Like before I returned to the Myst Library, and in the back of my mind I was feeling comfortable in a sense that I was always returning to my starting point. It felt like Myst Island was my temporary home for the time being and these trips to the other Ages were little weekend vacations to satisfy my sense of adventure.
I took the two pages I found back in the Selentic Age and placed them in their appropriate books. Neither brother would acknowledge that they could hear me, but I was beginning to wonder whether they were really unable to hear me, or just unwilling to admit they could hear me.
Sirrus and Achenar both tried to persuade me to bring them more pages, and for the life of me I still had no idea why I continued giving them pages. They both insisted that the other was guilty, and now they blamed the other sibling for the destruction of the Myst library. On top of this, they now both gave warnings that freeing the "guilty brother" could result in my death.
That was certainly something I didn't dwell on before. What if Sirrus or Achenar would try to kill me? I had a fifty-fifty chance of trying to guess which brother was innocent, but I would prefer not to gamble my life on lousy odds like that.
It was fairly obvious to me that even if the library wasn't destroyed, I doubted that these two brothers got along. Sirrus was always condescending of Achenar, treating him like an insane child. Achenar despised Sirrus with a passion, making Sirrus out to be a shallow and greedy. I wondered what these two were like when they were younger.
Should I really even be helping these two out? I don't feel really qualified to judge who is innocent and who isn't, especially since I came along after the fact. I should probably be putting this decision in the hands of Atrus. Of course, I still had to find Atrus.
My final entry on the list of keys was the giant tree, with the key 724. I went to the giant shelf and leafed quickly through the Channelwood journal. I tucked the journal under my arm and exited the library, walking down the narrow path towards the far end of the island.
In the back of my mind I was beginning to work on theories about the library itself. Obviously, there were two types of books kept there. These journals, like the one I had now, and the larger books which actually took me to the various ages. I also beleived that within these books were symbols and equations that created the worlds they linked to. When the library was destroyed, Atrus took the remaining books and put them in their places of protection. The journals he left in the library.
But what about the smaller books? In each Age I found a smaller book to take me back to Myst Island. Did each of these smaller books create Myst Island, or were they just ment to take me to Myst Island?
Atrus must have created dozens more worlds like these, hundreds maybe. I couldn't even fathom how long it would take to create a world such as the ones in these books. Just how creative did someone have to be to create a world?
I suppose I could always tell myself I want to invent an island. Then maybe I'd want to put some flowers or maybe a forest on the island, perhaps even some wildlife. But to create something like this must be an entirely different level of complexity. To get the details such as how wide the path would be, what color the water was, or the exact height of the mountain. How could any one man create just one world in such detail, much less a multitude of worlds. Yet these worlds existed. They were created, and the only explanation I could think of was that Atrus actually wrote these worlds into existance Work that spanned at least two decades as far as I could recall. And one of his sons had destroyed all of that work in an instant.
Atrus must have known that something like this would be coming. Perhaps he always sided with paranoia. Why would he create the places of protection for these books if there was no danger to them? Could it be that others could find their way to Myst Island just like I have?
But if he created hundreds of books, why were there so few places of protection for them? Were there other hiding places that I didn't know about? Perhaps there were books that were hidden in a completely different age.
I rounded the corner of the path and arrived at the giant evergreen tree. The tree was surrounded on three sides by an eight foot high brick wall. I climbed up the steps to the base of the tree and noted how rigid and solid the tree was. It must be hundreds of years old. But did it really exist for hundreds of years, or was it hundreds of years old when it was created?
I walked back to the log cabin next to the tree and went inside. There was a safe in here, and I had a sneaky suspicion that the key 724 was actually the combination.
I pressed the buttons underneath the indicators until they read 724 and pulled the handle down. My guess was correct, and the safe opened for me. Inside I found a box of wooden matches.
At the far end of the cabin was a large boiler with a small opening underneath for kindling. To the side of the boiler was a large wheel. I lit a match on the side of the matchbox and started a fire in the boiler. Nothing happened until I turned the large wheel, which must control the flow of steam from the boiler.
A roaring blaze appeared at my feet and the pressure inside the boiler began to rise. A few seconds later I heard a thundering clap accompanied by a quake that shook the entire floor of the cabin. The gauge dropped back to zero, only to increase once again with the build up of pressue.
I walked out of the cabin and looked at the giant tree. Suddenly, I heard the clap again, and the tree rose three feet in height as if its life cycle was being presented to me at a thousand times normal speed. I waited a little more and the tree rose again, only this time I saw a small entrance carved into the trunk of the tree.
I looked inside and noticed that it resembled an elevator car inside. But where would this elevator take me? I looked up towards the top of the tree and saw nothing but the blue skies of Myst Island. Perhaps the elevator was supposed to take me down.
As the tree continued its ascent, I ran into the cabin and turned the large wheel until the fuel valve was completely closed. By the time I was done, I could hear the thunderous rumbles of the tree more frequently. The tree was descending.
I ran out of the cabin and towards the tree. The elevator was already halfway submerged under the ground. I jumped down into the elevator and pulled my feet close to my body as the tree descended another three feet. The outside light was completely cut off, and I was only able to see things from a small light bulb above me.
The tree continued to descend until I reached an underground cavern. The walls of the room looked like they were fashioned out of tree trunks proped up to support the underground room. It was like I was in an underground log cabin. At the far end sitting on a pedestal was the book I had expected to find.
I opened up the book and flipped to the very last page where the image of the Channelwood Age was. I saw a giant windmill come into view, and the scene moved past it to reveal a village suspended into the trees above. It looked very primative. I touched my fingers to the image, and felt my body begin to fade away.
I found myself standing and facing a tree. I was on a single walkway connected to other walkways that stood just above the water line. The water below me was a light blue/green color and hundreds of leaves floated on the surface.
All around me were trees that stretched high into the sky. About twenty feet above me was a series of small buildings with wooden bridges linking them together. From the sketches in the journal I had expected a primitive culture of sorts, and yet I knew that it was no small feat in itself of actually getting a village that high into the air.
The air was hot and humid. It was almost uncomfortable to breathe in this dense of an atmosphere. I wondered if the climate played a large role in the creation of the suspended village.
The layout of the walkways suggested a cascading tree like layout. They wrapped around the bases of all the trees, but merged together at the edge of the forest. I began walking along the walkways looking around for signs of life. I was ninety percent sure that this was the last age that I would be exploring, and I feared what would happen if I didn't find Catherine or Atrus.
I still had the Channelwood Journal with me from the Myst Library, and I flipped through it to confirm that I was where I thought I was. According to the journal humans and primates both inhabited this Age.
According to the journal, the humans lived on the island, and the monkeys lived in the trees. The island sank, and many of the humans perished because of the sinking, or their inability to adapt to the monkeys' environment. While I had desperately wanted some form of companionship, I wasn't sure how I'd feel if the only living thing I would find were monkeys.
I noticed as I walked that along each walkway ran a length of copper pipe. At each junction or branch of the walkway, there was a switch that would control the flow of the pipes. I knelt down and felt the pipe with my hand. It wasn't noticably warm or cold, nor did I feel any vibrations of any kind.
The walkways themselves appeared to have taken on quite a bit of damage over the years. Some sections of the walkway were totally destroyed or underwater, as if they were abandoned or were no longer necessary to the inhabitants of the village. In some cases the pipes that ran along the walkways were severed or submerged underwater.
I did find a staircase that lead up to the village, but it was completely blocked off by a closed door, locked from the other side. There were also two elevators that appeared to lead up to the village, but they were powered by water flowing through the pipe network, and I still haven't found any pipe with water flowing through it.
Eventually, the pipes branched together towards a single pipe that went along a single walkway going towards a large rock just past the grouping of trees. On the very top of the rock was a large windmill, made out of wood and with large pieces of sailcloth for fan blades. It was an impressive sight. The structure of the windmill dominated the giant rock. The base of the windmill housed a small shack which probably held some mechanical equipment of sorts.
I walked along the final walkway and finally felt a breeze of warm air, giving me a mild relief from the humidity of the forest. The walkway ended at the base of the rock, and concrete steps covered with sand forged a path up the rock to a small shack near the base of the windmill. Where the pipe ended, a long rubber hose continued, winding along the steps towards the shed.
The hose came to a large reserve tank which took up almost the entire shed. Off to the side was a small pump with a large pipe going up along the side of the tank, and a small spout where the water dripped in.
Pipes on the other side of the pump went straight out the other side of the shed, and then turned straight down into the ocean. The pipes leading to the pump were cold to the touch.
The windmill must power the pump, and since the pipes are cold, then the mechanism to pump the water must still work!
I stood up on the tips of my toes and looked inside the reserve tank. It was indeed full. I noticed that there was an overflow lip that allowed water to drain back down towards the water on the far side of the rock, where it would probably just get caught in the pumps again as if it were running along a mobius strip. At the base of the tank where the rubber hose connected, I noticed a small shutoff value which was closed. I opened the value a little and water began flowing down the hose towards the copper pipes.
As I walked back along the walkways I could hear the water flowing near my feet. As I winded along the path back to the elevator I opened and closed the valves at the various junctions I crossed, just to make sure all the water went directly along the path I was walking.
I arrived at one of the elevators and looked over the entire mechanism. The motor for the elevator was at the edge of the walkway, powered by water flow from the pipes. The motor pulled on the long thick ropes lifting the elevator car up to the village level. The elevator car itself currently rested just above the water, the single rope was the only thing holding it in place.
Inside the elevator I found a single control level. I noticed that it was tied to a thin rope that also ran the length of the elevator cables, only a weight was also attached to keep the line taught. At the top of the elevator car were massive metal bolts to keep the rope held tight.
I pulled the lever to start the elevator and I noticed a small outlet on the side of the motor open. Water started flowing out of the motor and the cables tightened up as the elevator began it's ascent.
But my trip had almost ended right there. The door was still open, and the weight of the door was tilting the entire elevator, almost making me tumble out into the murky water below. I reached out with the tips of my fingers and pulled the door closed. The elevator corrected its balance and continued upwards.
I looked through a small window in the front of the elevator door and watched as the village came into view. The elevator car stopped at a landing which surrounded the elevator on all sides to prevent it from swaying. I opened the door and jumped across a small gap onto the landing.
From here, there was a single bridge made of rope and wooden planks that lead to a circular hut that was open on many sides. It resembled a hut that I had seen drawn in the journal, which gave me further reassurance that this was indeed Channelwood.
I felt the wind up at this height, and I was totally oblivous to any humidity. Compared the the scorching sauna of the ground below, the village maintained a calm gentle climate.
When I looked at it in real life the hut itself reminded me of the fortress in the Mechanical Age. Of course the hut was much smaller, and made out of wood and bamboo, but the general shape and layout gave me the impression that it was somehow related to the Mechanical Age fortress. Perhaps one of them inspired the other.
I walked along the bridge to the circular hut and did a complete survey of the buildings around me. They were all small huts, either circular like the one I was standing in now, or rectangular shaped. The circular huts gave the impression that they were common areas used by the monkeys (or the villagers) to do work, or share in common tasks. The rectangular ones looked sturdier, and blocked the wind out from all sides suggesting they were shelters or homes perhaps.
Above me there was another level, with what appeared to be three buildings. There wasn't a map of this area, but I figured it must be important. The walkways were roughly twelve feet above me, beyond my reach. Perhaps there was another staircase, or elevator.
I walked around a bit thinking about how Atrus came about creating this world. The more I thought about the similarities between the hut and the fortress, the more I thought about other similarities that I noticed. The clocks I had seen, the usage of natural power sources, the marvelous inventions that Atrus had created when he visited the worlds.
How much of this place was actually built? How much of it was written? Atrus had always visited a world and was amazed by the things his mind created, and yet he always contributed in some physical form to improve the world itself, to benefit the inhabitants, or himself.
Maybe these Ages are related merely by Atrus' creative process. Perhaps something he creates in one Age inspires him to create something in another. I recalled the clock tower I saw in the Selentic Age, and the boat in the Stoneship Age. Were they inspired by artifacts on Myst Island? Or was it the other way around?
I began to notice that some of these huts had looked like they had barely survived a tornado. There were wall panels lying on the floors, broken pottery, or minor debris scattered about. There was also a hut that had no linking bridges to it, but there was an elevator car directly below. And I had yet to see any inhabitants, primate or otherwise.
Where were the inhabitants? Someone had to build these structures, and I doubt that it was Atrus. Why would Atrus create all this if it wasn't put to use? Something was very wrong here. And if I could find out what happened here, I might be able to explain what happened to the inhabitants of the other Ages.
I continued walking along the paths, using a map I found in the journal as a guide. I reached the top of the staircase that I reached earlier, but it was blocked by a closed door as well. Next to the door was an elevator that appeared to go to the next level, but I doubted that it would work since there was no water flow to the motor.
There was no latch on the door, or any visible means of opening it. From the other side I saw a rope that ran up and through some pulleys that were nailed into nearby trees. The rope ended at a small device in one of the circular huts. In he middle of the rope was a weight that was far beyond my reach. I noticed that the path of the rope was laid out on the map in Atrus' journal.
I walked back along the paths until I reached the hut where the rope ended. From here, I could clearly see the door. In the hut itself was a large switch on a pedestal. I pulled the rope and the weight dropped, opening the door. I assumed that the control to open the door was placed here for some defensive purpose. To make sure opening the door wouldn't be too easy for an outsider to accomplish.
I ran back along the paths, the bridges swayed back and forth on ropes that were probably older than I was. I made my way back to the landing and walked down the stairs, winding along the base of a large tree.
The door at the bottom of the stairs was kept closed by a simple latch which I opened. At the bottom landing was another motor like the one I used earlier which powered the elevator car just above me. I went back along the walkways towards the rock. Once I arrived at the first junction of the water pipe, I began to reroute the flow of water until it went to the motor next to the staircase. Now the elevator above me should have power.
I climbed back up the steps and entered the second elevator. It swung a bit under my weight, but it's movements were restricted by bamboo crossbeams placed there to prevent the elevator from swaying. I closed the door, pulled the lever and waited as the elevator took me up to the next level.
Up here, I began to suspect that something about these huts were different. The huts were larger and fully enclosed. The walkways in between them appeared more sturdy, and there were more crossbeams underneath to support the weight of the huts. I rounded the corner and went over to the first hut that was behind the elevator shaft.
I opened the door and looked inside. This hut housed an elegant bedroom that looked totally undisturbed, less for a few wine bottles on the floor (some shattered) and a broken chair or two. A large bed set in the far corner, and two end tables situated underneath glass windows (the first I've seen in this age) at opposite ends of the room.
Sirrus' room? Out of curiosity I picked up one of the intact wine bottles and read the label. It was similar to the wine bottles I found in the Mechanical Age, and those were located in what I assumed to be Sirrus' throne room.
I still had no real proof that this room belonged to Sirrus, or the other elegant bedrooms that I had found in the previous ages. In fact, I now recalled that the Selentic Age never did have any bedrooms, so I had forgotten all about them.
I sat down on a waterbed in the far corner of the room and began to think this over. In all but two of the Ages (Myst and Selentic) I found two very different rooms. One elegant, one hideous. It was either a bedroom or a throne room depending on the age. While I had no proof of who resided in each room, I began to believe that Sirrus always lived in the elegant rooms, and Achenar lived in the hideous rooms.
And in each room, there was a page.
I jumped up from the bed and noticed that there were two drawers underneath. Opening the first one revealed a dagger, and the second one revealed a strange note. It was torn in half, so I had no idea what it said.
ch Vault Access
and of Myst
ated in very plain view on
Myst, and access can be
easily if the simple
ollowed. First, locate
Switches on the island.
these switches to the
en go to the dock and,
rn the Marker Switch
e "off" position.
Wait! I had the other half of this note. I found it back in the Stoneship Age. But what did I do with it? I quickly felt through my pockets for scraps of paper. The note to Catherine, the note to Sirrus. I must have left that piece of paper in the library. Damn. I'm sure that knowing what was written on that note might prove to me who was guilty, and who was innocent.
I continued searching, and finally found the red page. It was located in the end table at the window looking towards the windmill. The cold chill I usually felt when taking the pages felt stronger now, as if the page knew what was happening. As if it knew how much closer I was to completing the red book.
I took the page, and I also decided to take the dagger as well. I feared that if my judgment was wrong, and I let the wrong brother out of the books I would need a weapon to defend myself. I rushed out of the bedroom and began walking towards the nearer of the other two huts.
The walkway wrapped partially around the middle hut, and continued on towards the back. There was a gate to block access to the rear hut, but it was left open and unlocked. A solid black door protected the entrance to the middle hut. I opened the door and stepped inside.
Strange native masks were hung along the walls, and in the center was a large metal altar. There were no windows, giving the room a dark forbidding presence. I did however notice an exit in the rear. I stepped towards the back exit.
Suddenly, a blinding light came from all around. I raised my hands to shield my eyes, when an image appeared just above the altar. It was a human head, and it began uttering a strange chant. It was Achenar!
He continued chanting as I stepped back. His voice literally sounded like it came from every corner of the room. When the chant finished, his image faded and the room returned to its dull dark interior.
What was going on? What purpose could be served by such a strange chant? It could be a primitive language of sorts, perhaps used by the natives of this age. But in the current context it seemed different. Very different. What was Achenar's purpose in creating such a forboding image of himself?
It must have been a hologram of some sort. Perhaps projected from the altar. I remember that in another bedroom in the Stoneship Age there was a hologram of a rose that slowly changed to a human skull. Maybe Achenar created it.
As I moved towards the table I noticed that there were sharp points along the edge, and a strange odor coming from underneath the alter itself. Suddenly, the surface of the table folded downwards upon itself, while the very edges folded upwards and clamped shut, forming a half cylindrical shroud around the top of the table. The edges of the shroud were streaked with blood.
I backed away in fright. I realized the smell was that of rotting flesh, like I had smelled earlier in the Mechanical Age. I walked along the wall towards the rear entrance of the house and ran along the walkway towards the final hut.
The final hut looked more simpler than the others, as if perhaps it was built first, as a temporary shelter. I opened the double doors and stepped inside.
In the first corner was an old bed frame, and in the opposite corner was a strange flat device on a pedestal. On the very top of the device was a viewing screen protected by a wire criss-crossing mesh pattern. Underneath the screen were four buttons.
I pressed the first button and the Achenar's face appeared on the screen. He repeated the same chant that I had heard earlier in the other hut. The second button was another chant, but this image showed only Achenar's mouth. The third button showed Achenar's face and he uttered yet a different chant. The chants were totally alien to me, and for all I knew they could just be vocal recordings played backwards.
But the fourth button showed a different image. A very different image. Sirrus.
"I hope I pushed the right button, my dear brother," Sirrus said. "What a very interesting device you have here. I'm not erasing anything important, am I?" Sirrus laughed as if he already knew one of Achenar's chants would be erased. "Remember.... he is preparing. Take only one page, my dear brother."
The image faded, and I was left with even more questions to answer. What was the purpose of this device? Why did Achenar need it? Who or what was sacrificed on that deadly alter back there?
I found the blue page near the bottom of the device. I ignored the chill and stuck the page in my back pocket. Now all I had to do was get out of here. And as far as I was concerned, the sooner the better.
There was nothing else for me to see, so I started walking back towards the elevator. I tried to walk around the middle hut, avoiding it like the plague. But when I walked past the black door, the imaging system started up, as if alerted to my presence.
"I hope I pushed the right button, my dear brother...."
Surprised, I turned back and noticed it was Sirrus' face above the altar. Well, I guess that explains what the device in the smaller hut was for. But if Sirrus knew it's purpose, and what Achenar was doing, why didn't he try and stop him?
I continued walking towards the elevator. I could still hear Sirrus' voice behind me. "Remember, he is preparing...."
I took the elevator down, and walked along the walkways. I figured that the Myst linking book was probably in that final, isolated hut. I didn't dare try to jump the gap to reach the hut. I was already too high up, and the walls of that hut appeared to be more sturdy than the others. I would have to go down to the ground level ride up in the final third elevator.
Unfortunately, the two paths leading to the elevator were both cut off. At the end of one path, the copper pipe had broken off; and on the other path, the piping came to an end at a motor that didn't appear to power anything. The ropes connected to the motor lead underwater.
I ran back along the paths and tried channeling the water to the motor to see what would happen. I pulled a switch on the motor, and suddenly a section of walkway emerged from under the water neatly connecting the two sections of walkway.
I walked to the elevator and then backtracked the second path to the elevator following the copper pipe. On this walkway I had piping to power the elevator, but a section of pipe (and walkway for that matter) was broken off.
I followed the piping to the missing walkway segment and noticed that at this end of the gap, the pipe itself was much larger, and connected to a gearwheel. I turned the wheel, and realized the pipe on this end was extending itself across the gap until it connected with the broken pipe on the other side of the bridge. I now had a complete water line to the elevator motor.
I walked back along the main walkways, cutting off the water flow in the right directions until it went directly to the third elevator. I then walked back towards the elevator and started my ascent to the final hut.
The hut itself was very small, only about twice the size of the elevator itself. I opened the door and directly in front of me was the small Myst book.
Happily, I opened the book to the final page and reached into the Myst Library image. My work was nearly done, and I wanted to make sure that the final stages moved swiftly.