My body felt disoriented as I completed the link. The walls all around me were spinning, and I felt my equilibrium sway from the effects of the new environment. I was inside another one of the fire marble domes.
In front of me was the pedestal holding a Linking Book. I opened the book to double check what Age it would link to. The image of Gehn's latest Age came into view, centering around his bowl shaped office. At least the dome was still receiving power. I pushed the foot switch and the spinning of the fire marble dome slowed down. The outer dome opened up from around me, and the inner dome lifted upwards to protect the pedestal.
Behind me I heard the sounds of the ocean. I turned around and walked onto a metal catwalk. Ahead of me was the smallest island on Riven. It was a single rock that leveled out to a plateau where a single building stood on top. The catwalk lead to a staircase leading to a tunnel going into the rock itself.
I walked towards the staircase looking out towards the sea. I couldn't even see any of the other islands of Riven. They couldn't be too far away because I could see a metal conduit connected to the fire marble dome that probably lead back to the giant dome. There had to be a way to get here before the domes were built. Perhaps the state of this island has deteriorated more than the others. Maybe it was sinking, or drifting further away from the island group.
The building on top of the rock was made of metal and was probably 15 meters tall. It was a simple tower, with a shaft leading up to a larger sphere. On top of the structure was a windmill gently blowing in the breeze. There were no entrances or windows that I could see on the structure itself. The only way in appeared to be from the tunnel.
As I approached the island, I realised that it wasn't made of rock at all. It was wood. The shape of the island suggested that this island was actually the stump of a giant tree. The catwalk was extending into the tree, making its way past the giant roots that reached into the ground. Moss patches were scattered around the roots. I vaguely remember Atrus mentioning a giant tree when he told me about one of the times he met Catherine. Could this have been the tree he was talking about?
I found myself wondering what this tree looked like before it was destroyed. Was it tall and imposing, or was it short with long branches reaching out in all directions? I wondered how many Books Gehn could have made from the wood of this tree.
I walked up the stairs to the landing. I still couldn't see any of the other islands from this elevation. I entered the tunnel. Conduit lines ran along the inside walls, and electrical lamps were spaced out along the ceiling. The tunnel ended at an elevator shaft.
The elevator did not appear to be designed for human comfort. The platform was circular, and the only body to the elevator car were the bars of a bell shaped cage. But the cage only surrounded the rear half of the elevator, leaving the rest of the car exposed. I looked up into the elevator shaft above me and saw nothing but darkness. There was no exposed cabling to move the elevator, but near the base of the patform, I could make out two wheels on opposite ends that ran along groves going up the shaft.
Directly in front of me, behind the cage bars was a mechanism that looked like an elaborate doorbell. Three buttons connected by push rods lead up to a large bell with a lever running horizontally across the middle. By pushing the buttons, I could make simple sounds of metal hitting metal. Bing, bong, clank. The sounds reminded me of a simple music box or perhaps a wind chime of some kind. The lever made no noise at all.
Hanging from a lever at the top of the cage was a trinagular shaped handle. I could see a control line running from the handle down along the side of the cage to the underside of the platform. I pulled the handle to see what would happen.
I heard a metal clank and the platform shifted. The wheels on the platform started turning and I felt myself start to rise. The doorbell in front of me disappeared as I was lifted up into the shaft of the building. It became completely dark for a few seconds and then a light appeared from above. The walls of the elevator shaft disappeared as the cage arrived at the top of the tower.
The room was large with metalic walls and a wooden floor. Near the rear of the room was an opening that went out to a balcony surrounded with cage bars. A window with similar adornments was at the other end of the room next to a wood burning stove and a pile of logs. In the middle of the room was a oval throw rug. There were baskets hanging from the walls containing fruits and other food items. All of this stuff was out of reach due to the bars of the elevator cage.
"Yeh fari di...", a voice called out from the balcony. A woman walked into the room from the other side but stopped dead cold at the sight of me. She was probably expecting a visitor, but not expecting it to be me.
I had seen the same woman before, from the imager in Gehn's survey room. She was tall, with long flowing black hair that ran down her sides in two tails. She wore a white dress with a long red flowing cloak that only emphasised her height. She walked a few feet closer to me, trying to make something from my appearance.
Catherine.
"You made it," she said in English. "But how did you get past Gehn?"
I wasn't sure what to say at first. Was she expecting me, specifically, or was she just expecting any kind of rescue sent by Atrus. Perhaps despite the fact that she was in a prison, she still had some kind of contact with others on Riven. Maybe the Black Moiety were keeping in touch with her. But why wouldn't they have rescured her as well?
"You must really believe I have gone mad," she said.
Why would she suspect I believed that? Gehn tried to discredit Catherine earlier with stories that she had become some sort of self-righteous leader to the Moiety, but I didn't believe it. Maybe he was spreading the story to the other villagers in an attempt to further weaken sympathy for the Moiety. Catherine was probably in this prison for months. Maybe her confinement was eroding her own confidence in escaping.
"I know what he's doing," she said after a pause. "He's watching you. He's waiting for you to make a mistake." A look of dread began to appear on her face. "He's hoping you'll lead him back to D'ni."
"You can't let Gehn....", she started. She tried to think of the right words to say. "Atrus sent you to save me. But if Gehn gets back to D'ni he'll kill him."
While Gehn spoke to me earlier with a calm, confident voice; Catherine spoke to me with concern and fear. She feared for Atrus' life, and perhaps her own as well.
She then looked up to a point directly above me and walked closer to the cage bars. "Find the Moiety," she whispered. "They have the Book. Be careful."
She then walked back a step. "Go, then. If you won't help me than I have nothing more to say."
Huh? I didn't understand her at all. She turned around and then headed back towards the balcony.
I looked up to where Catherine was looking a second earlier. On the high wall, there was a sphere with a tube extending towards the center of the room. This must have been the camera Gehn used to watch Catherine. Was anyone using it now? Could Gehn have made it back to the survey room from his Age in the time it took me to get here? I suppose it was possible. It was possible that it also could have been the Guild Master watching us.
Catherine was putting on an act to throw me off, but she really only did it to fool Gehn.
I thought about the situation for a moment. Catherine was undoubtedly supporting me in her attempts to rescure her, and she was obviously aware of my arrival on Riven, including the theft of my Prison Book from the Moiety. Now all I had to do was find the Moiety to get the Book back.
I pulled the handle and the elevator cage lowered itself to the bottom of the shaft.
Atrus wanted me to free Catherine. What was stopping me from trying to break through the cage and taking her with me back to one of the other islands? If I did it quickly enough, maybe we could get away before Gehn could come after us.
No, the only way I knew of to get off this island involved Linking back to Gehn's Age. He could easily trap us there by shutting off the power to the Linking Books. Besides, once I rescured Catherine where would I go. I still didn't know exactly how to signal Atrus to let him know I was ready.
I would have to get the Prison Book back, and that would involve finding the hideout of the Black Moiety.