FLOWERS IN THE DESERT. THE CHILD’S EYES

OPENED WIDE.

A THOUSAND MILLION STARS DANCE

IN THE DARK MIRROR OF THE POOL.

--FROM AN UNTITLED TERAHNEE SCROLL OF

ANCIENT ORIGIN.

“…and so it ended, as it began.

“Standing there, amongst that small and humble company, I felt a sense of closure, as if the universe itself had taken pause before the final page was turned, the last word written.

“So it felt, as night fell, there on the plateau where our great journey had begun. Where, several thousand years before, that first great sealing-off of Ages had taken place.

“Time stood still, and as it did, the knowledge of what had happened flowed into me, filling me with the blessed light of understanding.

“The Prophecies…

“For five thousand years and more they had waited for him, hidden and sealed away, like some great magician’s finest trick, created not to please an audience but for his delight alone.

“Yet to talk of ‘magic’ is to somehow belittle the achievement of whoever first drafted those prophecies, for it is now clear to me that their complex phraseology stems from the same root—maybe even from the same bold experiments—that produced the Great Art itself, and just as those words connected Age to Age, so these quite different words connected Time to Time.

“It was seen. I have no doubt about that now. Yet the fact that it was seen changes nothing. Had Atrus known—had he been aware of the awesome significance of what he did—then his actions might have taken on an air of futility, his whole life become a puppet-dance, but as it is I find his actions quite remarkable. Time and again he risked himself. Time and again he set himself against the tide of events. And to what purpose? To fulfill a prophecy? No. For at no point did he ever know the outcome of his actions. His whole life has been forged in a great furnace of not knowing, and ultimately, it is that not knowing, that determination in him to do what he thought was right and not what was expedient, that has made his actions more than something fated: more—much, much more—than something merely ‘Seen.’ Written as he was, Atrus nonetheless wrote his own path, like a Looking Book back to himself.

“And it is of Atrus and D’ni that I must write. For on that day, when the picture of the prophecies came clearly into my mind’s eye, I understood what only the Maker and the Great King had known. I saw the thread of happening that was stitched into every aspect of Atrus’s life to bring him to that plateau at that hour. From the very first of this great history that I have written, to these last words, the purpose of events can now be followed. From the most common occurrence—the death of Ti’ana’s father, which led to her journey down into D’ni—to the largest catastrophe—the fall of D’ni itself, which allowed for that unseen chamber to be discovered—it was all meant to be: to fulfill a greater good and vanquish a greater evil.

“And so, even as the prophecies speak of a great rebuilding, we now rebuild D’ni, not in the great cavern, but in a new Age—an Age that is surely among the finest Books ever written in all the great history of D’ni. And it is the survivors of the old D’ni who will build that new Age. An Age of beauty and perfection and wonder that would take as many volumes to describe as I have yet written.

“But you who have found my histories should know this last thing, for I have written these things only so that they might be known to future seekers, whether they be of D’ni or human origin—that Atrus and I live quietly on Tomahna, with a new daughter, Yeesha, cousin to Marrim’s little Anna. And I rejoice and cry for joy when I dream of the life behind and the blessings of what is yet to come.

“And Atrus? He writes but does not lead. He advises but does not command. He wonders and seeks to understand. He loves life and quietly moves to the mark that the Maker has set for him.”

About the Authors, Writers, and Translation Team

Robyn Miller and his brother Rand made their first trip to the D’ni caverns back in 1993. Little did they know that the grand adventure would become the catalyst for the award-winning Myst “franchise”—a series of computer games, novels, and more, based on the D’ni history. With help from a team of translators and writers, including Richard Watson, Chris Brandkamp, Ryan Miller, and Richard Vander Wende, a simple collection of D’ni journals came to life in story form. The story continues to unfold, as members of the team working at Cyan Worlds in Spokane, Washington, bring more and more of the rich D’ni history to light for eager explorers.

David Wingrove, living with his lovely family in London, is author of the successful Chung Kuo series of novels, and won the prestigious Hugo and Locus Awards for best non-fiction work in the science fiction genre.