The Eye Puzzle

Catherine | Home | First Nightmare

I linked back to Gehn's new Age without incident. Gehn wasn't present in his office, and the signal I triggered earlier reset itself to its off state. I didn't see any need to call Gehn, so I linked back to the Jungle Island using one of the Books.

Once at the Jungle Island I decided to go over my notes to see what I knew of the Black Moiety. Most of my information on them came from Gehn's lab journal. His information was sketchy and I had a feeling that the Moiety were actually too elusive for him.

It was believed that the Black Moiety hid in the jungle, but their actual hideout was never found. There were recordings of crimes they have committed, but it was hard for me to get an idea of how dangerous the group was. There was no record of any murders, or crimes against individual villagers. The incidents regarded as terror included the faking of aparitional sightings or scaring villagers with their appearance. Vandalisms were performed, but mostly directed towards Gehn in an effort to slow down his work.

Gehn is apparantly working on an Age for the Riven villagers due to the instability of Riven, so why are they sacrificing their only hope for survival?

Yesterday, I found the hidden chamber that held a symbol identifying the Black Moiety. It was located behind the holding cell used for prisoners about to be executed. But there was nobody there, only headstones with pictographs on them. Sooner or later Gehn would have to find it if his own prisoners started disappearing immediately after they were captured. But then again, I had no idea when Gehn last performed an execution.

I walked back down towards the jungle path to where my gear was stashed. When I made it down to the bottom, I picked up my pack and ate some of the last of my food rations. On the ground I noticed the wooden eye.

I remembered the eye from back in the village, and how I recognised the buzzing sound of the beetle it made when I spinned it. Gehn wasn't the maker of these, as they were just as much of a mystery to him. I turned the eye on the ground and listened to the raspy noises it made. It sounded like an animal, but I couldn't remember which one. I recognised the symbol on the back of this ball as the number four.

I had recorded the number symbols for the other ones as well, but I never knew until now what those symbols were. I made a chart in my journal on the locations of the balls and what numbers they were associated with:

All of the balls were found on Jungle Island, so I decided that I should inspect them further. I didn't worry anymore about concealing myself at this time. Gehn already knows of my presence here, and he practically told me to find them, so I should have nothing to worry about from the Riven guards. However, I decided to be discrete in my explorations. I still didn't trust Gehn, and I didn't want to end up being used by him to find the secret hideout of the Moiety. It was possible he was watching my every move.

I spent the next couple of hours going around the island looking for the eyes and seeing if there were any details that I had missed. I began to think about the noises the balls made when they were rotated. The chirping noise made by ball number three was familiar, but I couldn't place it. It kind of sounded like a bird of some kind, but I never saw any aviary life on Riven.

When I reached the lagoon, I found the two sea creatures resting on the rocks again. I made my way to the rocks cautiously, not wanting to disturb these creatures. I always tried to be protective of animal habitats when I went exploring, and for all I knew these creatures could try and eat me if I gave them the chance.

As I made my final approach to their rock, the second creature lifted up its elongated head. It looked around briefly and let out a long low raspy cry. The sound it made was identical to the sound made by the forth ball in the jungle. I thought the noise was familiar.

The creatures left the rock and swam out to sea. Perhaps its only defense was to try to scare of approaching enemies, and if that failed, quickly leave the presence of danger. For what it was worth, I admired the creatures. Unfortunately, their days on Riven were numbered.

I walked to the other side of the rock and rotated the ball. Ball number 5 made a long deep agonizing howl. The sound drove a chill down my spine. I didn't remember hearing anything like that on this island. Whatever it was, it must have been very large.

Could it have been the Whark? The giant sea beast that Gehn used to feed rebel villagers to? I had only heard the creature once back on Survey Island, and once was enough as far as I was concerned. I made a note of the possibility and perhaps I would check it out later when I had a chance to get to Survey Island.

As far as I could tell, there were only five eyeballs, four of which I've seen undisturbed. I couldn't check out the one in the village lake without swimming out there. I found myself thinking about the "beetle" eyeball. This eyeball was found in a waterbowl with a water stain that represented the profile of a beetle. The image reminded me of the pictographs I found in the hidden chamber.

I decided that I would head back towards the chamber to take a look at the headstones again. I made my way around the island back towards the bay, and climbed the ladder leading towards the prison next to the Whark gallows. I looked around to see if anyone was watching me. Feeling confident that I wasn't being followed or observed, I entered the open prison cell. Once inside, I used the secret passage and made my way down to the hidden chamber.

Twenty-five headstones. I examined each one carefully. The head stone at the far end of the chamber was definately the image of the Whark. I had seen the creature up close and represented in various drawings by the villagers. For notational purposes, I labeled this as stone one, and labeled the other stones by counting clockwise.

Stone four resembled the sea creatures that were resting on the rocks, and stone eleven was the beetle profile, almost identical to the one I had seen in the water stain.

A connection was appearing. These creatures were represented in both the headstones and in the pictographs. There were five eyeballs around the jungle island, and these headstones seemed to react when five headstones were selected. Also, out of the five eyeballs I had found, they were numbered one through five. That must indicate a sequence. Perhaps it was the order that I was to use when pushing the stones down.

The Whark was the fifth stone, the beetle the second, and the sea creature was the fourth. What creatures were represented by eyeballs one and three. Should I try to examine the eyeballs or should I make guesses from the headstones that I found?

Headstone 18 looked like a ytram, the tiny frog like creatures that Gehn and the Moiety were fond of for different reasons. What kind of sound did they make again? Was it a chirping noise? Eyeball three made a chirping noise when I rotated it. I thought about the ytram that I captured. I suppose it could be the same noise. I couldn't remember.

As far as eyeball one was concerned I had no clues whatsoever. A copy of the eyeball was found in Gehn's lab, and that was a duplicate of the eyeball found in the village lake. Gehn first noticed this one while using the scope in his survey room. Maybe if I used the scope in the survey room, I wouldn't have to swim out to find the eyeball again.

I left the secret chamber making sure that I wasn't noticed exiting from the prison cell. If I stayed in there too long people could get suspicious. I should probably wait a few hours before I returned this way.

I made my way back to the jungle, and took the elevator up towards the fire marble dome. Using the Linking Books, I linked back to Gehn's Age and then back to the Crater Island. The Books made travel between the islands a lot easier now. As long as Gehn did nothing to turn off the power, I could go anywhere quickly and discretely.

I walked back to the cave where I caught the first Ytram. I baited the trap like before and lowered it into the water. After a few minutes of waiting I heard the snap of the cage. I lifted the trap and opened it up. Inside was a ytram, sitting in the corner of the trap, blisfully unaware of its fate. I had no intent to harm it, but the creature would have been in trouble if it were captured by Gehn. Maybe by my trapping it with food I made it accustomed to being rewarded. Now it would be eager to step into the traps.

The tiny red ytram made a few chirping noises and hopped around a bit. With a giant leap, it lept away from the trap and fell down below into the tiny pool. Then again, who is to say it would survive the fall.

I felt like my objectivity was waning. I knew that these creatures would be destroyed once Riven fell apart, so it was pointless to think about their short term fate when their long term fate was literally non-existant. The wharks (what few remained), the ytrams, the creatures sleeping on the rocks, the beetles, would all perish. I didn't like it, but I had no choice but to live with it.

Or did I?

I linked back to Gehn's Age and then to Survey Island. Although I feared the Whark, I wanted to verify the noises it made. I could also check out the first eyeball from here to see if there was anything new I could learn about it.

I made my way down the path through the giant island models, past the MagLev station, and down the gold elevator. From there I made my way down the winding brick tunnel and up the steep steps to Gehn's throne.

I used the right handed imager sphere and went through the cycle of colors. When I reached the red light, I heard the deep fierce howl of the Whark as it approached the giant window. It was identical to the sound I heard from the fifth eyeball. My suspicions were confirmed.

The giant piranha-like beast swam back and forth in front of the viewport. I still wasn't sure what it wanted. Was it trying to tell me something, trying to entertain me? Suddenly the beast lurched forward and smashed into the portal. I lept back against the chair fearing the worst. After I second I opened up my eyes again. There were no cracks in the window, and no water appeared to have leaked in. Maybe the creature was simply hungry.

I lifted the right imaging sphere and lowered the left one. I decided to take the chance to briefly check up on Catherine to make sure she was alright. I activated the imager that was in her prison cell. Unfortunately I didn't see her. It was possible that she was out on the balcony beyond the scope of the camera.

I switched over to the other imager that kept an eye on the village. I rotated the camera around a full circle to get a good idea of what I could see from this vantage point. I then turned the imager back towards the point where the eyeball was floating in the water a few feet from the whark gallows.

I didn't immediately notice anything new, or see anything peculiar in the area. There was nothing obvious in the water, or on the rocks behind the eye. I stared at the image for a few seconds when I noticed a pattern in the shadows. The rock formations behind the scope were casting shadows against the rock wall of the crater. The shadow also reflected back onto the water. With the eyeball positioned where it was, the entire shadow resembled the profile of a fish.

Was it a coincidence, or was this a visual cue like the one for the beetle? Where had I seen a fish in Riven? What kind of sound did it make?

I thought back to my time in the village. I had seen some fish hanging out to dry, and some being slow cooked in a large clay oven. Other than that I didn't remember any fish at all.

I spent a few more minutes at the imager hoping to find some more clues. After finding none, I made my way down to the MagLev leading to the Jungle Island. It was quicker taking the MagLev instead of making my way back to the topside of the Survey Island to the fire marble dome.

I made my way through the jungle, the village, and finally to the holding cell. From there I made my way down to the secret chamber.

I looked at the pictographs again trying to see if any of them resembled a fish. Stone sixteen did. It's profile was the closest thing to a fish out of the entire group. It resembled the flat triangular fish I saw hanging near the huts in the village, and the profile of the fish was pointing in the same direction as was the shadow I saw in the village. In the case of the fish shadow and the beetle water stain, both images matched the pictographs, and the wooden eyeball was in the exact position where the eye would be in the pictograph.

The stone that matched the ytram was stone eighteen.

I walked over to stone sixteen and pushed it down. The stone lowered itself a foot into the ground. I lowered the eleventh stone, the eighteenth stone, the fourth stone, and finally the first stone.

The ground beneath me rumbled. I looked directly at the Moiety knife symbol when a wave of heat hit me head on. The water in the brick circle rippled outwards. After a few seconds, the water began to move through channels in the wall, revealing the brickwork the pool. I watched in amazement as the water moved through channels across vertical surfaces that Earth water would simply fall from. The side channels were soon filled with water, and the brick wall they covered before was now accessable.

The large brick in the middle with the knife symbol lifted upwards revealing a niche extending outwards. I walked over to the niche and found a Book sitting in the compartment, open to the final page.

On top of the book was a slab of glass or crystal roughly cut with primitive tools. Underneath the crystal was a picture where the descriptive window of a typical D'ni Book would be. When I looked through the crystal I saw what looked like a giant tree.

The tree sat on a tiny island of a lake that was inside a giant crater. The tree itself had a stubby trunk and a branched out into a spherical shape. The branches then rounded inwards to complete the top of the sphere. The interioir of the tree was dense, almost as if it was filled with rock instead of leaves or other foilage. A small trail of smoke escaped from the very top of the tree.

The image continued to pan around the tree showing it from all angles. The sky of this Age was dark, or it was simply nighttime, so I couldn't take in too many details. I also couldn't get a good idea of what the scale of the tree was.

Careful not to touch the descriptive window, I lifted up the crystal from the corners. As soon as I lifted it, the image of the tree disappeared. Gehn reported in his lab journal that he had found one of these before. He had confiscated it from a captured Black Moiety. I wondered who created it. This single crystal had compensated for the flaws in Gehn's Books.

I put the crystal down and picked up the Book itself. It looked like it had just barely survived a fire, so I was careful not to rip any of the pages. The binding suggested that this Book was Gehn's handiwork. I looked through the first few pages. The intricacies of the D'ni Art were so complex, so precise it was hard to tell the Writing of one author compared to another. But after about forty or so pages I began to notice a difference. Parts of this book were written using a different pen. The strokes were slightly thinner in some words over others. I looked at the cover of the Book. There was no number. It would appear that Gehn didn't even get very far with this one.

I replaced the Book in the niche and placed the crystal over the descriptive window. Immediately the image of the tree came into view again.

So this was where the Black Moiety were hiding. When the jungle was being cleared out, they created their own Age and an elaborate hiding place to keep the Book. And if they had a Book to take them to a new Age, then they had to have a Linking Book to bring them back to Riven.

I would have to link to this new Age to find them. Somehow find a way to get the Prison Book back.

To protect myself and to hopefully cover my tracks, I walked back out to the passage leading to the holding cell. I turned off some of the fire marbles in the main passage, and closed the door. It reminded me of the time I was in the Stoneship Age, and I was blindly going down the staircases leading to Sirrus' and Achenar's bedrooms. Once I was in the sub passage leading to the secret chamber, I made a new chart in my journal on how I had selected the correct pictographs to give me access to the Book.

Eye Number/Sequence	Location	Pictograph	Stone Number
1	Village Lake (Gehn's Lab)		16
2	Washbasin in Village		11
3	North MagLev Station		18
4	Jungle		4
5	Lagoon Rock		1

When I felt that I had documented everything, I walked over to the Linking Book and pressed my hand onto the crystal. This Link felt different. A smooth, cold tingle ran through my hand almost making me shiver. It seemed almost relaxing compared to the transitions I had made with Gehn's books. The Age around me faded away and a new Age drifted into my field of view.

I found myself standing on a wooden balcony at the edge of the lake. Directly ahead of me was the giant tree. It must have been at least thirty meters tall. I could make out tiny lights coming from points all around. At the base of the tree, I saw a brighter light coming from an opening in the trunk. It looked like this was the main entrance to enter or leave the tree. Were there people living inside?

I couldn't see anything significant about the crater. It was almost as high as the tree itself. It was almost as if a giant meter fell onto this Age, created the crater, and somehow a tree had grown around it. It sounded strange, but it was the only explanation I could think of. Gehn's Writing, and the Writing of some other person had created a Link to an Age where these conditions already existed.

Behind me the balcony lead into a tunnel going into the crater wall. At the very end of the tunnel was an orange light, a flickering torch. I walked down the tunnel which lead to a small cave. At the far end of the cave a wooden statue of a tall man stood holding an open Linking Book in his arms. He had a long face with an oversized jaw. Tiny Moiety knives were stabbed into the sides of the man all around his body creating a sort of metalic aura around him.

The Linking Book had a crystal on the descriptive window like the one I used to get here. Through the window I saw the secret chamber I had linked in from.

"Ni mogo ni-bo. Ni mogo bo."

I heard a voice behind me. I turned around.

The man on the right was the man I had seen in the holding cell that was pretending to be asleep. He was the taller of the two. The man on the left was shorter but he was crouched down as if he was ready to attack me. He wore a similar outfit, but his head was covered in a leather helmet that concealed his eyes. He looked like the man that stole the Prison Book from me.

"Sira tay!".

The smaller man had a long slender rod pointed at me. Before I realised what it was, I heard a tiny hiss and felt a pin-prick hit me in the neck. The impact was an inch away from a jugular vein. I instinctively reached for the dart to pull it out, but I already felt my body go weak. I could smell something very strange in the air. Ytrams. My vision began to blur, and my knees felt like they were turning into rubber. My body felt numb, and I wanted to vomit. Suddenly everything went dark.

I don't know what happened next. I opened up my eyes and immediately felt sick. The back of my head was resting against damp wood. I could see the taller rebel sitting away from me. He pointed off in the distance and I saw the giant tree getting closer. I must be on a boat.

"Keani mi bo," the man said.

I began to feel light-headed again and I blacked out.

Catherine | Home | First Nightmare