The Path of One.

[Mankoi]

I was born from nothing. I have come from nothing. I am nothing. I can saw what transpired on Myst and Riven. And now I see it again. And again I have seen it four times before. This is the fifth now. I can see Ghen, I can see Atrus. I can see Cathren. I can see Sirus. I can see Achnar. I can read their thoughts. But not the Stranger. I can see a shadow were the Stranger stands, but not the Stranger. I cannot read the Stranger’s thought. But over and over I see what the Stranger has done. Now though I see Ghen in his madness. His thoughts are hard to understand. They are not linked to each other. They contradict but to Ghen they still work. He thinks he is God. He also knows that he can not keep an age stable. Yet this does not bother him or bring down his God mentality. I am disgusted and also saddened by this man. He was once a good man. Then he lost everything. That much I can tell from his thoughts. So he tries to rebuild. He tries to restore something to him to make up for his loss. It never will. He knows it never will. He can never recover anything like what he lost. Yet still he tries. He can not stand to be so without. He can not stand to be the least. I pity him. But he leaves ages dead in his path. He does not care for the loss he has made other go through. He only cares for his loss no one else. He could take another path. He chooses to still destroy in hopes that he will somehow gain. I hate him. I pity him and I hate him. But he without him their would be no Atrus. Poor Atrus. He has endured the insanity of his father and the betrayal of his sons. He has worked without stop on saving Riven. Not just for his wife but for everyone. He has worked to fix the damage his father has done. He knows it is without hope. He knows Riven will never survive. Yet he will not give up. He will not let the people of Riven down. I pity him as well. But I do not hate him. Ghen works to rebuild what he has lost. Atrus works to rebuild what others have lost. Both rebuilding but only one of them is right. Only one has the correct goals. And the Stranger. In strange world but still helping Atrus in his goals. I do not know what to think of the Stranger. I have seen this story many times and I know it by heart. I no longer wish to watch it. Yet it is still my entire existence. Maybe there is something more I can do that will free my from this loop. All I wish is to help people. That is all I yearn for. Something more I can see. Maybe I am still missing the point. I know all I can hope of knowing about Ghen and Atrus and all the people. I must look at the Stranger. I know nothing of the Stranger. All I know is that without the Stranger everyone on Riven would have died. Ghen would have ruled over them until the age collapsed. Even if he made a new age for them it would have suffered the same fate. Atrus had noble intentions but he simply did not have the means to accomplish them. He needed Cathren to help him. Wither it was to help restablize Riven or to move everyone to a safe island. He could not do it himself. But the appearance of the Stranger is amazing chance. Some who is intelligent and a decent person who can figure out what needs to be done. Someone who had the chance to do wrong. He could have left Riven before he had done what he came to do. The Stranger could have jumped into the Star Fissure and gone back home. I have read thoughts of all the people in Riven. Many of them would not have been so kind. And so there is the Stranger. From what I can tell the Stranger has also come from nothing. But the Stranger is not nothing. The Stranger has helped save many lives and bring peace to people. The Stranger is someone great who asks for nothing in return. No fame. No wealth. That is why I cannot see the Stranger. No lust for fame rests in the Strangers mind. Even Atrus wanted fame just a little bit deep in his mind. The Stranger just wants to help. I see it now. I can see that I am the Stranger. We have come from nothing and have dissire other then to help. I can see as the Stranger falls into the Fissure that I will l see this story one more time, as the Stranger. I will be the Stranger. Though I may have not remember being this nothing I am now. I will be the Stranger. I will live to see what happened after Riven. An ending has not yet been writen.