Making the Best, continued

[avevale_intelligencer]

Well, I'm calling it Day 3 even though I don't know how long I've been out, because it makes me feel better, okay?

I don't remember writing any of that last bit. Mind you, I also don't remember getting the model ship from the basin and propping it up outside to collect the rainwater. It's probably just as full of micro-nasties as anything else, but it tastes great. Stupid of me not to think of that sooner.

I'm weak and drained, but on the mend I think. I'm hoping it wasn't the fish-beastie, because I haven't got a whole lot else to eat here. I'll have to try and spear another one later on.

How would I remember how Atrus looked in J'nanin? I couldn't, obviously. I must have been fabricating memories from what I've read. I've never thought of him as being smug before. Illness does peculiar things to the brain. First, though, to the clock.

Or maybe in a little while. My legs don't seem to be in the mood right now. It occurs to me that if I can unfasten one of those levers, it might be enough to punch through the metal of the big gear, or the glass downstairs, or something.

I don't think there was anything down there. I think I just imagined that. Like I imagined Atrus or whoever it was.

I'll get up in a little while. Still too tired.

Later.--I went and checked out the clock. There's a trap in the ceiling that lets you look at the works. I don't know much about this stuff, but it looks as if someone tried to open the big gear without the power assistance I talked about earlier. The main axle jumped its bearings, and one of the cogs is cracked right across. There's no way it's going to work even if I could find the main power source and get it going again. It's vandalise or nothing.

The levers down below are just screwed in. I got the biggest one out easily, and it has a nice heft to it. Whether it's strong enough to punch through what's left of the big gear...

Thinking about all these artifacts. The skillset needed to build this lot, not to mention the raw materials and ancillary processing kit, would be astronomical. I'm inclining more and more to the theory that some if not all of it was Written in. I know the accepted wisdom is that you can't Write artifacts into an Age...but then there are those Moiety daggers, and by the time of the Revelation journals Atrus and Catherine were both happily and openly Writing made objects into Ages. Why not before that? Maybe Stoneship was an early experiment, before Myst.

That, or somewhere there's an Age which is all iron foundries and stone quarries and builder's yards, and everything took a lot longer than we think it did.

Missing Ages. Where did the food come from that Atrus and Catherine ate while they lived here? Who helped him with his building work while the boys were too young and Catherine was busy? If I know one thing, it's that Atrus never knowingly used the bahro. The very idea would have horrified him. The only way he could possibly do without this vast infrastructure is if he could Write stuff directly into an Age.

I wish I could Write a Chinese takeaway into this one. I'd settle for MacDonalds, for frod's sake.

Ah well. Off for my daily date with Mister Bitey. Maybe I'll try a fricassee tonight...

And tomorrow, I'll get through that gear and see if the Mechanical Age Book is still there.

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying this.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you!