Sorcery is a troubling topic of discussion, especially when one is not a practitioner and inevitably not versed in its inner mysteries. Most scholars, myself included, have been exposed to the basic principles of manipulating divine energy prior to failing the childhood tests for the ability. The exception being the forbidden and dangerous practice of wizardry. However, while alchemy, healing, and religious blessings are generally obvious in structure, sorcery remains mysterious and often unobserved. Healers and priests generally live among the people, and while apothecaries form cloistered guilds and keep the secrets of their chemical productions hidden, they at least sell their goods to the masses. Sorcerers, by contrast, conduct much of their training and work in secret. Many rarely leave the confines of their chapter houses, making it unusual to even see a sorcerer, much less observe their works up close. I have known numerous well-educated individuals, including scholars, priests, and apothecaries, who live their entire lives without ever holding a conversation with a sorcerer. The understanding of their purposes is almost totally obscured among the general population, something I believe the chapter house has deliberately worked to encourage.
It was mostly a matter of enforced proximity and a shared interest in the natural world that saw me enter into regular conversation, and eventually what I dare to call friendship, with Lady Indili. Even within the close confines of our expedition this was unusual. Her counterpart, Lord Udrand, held himself apart. He would rarely speak, save to direct servants to his immediate needs, and spent almost all his time consumed by complex mathematical exercises. Though Lady Indili was by most estimates unusually personable among sorcerers, even she counted only myself and Princess Romou as friends among the expedition's number and rarely spoke to anyone else.
Despite this, I feel it is essential to discuss the presence of sorcery in Shdustu at this juncture, for the encounters that unfolded at the chapter house in Susmunshta would ultimately have a profound impact on the overall course of the expedition. Not an easy discussion, for it represents in some sense a grave failure on my part, though I believe the outcome was ultimately unavoidable and these consequences would have inevitably descended no matter my actions or those of anyone else. Further, at the same time, the aid provided by the Master Sorceress Lavesassu was essential to the survival of the expedition from the same straights. The following discussion would therefore be unreasonable to omit.
The physical construction of the chapter house was unremarkable. Like all such structures, it was based around a round tower of stone capped by a narrow conical roof with an upward facing aperture used to observe the heavens. Given the small size of the settlement, this tower reached a mere four stories only and abutted against a single small house compound that served as the residence of the elderly couple that worked as servants to the chapter. There were only two sorcerers in residence, Lavesassu and her current apprentice. The latter was a young woman not yet of twenty years. While Lavesassu was full-blooded Nikkad, the apprentice was half-Bahab, which was rather unexpected. This young apprentice lived on the ground floor of the tower amid everyday necessities. Lady Lavesassu kept the second floor as her private apartments. The third floor served as the chapter house library and the top floor, to which I was not permitted access, was dedicated to the practice of sorcery.
Though at no point was I allowed access to the uppermost floor, Lady Lavesassu otherwise graciously offered me freedom to utilize the remainder of the tower in return for my services as a scribe throughout the duration of the visit. She possessed a number of tomes written in Sairn script, including four that were penned by noted imperial authors, that she wished translated into Nikkad. These were all very old and crumbling from heavy use, so I undertook the work willingly despite limited confidence in my translation capabilities or my capacity to understand the context and many of the terms used regularly. The preservation of knowledge is always a worthy goal.
The levels of the tower were connected only by a very narrow spiral staircase. In the cold environment, and especially at night, the stone steps had a tendency to become dangerously slick. This masonry had been hewn from the same subterranean mountain that surrounded the lake. It was some manner of very hard material, laced with considerable amounts of quartz, to the point that it would give off a pinkish sheen in the light of the setting sun. This is a very uncommon stone, and I have not seen it much elsewhere.
Aside from the uncommon construction material and the circular nature of the rooms, the inside of the chapter house was otherwise remarkably ordinary. The furnishings, fixtures, and other features would not seem out of place in the home of a modestly well-off family; a minor merchant, for instance. The first floor contained a stove, bedding, a hanging loom, cabinets of pottery, and a wash basin, all well-made but very simple in design and lacking much decoration or embellishment. The only unusual addition was a large chest filled with crystals, bones, and fossils utilized in essence recognition practice, and a lap desk utilized by the resident apprentice. The sorceress maintained a much nicer personal apartment. This featured a fireplace recessed into the outer wall, fine rugs covering the floor and tapestries covering the walls to keep out the cold, silk blankets, pillows, and cushions, and a very finely crafted writing desk that matched one of the very few chairs I was to observe anywhere in Shdustu. This hardwood specimen was quite expertly fashioned, though of an unfamiliar style, and I later learned it was imported from the distant east over a century prior. Though the chair was notably old, none of the furnishings were new, and all retained the restrained, unassuming presentation found throughout the building. I had not expected such an approach, especially given the distinctive dress all sorcerers present in public. It would only be towards the conclusion of this visit that I learned that the Chapter House acquires most such goods used, discarded from wealthy estates in return for services rendered. Such payment methods are appreciated by those who wish to avoid scrutiny when acquiring the services of a sorcerer.
The library, by contrast, was most impressive. Hundreds of volumes packed into a single room tracing at least a dozen languages and sorcerous lineages. It also contained a fine setup for scripting and copying, including the tools needed to produce parchment, wood blocks, ink, and even a compact paper bath. Though the majority of the titles were obscure, delving deep into the esoteric rules and mathematics of sorcery, at least half were multi-disciplinary texts focused on foundational scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and natural history. This included numerous classics I had long studied myself, a testament to the legacy of shared scholarship that such works find themselves in use at such great distance from the Core Provinces. Truly, the power of cogent observation is unparalleled.
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The sorcery texts were divided into two main groups, reflecting the bifurcation at the heart of that practice. Most members of the chapter house focus their minds and power on the channeling of ambient essence through fundamental energy forms: heat, cold, and lightning. It is only rarely that sorcerers instead seek to touch the essence that lies within living beings. This path is said to be considerably more flexible and potent, but also many times more difficult to master. Perhaps one sorcerer in ten walks the essence path, and few achieve mastery. Most who do reach such heights do so only in their venerable years. That the Lady Indili reached such heights at roughly my own age marked her out as a true prodigy, one whose extent went unremarked by those not properly schooled in the art, for she was little inclined to reference her credentials.
She, of course, was deeply eager to consult with Lavesassu and to examine the secret collection of bones and fossils kept in the cabinets of the top floor. I observed a small sampling of these when they were brought down to the library for sketching. These were mostly, as I had learned to anticipate from her interests, strange teeth belonging to beasts that never walked, nor swam, in the world alongside humans, having been from some early cycle of the world prior to the act of divine inspiration that formed us. Sea creatures were seemingly more common, despite our truly vast distance from the nearest ocean. All fascinating to scholarly interests, though the details are not germane to this chronicle. A full accounting of the strange sea that seemingly once covered much of Shdustu will await the action of another pen.
During the course of our stay, we would eat in the apprentice's chambers, as the only true spare space and greatest warmth were to be found there. Even the best masonry is not proof against the endless howling winds of the steppe, especially not elevated above the walls of the town. The elderly servants cooked simple Nikkad dishes. These were mostly flatbreads, which were then rolled around preserves, vegetables, cheese, and bits of meat. Honey, being a local specialty, was abundant and made for consistently sweet meals. Drinks also, for it was sometimes added to watered wine, though I cared little for that taste.
Sorcerers, famously quiet and taciturn in mixed company, become remarkably animated when sharing the practice of their craft with one another. The three women never seemed to stop talking when they occupied the same room, though I cannot say they truly conversed. Rather, one would speak at length on some point and then the next would either offer lengthy commentary or choose to hold forth on some closely related topic. In this way I was reminded of a scholarly symposium, only perpetual and with a mere three participants. While I was present, they generally kept their discussions to mundane subjects, for the secrets of sorcery are not spoken in front of others even though those lacking the gift to sense divine energy are unable to truly comprehend them in any case. Knowing this, I put the question of such reticence to the apprentice and was told that it was a means of protection against wizards. Apparently, the theory of manipulation of this energy, especially of life essence, overlaps sufficiently that scholarship in one field can inform the other, and wizards are known to commission spies to listen in on the discussions of the chapter house. In Shdustu, with nothing like the Imperial Inspectorate to serve as a bulwark against such infiltrators, the threat is considerable.
This treacherous aspect of the steppe reared its head in Susmunshta. Many of the discussions shared, and works consulted, treated upon the subject of dragons. A singular scroll in Lavesassu's possession, originally penned by the sorcerer Hevashum, a figure I had believed to be merely a being of legend, some eight centuries previous and carefully copied over the ages charted all dragon sightings, attacks, and hunts over the course of a full century. These were sorted by the three known types of these great beasts: fire, frost, and lightning. This information was, with permission, carefully transposed onto the best map of Shdustu I had to that point produced. In gratitude, a copy of this map was made and given to the chapter house, with the assumption that it would remain confidential among the sorcerers.
Such an assumption was a grave error on my part, especially as I had been informed that there were wizard spies operating among the chapter house. I did not consider it possible that secrecy would be compromised or that such a simple thing as a map would inspire treachery. Regrettably, I would later learn that, beginning in the spring of the Eleventh Year of Enduring Peace, copies of this map started to circulate among the wizards of the Obsidian Order, with truly catastrophic consequences. The source of this betrayal remains unknown. I am certain Lavesassu was not responsible, she possessed a great hatred of wizards. Nor do I believe the apprentice or servants took such action. Instead, it is likely a guest that visited in the months following our departure stole this reference. The elder sorceress had many guests at this time, having taken to company in her final years.
Despite such difficulties, her consultation was essential to the progress of the expedition. The sources and advice she provided regarding the nature of their dragons and their occurrence allowed the lair of the frost dragon we sought to be placed somewhere within the glacial formations of the high mountains in northwest Shdustu near the source of the Shgutu River. Other rumors had suggested the mountains as an origin, but the determination to seek the source of the river was made here, in the chapter house, a recommendation Erun Nassah accepted almost immediately upon seeing the map I produced.
Ladies Indili and Lavesassu spent much of their time in private consultation, trading their knowledge of spirits and essences. I was called to assist them both, as was the apprentice, by consulting various tomes describing fish and other swimming animals, and by taking measurements used to differentiate forms by size and shape. The art of cartography was further utilized to chart the expanse of the great sea that once covered much of Shdustu, however, as only fragments of bone and teeth transformed to stone to use as a guide the effort was rudimentary, and I found the deeply speculative result troubling despite the praise both sorcerers gave my efforts.
During this time there were also interruptions, as the people of the village and even Kharal from the countryside, for sorcery is available to all, came with requests for various services. The work of sorcerers, and especially essence manipulators, is a curious practice. Most commonly they are asked to apply force in some task not amenable to other means due to an inconvenient location, lack of tools, or the like. In Susmunshta this most often consisted of patching underground leaks in irrigation canals, clearing away boulders from beneath the steppe for the placement of wells, or clearing dangerous rubble such as when a building was hollowed by fire. Their shades were well-positioned to achieve these tasks. Such requests, and other more esoteric ones, were not especially common, for sorcerers do not work cheaply or frivolously, but they sufficed to support the chapter.