Making the Best, continued
Dec. 19th, 2005 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerThe voice, echoing my own thought so precisely, brought me round so fast my head swam. An old, old woman, faded tattoo across half her face, regarded me sadly, picked out in shimmering points of light.
"The Age my father Wrote for the survivors of D'ni," she continued. "The Age he Wrote to atone for the evil of his sons, his father, his grandmother...his daughter. The Age you would have seen, if you had stayed to hear me out.
"I know you think you made the wrong choice, and in a way you did, but only for yourself. What you did, there in K'veer, was the right choice. You ended an age-long curse without ever fully understanding what you were doing...and then you ran away to seek the glories of the past, before I could reward you with the glories of the future."
Her mouth twisted cynically. "All glory is faded now.
"I know you think you made the wrong choice...because you told me so. We have spoken, oh, many times. I seem to be cursed forever to be making amends for my own follies, as my father made amends for the madness of others, and you seem to be cursed to be forever helping me. You, and the others. You were among those who freed the Least. You were among those who took the final journey, reweaving the scattered threads into one. And you have brought life back to Myst, the place I cursed in my foolish anger...and, yes, in my pride. There is no end to pride. It must simply be lived with, and mastered.
"And now I have one more service to ask of you, and I do not know if you will succeed. It may be the hardest task of all...but you have come this far. I believe you can do it. I believe you can undo the last and greatest of my mistakes.
"Come to Releeshahn. Use the Book of Gorkorvahk'tee. See what I have done...and stop me from doing it."
The figure winked out. Behind me the impossibly beautiful image shone from the screen.
"The Age my father Wrote for the survivors of D'ni," she continued. "The Age he Wrote to atone for the evil of his sons, his father, his grandmother...his daughter. The Age you would have seen, if you had stayed to hear me out.
"I know you think you made the wrong choice, and in a way you did, but only for yourself. What you did, there in K'veer, was the right choice. You ended an age-long curse without ever fully understanding what you were doing...and then you ran away to seek the glories of the past, before I could reward you with the glories of the future."
Her mouth twisted cynically. "All glory is faded now.
"I know you think you made the wrong choice...because you told me so. We have spoken, oh, many times. I seem to be cursed forever to be making amends for my own follies, as my father made amends for the madness of others, and you seem to be cursed to be forever helping me. You, and the others. You were among those who freed the Least. You were among those who took the final journey, reweaving the scattered threads into one. And you have brought life back to Myst, the place I cursed in my foolish anger...and, yes, in my pride. There is no end to pride. It must simply be lived with, and mastered.
"And now I have one more service to ask of you, and I do not know if you will succeed. It may be the hardest task of all...but you have come this far. I believe you can do it. I believe you can undo the last and greatest of my mistakes.
"Come to Releeshahn. Use the Book of Gorkorvahk'tee. See what I have done...and stop me from doing it."
The figure winked out. Behind me the impossibly beautiful image shone from the screen.