"I don't understand," Pvau said at breakfast. "Is it war?"

"I'll find out at today's briefing," his mom replied.

"The crier didn't say?"

"No, just the new law. Don't worry about it. I'll get you something."

"A sword?" Pvau asked skeptically. He speared a corncake with a fork and moved it onto his plate.

"You'd cut your own head off practicing with a sword. Don't worry about it. The observatory takes priority over the guard, none of you will be called up for militia. I'll bring you something back for appearances. A dagger, maybe. We can do drills in the yard."

Great, Pvau thought. Combat drills with his mom. Exactly the worst way he could think of to spend his time.

"What about a pistol?" he asked. If he had a pistol he wouldn't have to put much effort into practicing. Hitting a target at any decent distance was as much luck as skill.

"The law said a weapon, not a liability. Besides, I'm not buying a jar of explosive a day just so you can mess around shooting paper targets."

She kissed the side of his head and left.

Pvau finished his stack of cakes, then pulled on his wool jacket before stepping out.

Outside, the weather had turned. The new wind had brought in clouds from the inland sea, a blanket of iron-gray rolling in overhead and threatening rain.

It was dark from the cloud cover, and Pvau knew that the sun was due to eclipse behind Dasleight later in the day, which would make it even darker for a couple of hours. A true midday night.

He pulled at the collar of his jacket and headed for the observatory.

He wasn't due back for his shift until night bell –not that they'd be able to perform any observations through this weather– but he'd comitted to taking the Observatory formation from Ibeso, and wanted to scribe it as soon as possible. The rain began only a couple of minutes after he left, quickly soaking his hair and jacket.

The eyelid-dome of the observatory was closed when he reached it. The ground floor and stairway were emptier than they had been during the panic of the previous day, and when he reached the top level he found only observatory employees present, though there were still a pair of town guards there, standing watch over the equipment.

Ibeso wasn't around, so he made his way back down to the man's office, knocking quietly, then cracking the door when he didn't get a response.

The head Watcher was there, sitting behind a stack of papers. Pvau was technically intruding without being invited, but Ibeso had never reprimanded him for it. He suspected the man simply ignored every knock on his door to cut down on non-urgent questions.

Pvau stepped in and pushed the door closed behind him.

"You've reconsidered?" Ibeso asked.

"I'd like to scribe the Dark Moon Eye formation."

"Sit down," he said, gesturing at a chair nearby.

Pvau dragged it over to the front of the desk and sat, looking at Ibeso.

The man took out a sheet of paper from his desk. It was new, not the dry parchment from the previous day, and it had the Three Phase Dark Moon Eye formation already copied onto it, like Ibeso had been expecting him.

"Do you understand what scribing this means for your future in the Observatory?"

Pvau shuffled on his seat, pulling the paper towards himself. Were there some kind of strings attached?

"Is there a contract or something?" Pvau asked. "Would I be locked in here?"

"It's not binding, but there would be a change in your role here at the observatory. You joined us as an assistant operator, but taking this formation is both the requirement and an opportunity for you to become a watcher."

Pvau hesitated before speaking. He knew about the Watchers at the observatory. He'd worked under one or another of them every night he'd spent staring up at Dasleight under the bronze dome. They were the people in more senior positions, responsible for directing the equipment. They also had some clerical duties in their own offices that he wasn't sure about.

Pvau would jump at the chance to get their job, especially since it probably came with a much better salary, but he couldn't help but think there was more weight to what Ibeso was offering than just a more senior version of what he was already doing.

"Is there any reason I wouldn't want to become a Watcher?" Pvau asked, searching Ibeso's expression. "Wouldn't Watcher just be the natural next step in my career here?"

A pensive sound escaped Ibeso's throat, something involuntary that was maybe the sound of resignation.

He stood and went to the cabinet at the rear of the room where he pulled out a long leather scroll case. From it he extracted a tightly wound roll of paper, which he opened up to reveal a map of the nation, Lasea.

Pvau quickly found Beystead, a small town sitting in the middle of a broad valley at the western edge of the country. The valley was bordered to the north by the Floating Mountains, maybe thirty miles away, and to the south the terrain sank into the inland sea.

He could pick out other nearby towns. Draystead, Whitewater. Deeper into the interior of the country was the capital, Tundural, sitting at the center of an area that was too often shadowed by the moon for crops to grow well.

Unlike other maps of the country Pvau'd seen, this one had additional notations. Small owl glyphs were inked by some towns, as well as markings for outposts in the foothills and climbs of the Floating Mountains that he hadn't known were there before.

Pencil marks covered the map, small crosses and dashed lines, numbered with what Pvau recognized as reference labels, each one matching up with a corresponding file somewhere.

"This is the true Observatory," Ibeso said, gesturing to the map. "The institution covers all of Lasea, and has assets in several neighboring countries as well. We here in Beystead usually only have a small role, but recent events have given our small town an outsized importance."

The attack.

"So I'd have a job in the institution?" Pvau asked.

Ibeso nodded. "And its responsibilities would extend beyond the walls of Beystead."

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Pvau thought back on his time at the observatory. There had been times when they'd sent out expeditions. Watcher Isah had been sent to Washtail to compare observations with another observatory in person a few months earlier, and he had vague memories of a group setting off for the floating mountains to perform high altitude readings right after he'd started working here.

"I wouldn't object to that," Pvau said carefully.

An excuse to get out of the town his mother couldn't argue with? An opportunity to actually visit the distant places he could see from the top of the tower? They'd scarcely need to pay him. But they would.

"Does it come with a higher salary?" he asked before that could be glossed over.

He had been brought on as an assistant operator originally, but he'd been doing the job of a full operator for months and nobody had raised the issue of a payrise with him.

"For a first year watcher, three stags per week while you're in the town, five if you're asked to go elsewhere. Plus expenses."

Pvau reached out and picked up the freshly written copy of the Dark Moon Eye formation. He pulled it to himself slowly, giving Ibeso time to object. The man didn't say anything, confirming Pvau's theory that this copy of the formation had probably been written out specifically for him.

He held out his hand and let his Index form, mist coalescing out of clear air into the form of the pale book.

He opened it to its blank page, and slipped the copied formation inside.

His lessons at school had suggested they might need to close and dismiss their Index to get a formation to scribe properly, but this time it happened before his eyes.

The copied page seemed to warp, its edges shrinking to fit the page of his Index. The text changed subtly, ink flowing like dark water into a new configuration. The texture of the paper changed.

The process took only a couple of seconds, and when it was done the paper had vanished, and the new formation was scribed onto the page, which was no longer blank.

He looked down at the new page, the new part of his soul, permanent and indelible.

[https://i.ibb.co/JBVbLZj/20210414-203845-0000-1.jpg]

All three phases were there for use immediately after scribing, which Pvau knew was unusual. Birra's Fourfold movement page only gave its first benefit on scribing, with the later ones needing the talent to be of higher level before they were available. This one didn't even have an explicit level. It must progress organically, he decided, like a strengthening muscle.

He wasn't completely sold on the idea of using a formation with no feedback for progress, but it wasn't like he'd had the opportunity to had a level heading, or any reason to believe it wouldn't have just corrupted the page if he'd tried his own modified version.

"Congratulations, Watcher Pvau," Ibeso said.

"Thanks," Pvau said, flipping his index back to his charter. As he was about to close it, he had a thought. "Do you have any advice for how to distribute my charter?"

"Improve yourself as you wish," Ibeso said, looking uncomfortable. "If you're asking about professional considerations, I'd suggest that might and durability won't be essential. You shouldn't be getting into any pitched battles unless things go very wrong. Quickness, precision, and recovery, are all strong choices."

Pvau nodded. He could handle that later. Silence stretched for a long moment, and another thought occurred to him.

He started to ask if, as a watcher, he still needed to work his shift that night, but as he opened his mouth he froze, the thought unfinished.

Ibeso's face crystalized into focus, along with every detail in the room.

The man's skin became and alien landscape, the papers and wood of the desk revealed for the mess of fibers and imperfections that they were.

It was like going from looking at the world through dirty glass, to analyzing everything with a lens from inches away, compiling the fragments into one huge image. It was overwhelming and disorienting.

He started to topple backwards in his chair and had to clamp his eyes shut to keep his balance.

"It seems like you let your mind wander to the Far Sign. Be careful with that, until you get used to it."

Had he? He may have pictured the symbol for a second. He carefully opened his eyes, relieved to find that the world had returned to normal.

"It's a little hard to not think of something," he said.

"It's not about thinking. The Dark Moon Eye responds to intent. To some that means picturing the relevant diagram from the formation, to others it means speaking the word to themselves. If you had a difficulty recognizing or recalling archaic characters as some do, I would show you the hand signs that match them. For you, it only needs to be about intent. Practice, and it will become like using any other part of your body."

Pvau tried it, looking around the room, watching everyday items jump suddenly into alien detail as he practiced his intent.

"You may want to practice doing it without making that expression at the same time."

Pvau blinked, briefly unable to retreat from the Far Sign, then sighed as his vision returned to normal.

Ibeso turned away from Pvau, going back to the work that he'd been doing when he came in. Pvau took it as a dismissal.

"Do I have any new duties?" Pvau asked, standing from the chair and moving it back to where it had been before.

"Take tonight off, but report for your shift tomorrow as usual. You'll be the operator on duty until we can find somebody to replace you."

Pvau let out a breath. He had the night off.

He turned to go, opening the door back onto the stairway. As he was passing through, Ibeso stopped him with a shout.

"Oh, Pvau?"

He turned back to look at the man. He really just wanted to leave and start practicing with the Dark Moon Eye.

"You've heard about the new decree?"

"The weapon thing? Yes sir."

"Don't worry about finding yourself a teacher. You'll train under Watcher Isah."

Weapons training, under Isah?

"She'll teach me how to use a weapon?" Pvau asked, confused.

Watcher Isah was a small older woman with a slight frame and frail demeanor. She complained when people passed her on the stairs too quickly. He couldn't imagine her with a weapon.

"We train all our watchers in self defense. It's necessary to keep you safe on the road. Just ask Serasa on the ground floor to get you a Watcher equipment pack. She'll get you what you need, and schedule your training."

"Yes sir," Pvau said blankly.

He closed the door behind him, then started heading down the stairway.

What would he be learning? He briefly imagined Watcher Isah wielding a two-handed war sword, screaming as she ran at an opponent on a mountain trail.

He put the image out of his head. Maybe the watcher equipment pack would shed some light on it.