The Mag-Lev moved forwards towards the island when I noticed that the twin rails ran into a cave on the side of the island. A tunnel? The car decelerated before it entered the island. When the outside light was blocked out I finally saw that the bay was inside the cave. The running lights along each side of the car cast a blue light around the cave.
The door opened and I stepped out. There was an entrance leading deeper into the cave on the opposite side of the MagLev bay. Behind me there was a short tunnel leading outside to a metal staircase.
I went through the archway to the steps which were mounted onto the side of the surrounding rock. The steps ran out above the ocean, and then turned back towards the top of the rock wall. From the top of the steps, I could easily see the other three islands. The first island was the farthest one away, yet I could still see the giant dome clear as day.
This island was vastly different than the others. It appeared to be man-made. The island had three plateaus each higher than the one before it. It almost looked like a staircase for a giant.
Surrounding the edges of each plateau was a primitive defense system made of animal tusks, sticking out of the ground as if the island itself had a set of teeth. It's the little things like that that make an island say, No Trespassing.
The first plateau of the island was actually a shallow pool filled with seawater. Underwater vegatation was dense in some areas, giving the water a bright green tint. I was standing on a metal walkway that ran across the plateau through a large formation of jagged rocks. Their arrangement almost appeared to be sculpted. The rocks all pointed upwards with sharp tips like a rose.
In the middle of the rose, directly underneath was a hole dug into the ground. I looked down and noticed a cavern. I could make out a metal support frame of some kind, and a deep red light eminating from all around. It looked like there was a pool of water at the bottom.
I continued along the path which lead to a set of stairs taking me to the next plateau of the island. This plateau was different. The path I stood on was at a lower elevation gradually ascending, while the rest of the plateau was another large pool on both sides of me. In the middle of the pools were large sculpted rocks, each capped off with a perfectly level top. All around the rim of the rocks were metal pipes sticking out approximately one foot. There were three rocks on my left hand side, and two on my right hand side.
Directly above the path was a balcony, and above that was a long pipe sticking out like the fallen mast of a sailing ship. Both the balcony and the pipe were anchored into the walls of the third plateau.
I continued walking along the path until I reached a crevice in the wall of the highest plateau. The crevice was as tall as the plateau itself, and it was a tight squeeze that I could easily climb if I needed to. The floor underneath me was wooden, and there were chains placed in the corners of the crevice. There was a button on the left hand side. Another elevator?
I pushed the button and hidden motors above me came to life. The chains tugged at the slack and the wooden platform was jerked upwards. I faced the opening of the crevice where the rocks occasionally blocked my view outside. After climbing about fifteen feet the motor stopped and I was now level with the balcony. I felt a gust of wind behing my back and I turned around. The wall behind me was gone and in its place was a large open area, below the top of the third plateau. The plateau was actually a crater filled with water. A metal walkway formed a path going around in a circle.
I walked into the crater and looked around. At the top of the crater walls were the long tusks like I had seen earlier. I was beginning to wonder if the purpose of the tusks were to keep people out, or more to keep people in.
In the middle of the pool was a large red metalic dome. The top of the structure was round, but the button half curved inwards towards the bottom, almost resembling a thick mushroom stem. Around the base of the pod, the metal was cut out to create stenciled D'ni lettering. The lettering appeared to wrap all around the base of the structure. This expedition would have been easier if Atrus had taught me his native language.
Surrounding the pod were four totem polls sticking out of the water. The carving suggested the head of an animal looking upwards with tusks alongside their mouths. There were thick tappered striped painted on the backs of the heads, each head was a different color. I saw a blue head, an orange one, a yellow one, and finally a green one.
The walkway went to the right and the left both twisting around the confines of the large pool. On my left I found one of the metal domes. It was identical to the others. There was a large pipe leading into the base, and it had the same symbols scolling across the surface. I knew now that these domes held working Linking Books. Linking books that would take me to one of the latest Ages that Gehn had created a link to.
But as far as I knew, Gehn only created one Age, and he was working on another. There were four domes that I was aware of. Why would Gehn build this many domes if he didn't need them yet. Come to think of it, why did he place them in different parts of Riven. They would probably be safer if he put them in one guarded location.
I decided to open this dome like the others to see if there was a Book inside. I also wanted to see if this dome would give me any additional clues about how to decipher the combination I had found.
The kinetiscope was on another section of the metal walkway, which ran around the metal pod. I walked around the path past the wooden totems. When I came up behind the scope I immediately noticed something was wrong. The mounting pole was bent at an angle. I put my eye up to the scope. The viewer was pointed towards the right hand edge of the dome. I could still see the eye-shaped images scrolling past, but I had less of a chance to spot the correct image due to the angle. I didn't even look at the dome earlier to see which image was yellow.
And even if I saw the image, I would still need to time it correctly. I would have to hit the button right when the image came past the scope if the scope was properly upright.
I stepped back from the scope and looked at the base. It was a metal pole meeting a metal ring screwed into the walkway. I tried standing to the right of the scope and pulling it towards me with my hands. Unfortunately, it wouldn't budge. I was also worried that the ring would snap out of the walkway making the scope totally useless.
I put my eye up to the viewer again and looked at the dome. After a second, I saw the yellow image pass by. Judging by the other images that were scrolling by in unison, I was pretty sure that this was the symbol I was to watch for
I waited for another full revolution when I saw the image scroll by again. It had taken about three seconds. I counted nearly two full seconds and tried it again. Nothing. I would continue timing the revolutions six more times before I finally got it right.
The dome began to slow down and lose synch with the kinetiscope wheel. I looked up as the dome came to a stop and flipped over. The midsection was then covered by a smaller shield which locked into place with a loud metalic clang.
I walked around the walkway towards the dome and inspected the tiny window. Inside I could make out a small book, just like the other ones I had seen before. Only with the abundance of sunlight above me, I could see it more clearly. It resembled one of the books that Gehn had kept on one of his lab benches, complete with the leather cover with the gold tipped edges. Unfortunately, I still was unable to decipher the combination that would let me get directly at the book.
I walked back towards the elevator shaft and out towards the balcony overlooking the second plateau. Directly above me was the long stalk that reached as far as the edge of the plateau below me. I looked down and realised that the rocks I had seen in the pools before were sculpted to resemble to resemble the islands. Each model below had a flat surface that appeared to be covered with a metal surface covered with tiny holes.
From my vantage point I was able to look up from the model and look directly at the three surrounding islands. There were similarities, but I wasn't sure if I had seen enough of the islands to make an accurate comparison. Besides, this model had five islands; so far I had only seen four.
On the balcony railing in front of me was a flat metal box. On the square surface of the box were five buttons cut into various shapes.
The proportions of the buttons resembled the shape of the islands in the model before me. I pushed the button for the tiny fifth island in the upper right hand corner.
I heard a churning of a motor far below me, perhaps coming from the rock itself. Suddenly a bubble began to form across the surface of the rock, slowly rising until it covered the entire surface of the rock. The material of the rock was transparent, but it refracted light differently than the air around it, so I knew it had some form of substance. The bubble shimmered in the wind and the surface would occasionally ripple. The only solution I could think of was that the bubble was composed of water. Maybe it was the water with the strange bacteria in it that resisted heat.
But what exactly did it do?
I turned my head as I heard the sound of another motor behind me. It was coming from the red pod in the middle of the lake. I walked towards the pod and noticed that a door was lifting up and a ramp was extending to meet the metal walkway. I walked into the pod where a large console sat in the middle of the floor. The main surface of the console was a large metal square that was divided into a 5 by 5 grid. At the front of the console was a square display set in a wheel with a handle coming out of the left hand side.
I reached out and felt the surface of the metal with my hand. It wasn't really a sheet of metal, but thousands of tiny metal rods, lined up to form a smooth surface. I had never seen anything like it before. I couldn't even imagine the amount of time it had taken to create such a thing.
In the upper right hand corner of the display a single square was illuminated. I touched the square with the tip of my finger. Suddenly the metal rods rose into the air forming a three dimensional shape. The rods now took on the form of a large mountain with a wide base and a perfectly flat peak. I reached out to the metal sheet and touched it. The pins were all much longer than I had thought, and they could apparantly be raised or lowered one by one. Because they were packed together so densely they formed a smooth three dimensional shape.
I took the handle of the control display and turned it. The handle rotated from the 9 o'clock position counter-clockwise to 6 o'clock and then returned back again. The metal model rotated ninety degrees counter-clockwise as well, giving me a different view of the model.
I stepped away from the console and the metal pins retracted back into the base. I walked back towards the balcony to the small control panel placed on the railing. The water still filled the fifth island down below. I pressed the L shaped button that represented this island. The bubble on the fifth island retracted, and a new one began to form across the surface of the island I selected.
When the bubble completed forming, I walked back towards the pod and looked at the display console. In the window, was an L shape divided into four tiny squares
When I saw the image broken up into squares I realized that I had seen it before. In the stained glass images of the Gate Room and in the chart inside the giant dome. This image was used in a chart indicating pipes flowing out of the giant dome, and here it was used to represent this particular island. So maybe that particular pipe from the giant dome went underwater and over to this island. That pipe must be used to carry power to the smaller dome that contained the Linking Book.
I touched the square at the top of the image. The metalic pins in the center console reached upwards, giving me a three-dimensional image of that part of the island. It was the first plateau, and the tips of the rock formation in the center of the path I crossed earlier. Somehow, this machine was able to determine what the islands looked like and render them in a three dimensional form. I wondered if this was exactly what the island looked like at this time, or if this was a programmed image. If there was an earthquake, would the model change to reflect changes in landscape.
I used the handle on the display screen to rotate the image. I was amazed at the level of detail the machine could capture. The red grid lines of the machine made it easy to break apart the three dimensional model into sectors. I touched the corner square of the L shape to see the area that I was in. I was able to see the dome that I stood in and could even pinpoint my location. This system must be used for mapping or surveying perhaps. Gehn did mention having an entire guild devoted to surveying. Maybe this machine was their primary tool for charting the islands.
I spent the next hour bringing up three dimensional models of various points of the islands. Some maps I copied directly into my journal. I examined this island thoroughly along with the Jungle Island, specifically the area around the village. I also checked out the first island I arrived at to see if I could find any paths to the fifth island. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything. I wasn't entirely sure how far away the fifth island was either, so I may not be able to get to it without a boat or some other means.
But I did discover that the fifth island had a dome, just like the others. In fact, I could identify two more domes on some of the islands just by their spherical shape.
When I felt like I had exhausted every possible place that I could map I went back to the balcony and turned off the imager. The water bubble dispersed from the island I had selected and the humming died down. I took the elevator down below and walked across the path back to the Mag-Lev.
As I approached the Mag-Lev I remembered that there was still the other doorway to explore. I just had to find a way to get to it. I stepped into the Mag-Lev and sat down at the control panel. I turned the control handle clockwise and the Mag-Lev rotated into it faced the exit of the cave. I realised now that the door was lined up with the other side of the platform. I turned back to look a the door wondering how I would go about opening it.
As if the door anticipated my wishes, it began to lower itself allowing me to exit. I got up from the pilot chair and stepped out onto the other side of the Mag-Lev bay. There was another blue button here, probably used for rotating the Mag-Lev as well as summoning it. I walked towards the far wall of the bay and though the door.
Beyond the door was a dark passage leading to a glowing orange room. The floor ended at the entrance of the chamber, which was actually a pool of water. In the middle of the pool was a pentagon built out of steel girders. It was supported by five more beams which ran from the corners of the figure to the five corners of the room. In each corner there was a column flanked by the long tusks that had dominated the island.
Next to me was a lever connected to a motor underneath the floor, and next to that was a chain running from underneath the floor, through an overhead pulley and back down through the center of the pool. There were three other chains identical to this one each reaching down into the pool. Something underneath the pool was the source of light for this chamber, but I couldn't see it clearly.
I pulled the lever. The chains began to shift through the pulleys, slowly at first and then faster, suggesting that it wasn't a motor pulling them, but some kind of counterweight mechanism. The smooth pool of water ripped from the movement of the chains, and suddenly a great wave rippled from the center as a massive object rose from the pool.
The object was tall, rectangular and made out of bright polished metals. It rotated as it moved upwards like a giant propeller blade. A window on one side of the tall capsule faced me as it stopped its rotating ascent. It was an elevator.
The door lowered like a drawbridge meeting the end of the passage, forming a dry path inside. I walked inside the elevator. The interior of the elevator was lined with dark wooden planks. I found the button on the left hand side and pushed it. I noticed that a lot of the elevator controls seemed to be oriented on the left hand side. Was Gehn was left handed? The door lifted up to seal the elevator and the window lined up with my face allowing me to see outside.
The elevator began its descent, rotating counter-clockwise now. I watched as the water level crept up past the window, distoring the viewing angle of the metal girders and the chains that passed by. Suddenly, another water line appeared as if I was passing through a different liquid. Dropplets of water began to run down the front of the glass. Was the water gone? Did I pass through an airlock or something? The elevator stopped in front of another passage, this one with bright red glass walls. I estimated that I had only rotated a half circle, and descended only about fifteen feet.
The passage ahead of the elevator was blocked by a glass door that rose up into a hidden recess. As soon as the outer door was clear, the door to the elevator began to lower, allowing me to exit. I walked out of the elevator into the passage. The walls were glass, but beyond the glass the rock was a bright glowing red, almost like magma. The walls didn't appear to be especially warm. Either the glass was strong enough to withstand the heat, or the material wasn't really magma.
The passage changed further on, to a tall, thin corrider with brick walls. The corridor twisted ahead through dim lighting and errie shadows. I could hear my footfalls echoing on the stones underneath me. I slowed my pace to keep quiet. I didn't want to...
Uh-oh.
Since I first arrived on Riven I was careful at every turn, mindful of what I did and making sure I didn't attract any undue attention. I knew Riven to be a place of hostile intentions and I knew I would need to protect myself. But now I had slipped up. In my complacancy and the lack of human contact I had thought that nobody was even here on this island. But I was wrong. Up ahead in the passage I saw a man no more than ten yards ahead of me.
The man wore a large thick white robe which covered his head and entire body. He was staring down at a book in his hands. All he had to do was look up and he'd see me staring straight back at him.
Slowly I began to move backwards, trying to make as little noise as possible. Too late. The man looked up at his book and saw me. He ran forwards and then turned down a passage to his right, tucking the book underneath his left hand.
I wanted to shout out to him, but I thought better of it. He may not even know English and there could be more of these people further on. I ran after him down the side passage which opened up to a large cave that lead outside. The cave was another Mag-Lev bay. There was a Mag-Lev already here, and the man I had chased was inside. I watched as the door closed and he frantically turned the large handle clockwise to rotate the ship.
The body and the overhead thruster of the Maglev rotated 180 degrees, while the two magnetic gliders held it in place to the tracks. The power generators started up and the craft lifted itself upwards to decrease momentum. A blue flame shot out of the thruster and the Mag-Lev glided forward along its tracks and outside the cave.
Damn! I ran towards the Mag-Lev summoning button and pressed it frantically. Maybe it'd turn back before it reached its destination. But I could hear the engines die off as the Mag-Lev continued its journey. I didn't even know where the heck it was going. Now what.
For lack of a better plan I waited in the bay. I now had two fronts to worry about. I could continue down the main passage and possibly run into other men like that one, or I would have to worry about the Mag-Lev returning with Riven guards to capture me from behind.
I sat there thinking about what to do when I heard a noise from outside the cave. The Mag-Lev was returning. So quickly?? I crept into a corner of the cave and watched for the Mag-Lev to return. Even if someone inside saw me, they'd still need to wait for the door to open, and that would still give me a good head start.
I watched as the craft entered the tiny entrance to the cave and slowly glided to a stop. I didn't see anyone through the panaramic viewport, but that could mean that they were merely hiding as well. The Mag-Lev came to a stop and the door opened, revealing nothing. Nobody had traveled across this time. The Mag-Lev must have automatically returned only because I pressed the button.
I picked up a rock from the floor of the cave and placed it on the steps on the inside of the Mag-Lev door. If someone would try to summon it, I would hear the ship move. If I was out of hearing range, the rock would be my backup test. If I came back and the Mag-Lev was here with the rock still on the steps, that would mean it was undisturbed. If the rock was gone, the Mag-Lev was summoned to the other bay and brought back here.
I left the cave and went back to the main corridor. I felt safer if I kept moving, so I concentrated on the corridor which went deeper into the core of the island. Where exactly was I? I figured the elevator was directly under the rose formation I saw on top of the island, so I was probably underneath the huge rocks that represented the islands.
The corridor ended in an archway leading to a set of stone stairs. I started up the steps through another corridor that opened up to a large chamber, the tallest underground chamber I had seen so far.
I was in a very tall cave with a large circular blue window at the other end of the chamber, near the top of the sloped ceiling. In the middle of the chamber was a tall metal structure with steep stairs running up the front of it. I climbed up the stairs keeping both hands on the handrails for support. At the very top of the steps was a circular platform with a chair in the middle of it. The handrails I used to climb up the steps now ran along the edge of the platform to prevent people from falling off. I turned around to sit in the large metal chair. The chair was very comfortable and reminded me of the chair in the Temple Room that was used for projecting images. At the ends of each arm of the chair was a circular control set with a handle on each one. The control set on the right hand arm also had a red button in the middle,
I pressed the red button and the chair suddenly began to move. It rotated clockwise until it faced the blue window behind me. I looked more closely at the window and realised that I was looking into a pool of water. I'm probably under the pool at the third tier of the island. Somewhere above me was the mapping chamber and the spinning dome.
Along the metal guardrail I noticed two large posts, both supporting large circular spheres, almost resembling street lamps. I pushed down the right hand lever on the chair and the post on my right hand side swung down at an angle, bringing the metal sphere towards me resting just above my lap.
The sphere had a single circular viewing window in the front, with a thick metal ring around it. There were six pentagonal shaped buttons around the ring, each with a symbol inside. Each symbol was one of the D'ni color symbols I had seen earlier in Gehn's journal. There was a red wire frame above the bottom button, hightlighting it. Around the edge of the ring were six metal loops.
An image sprange to life on the viewing window, showing a deep blue sky, or possibly an underwater scene. There were rocks off to the sides, and a tall post in the center supported by two smaller poles that ran off to the left and the right. There were two holes at the front of the post, but I couldn't tell what they were for.
I pushed on the symbol at the botton of the ring. Suddenly, a bright blue colored light emerged from one of the holes in the post. I looked a the symbol that was hightlighted.
This must be the symbol for the color blue.
I pressed the button again and the light turned off. I reached out and put my fingers into one of the loops around the edge of the main ring. I was able to pull the ring clockwise, so the next color symbol was lined up under the red frame. As I moved the ring, the image in the viewer shifted as well, meaning that I must be moving the camera that this viewer is connected to.
The camera lined up with another post identical to the first one. The symbol corresponding to thie view was
I pushed the button and a green light emerged from the top hole in the post. As I made the notation in my journal I heard a noise in the distance. I looked up towards the large window but I couldn't see anything differnet. The noise sounded like an animal of some sorts, and in the back of my mind it was vaguely familiar for some reason.
I continued with the next two buttons, learning the symbols for yellow and orange. I rotated the camera to the next set position, but it looked different than the others. There was no center post like the other ones, but I couldn't make out what it was. I pushed the button and a red light appeared from the top of the viewing area. But I saw another light, not from the viewer, but from somewhere else in the cavern.
I looked up and noticed a bright red light on the other side of the glass window looking into the lake. I looked back down at the viewport and realised that I was looking at the window from the other side. The camera must be directly ahead of me, probably at the very center of the lake.
The bellowing noises came back again, but this time the noise had a form to go with it. From the blue depths of the water I could make our a large shape rapidly approaching the window. When the creature fully came into view it stopped just short of the window and stared inside. Could it actually see me?
The creature was a large fish, possibly as tall as I was. It had a small head in the front and a humped back. Two small fins protruded from the sides of the tall skinny fish and there was a large but stumpy tail that spread out lengthwise. Just underneath the mouth of the creature were a set of long tusks that went out past the head of the creature.
It was like a cross between a whale and a piranha. While this is the first time I had ever seen this creature the gears in the back of my mind clicked, and it all made sense. These tusks on this fish were the tusks that I had seen all around this island, and in some areas of Gehn's lab back on Crater Island as well. This was the creature that the monument back in the jungle was meant to represent. I should have realised that given the ratio of land to water in an Age like Riven, the undersea creatures would be much more diverse than the creatures on land.
The creature swam around the window for a bit, almost as it was expecting something. Was it trained the follow these lights??
I sat back down at the viewport and made a notation of the current symbol and the red color.
I turned the D-ring again and the viewport shifted clockwise to the next post. Unfortunately, this post was damaged, the top half of it broken off. I wonder if the creature did it. Just to be sure I tried pressing the button for the sixth symbol, but no light appeared. Well, at least I had five out of six colors charted.
I looked over the colors and noticed that out of the colors that I did have, three were the primary colors, and two were the secondary colors. Could that mean the sixth color was purple? The D'ni color symbols followed a small animation pattern in sequence to the color changes, making me suggest the the D'ni color system was represented on a wheel chart like they are on Earth.
I pressed the control lever to deactivate the image sphere. The sphere rose up on it's arm until it was vertical again. I tried the lever for the other sphere next. The left sphere lowered itself to a position in front of my chest and locked into place against the arm of the chair.
This sphere had a viewing window identical to the other one, but there were only two pentagon shaped buttons on the outer ring. There were five loops on the edge of the ring, identical to the other sphere I had seen.
The viewing screen was empty, so I pushed the pentagon on the right hand side. A light came from the center of the window and an image snapped to life, as if a camera shutter opened on the other end. The image on the scope was hazy, almost unviewable. I couldn't see any details in the objects I was looking at.
The camera was just above the water looking at a rock wall. Ahead of the wall I could make out a walkway, with a ladder leading into the water. I turned one of the metal loops clockwise around the ring and the camera moved in synch. The image blurred until the loop lined up with a hidden notch. I was now looking at more rocks, just farther off in the distance.
I decided to press the pentagon shaped button on the left side of the ring. The image of the rocks snapped shut and a new image came up on the viewport.
It looked like the camera was mounted at a high vantage point looking down. The image was of a small room with a table and an area rug in the center. There was a doorway leading out to a balcony that was protected with floor to ceiling bars. In the middle of the room sat a woman.
She seemed very tall, but that could have been an image distortion. She sat in the middle of the area rug, propping herself upright with her arms. Her smooth dark hair was tied down into two long braids that reached down to the floor. She didn't seem aware that I was watching her. I wondered if she even knew there was a camera in the room with her.
The woman looked around, obviously bored, and finally stood up. She picked up a red cloak which she placed over her white dress and stepped out onto the balcony walking past the door frame and out of my sight. I couldn't see the entire balcony, but I had a feeling she didn't have very much of a path to tread on the balcony or in the room itself. The place almost looked like it was a prison.
I tried to see if the camera would move, but pulling on the metal loops did nothing. It must be a stationary camera like the ones back in the Temple. The woman walked past the doorway into view again, but disappeared as she continued on her path.
Could this be Catherine? Could she have been captured by Gehn? Gehn's journal mentioned Catherine, but it never mentioned anything regarding her being captured or under his control. On the other hand, who else would he want to keep tabs on. Maybe if the room was a prison cell the camera was meant to watch whoever happened to be inside. Too bad I had no idea where this room was.
I had seen all that I could see, so I pushed the lever to return the sphere to its upright position. Once the chair was no longer blocked, I pushed the red button to rotate it back to its original position. I stood up and made my way carefully down the steep stairs. I walked down to the brick tunnel and turned right into the cave with the Mag-Lev.
I never heard it move while I was in the viewing chamber, and the rock resting on the step confirmed that the vehicle had not moved at all. I wonder why nobody had pursued me? Was there a trap on the other side? Possibly. Did they know something I didn't? Definately.
I climbed into the Mag-Lev and sat down at the console. I rotated the Mag-Lev, pointing it towards the cave entrance and sent it along its path. The rails made a sharp turn to the right and back to the left. I realised that the Mag-Lev was speeding towards the Jungle Island, but not the same part of the island I had been to before. The tracks ended up going into a cave like the one I had left. The Mag-Lev docked in the bay and the door opened.
I didn't see any immediate threats, so I stepped out. Towards the far end of the bay I saw a small wooded alcove with a blue pedestal for summoning the Mag-Lev. I stepped into the alcove and noticed a control lever on the right hand wall mounted at chest height. The control looked familiar. It was a wooden lever mounted onto the wall parallel to its turning axis. I lifted the level up one notch and the alcove began moving upwards. The walls behind me and in front of me were open, so I saw the rock walls shift downards as the elevator lifted up.
I should have realised it was an elevator. In fact, it was an elevator I had been in before, in the tree trunk in the jungle, To prove my suspicion, the elevator stopped and the forward opening now revealed a tight sloping compartment, with a stairway folded up into a horizontal position. I was in the idol now. At first I thought this elevator only serviced two levels, but it actually serviced three.
I stepped out of the elevator and pushed the control lever to lower the staircase. The staircase lowered itself to the ground and I stepped out of the idol like an animal that didn't agree with its digestive tract. I was willing to bet that very few people stepped out of this idol, and that those who did were people that demanded great respect.
I walked along the Jungle Path to where my gear was stashed next to the giant sword. It was only slightly past mid-day and I had already managed to explore four out of the estimated five islands that compromised Riven.