GEHN SAT IN HIS LABORATORY IN RIVEN. IT HAD BEEN TEN LONG YEARS since Atrus had trapped him there. He was thinking about a way to get his son trapped here instead, and he could get back to D'ni. "Hmm," he thought, as he noticed the Myst linking book on the desk. "A way to get Atrus to come here." He opened the cover, looked at the descriptive panel for a moment. He took his linking book, so he could get back, placed his hand on the image and linked.

ATRUS, CATHERINE, SIRRUS, AND ACHENAR SAT AT THE TABLE PLAYING A D'ni game called Gemedet, six in a row. They looked at the 3-d cage in front of them, each with six wooden balls and a pair of tweezers, took turns trying to make six balls in a row. "I win!"shouted Atrus. Startled,the boys looked at the cage. "Yes, you did," said Sirrus. "but I was close." "So was I." said Achenar."OK, OK. We were all close." said Catherine. "Dad, when will you teach us to play chess?" asked Achenar. "Oh, umm, tomorrow night. But now, it's time for bed. You get ready and I'll come tuck you in soon." "All right." sighed Sirrus. "Will you take us sailing tomorrow?""Yes." replied Atrus. "Now get in bed." "OK." the boys said. They got into bed and Atrus and Catherine took a walk to the dock.It was beautiful at night. "When will we take the boys to D'ni?" asked Catherine. "Oh, probably next week. It would be good for--" "That trip will have to wait." someone said. "Who said that?" asked Atrus. "I did." the man stepped into the light. "Father." said Atrus. Suddenly, the air next to Gehn shimmered, and his guard appeared. Gehn spoke to him in Rivenese, "Shoot the man with the knock-out dart." "No!" shouted Catherine. The guard shot him, and he grabbed Catherine. Atrus fell to the ground and Gehn held the linking book out to her. "Go!" he commanded.Seeing she had no choice, she took one last longing look at Atrus, and linked.

CATHERINE SAT ON THE ROUGH WOODEN CHAIR IN GEHN'S laboratory. She fidgeted with the edge of her vest as Gehn finished the linking book to "Great Tree Island." The Great Tree had been cut down because it was split in half when lightning hit it the day Gehn had been trapped in Riven. The new Guild of Maintainers had built a prison on the stump of the Great Tree. Gehn then finished the book and set it down on the table. He stood up and turned around.Catherine avoided eye contact with him. Gehn said, "Katran, since you have a linking book to... um...what was that name?" "Myst." replied Catherine. "To Myst," he continued, "I would require of you to give it to me."Reluctantly, Catherine handed over the book. "Thank you." said Gehn, as he walked over to the workbench. He picked up his beautiful silver tinderbox and went to the woodstove and set some kindling and the Myst book inside. He lit the book and the kindling, opened the cover,and said, "Stay there. I'll be back soon." Gehn linked to Myst. Catherine got up and looked throughGehn's books for about 2 minutes. "Aha!" said Catherine. She tucked Gehn's Myst book in the hidden pocket in her vest.

GEHN AND HIS GUARD SILENTLY WALKED OUT OF THE CABIN. "IT'S A good thing the boys were asleep." said Gehn to his guard. The guard nodded. "Let's return and see how Katran is doing."continued Gehn. He pulled out the book, opened it to the descriptive panel, and returned to Riven.Gehn's guard ran over to the dock, held the book over the water, and followedGehn. The book then dropped into the ocean of Myst.

GEHN LOOKED INTO THE CAMERA AFTER HE RETURNED. "AH, AH, AH." said Gehn. "Katran, you surprise me." "What?" she asked. "You know. I'm talking about the Myst book. Hand it over please." she half threw-half handed it to him. "You will have a new lifenow." "Where?" she she demanded. "On Prison Island." he replied. "Link there." she obeyed with a glare on her face. She appeared on the stump of the Great Tree. Not a minute later, Gehn, and then his guard shimmered into view. "Now, come here." said Gehn. She went by him and he walked her to an elevator. There were three buttons behind the cage. Gehn pushed the buttons in the right order, and the cage made a 180 degree turn. Gehn pulled on the cord and the elevator began to rise. Once the elevator was up, Gehn said, "Katran, welcome to your new home." She glared at him again. Then, she saw the prison. A small table with a crate for a chair, a red and white tapistry on the wall, a cupboard with food in it, and a lumpy bed. "Goodbye Katran." Gehn said as he went down the shaft. She walked out of the open doorway and stepped out onto the metal wraparound deck. The thing Atrus had often said came backto her. "What do you see, Catherine?" "I see the ocean." she replied. "I also see you, Atrus."

CATHERINE WOKE UP WONDERING WHERE SHE WAS. SHE WANTED TO GO home, so today she would try to find a way out. She got up, and looked around. It was still dark when she started looking, so she picked up the old fire-marble lamp, flicked the marble, and began searching for a way out in the soft blue light.

ATRUS WOKE UP WITH A SORE ARM. HE WAS IN HIS BED, WITH SIRRUS and Achenar sleeping soundly in their beds. What happened? he thought. Where's Catherine? He then heard a crinkling sound. What's that? he wondered. He read the small note to himself:

Atrus, your wife is in safe hands.Don't worry about her, she'll be fine.Katran will stay here from now on.

Atrus sighed. "Father is the only one that would call her 'Katran.' What will I do?"

SIRRUS AND ACHENAR WOKE UP. THEY HAD BREAKFAST WITH THEIR father. Achenar asked, "Where's mother?" "Oh." Atrus said. "You see, a man came last night and took her.""What!?" Sirrus and Achenar said together. "No!" "I'm afraid it's true," Atrus said quietly. "but she's in good hands." He showed them the note. "Who's 'Katran?'" asked Sirrus. "That is your mother's real name." Atrus explained. "When I first met her, I kept saying 'Catherine' instead of 'Katran,' so the name kinda stuck. Anyway, I've arranged a tour of D'ni for you." "Oh yes!" Sirrus and Achenar shouted. "I've hidden my books in the safe," Atrus said. "I think you two are old enough to have the code for it. It's 7, 2, 4. Then, the safe opens. Always remember: take a Mystbook along whenever you travel so you can get back." Both boys nodded. "OK. Here's the D'ni book. Go ahead. I'll follow." The boys linked. Atrus took a piece of paper, and vainly wrote a noteto Catherine incase she got back. Then, Atrus took a Myst Book and went to D'ni.

THE THREE OF THEM WALKED INTO THE ROOM, WHICH HAD LOCKED doors. Atrus had long since tried to break through the harder-than-diamond rock, with no success.This had been his home for about a month. A mosaic on the floor, and the rest made of the hard D'ni rock. Atrus' father had trapped him here with blank Books, Writing ink, and the Riven descriptive Book. Atrus still wondered why. "Well boys, I'm sorry you couldn't see the great city of D'ni. It is beautiful. The glowing algae and fire-marble lamps are the only basic lighting in the cavern. Let's return to Myst.""OK, dad." they said. So, one by one, they placed thier hands on the glowing descriptive panel, and returned to Myst.

THEY APPEARED AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN LATE THAT NIGHT. A storm was blowing the heavy rain around, and thunder rolled right above them. Lightning flashed. "Dad!" the boys yelled. "Let's go to the cabin!" "That's a good idea," Atrus shouted. "You boys go to the cabin and get a fire going. I have to go tie up the boat!" "All right!" shoutedAchenar. Sirrus and Achenar ran down the path, and around the well. A flash of lightning startled them. They still ran. Into the forest and down the path and into the cabin. It was dark, the only light coming from the lightning. Sirrus opened the safe and got out a fire marble and his tinderbox. He tapped the marble with his finger and it began to glow. "Give me the lantern," he said to Achenar. "Here,"Achenar said as he handed it to him. "OK. You get the fire started, and I'll put the D'ni book away," directed Achenar.He picked up the linking book off the table and put it in the safe.

A FEW MINUTES LATER, ATRUS CAME IN DRENCHED. THEN, HE SAT ON the chair and changed out of his wet clothes. The thunder was rolling off in the distance and the clouds moved away. "Sirrus. Achenar. Wake up." Atrus whispered. They had fallen asleep in thier chairs in front ofthe fire. "Hmmn," Achenar groaned. "Wake up. The stars are out, come see." "All right." said Sirrus. He and Achenar went outside. The wet grass squished beneath thier feet. "Lookup," Atrus said."Wow!" the boys said. There were thousands of stars in the sky. Arus pointed out the different constellations.

"DAD, CAN WE GO TO BED NOW?" asked Sirrus. They had been out for over an hour, and the sky was beginning to turn that gray color before dawn. "Go ahead. I'll take in Achenar, too." said Atrus. Achenar had fallen asleep right there on the wet grass. Atrus smiled. "Yes. You may. I'll come with Sirrus in a minute." "OK. Goodnight."Sirrus yawned and staggered into the cabin. He yawned again and took off his shoes. Then, he plopped down on his bed and fell asleep instantly.

GEHN SAT DOWN AT HIS DESK. He was wondering about this place. Riven, as the humans here called it. He took his uncompleted descriptive book off the shelf. He watched the orange-yellow static for a few minutes. He took out some ink and a pen and turned to the center of the book. "My 233rd Age." he sighed. He began writing and then stopped. "I must keep this hidden." Suddenly, a lurch woke him from his thoughts, followed by a loud cracking noise. Then, a tremor shook the entire island of Riven. Gehn hastily got up and ran outside. An even larger tremor hit. Gehn was knocked off his feet. "What the...!?" Gehnran down the short path. What he saw startled him. The golden dome that had once been not 50 feet from his laboratory was now at least 200 feet away! Water was gushing into the crack in the ocean floor and steam was everywhere. He ran back into his laboratory and curled up in the corner. Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. He sat down, shaken. Did that really happen? He thought. Hewent outside again and the steam that met him gave him his answer. He had towrite it in his journal."Trouble. Obviously, Riven isn't as stable as I thought. From what I can see, there are a few problems now. First, there is no way to get off this island. Second, the villagers will not think I am so wonderful anymore. I must find away. Then, Gehn, seeing there was nothing more he could do, went to bed, his mindfull of questions.

CATHERINE WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING WITH A HEADACHE. What happened? She thought. She walked out onto her deck. "What on earth?" She looked out and she couldn't see the island anymore. It was so far away. Actually, it looked like a couple islands. She got out her faded leather journal, given to her as a wedding gift from Atrus. "The strangest thing happened. The island of Riven now appears to be three or four islands. It'd make sense to have Five total islands, Gehn is so posessed with the Five. He even made his own emblem with it. I don't know what to do without Atrus.

THE NEXT DAY, GEHN AND THE SURVEYORS WERE LOOKING OVER what had happened. "Sir," one of them said, "It appears as if this age is entirely unstable, a good name Riven was, for it means 'torn apart'." "Yes, yes, I know." Gehn answered. I surely hope that Atrus has been working on that book, so I won't perish so quickly by falling into a fissure, Gehn thought. "So. The island fell apart. Maybe now they will realize how important I am!" "Excuse me?"asked a surveyor. "What? Oh. Nothing." Gehn walked back to his laboratory and drew this map. He did it in English and D'ni so the villagers could read it. Then, satisfied, Gehn asked one of the Surveyors to bring it to the village and hang it by the dock where they would see it. The Guildsman ran off to a waiting boat.

NOW GEHN HAD SOME PROBLEMS. During the night, Gehn had heard villagers shouting. He heard one say "Let's make our own age, fellow rebels! Up with the Moiety, up with the Moiety!" Gehn had to find a way from island to island. He had tried bridges, but the tremors just made them collapse. One bridge, however, did stay up. The bridge between Boiler Island and Temple Island. But there had to be a way to the other islands. He thought for a moment, and he had it! Magnetic Levitation! The magnetic poles could bend and stretch without breaking! He went to his journal and got down his idea.

THE VERY NEXT DAY, GEHN HAD PEOPLE WORKING ON THE MAGLEV system. The just-created Guild of Builders were very busy that day, and many of the following, magnetizing metal, purifying ore, and putting together strong solid metal pipes. The pipes had to bend and twist with the separating islands. Gehn didn't offer to help. He just made sure that everything was going fine. He had the entire village working on the project. He had women and children searching for ore and magnetizing the metal. The men were building the Maglevs and securing pipes.

CATHERINE WAS WATCHING THE ACTIVITY FROM HER PRISON. She was wondering about just what Gehn was doing. She was straining to see, but the reef the stump of the Great Tree was on was moving away from the rest of the islands at the rate of about one span per every five days! She had been measuring as well as she could with whatever she could, and she figured that the reef was slowing down just a fraction of a span per hour. At this rate, the reef would have completely stopped in--five years!

GEHN'S MEN HAD JUST FINISHED THE MAGLEV SYSTEM, BUT GEHN WAS angry. "Why!?" was the reverberating cry from Gehn as he touched the descriptive panel of his new 233rd Age. He had touched the panel, and that was all. It didn't work. The book was defective, and he had used all of his special paper, ink, and book bindings on this book. He had been working on it for months, and it didn't work. He threw it into the furnace, lit it, and stormed away from it. "There has to be resources here." He took his hatchet, his gun, his portable magnifying glass,and his anger to theMaglev, and rode it to Jungle Island. The ride calmed him and pleased him. The station was at the edge of the forest, and he got out. He took his hatchet and chopped into one ofthe trees. Then, he looked at it under the magnifying glass. "Yes!" was his cry as he ran from thejungle to the village. Hecalled out, "Guild Master Ren'yt come out here!" Ren'yt obeyed and came down the ladder. "Look at this!" Gehn cried. "This will make the Book paper!" Ren'yt looked and laughed."Yes it will, but Gehn need boiler." "I already have one." Ghen answered. "The Golden Scarab make ink, too!" Gehn was suprised by this. "Is this true?" "Yes, yes!" Gehn ordered the villagers to capture the Golden Scarab Beetles to be captured, the trees cut, and a mine car to replace the Maglev. "We can move Maglev to Spike Island, if Master Gehn is pleased." said Ren'yt. "Yes, I am pleased!" said Ghen. (It is still being written...)

- Rel'yt

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