4 – Crystal
Rachel and Maddy stood in front of the sculpture, somewhat in awe of it. It had been carved from the beautiful quartz crystal that was abundant throughout the small part of Spire they had seen so far, and it depicted the scene that they had seen not so long ago in the painting above the fireplace in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.
"Why would Sirrus put so much effort into building this?" said Rachel. "It can't have been easy to construct... look at the detail." She ran a hand over the crystalline figures. They were cold and smooth to touch. The tableau was positioned perfectly, and it was a perfect recreation of the painting in Atrus and Catherine's bedroom.
"He wouldn't have put this much effort into something for no reason," mused Maddy, "even if he was stranded here with nothing to do."
"Exactly," replied Rachel, "and I'm betting the reason wasn't for its sentimental value."
They stood and looked at the vignette for a little longer, then moved on in silence.
Jordan stood outside Haven's destroyed linking chamber and surveyed the landscape. This area of Haven was a fairly barren coastline, broken by the massive wrecked ship on the sharp rocks. Jordan had already noted, though, that the vast majority of the island was covered in a dense jungle. He was looking for any signs of human life, although he did not expect to see any. There was life here – birds soared, he could see crabs scuttling along the beach, and other creatures in the distance. But no human life. Unsurprising, really – why would Achenar have waited around? Surely twenty years was more than enough for him.
He heard Jane behind him, and turned around. She was holding a small purse.
"Where'd you get that?"
"It was in that tray thing," replied Jane, pointing at the swivelling compartment which was presumably for passing things through the bars of the cell between visitor and prisoner. "But that doesn't matter... here, look." She gave the purse to Jordan, who turned it over in his hand.
"Seems normal to me. What am I looking at?"
"This..." Jane grabbed her father's hand and dragged it onto Yeesha's necklace, which Jane had hung around her own neck.
"Wha-"
She stumbles. Falls briefly to her knees. Cries out – in pain? Fear? Gets up. Runs off, looking back over her shoulder.
Jordan blinked several times and shook his head slightly. He frowned.
"That was – a memory? Triggered by the purse?"
"I guess so," said Jane. "I think that means that Yeesha must have come here after she hid in the fireplace."
Jordan thought about this for a second. "Hmm. Well... I'll keep that in mind. Come on, let's go."
They walked down a short, gravelly track, which dead-ended at a small cliff face. On the ground in front of them were several crabs, which were crowded in what appeared to be puzzled awe around something shining on the ground. Jordan gave them eah a poke with his foot, and they scuttled away, leaving Jordan to pick up the shining object.
The object was made of a smooth, translucent white crystal. It appeared to be a shard of something larger, as it was broken and jagged on one edge. The non-broken part was carved into a small, crude face.
"What is that?"
"Some sort of crystal," replied Jordan.
"There was some shiny stuff on the ground in the chmber," said Jane absently, taking the crystal and turning it over in her hand. It was cold to the touch, despite Haven's warm ambient temperature. "Maybe this is -"
She stopped as the necklace chimed its clear, piercing note again. Still somewhat wary of the necklace's power, Jane touched it.
Two men, apart for twenty years. One, thin and devious, uses his mind as chief weapon. The other, well-built and vicious, uses his strength. They circle each other. Eyes meet. False lunges. Then a real strike. The strong one pins the thin one down. The thin one pushes back. Exertion. Groaning. Sweat.
Jane jerked her hand away. She was still not used to seeing memories like that.
"What did you see this time?" asked Jordan quietly.
"Two men," murmured Jane. "Fighting."
"Who were they?"
"Dunno. Never seen them before. One was tall and thin, and the other was pretty bulky and wild-looking."
"Can I see?" Jordan took the crystal from her and touched the necklace. He murmured under his breath in surprise.
"Sirrus and Achenar..."
Jane was surprised as well. "So does that mean... Sirrus came here?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
Silence fell between them as they walked back to the linking chamber and up a roughly carved flight of stairs to a narrow flat area. To the right, they saw some large stacks of boxes and crates, whilst to the left was a cliff with a crude rope ladder hanging down it, leading to a wider beach and the wrecked ship.
"She'll be all right."
Jane looked up at her father. She sighed. "Yeah... I hope so."
Rachel took a few steps back and surveyed the small area where she and Maddy stood. It was a small cave, enclosed by Spire's ubiquitous rock on all sides but one, which opened out onto the sea of clouds beyond. There was nothing special about the rock – it was exactly like all the other rock they'd seen. Out the open side of the cave, another rock spire could be seen jutting out of the clouds. On the whole, thought Rachel, this area would be incredibly dull if it wasn't so interesting. Strewn throughout the cave were various other artefacts which were obviously not natural. Several lengths of greenish wire ran along the floor, which itself was metal grates that were raised slightly from the ground. Circuit boards and other electronic equipment were positioned in various places around the cave. Most impressively of all, however, seven crystals, clamped by massive metal holders and connected by the same green wire, were suspended out over the clouds between the cave and the second spire. Judging by how far away they were, each of the metal structures was at least as big as a human, and a ball of crackling electricity glimmered above each one.
"Sirrus – he must have built all this," said Rachel, somewhat awe-struck. "From scratch. It's – awe-inspiring."
"He did have twenty years," replied Maddy.
"Most people couldn't build something like this from scratch in twenty lifetimes," said Rachel. "I know I couldn't; I don't know a thing about this sort of stuff."
"That's true. And then there's the obvious lack of tools. He must have found some sort of metal ore to make all this grating." Maddy kneeled down and tapped the grating that covered the floor. It rang at her touch.
"If you say so," replied Rachel. She looked around the chamber. "There's a ladder there... we should probably move on, as interesting as I know this is for you."
Upstairs, the two of them came across what appeared to be a combined garden and laboratory. Rows and rows of unfamiliar but not particularly interesting plants filled part of the area, and the other part was taken up by a multitude of benches, with papers, crystals and plants scattered over them in what seemed like a form of organised chaos. Maddy gravitated immedaitely to Sirrus' workbenches, where she found the most fantastic array of... well, everything. Of particular interest to her, however, was a small leather-bound book lying innocently on the bench. She picked it up and flicked it open.
"Hey, Rach, look at this," she called over her shoulder. Rachel, who had been examining the garden, looked over Maddy's shoulder at the book.
"Sirrus' journal?"
"Yeah." Maddy skimmed the pages of the book quickly. "It looks like he wrote in the..." she glanced at the dates, "first year or so. He goes on about the crystals and how he harnessed them to store electricity. And he talks about how he was trying to use one of the floating rocks to construct a ship to take him over to that other spire." She paused again and flicked to the last entry. "It looks like he made a mistake in his calculations and lost his first ship. He says it set him back by years. I wonder if he ever succeeded?"
"I expect we'll find out," replied Rachel.
The interior of the wrecked ship contained a lot more than either Jordan or Jane had been expecting. Upstairs (so to speak – there weren't any stairs, only ladders and ropes) they found a room which Achenar had made into his makeshift bedroom. They found his journal on the bed, which described Achenar's vendetta against some sort of sea monster which had attempted to kill him. Both Jordan and Jane recalled seeing the skeleton of a massive creature lying on the beach. It certainly matched the drawing in the book – perhaps Achenar had succeeded in killing the creature after all. The journal ended after the creature's attack on Achenar, after which he swore vengeance on the creature using his typical colourful turn of phrase.
"'As death is my witness, I will decorate my kingdom with your bones.'" Jordan closed the book. "The man is nuts."
"I dunno, Dad," said Jane. "He goes on and on about the intelligence of this thing. If it's that smart, and he managed to kill it, he must have outsmarted it."
"That's true," replied Jordan after a brief hesitation. "How would he kill something of that size? It must have been, what, three times his size?"
"More," said Jane, who was better at judging scale than her father. "The skull on the beach was bigger than me. Five times his size, I think, at least."
"Astonishing," murmured Jordan under his breath. "But you're right. Something of that size and intellect, he couldn't have just taken it on. He would have had to plan his attack."
Downstairs, the two of them found a sort of lab set up. There was a variety of hunting tools, including crude bear traps and a variety of spears. On the desk, however, was a small bellows. Jordan, in a moment of rash action, poked the bellows. A jet of greenish gas shot out the end and enveloped both him and Jane. Instantly, Jordan's head began to swim and he felt dizzy. He blinked several times and shook his head. After a short while, his vision cleared.
"That was weird," said Jane, who had experienced the same thing. "Some sort of knockout gas?"
"I suppose so," replied Jordan. "Why would he want to refine it like this? It looks like he's even liquefied it," he added, noticing a small bottle filled with green liquid.
"As a weapon?" suggested Jane. "He talks about hunting all sorts of animals in his journal."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Still, seems like a lot of effort to go to."
"It's not like he was pressed for time."
The static electricity in the air was making Maddy's hair stand on end, which was a sight that would cheer anyone up. Rachel pulled her phone out and snapped a picture before Maddy turned around.
"I think... I think I got it to work."
The two of them went down to the area with all the electrical equipment. Floating in the harbour was a large rock, with a small entrance hatch in the top. A bridge had extended from the area where they stood to meet the top of the ship.
"So... shall we?"
There was a small makeshift tent sitting in the clearing. Realising what this could hold, Jordan and Jane began to approach, but paused when the tent shuddered violently. The two of them froze and looked at one another.
"Wind?" mouthed Jane silently. The tent shuddered again. Jordan licked a finger and held it up, then shook his head. They crept closer.
There was a sudden shriek from inside the tent, and a tall animal emerged from the tent and ran directly into them, throwing them both violently to the side and towards the cliff edge.
Jane frantically grabbed at the first thing she felt, which happened to be Jordan. Jordan grabbed at the first thing he felt, which happened to be the tent.
The next discovery that Jordan and Jane made was that Achenar had not mastered the art of properly anchoring tents into the ground. Things escalated from there.
