Misha knew it was a risk, she was very aware of that even in her troubled mind, but she couldn’t resist. She had collected shells for J’nanin and Riven and she was dying to examine them both under microscopes and compare them. She knew the Protectors would disapprove of this and would have told her no, and she would have listened…so that’s why she didn’t tell him. She had wanted in J’nanin until she knew it was late at night, and then returned to Tomahna. Everyone was asleep and except the most important rooms, doors weren’t commonly locked in Tomahna. Some people worked late, but if she was careful she could avoid them. All she wanted was a microscope for a couple hours so she could log her findings in her notebook, then she’d return to the Protectors. That was it. Simple, right? She had snuck into the laboratories before, not often but she had, and most prodigies didn’t give her a second glance.

She knew there was a small room in one of the cottages that had microscopes and when she peeked in she saw no one was there. Quietly she entered, lighting a few lamps on the work bench before sitting down and pulling a microscope towards her. She checked it to make sure it was clean and working correctly before putting her knapsack on the work bench and gently poured out the little leather pouches inside that held her seashells. She separated them into piles, one for J’nanin and one for Riven, before opening the one’s from Riven first. One by one she put them under the scope and looked at them, jotting down notes and soon her mind grew in a zen mode, just content and happy as she quietly worked away.

Roshen rarely slept and he resented that it was even necessary for life. If he could rewire the human body so that it did not need sleep he would. He would also rewire it so that it wouldn't need food too. Eating and sleeping, those were two things that Roshen Kirkland found incredibly tedious. They both got in the way of work and they both stole away precious time. But that was besides the point, he was sure that he could rewire the human body if he wanted to but he simply didn't have time. The queen kept him busy day and night, creating this vaccination, fixing that machine, making sure nothing went wrong in the lab. And then there was his constant searching for the holders of The Art. Those confounded people! Completely useless to him. What did he care for people who could create portals into new Ages? Yes, it would be good for resources but he was sure that if the queen would just give him some time to himself he could figure out the secret to making the Linking Books.

But as it was he had no time to himself whatsoever, and that was why he was walking down the hall of the lab in Tomahna making sure everything was in order. There were very few prodigies left in the lab at this hour, some worked late, like Roshen, but most actually valued sleep. The fools. The halls were quiet and dark, there was nothing out of place, the doors that needed to be locked were and Roshen was just about to go back to his lab to work on a disease that would drive a person insane before killing them when he noticed a light in a room that should not have been lit. Roshen walked swiftly to the room and looked inside. There was a girl sitting at the table hanging over a microscope looking at... shells? Yes he was sure she was looking at shells under a microscope. Of all things! Her back was turned to him but even so he knew she didn't belong in the lab. He didn't care about any of the other prodigies or scientists (they were all idiots in his mind), but he knew what all of them looked like and this girl was not one of them. She must have sneaked in. Roshen cleared his throat.

"And what do you think you're doing here?" he demanded.

She should have been paying better attention, she knew better than to lose focus of her surroundings, but when she got into an experiment or anything to do with science nothing else existed around her. She was fascinated by the shells, and was surprised to see the composition between the shells in J’nanin and Riven were not different…which made her excited to see that no matter what Age, the ocean was the same. Just as she was finishing up and writing out some final notes she heard a voice and it made her jump out of her chair, spinning around to see who it was that had caught her….and felt her stomach drop.

The head scientist…she knew him anywhere and had been warned to stay away from him and now he was standing in the same room as her. Her heart started to pound quickly and her nerves went haywire. Oh no…oh no she had to get away from him, she had to get away now. She grew so panicked that her hands began to shake and her body felt like it was trying to move at a speed too fast for her. “I…I…um…I’m...I’m…” She couldn’t get the words out and she turned t the work bench and started collecting her things, as if she could just slip away “S-sorry…sorry…” Did he know she didn’t belong? Her panic rose more, so much she felt lightheaded but she kept trying to collect her shells and notebook.

Mad. This girl was mad. Roshen was sure of it. Either that or she was a very inexperienced criminal who hadn't planned a defense story. But going by the fact that she had been examining shells under a microscope Roshen deemed that she was mad. He stood there blocking the doorway with his arms crossed and watched her stutter out a reply and try to catch her breath. It got so bad that at one point he was sure she was going to faint. However he didn't care, let her faint and if she broke her neck in the process then all the better.

And yet, as Roshen looked at her something turned in his gut. There was something about this child, something beyond her insanity. Something important. Roshen had always prided himself on being an intuitive person and he wasn't about to ignore intuition now. Yes, he would need cold hard facts before he could be sure but his intuition had led him to such facts many times before. He stepped toward the girl now and confronted her.
"Spare me your half brained excuse," he said coldly, "I know you're not a prodigy so you may as well just tell the truth. Lying won't get you anywhere."

She stiffened when he approached her, so frightened she stopped breathing until it made her feel too lightheaded and her body forced her to take in a sudden, harsh breath to keep her from falling over blue. What would he do to her? Oh she should have been paying better attention! She kept her back to him still, her hands going still from collecting her things and just stared down at them. She couldn’t run, the room was too small and he’d catch her before she’d even get past him and it was obvious she wasn’t a good liar so trying to make up some kind of excuse wasn’t going to work. So what? She couldn’t let him capture her. She’d get captured and locked up like her mother and…

The memory made a fearful whine leave her and she ran a hand raggedly through her hair before whirling around to look at him with wide eyes “P-p-please…please don’t hurt me” She started to cry from the stress and fear “I-I just…just wanted…wanted to use the…the microscopes! I-I didn’t, I didn’t want…I wasn’t going to steal! I promise! I just, I just needed-“ Her eyes darted all about as she stammered, her heart beating so fast she could feel it in her chest and it made her feel sick.

Roshen was disgusted by this girl's hysteria. It seemed to seep into his marrow and course through his blood. It irked him so much that all he wanted to do was to shout at her to get out and never come back. He wanted more than anything to tell her to go away before he changed his mind, to threaten her before letting her leave with a harsh warning. He didn't even want to bother with killing her though that would put her out of her misery for sure. But as the wretched thing turned to face him once again, a pang of something hit him. It was that same gut feeling as before and he knew he couldn't just let her go. He knew that she was important somehow, he just had to figure out how.

The girl started to plead and beg, which disgusted Roshen even more. Tears coursed down her face as she stuttered and Roshen took a step back. He hated seeing people cry, especially girls, it made them look ridiculous and stupid. To him, watching someone cry was like watching a dumb animal whimper in pain or in fear. He felt anger and impatience rising in his throat and again the urge to send her on her way almost overtook him. But he stifled it and stood his ground.
"Stop crying!" he barked. "Who are you? Oh for sanity's sake pull yourself together or I'll take you straight to the queen!"

She wished he would just yell and kick her out. It would do no wonders for her anxiety but at least it meant he was letting her go and she could flee. Instead he continued to block her way and question her, and she didn’t know what to do or say. Why didn’t he just make her leave? She could feel the very last strands of her sanity fraying and all she wanted was to drop to the floor and get in the fetal position until he went away like he was a bad dream. It was like she could feel his anger radiating off of him and suffocating her. When he yelled at told her to stop crying she jumped and sucked in a breath, a new round of fear making her freeze and the tears in her eyes go still.

When he mentioned the queen she shook her head “No! No please!” No not the Queen…not Uru. She would be doomed if she went to Uru and saw the Queen. “My name is T’iana!” She suddenly blurted out, knowing she needed to say something to try and save herself in this situation but her mind was pulling in all different directions “I just, I got shells from Riven and, and from J’nanin and I just needed a microscope to compare there composition to see if the oceans in the two Ages were different! That’s all! Please! I meant no harm, please!” She pleaded “I-I come from J’nanin”

The girl was still acting pitiful but at least Roshen was getting answers from her now. However, these answers were not at all satisfactory, they didn't tell him anything about why intuition had screamed at him not to let her go. He was asking the wrong questions he knew this, but he wasn't sure what were the right questions. Now of course, he couldn't outright ask her if she was a Holder of the Art, well he could, however that wouldn't get him anywhere. And he couldn't really ask her about linking books either. He hated to let her go, but he had no real evidence for detaining her. All the facts pointed to a silly girl who wanted to look at seashells. An aspiring scientist with an amateur start, but still intuition nagged at him and made his head hurt. If he could only keep her in Tomohna until he found out more about her. And then, he had an idea.

Roshen sighed, running a hand through his hair. "How stupid," he said, he couldn't help it, everything about this girl was getting on his nerves. He reached out, grabbed her arm and started to pull her out of the room. "innocent as your intentions may seem, I get the feeling you're lying to me. And besides, lie or no lie, I can't overlook a break in. You're coming with me."

When he grabbed her she tried to resist, shaking her head and trying to pull away from him but Meesha was hardly what one would call strong. Why was he doing this? He had asked her what she was doing and she had told him the truth, she felt it was unnecessary for him to try and take her to…wherever. She hoped not Uru. Not the Queen. Anything but that. “I told you! I answered your questions! Just let me go, please!” She begged “Just ask J’nanin! I am from there! I do not lie!” She visited J’nanin the most and knew many people there and she felt pretty confident that if he asked any Nanite if she lived there they would lie for her, that was just how J’nanin was, they protected people even if they weren’t their own.

Her mind suddenly got flooded with images of her mother being taken by Urun soldiers, locked away then eventually her throat slit. The memories of her mother made her head pulse and suddenly without warning her legs gave out from under her and her knees hit the floor hard. She started breathing as if she couldn’t breathe, her throat constricting from her anxiety. Black dots danced infront of her vision and she whimpered, closing her eyes and trying to calm herself down but fear wouldn’t let her and flashes of her mother kept taking over her painfully.

The girl fell to her knees and stopped Roshen in his tracks. He was definitely stronger than her but still physical strength wasn't one of his traits and he didn't think he could carry her if she fainted. And she looked like she would faint. Any second now he expected the labored breathing to stop and for the rest of her body to join her knees on the floor. Still, he kept a tight grip on her arm and tried to pull her up. This girl was mad, she was insane, she needed to be locked up where she could be watched at all times and protected. Any other girl, if it were any other girl than this one Roshen would have let her go and be killed by some mishap in the street or perhaps commit suicide because of her troubled mind. He didn't care for the insane except at guinea pigs and research projects. To Roshen, humans weren't humans, they were test subjects. Every single one of them had something about them that could be tested an researched and this girl shouldn't have been an exception. But she was, and that angered Roshen more than anything.

"You're mad!" he said, "You're mad and you're a danger to yourself and to society. I'm taking you to an institution for tonight. Who are your parents, I will contact them tomorrow and if they want you back then they can have you but I assume they'll be glad to be rid of you. Pull yourself together and answer my question!" In all honesty Roshen had no intention of contacting J'nanin, if she were telling the truth someone from there would more than likely come looking for her. And if no one did then he would know she were lying. More importantly, an asylum would allow him to keep an eye on her and find out why she wasn't just another test subject. He needed to know how she was different. He needed to.

She didn’t budge, staring forward and images flashed unsteadily in her mind and infront of her vision. Not her own memories or thoughts but her mother’s, disorganized and hectic. When they flooded her she could never make sense of any of it or be able to stop it, it just seemed to pass on its own like a coughing fit. She heard her mother speaking to her in a language lost to the Ages now, the language of D’ni, the language her grandfather and grandmother knew. She would speak to Meesha in that language in hopes she would learn it, but Yeesha had died so young her daughter had never really learned, only could remember the words her mother would say. She stared forward as if she was looking at someone and to her she was. She was looking at her mother, who was saying something but she couldn’t understand it.

“Astrao” She said the name because it was the last person she could remember talking to, but the man was a drunk and she had no idea if he would even vouch for her but it had just merely come out without her thinking. She kept staring forward and finally it seemed to click what her mother was trying to tell her Run. Her mother’s vision was telling her to run. She had to run. Could she run? She didn’t know, but she could try she supposed. She suddenly bolted up and pushed on Roshen’s chest, trying to flee and get away from him.

Roshen paid no attention to the name the mad girl spoke, it was of no importance to him. But when she suddenly stood up and pushed him out of the way it took him off guard and he stumbled back into the table, upsetting the microscope. "Hey! Get back here!" he yelled, though he knew it was no use. He chased after her, running as fast as he could but the girl was swift and agile, and she already had too much of a lead on him. He would have to think fast. Even if he did catch her he wasn't sure he could hold her if she decided to go kicking and screaming. No, it would take cunning to best this girl, luckily Roshen prided himself on being cunning.

He sped up and reached into his pocket then reached out to the girl, just a little closer and he might be able to touch her with the ends of his fingertips. As luck would have it he did better than that and was able to grab a handful of her hair and pull her back that way. He was exhausted but before she could react he made sure that his plan had taken effect. He held tightly to her hair to keep her from getting away. It would be best if he could still get her to the asylum, however he needn't worry if she got away again for he had planted a nearly microscopic tracking device on her that would pierce through her skin and into her blood stream, and so he would see where she went if he slipped from her again. Roshen smiled a self-satisfied sort of grin, truly he had outdone himself.

Meesha wasn’t a bad runner, but she hardly was a good one. She had not run very much in her life and all that was fueling her was adrenaline. She had to get away from him, though she wondered if this was the best choice, but if she hadn’t run who knew what he would have done to her. She was running blindly and had no idea where she was even headed, she typically knew the way around the laboratories but she was too panicked to pay attention and it was this lack of attention that made her turn a corner and come to a dead end. The walkway lead down and only to a railing, there was nowhere else to go, but even with this knowledge she couldn’t seem to stop and just kept running, not having a clue what she’d do when she reached the end but she couldn’t stop her legs.

Then suddenly she felt pain and she cried out as he grabbed and pulled on her hair, making her skid to a stop and struggle as she cried out a few more times from the pain. She struggled against him, feeling a prick on her skin but she thought nothing of it as she tried to get him to let go. What was she to do? What was she to do?! She was trapped! She couldn’t let him capture her, all she could think of was her mother had been captured and they killed her and they would do the same to her and she didn’t want to die! She couldn’t die! So there was only one way she could think of, the only escape route…and a little voice in her head told her she could kill herself this way as well, but they were only on the second floor, it wasn’t that far of a fall…right? She didn’t have any more time to waste however, with him still having a hold on her she suddenly moved towards the rail and pushed her body against and over it, plunging down to the lake below.

The girl's hair slipped through his fingers like silk and Roshen stood stunned as he watched her plunge into the lake. This girl was beyond mad, she was completely and entirely insane. Once the shock of what had happen wore of Roshen let out a sigh and a feeling of indifference came over him. So she had escaped capture but she had not escaped surveillance and now Roshen had the power to track her every move. At the push of a button he could know where she was in an instant, even if she left Tomahna to go to a different Age, he would still be able to trace her. Finally, for once, things were going his way. Would the queen be mad that he hadn't caught her? Perhaps, but then, the queen need never know that she had trespassed in the first place. Roshen knew he could handle things here, he was sure of his ability though he was also sure that the queen underestimated him. He would remain loyal to her for she was the one who provided funding and what's more a certain portion of his life depended on it, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her so long as he got the job done.

Roshen turned to go back to his quarters when a sick feeling came over him. What if the girl drowned? Could she swim even? It wouldn't matter that he had so cleverly planted a tracking device on her if she were to die. All that work would go to waste, and what's more, he wouldn't be able to find out who she really was. The girl was mad, insane, stupid, to throw herself over a railing to get away from what? An asylum? Granted, they were not the most pleasant places to be but at least there she would have been alive! Did she really not realize that, or was she just suicidal. Roshen hurried away and down to the first floor to make sure that she would be okay. Whatever happened she could not drown.

Meesha knew the density of water was thick, it was like hitting the floor if you fell high enough and people could die trying to jump into water from too far of a distance. She had known she wasn’t high enough for that, but still when her body smacked against the surface and broke through it still hurt like hell. It shocked her for a moment, sinking down in the water before her body jolted into survival mode and she swam upwards, her head breaking the surface to take in a giant breath. She knew how to swim well, she had learned from the best in J’nanin, but her muscles were weary and her side throbbed from hitting the rail so she struggled for a bit. She flailed for a few moments before taking in another deep breath and pushed wet hair out of her face and rubbed at her eyes, looking around to try and find somewhere to get out.

She looked up where she had fallen from and didn’t see the man and didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. With a wince she began swimming forward, his side aching with every stroke but she knew she had to get out before anyone else caught her. She made it to one of the small areas of the water’s edge and pulled herself out, coughing violently as she kneeled on the ground and gripped her side painfully. She gasped in and out, her head swimming from what she had just done…but it had to been done, she couldn’t be captured by that man in anyway, she just couldn’t. She tried to get up but her body resisted, her legs feeling like rubber now that the adrenaline had flooded out of her.

Roshen found the girl on the opposite bank, weak and shaking. She was alive! Relief washed over him like a wave and he looked across at her wondering at his next move. In theory he could simply let her go, in fact that's what he wanted to do. He wanted nothing more than to let her go to deal with her another way. The sleepless night was finally starting to catch up with him and he felt very tired in spite of his hatred for sleep. It was one of the few cases in which his body was not on the same page as his mind. His body screamed for rest while is mind spun with ideas and plans. Oh, how he longed to go back to his office and work 'til he collapsed from exhaustion or even just collapse on his bed and, yes, give in to the tedious necessity of sleep. He was thoroughly fed up with this girl but his intellectual mind wouldn't let him put her to rest quite yet, there was still the possibility that she could die from cold or shock if she didn't find shelter for the night, and given her unstable state of mind, that seemed highly likely.

Roshen heaved a sigh as he crossed over a small bridge to where the girl was on the opposite side of the bank. He was so exhausted he didn't even care about putting her into an asylum anymore. Tired as he was, he had not lost any of his wit and he stopped a good distance away from her so he wouldn't frighten her away, yet close enough so that she could hear him without having to raise his voice. It was very much like dealing with a frightened animal, you had to find a balance of far enough away not to send it running and close enough to be able to gain its trust. "You... Girl..." Roshen said, unable to remember the name she had given him. "Just listen to me for a minute..." he wasn't the most tactical person in the world, in fact he had no tact for his job was solely based on blunt truth but he hoped that he didn't seem too harsh or whatever it was that scared girls about strangers.

She had to get back to the Protectors. She had to tell them what had happened, they would know a solution to it. They’d probably insist on locking her up and never letting her out from their encampment ever again for her safety, but with how shaken she was at the moment she’d take it without much argument right now. They kept her safe, they were her family and all she wanted was their comfort and advice to help calm her nerves. She managed to catch her breath some and tried standing again, this time able to get on her feet without her knees buckling. She moved a couple steps forward, her hand moving out to lean against a large boulder before she heard the man’s voice and she quickly turned her head to stare fearfully at him.

Why couldn’t he just leave her alone?! All she had done was use a microscope! Why couldn’t he just leave her be? She straightened herself, wincing as her side ached and gave him a pleading look “Please” She gasped, grabbing at her side “Just leave me alone! Please! I didn’t do anything!” She just wanted to be left alone, she wanted to go back home and try to recover from all this stress. Would he keep following her? The laboratories were her love, it was her hobby and past time and creative output and now she was going to be too afraid to visit again and it saddened her.

He just wanted to leave her alone! Why couldn't he just stop worrying about her! Why did she have to be so special why did she have to be important somehow and why couldn't he figure out why she was important! This was possibly the most frustrating moment in Roshen's entire life. It was evident this girl was terrified of him, and with good reason, but it would be so much better if she weren't. This whole situation would be so much easier if she weren't scared and if she weren't insane. At this point he wasn't sure she would listen to reason and the thought of that brought frustration and anger to his throat, but he stifled it and tried to seem harmless, putting up his hands defensively.

"Look, Girl, I would like nothing more than to leave you alone. You've been a thorn in my side and I am thoroughly fed up with dealing with you. But the fact of the matter is, it's cold out, you're weak, you're mad and I can't leave you out here to die. Just let me give you a room for the night and I'll be happy to kick you out in the morning or better yet, why don't I take you somewhere. A hotel maybe. I wouldn't care but you can't die on my watch, it would cause me too much trouble." Yes, Roshen did realize that this little speech wasn't exactly reassuring. He realized that this probably only frightened her more but at this point he was just too tired to care. Just as long as she didn't die, he didn't care how she felt.

She didn’t know what to expect. One minute he was yelling at her and threatening to lock her up in a crazy house and take her to the Queen, the next he was offering to put her in a room for the night to make sure she was ok? Meesha wasn’t that smart when it came to things outside of science, but this seemed very suspicious and she didn’t trust him. He may be saying that but for all she knew he was tricking her and was going to take her to the asylum anyway. She eyed him, it obvious in her face she wasn’t trusting a word that was coming out of his mouth and she looked ready to bolt as if she expected him to pounce at her.

She glanced slightly in the direction of the Protectors encampment. It was an hour and a half walk to where they were, probably two hours with the pain in her side and the fact she would walk slow. She had also never walked there at night, she always went when there was daylight for only the moon lit the desert at night when away from the laboratories. “I…I J-J…home. I can go home. I can go to J’nanin” She remembered she had told him she came from J’nanin and even though she preferred to sneak away to the Protectors she’d take J’nanin for the night and return tomorrow and go to them. She just needed to get away from him before he tried to hurt her again.

Hopeless, this case was completely hopeless. If he hadn't been so worried about her dying he would have just left her there, but of course there was the fact that he was worried about her dying. Oh, if only he had more time! He was sure that he could figure out how to make a Linking Book and then this girl wouldn't matter at all! He could leave her there and not have to worry about whether she died or not. How life irked him sometimes!

"At least let me walk you to the portal. As I said I would have a very nasty mess to clean up if you died on my watch." he shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. This wasn't going to convince her, he was sure of it. He was probably just giving himself away by acting like he didn't care. She was probably on to him. He wished bitterly that he could go back and time and leave when he'd seen that she made it out of the river. But wishing never did anything so he just stood there, watching her, waiting for her next move.

So now he cared if she died? Well, besides wanting to capture her she wasn’t actually sure he had wanted to kill her, she couldn’t jump to that conclusion. She glanced in the direction of the Protectors encampment again and frowned. She really just wanted to go home to them, but she couldn’t go there without raising suspicion. People did not commonly go to the Protectors unless they wished to use the Memory Chamber, but even then only those worthy were allowed close to where they lived. Taking in a deep breath she released it a bit forlornly and slowly nodded to his offer. What else was there to do? Better to just agree with him now and get away from here.

“Alright” She agreed slowly, moving away from the boulder she had been leaning against and tentatively walked closer to him. Her dress made every step heavy but she tried to ignore it for there was nothing to do at the moment about it. The whole situation was bizarre to her, but Meesha was a bizarre creature herself so she couldn’t say much about others acting strangely and changing their moods, for she did that all the time.

Roshen couldn't believe it. Had she really just agreed to let him take her to the portal? Had he heard her correctly? Yes, he was sure he had. She was agreeing to go with him. Pride swelled in Roshen's chest and he stepped closer to her. "Let's go," he said coldly, taking her by the arm and starting off. The sense of triumph soon wore off however as exhaustion set in. He just had to see her to the portal and then he could forget about her 'til morning. Once she was gone, he would be able to get some sleep and then he would be able to continue his work and keep an eye on her as he needed. Simply put, after this episode, life would go on, as he saw it.

Roshen stifled a yawn as he walked, exhaustion was catching up with him and his body was screaming for sleep despite his hatred for it. His feet felt heavy and his mind was starting to fog over, vaguely he thought of the fact that once a person went 72 hours without sleep they were legally insane. He was far from being that deprived however the thought crossed his mind anyway. "Whatever possessed you to look at shells under a microscope?" he found himself asking. Why was he asking her this? He didn't really care about what she was doing in the lab or why she was looking at seashells anyway. The sleep deprivation must be getting to him. He didn't wait for an answer. Change was coming into his life and if Roshen had been more awake he might have sensed it, but as it was he was aware of nothing and when it did come, odds are he would more than likely be taken off guard.

When he grabbed her by the arm she stiffened and tried to shy away “Please don’t touch me” She said in a panicked voice. She didn’t like to be touched and he had done his fair share today. To her he was now someone that would hurt her and she didn’t want his hands on her. “I won’t run. I’ll follow” She added quickly to assure him. Not that she could run much now in her heavy cold dress. She wanted sleep as well, the adrenaline that had pumped through her was now reversing and taking its toll, making her body feel shaky and worn. She’d sleep in J’nanin tonight then come back in the morning and run off to the Protectors, but she worried if she would get caught again, but she had to tell them what had happened…but did she go immediately tomorrow or wait? She didn’t know yet and had no one to ask for an opinion.

At his question she went from staring at the ground to looking at him “I was checking there composition to compare the oceans of Riven and J’nanin” She started but the question was one of science and anything of science made Meesha start rolling like a rock down a hill. “You see, the shells are made from the same matter. There created the same, which leads to my hypnosis that I had that the oceans are the same in both Ages. Besides temperate and salinity, J’nanin and Riven’s oceans are the same, which is remarkable because they are Ages on completely different planes, but somehow their oceans are the same. I mean when Atrus created the linking books he was obviously a detailed man but I doubt he bothered to create the exact chemical composition of both oceans so why are they the same? It’s fascinating” She rambled, her face lighting up as she spoke but then she pursed her lips and looked away “I mean…at least to me it is…”

Roshen let go of her arm and let his hand drop to his side. There was no way she could run in her current condition so he wasn't worried about her escaping. What's more is that he could tell that she was just about as exhausted as he was and neither of them were in a position to be playing a game of cat and mouse. It was an odd thing, to be walking side-by-side like this, in relative peace though Roshen had grown to find this girl a nuisance and he was sure that she wasn't too fond of him. Yet here they were, too tired to care about one another and still too wary to let their guards down completely.

Roshen was surprised to find himself actually listening to the girl's answer about the shells. No it wasn't the most interesting thing in the world but it was still science and... wait... did she say the same? The compositions of the oceans in Riven and J'nanin were the same? How could that be? What did that mean? Roshen stopped dead in his tracks and stared into the night. If the oceans of J'nanin and Riven were of the same chemicals then maybe other similarities could be drawn. It definitely meant that Riven and J'nanin were connected in some way, but what about the other Ages? Roshen stared at the girl in disbelief, if the Ages were connected it could help him learn the art of Linking Books. He grabbed her shoulders urgently, forgetting and not caring that she had asked him not to touch her. "What about Myst Island!?" he asked, "What about the ocean there?"

Soon shed be in J’nanin…that’s all she had to focus on. She’s go to one of her friends home and they’d let her stay the night without question, though she’d have to figure out a story to tell them why she was dripping wet and why her side hurt so badly but she’d figure that out sometime between now and then. She didn’t expect him to really listen to her rambling about the oceans, he didn’t seem to care much about her other than making sure she was still breathing, so after she stopped talking she figured she had pretty much just been talking to herself. When he suddenly stopped she walked a few steps still before realizing he wasn’t walking anymore and stopped herself, turning to look at him and wondered what was wrong with him.

When he grabbed her she gasped and quickly tried to push away from him in fright, wanting to keep a distance between them and her heart started pounding again. Why was he reacting like this? She was bewildered for a moment before her brain caught up with her “I…I don’t know?” She stammered “I…I haven’t…haven’t studied Myst island yet…it, um, it doesn’t produce as many shells…it’s a very small portion of beach um…” He was freaking her out again and she wished they were closer to the portal so she could bolt towards it. No one ever cared about the scientific things she spoke of, but he seemed to be quite intense about it.