4. Tower Rotation

The Stoneship Age | Contents | The Mechanical Age

I sat down on the floor and thought about the two pages in my hand. Why were they ripped out of the books? What were they doing in the Stoneship Age? Were there other pages out there?

I placed the two pages next to each other on the floor. Suddenly, the pages moved away from each other in opposite directions. At first I just thought it was the wind and I slid the pages back next to each other. Again, the pages moved apart as if they were magnetically repelling by each other. Interesting....

I took the red page and placed it in the red book. The book itself glowed a bright red tint as the page re-glued itself to the binding of the book. And then the man reappeared in the small window on the final page. His image was somewhat brighter, but his voice was fading in and out.

The man had a rather dignified look. He had a finely trimmed goatee and a short respectable haircut. He looked like royalty or wealth, perhaps. Very distinguished.

"You've returned," the man said. "My name is Sirrus". Crackling noises followed, and his face twisted in and out a few times. "I have been wrongfully imprisoned............Bring me the red pages....My brother is guilty.....Do not br..lue pages to him...." The image then finally faded away.

"Hello," I said. "Can you hear me?" I frantically waved my hands in front of the book, but Sirrus failed to reappear.

Well, at least I had learned more from this man. Sirrus was one of Atrus' sons. One of the sons that Atrus suspected of destroying the Myst Library. He didn't seem like the type that would do such a thing.

Despite the warning Sirrus gave me, I took the blue page over to the blue book. I had wanted to learn more, and I doubted that adding another page to the blue book would do me any harm.

The blue book held another man inside, only this man was larger, his hair was very curly and unkempt, his beard was scraggly looking. His overall manor suggested someone who was frantic, or hurried. The man occasionally laughed as he spoke.

"I am Achenar", the man said through the distorted blue mist. "Bring me the blue pages.....Don't bring the red pages......I have been wrongfully put in here.....I will have my retribution......"

Achenar faded away just as Sirrus did. I closed the book, and walked out of the library. I had solved part of the puzzle, and I had effectively replaced it with a dilema.

In those two books it appeared that the sons of Atrus were imprisonned, more than likely by Atrus himself. More than likely Atrus had done this to temporarily restrain them until he could find out which one was guilty for destroying the library. But which one was it?

I wish I could find Catherine, or Atrus for that matter. Both Sirrus and Achenar basically said the same thing. They both said they were wrongfully imprisoned, and they both said essentially that I was not to help the other.

One of them must be lying. And surely Atrus or Catherine must have an idea of which one it is.

But where were they? I had already visited one age and I didn't find Catherine or Atrus. The whole age seemed deserterd, now that I think about it. Should I continue looking for books that could lead to more Ages?

Both Sirrus and Achenar hinted that there were more red and blue pages out there. What if I were to find them and bring them back while I searched for Catherine and Atrus?

I must continue my quest to find Catherine and Atrus. Then, I'd be able to get home, somehow. Atrus' message revealed that there was more than one book hidden. The best thing for me to do would be to find those remaining books.

I went across the island and turned on all the marker switches that I could find, less the one at the giant clock since I had no way to cross the water. The map in the library would point me towards the remaining books, and I would continue my search.

When I came back to the library, I rechecked the map. The tower, the library, the observatory, the boat, the gears, the well, the spaceship, the tree, and the shelter were all highlighted. I pressed the tower with my finger and the line reappeared, indicating which direction the tower would face.

The line rotated along it's point or origin until it had made a complete circle around the island. Along the way, it had briefly stopped at various points, as if those key points were of significant interest. The giant gears, the now-un-sunk ship, the tree, and the spaceship. I've already explored the ship, and found the Stoneship Age. Where should I go next?

I closed my eyes as the arrow continued to rotate. Finally, I let my finger up and opened my eyes. The line had stopped at the giant gears.

The floor rumbled underneath me again as the tower began the rotation process. It then came to a grinding halt, and the line on the map began blinking, indicating that the tower had completed its rotation.

I opened the secret passageway and took the elevator up to the giant tower. The elevator rotated at midpoint to continue along the elevator shaft. The door opened, and a beam of sunlight hit me in the face.

I climbed up the "book ladder" and saw the giant gears on the plateau just off the main dock of the island. That must be where the book was kept. I climbed up the "key ladder" and saw a section of the inner wall of the tower. Mounted on the wall just like before was a brass plaque that read, "2:40, 2,2,1"

That must refer to the giant clock just off the island. I could use the wheels on the shore to change the time. So, maybe to get to the books I must set the clock to 2:40. But what does the "2,2,1" mean?

I went down the elevator and realised that perhaps I should try now to find out all the keys that were available. It would be must easier if I could go through the entire tower rotation and find out where all the books are right now.

And so for the next half hour I made several trips controlling the tower rotation, and then going up the elevator to find out where a book was kept, and what key would allow me to open it. I wrote the following chart on the back of the note that Atrus had written to Catherine......

I had all the keys, and I knew where all the books now were. So what should I do now?

Do I try and find these books, see if they go to other worlds? Should I try and find Catherine? or Atrus? There could be more to this island that I need to discover.

I walked along the dirt trail from the library to the clock. It had now read 3:15 after my brief attempts at playing with it earlier. At least it would be right twice a day.

I turned both wheels around until the big hand was on the eight and the little hand on the two. 2:40. Nothing happened, so I decided to press the little button in the corner of the control box.

I heard a rumbling underwater and suddenly a mesh of gears rose to the surface, forming a path from the shore to the base of the clock. The gears were rotating on their axis both clockwise and counterclockwise until the entire mechanism stopped just six inches above the water line.

I walked across the giant gears patting myself on the back. This wouldn't be so tough after all. When I arrived at the other end of the path, I flipped on the final marker switch, and opened the door to the inside of the clock.

The inside of the clock revealed the inner workings of the massive structure. Up above me, gears dotted the dark insides of the clock and I felt like I was inside a giant mechanical being of sorts. In the middle of the cramped interior was a curious looking machine. On the very top of the machine were three gears, resting on their sides, supported by a rod running through the middle. On the front of the machine was a gear half sunk into the support base. At the two sides of the machine were two control arms, giving the device the look of an ancient slot machine.

On the sides of the gears were numbers. At the very front of each gear, the number 3 was written. I looked along the sides of the gears and found that the numbers 2 and 1 were also written along the sides of the gears.

I pulled the left hand lever. The bottom gear and the middle gear rotated. The fronts of all the gears now read 3,1,1. That must be what the numbers in the tower meant. Maybe this was another puzzle. To solve the puzzle I must get the gears to read 2,2,1.

I pulled the right hand lever. The top gear and the middle gear rotated, thus making the gears read 1,2,1. This might be harder that I thought. As I continued pulling the levers, a large weight suspended by a chain in the corner of the room continued to drop. After more lever pulling, the weight finally hit the ground and the levers failed to move the gears anymore.

I looked around a bit and found a giant lever built into the back wall. I gave the lever a hefty pull and it remained pulled downwards. The weight and the large lever slowly began to rise up, and the numbers on the wheel reset to "3,3,3". I was given another chance to figure out the puzzle.

The gears had reset to their original position at 3,3,3. I pulled the lever on the right side first. The gears now read 1,1,3. I pulled the left hand lever and held it down for a few seconds before releasing it. The lower and middle gears turned to 1,2,1; but the middle gear rotated once more making the gears read 1,3,1.

Interesting. If I held the lever down for a while the middle gear would continue to turn. I pulled the right hand lever, and held it down. The gears turned to 2,1,1, and then the middle gear continued to 2,2,1. I did it! I quickly released the lever and stood back for a second.

The giant gear in the middle of the room started turning clockwise along it's axis. Suddenly, I noticed that the gear wasn't a completely round. A section of the gear was missing, revealing a hollow opening.

I looked in the opening. Inside was a small step down, a pedestal, and nothing more. Was there something inside there originally, or was this symbolic of.....

I left the clock tower and walked along the path back to the giant gears. Mentally in my head I began to wonder if there was a quicker combination of lever pulling top open the gears aside from the one I had used myself. I figured that if I had known in the beginning about the middle gear, I would've tried it like this....

As I rounded the observatory, I noticed that the giant gears sculpture had changed. The gear half buried into the ground had opened up like the small one in the clock tower. I ran up the steps and looked inside the opening. Sitting inside the opening on a small metal platform was a book.

I was about to open the book when a thought occured to me. Gears. One of the journals in the library had a gear on the cover. Perhaps this was symbolic in some way?

I ran back down to the library and retrieved the journal. This book talked about an age in which a giant fortress was built to repell an invading navy. Inside there were a couple of maps and charts of equipment. It had seemed to be a very remarkable design. I'd be curious as to what sort of technological advances were made in this Age.

But how could I be sure that this journal was talking about the age that I was about to travel to?

The monument! The gears were symbolic of the Mechanical Age, just as the boat was symbolic of the Stoneship Age. That must be it!

I dropped the journal and flipped open the large book flipping through the strange symbols until I reached the final page. Within the small window I saw views of a giant fortress and several smaller islands closeby. That must be the fortress Atrus wrote about! I reached out with my right hand, and touched the image on the page....

The Stoneship Age | Contents | The Mechanical Age