked up. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"How did you and Atrus meet?"
Catherine smiled. "That's a long story."
"I've got time."
"All right then..." Catherine put her book down. "As you know, I'm Rivenese. I was born before Gehn wrote the age, but I was very young when he first appeared, claiming to have created us. We didn't know what to think of this man, but he looked dangerous, so we were rather forced to obey him.
"I lived like this – effectively in slavery – until I was about ten. I was chosen as one of Gehn's elite – those to whom he decided to teach the Art. We learnt slowly, but he was happy with my progress in particular.
"Atrus first came to Riven when we were both seventeen. He ended up in our village after he nearly drowned trying to swim up through a pool of water and my cousin rescued him. We were attracted to each other immediately, even though I knew he was Gehn's son and was therefore effectively a demigod to us. We became acquainted, but he could still not pronounce my name. Katran. He called me Catherine – and it just sort of stuck. He still can't pronounce my name.
"The problem was, shortly after this Gehn chose me to be his wife." At this, she shuddered slightly. "I couldn't refuse – after all, this was supposed to be a great honour, being chosen to marry Gehn. But I didn't think so.
"I followed Atrus back to D'ni when he left the age, seeing where he hid his linking book. I told him about his father's tyranny, and his desire to marry me. Atrus resolved to help us. He made modifications to the Riven descriptive book, trying to stabalise the age and correct his father's poor writing. He had a plan – to imprison Gehn on Riven and stop his constant destruction of the ages. But I knew it wouldn't work as it was – so when I was approached by Atrus' grandmother, Anna, I gratefully accepted her help. Together we wrote Myst, and I made some further changes to Riven.
"On the day of the wedding, Atrus' original plan went badly wrong – he was captured by his father. A violent storm and earthquake – a result of my modifications to the book – sprung up, interrupting the proceedings. We destroyed the last two books leading off the age, then evacuated ourselves to Myst, Atrus throwing himself down the Star Fissure as he did so. We imprisoned Gehn, escaped... and that was that." She smiled again. "After all that, we couldn't exactly not get married."
Brittany smiled at this as well. So did Jane.
"How is Atrus, by the way?" asked Brittany. "I haven't seen him since we went to the volcano."
"Oh, he's still trying to distract himself from Releeshahn," sighed Catherine. "I think he's working on a new book. He doesn't like going to Myst, you know. Neither do I. There's too many bad memories. So I think he's working on an age to store all these linking books to D'ni. He doesn't like using Myst."
"I'm amazed he can concentrate on a new book."
"I don't think he can. Tell you what, why don't we go see him... that way he can tell you."
Jordan hung in the air above the central building. He could tell what was going to happen as soon as he pressed the button in front of him. Well... terrifying as it was, it had to be done. He reached forward and pressed the button.
With a hiss of air, the supports clicked out of place, and a glowing semicircle moved in to form a sphere of ice around Jordan. He gripped the chair tightly as silence fell for a split second, before the iceball dropped from the building, striking the track and hurtling towards the sonic ring puzzle.
Jordan gripped his chair and squeezed his eyes shut as the ball hurtled through the five rings. It swung back towards the central building, crashing through the door and up around the internal tracks before bursting out another door and flying towards the balance bridge.
Holding his breath, Jordan squeezed his eyes closed as he headed towards the bridge. There was a moment of calm as the ball passed over it, then it was flying back towards the central building and out the other side, heading for the pinball machine.
"Oh god," muttered Jordan as the ball landed in the pinball machine. There was a moment of calm, allowing Jordan to brace himself. The ball was thrown over into the second spindle, then back to the first, and finally it was hurled back through the second spindle, landing on the tracks again and being carried back towards the central building for the last time.
The ball spent far less time in the central building this time before bursting out the way the three of them had come in. It rolled down through the link-in spot, out around the tracks to an area with three gaps in it. As he approached each one, it snapped up, allowing the ball to roll safely over and finally come to a rest.
The ice shattered. Jordan opened his eyes. Across the water from him, imprinted on the rollercoaster itself, was the third symbol. He felt for his journal and sketched it down quickly, before stumbling forward out of the chair and practically falling onto the waiting panel of the book in front of him.