THE SHERIFF OF HNUT / CH. 9: SITHINI
Extract from initial contact report
The people on this planet go through a series of metamorphoses in their lifetime.
From hatching to about one year, the hatchlings are immobile, and for almost all of this year their skeletons consist of simply a braincase and some ribs. They hatch about 15 days after being laid, with a hatching spike (quickly re-absorbed), a brain, eyes, heart, stomach and a mouth and semi-functioning lungs.
They are covered in a thick layer of down or fluff, which as well as providing insulation also acts as an oxygen absorption mechanism. At this stage of life they are called fluffballs. Being immobile, they are totally dependant on parental care.
Parents of both genders can lactate, thanks to a metamorphosis triggered during the courtship ritual. The trigger to lactate is the combination of a full stomach, the emotional response to the mews of the fluffball and the fluff tickling the upper arms. Milk glands are located within the upper armpit. An unfed fluffball can survive several weeks or even months by entering a hunger-induced semi-coma, during which they will give a low plaintive mew with every breath — i.e. about once per hour, initially. Breathing slows as the fluffball starves and eventually stops.
By the age of one year, (plus any time in coma), the fluffball has developed short legs, which normally become functional overnight on the fluffball's first hatchday, after which it is properly called a hatchling and looses the ability to enter the coma. At this stage the hatchling is able to understand some speech and able to make its desires known by increasingly complex vocalisations.
By two years old, almost all fluff has been shed, except for some down on the head; the neck and torso has developed, main-arms are functional and sub-arms have begun to grow. Gender dimorphism, while previously only discernible by examination of the genitalia, becomes obvious from age three, with boys shedding their head fluff and developing a small crest, while the fluff on the girls heads remains.
The onset of adolescence is marked by the growth of the male's crest and the female's feathers growing. Both feathers and crest are muscled and can express emotions.
“Blues” — those whose fluff was blue at hatching — also have undeveloped glands that can excrete the enzymes and hormones that trigger the Zerk. If this is triggered, they undergo an additional metamorphosis in which the male crest changes structure and the colours of anger and sexual stimulation are changed. Further, rather than the hormones being released directly into the bloodstream as during the first experience of the Zerk, the hormones are stored in newly-grown sacks, allowing the Zerker far more control of their abilities. The parental metamorphosis triggers the reabsorption of undeveloped Zerker glands, thus the Zerker metamorphosis is only possible before parenthood. At the age of eighty or so, a further metamorphosis occurs, with the reabsorption of reproductive organs and milk glands, calcification of male crests and an increased lung capacity allowing more extended and louder speech.
Additional note While not raised by our informants, it seems that people who have never entered the parent metamorphosis have a longer lifespan. However, cognitive degeneration seems to proceed irrespective of this.
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EARTHDAY 44TH OF AUTUMN
“Oh great and wonderful Sithinila, I have been commanded to pass unto you a message.” Dirak said.
“I heard rumours you were alive, Dirak, but it can't be true. You would have sent me a message if you'd lived past that job interview with the police.”
“I did!”
“'I survived' does not constitute a message,” Sithini said.
“You weren't talking to me then, if you remember.”
“I remember why as well.”
“Ah, but do you remember why I swapped your toothpaste for soap?”
“That's not why I wasn't talking to you.”
“Of course not, that was years earlier. I'm just going back a few tens of cycles of creative practical expressions of care.”
“I've got a complete list somewhere.”
“Oh good. You can share it with Lenepoli.”
“Who's Lenepoli?”
“My girlfriend. Daughter of the pastor in this village, Zerkess, and as a true demonstration of God's sense of humour, she recognised me from my little encounter with seven thugs, and I'd almost forgotten she was there. Oh, and neither of us think we ought to get betrothed yet, but Saneth says if we're not married by the double-moon on her hatchday we need tobe on opposite sides of the planet.”
“What are you doing in a village? Oh, did I hear something about you being made a sheriff?”
“You did.”
“So where are you?”
“Hnut”
“Bless you, where did you say?”
“The village once known as Hoo on Utt, Now known as Hnut.”
“That was meant to be a joke.”
“I know. I restrain myself from laughing. No I can't.' he laughed, “Oh, It's good to chat to you again, Remind me, why did we stop talking?”
“Urm, probably because I told you to leave, never come back, not get in contact with me unless you were dead, or I'd make you that way by exploding a black hole in your head.”
“That can't have been it, surely? I wasn't using radios, but surely we could have met up or something. Oh well, anyway, when did you last surface from deep studies of the underside of round the back of the nooks and crannies of God's creation?”
“Urm, what day is it?”
“Earthday, Forty-fourth of autumn, you should have been at church two days ago.” Dirak said, knowing days of the week might not be sufficient. “Really? Wow. I was at church, I remember. Saneth came and reminded me. Lepnew died.”
“I know. Lenepoli is on the council, and Thuna is now chair.”
“Lenepoli your girlfriend is on the council?”
“Yes.”
“Wny?”
“Probably something to do with Lepnew remembering a definition of intervention that meant I didn't intervene, and by what Brm said, Thuna telling the council that if they wanted to split wizardry between people who got involved and people who knowingly walked past trouble as if it didn't concern them then she was going to teach at the school here in Hnut.”
“What school?”
“Well, it started out as an extra room in the house Lenepoli and I are going to build once we get betrothed, but Athrel wants more lab space and Keldi wants it to have power, piped water and a proper sewage system.”
“I like Keldi's way of thinking.”
“Do you know her full name?”
“I ought to.”
“Just she's been throwing it around quite effectively up here, among the deep-red mother and great-grandmother of a yellow thought-hearer.”
“Keldi's found a thought-hearer up there?”
“Yes. She's called Yalinth and she's turning six tomorrow. Keldi proved her ability by thinking her full name to her. And she thinks that God'll make it snow a bit tomorrow, because it's her hatchday and she asked for some. I pray that God'll make it at least ankle deep before the council leaves, because Ranth thought her faith was laughable. She wanted to ask God to zap him before Thuna told her about God not wanting anyone to die. At which point Yalinth asked him why he didn't turn to God and not die, and added that his mother didn't die, she went to be with God, which is different. That's how we decided she might be a thought-hearer.”
“You still can't keep history straight, can you? Do you realise how much brain-power it takes to process that mish-mash?”
“A very very small fraction of yours, Sithini. I know that.”
“You had a message you were supposed to give me.”
“Yes, I know. I'm just trying to make sure that at least a quarter of your brain is in on this conversation, and that I supply you with enough information for your task. You remember I mentioned Keldi wanting running water?”
“Yes.”
“The chair of the high council of wizardry tasked me to ask you to come up with a hundred reasons that you didn't want to come up here and work out how to plumb the whole village into water supply and sewage without digging up every street in the village, and ten reasons you were the perfect person for the job.”
“What's wrong with the current sewer system?”
“It's a remote village. People use an outhouse, or if you're very sick, elderly or maybe just shy, a chamber pot.”
“Yuck.”
“Nothing wrong with a bit of natural composting, Sithini.”
“You reminded me of your dad's chamber-pot joke.”
“Oh. No more than a hundred reasons against and ten for, Thuna says. Oh, the deadline is when they get back tonight.”
“Dirak, I'm stuck,” Sithini said.
“Pardon?”
“I can't work it out. I'm totally and utterly stuck. I need a break. Is there somewhere I can crash out, in your jail or something, if I came there tonight?”
“I'm sure I can find you somewhere better than the jail, Sithini. Of course you can come up.”
“So, where's Hnut?”
“Do you know where Uttford is, where Lepnew was from, or Uttown?”
“Nope.”
“Do you know where Qnut is?”
“Urm, nope.”
“You know where I drew a heart around Brm and Saneth's names?”
“I heard about it, but no.”
“And you didn't pay attention in geography?”
“I read all the key points of the syllabus in about six weeks, Dirak, and haven't given it much thought since I was fourteen.”
“North from the city, there's a mountain range, yes?”
“Seen them, never been that far that way.”
“OK, North of there, you're into the Utt valley. Assuming you're going straight, then technically you start by passing along a bit of the middle Utt valley, then you go over a ridge and you're in the lower Utt valley, and if you're not flying, you cross the river at at Uttford. The next ridge you're crossing takes you into the lowest bit of the upper Utt valley, and passing Uttown. Another ridge climb, to the north-east, saves you a day of following the river, and you're in the real Upper Utt valley, where Hnut is. Much further north and there is Qnut, more mountains, more mountains, and then the ice-fields.
"The Utt is massive when it gets to the sea; Uttford is the lowest point on the river where you can ford it. As you can probably guess from my description, the river meanders all over the place. So, if you fly past the first mountains, about five-sixths of the way to the second set, and tune into one hundred point seven five five megahertz, there's a homing beacon on top of my home, sending a double pulse every two seconds. Does that help?”
“It would. But I don't have a receiver tunable to that frequency in my staff any more, I thought I'd never use it, and I wanted the bits for something else.”
“OK, little sister, it's looking like its clouding over, and it's still daylight too, so a light display isn't going to work, Do you want me to ask Saneth to bring you, or do you want me to come and find you once I've arranged a bed? I don't have a bubble-drive in my staff, so I'll be slow.”
“I could just wait until the morning, couldn't I?”
“You could, yes, But it doesn't sound like you want to.”
“I don't. I'm pushing myself too hard. I know it, but I won't sleep tonight either if this thing is accessible.”
“Tonight either? What are you doing to yourself, Sithini?”
“I'm stuck, and I can't think my way out of this. I don't get stuck. I need to solve it before I can sleep.”
“Please go and find a tap and stick your head under it.”
“Why?”
“Wash the cobwebs out of your brain. The best solution when you're stuck is exactly to go to sleep on it.”
“Are you sure?” Sithini asked.
“Absolutely. And I expect you haven't eaten either, have you?”
“I refuse to give you more ammunition to use against me.”
“Right. You have until Saneth gets to you to pack for at least three nights of holiday.”
“You can't order me around.”
“I've been given the title wizard-at-large, and I'll set Thuna on you if you don't, little sister.”
“So what about the class I'm supposed to teach tomorrow?”
“What level?”
“You don't think they'd let me near apprentices, do you?”
“No. Can they fly?”
“Yes.”
“You can teach them in my little library.”
“You're serious, aren't you?”
“Very.”
“And if I bring the thing, then you'll burn it won't you?”
“Not if it's got antimatter in it.”
“It might do. Hey, maybe that's it! Dirak, you're a genius.”
“No, Sithini, that's you. Now, write yourself a note, 'Is there antimatter?' and then forget about the thing for a few days, come up here and rest that precious genius-brain of yours, or at least give it some fresh air and a different question. I am calling Saneth right now.”
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HNUT, RUATH AND ETHEPOLI'S HOME, LATE EARTHDAY AFTERNOON
“Ethepoli! Just the person I need to see,” Dirak said, joyfully.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Why does your tone of voice say that I ought to be worried?”
“Urm, I need a favour?”
“What is it?”
“You've met Brm and Saneth, two of my three closest friends from when I was at college, about half an hour ago I was asked, well, instructed actually, by the council to get in contact with number three, that she ought to drag her genius mind away from her current studies and come up here to look at a certain challenge. She's called Sithini, and she joined the college when she was twelve, and I sort of adopted her as my little sister. When I got kicked out of the college I was told not to use any wizardry in the city, nor approach the college, which meant I totally lost contact with all three of them. Anyway, when I called her, Sithini admitted that she needed a break and she got no sleep last night because of the problem she was working on, and probably wouldn't tonight either unless she left it. So Saneth has agreed to force some food into her and bring her up... But could you put her up for a two or three nights? I definitely don't want anyone to think Lenepoli has a rival, and I'm sure it wouldn't be right in anyone's eyes for me to have a twenty year-old girl as a guest for the night.”
“Of course. Apart from being smart enough to join the college five years early and a desire to kill herself from overwork, does she have any other peculiarities?”
“Urm, probably shy when you first meet her, but that might have changed. Often accused of thinking of two things at once, but it's probably more, She might jump ahead and respond to what you say in an unexpected way. For example I said something that reminded her of a joke my dad told her, she replied yuck to the joke. She's used to explaining herself, though. Oh, she thinks it's disorganised thinking to tell something out of order. Like in what I'd just told you, I brought up the council early on so you knew why I was telling you about her, she wouldn't naturally do that.”
“That sounds a bit like Merl.” Merl was the church organist, and a bit younger that Lenepoli.
“Yes. Exactly, imagine a female version of Merl with a brain running two or three times faster than the average Zerker, and a taste for practical jokes, at least she did when younger.”
“As in pail of water above a door?”
“She preferred moss mixed with gum, so you ended up looking like some kind of rock formation by a waterfall, But she'll work hard to make sure it only reaches the right target, and help clear up any mess to the room afterwards.”
“Dirak the wind-up merchant considers creative but considerate practical joker as a unofficial adopted little sister. It sounds appropriate.”
“It was more that she came from Reqiq too. She'd just started at the college, when the landslide happened. We did a lot of crying together and praying together, and somehow she became my little sister who needed protecting and I could be proud of, not an annoying little genius proving everyone was dumb. Then one day she put itching powered in my handkerchief, I swapped her toothpaste for soap, and so on.”
“So you looked like a rock beside a waterfall?”
“On numerous occasions. But I wasn't the only one. She got very creative with her triggers.”
“Hmm. So did Merl, then he turned his talents to better purposes. You do know he made the church organ, don't you?”
“No! I didn't know that! Well, it's rather my big brotherly duty to introduce them, isn't it? They might want to compare notes.”
Ethepoli smiled, “I know you well enough now to realise you came up with the pun first, and then made a sentence to fit it.”
“Actually, I was thinking that there's a chance that 3 years ago she was thinking of me becoming husband, rather than big brother. Intellectually I know she's going to have developed feathers, but my mental image of her is still green and fluffy with a bucket of moss somewhere for me, but hers of me is closer to how I look now. If I could find someone other than me for her to focus her feathers on, then I'm sure Lenepoli's going to be more convinced that Sithini doesn't think of her as a rival.”
“And you'd be happier too?”
“I care for Sithini as my little sister, but I'm in love with Lenepoli. You probably think it's odd that I can say I care for someone I've not been in contact with for three years, and I'm cross with myself for not working around the council's restrictions on me somehow or thinking to get in contact with her some other way. When the council expelled me, it was very like that part of me had died, like everyone in Reqiq. I was in a different part of the city, the church at the college was off-limits to me. I expected to be assigned to a village eventually so I didn't really try to develop new friendships, and buried myself in my books and learning the law and stuff like that. I had colleagues that I got on with OK, but no one like my college friends.”
“And it was like they were dead. But now that area of your life is coming back to life for you.”
“Yes. The council have even given me the title wizard-at-large, and welcomed me back to the family. But that doesn't change how I feel about Lenepoli. It just makes things more complicated.”
“The village is going to get more complicated too.”
“Yes. There will need to be a lot of village meetings, I expect. Some council members are saying that piped water is better and outhouses are unhygienic, and the doctor's already asked if she could have electric light in the surgery, and others say we mustn't keep such things to ourselves, and the whole village should benefit, and so the challenge Sithini is being asked is how the whole village could have piped water and sewers without digging up all the streets. Would everyone welcome those changes?”
“Not the labourers who dig and clean wells. But there are safer labouring jobs. Yes, it's all grown enormously, in just a few days.”
“I hope there will be options, discussions. But as I told Lenepoli, wizards are busy. They like to chat about stuff that isn't work, but they also like to reach work decisions quickly, so there's no ambiguity.”
“Like a couple of young people I know.”
“Sort of. But Lenepoli and I are a bit scared of rushing into things. I don't think you'll find that fear in the council, unless someone suggests this school project is intervening in village or inter-village politics. In which case I expect they'll run away so fast you'll hardly see them for dust, and before they lift a finger to help they'll need to be utterly convinced that what's happening is fully acceptable to everyone.”
“That sounds tricky.”
“But Lenepoli came up with a good model, I think. The way that the field-map is planned.”
“Rangar and Girt flexing their muscles, you mean?”
“She mentioned that. I'm thinking about talking it to death and everyone mostly happy in the end.”
“There's a lot of give and take there.”
“Yes. And if the wizards get what some of them want, it's a building about as big as you'd get if you surround a rectangle of grass with two churches and two double-length schools put together, plus ten new barns that they'll call laboratories, and maybe twenty or twenty-five new houses. That's how much field they're going to take if they convince themselves they'll be able to find for twenty students joining every year. Some would leave after a first year with an Advanced Schooling Certificate, Some after the second year with a journeyman qualification in wizardry, and some would study another three years to become full wizards.”
“Five years of study? When did you start your training?”
“I joined the college at fourteen. If you join at that age then you finish the rest of your schooling and get the ASC in two years. And I had to re-sit a philosophy exam because I wasn't supposed to refer to scripture as the basis any of my arguments and I just kept on doing it.”
“And Brm and Saneth joined that early too?”
“No, Brm joined at the right time, Saneth was a year ahead of her age group. I hung out with them, but I'd already got my ASC when they joined.”
There was a faint thunder-clap outside. “That's probably Saneth and Sithini,” Dirak said, “I'll go and welcome them.”
“I'll come too, if I may.”
“Of course.” Dirk said, lighting the end of his staff, and waving it in welcome. “Oh praise God! Yalinth is getting her snow for her hatchday.”
“She's a strange one, that Yalinth.”
“Have you spoken to Ruath about our meeting her?”
“He said she was more unusual than we thought, but he didn't want to meddle in wizards' affairs if it was a secret.”
“I don't think it's a secret. By the grace of God's supernatural gifting to certain of the humans, they could get in contact with wizards here and other alien races by thought. Not directly, but only through someone who could themselves hear the thoughts of those around them. We've been out of contact for a hundred years.”
“Yalinth can hear people's thoughts.”
“Yes. It's a precious gift with a bad reputation among the nobility as a cause of trouble.”
“And the poor thing's born into a noble family!”
“According to Keldi, that's the way of it. Only when a Zerker male and a noble female hatch an egg in winter.” There was another crack, as Saneth went back home to her boys. Dirak guessed that meant they'd seen his staff.
“A winter-born. I heard the phrase being screamed at poor Yagel and Kalb. So wizards count her as a gift from God, and her great grandmother as a curse?”
“Not quite. Just a source of trouble. I'm sure she will be, she's a very determined little girl, but I expect most of trouble she causes will be because of the evil in people's hearts. Sithinila! Is that really you? When did you get so grown up? Ethepoli, this is Sithini, ignore my name for her, it's just to wind her up.”
“That's what he thinks anyway,” Sithini said, “And I let him believe it annoys me.”
“Sithinilalalala, Ow!” Dirak said rubbed his bruised arm, “Ethepoli is Lenepoli's mother, pastor's wife, and generally very kind person who's going to be providing you with a roof over your head, food in the morning and ample opportunity to share all my numerous faults with my beloved Lenepoli.”
“She doesn't really think he's perfect does she?” Sithini asked.
“She was a bit scared of how strongly she felt the moon yesterday.”
“I saw what happened to Brm and Saneth, I expect I will be terrified if that ever happens to rational little me.”
“Brm told the council that he and Saneth both stopped eating dried hynfruit on the same day, and the effect on attitudes was dramatic.”
“That explains it,” Ethepoli said, “There ought to be warnings given in schools, 'this fruit can seriously affect your emotions.'”
“So, it's not just a harmless snack-food?”
“No,” Ethepoli said. “Let me see your eyes... any problem focussing?”
“Sometimes. I put it down to lack of sleep.”
“And you snack hynfruit to help you stay up?”
“Yes, it seems to help.”
“Maybe, but it's not good for your eyes. I hope you've not done permanent damage. Stop eating them, and you'll find you've got much better colour vision in a day or two. Particularly shades of your favourite colour.”
“My favourite colour?”
“On a crest.”
“Urm pass.”
“Dirak said you were his little sister, how old are you?”
“Twenty.”
“And you're in very fine plumage for a twenty year old, I must say. I thought you said she was green, Dirak?”
“Have you dyed your feathers, sis?” Dirak asked.
“No, they just ended up this way all on their own.”
“Keldi probably understands how green fluff can turn into red feathers. It seems to be an area she's interested in.”
“I don't think I've talked to her in years,” Sithini said.
“Well, she's in council at the moment, so we could go and gate-crash.”
“Gate-crash a council meeting?”
“The main topic is the school I'm supposed to be director of or something. I think I'm allowed to gate-crash it, and you need to understand what they're asking you to do, since you're here now, not back in the city. Plus I want to see Ranth's face when we tell him that Yalinth has got her snow. Come along!”
“Was he always like this?” Ethepoli asked. “You're asking if I'd say Dirak was habitually disruptive, twisting things to get his own way, while exuding extreme confidence that no one will really be too annoyed at him? Oh no, I'd never say that except in strictest confidence.”
“Like the middle of the street at the top of your voice?” Dirak said.
“Exactly. Except I can shout louder if you like.”
“I've missed you, Sithinilalalala ow. You're getting slow. You used to punch me after the second la.”
“I'm being patient and polite in front of your future mother in law, as befits a wizardess in high standing.”
'Oh, OK.”
“Sithini wanted to come straight up,” Dirak said, as he opened the door.
“And Dirak wanted to use my arrival as an excuse to gate-crash,” Sithini said.
“Excellent!” Lenepoli said, “Dirak please tell everyone why starting the school isn't getting involved in politics.”
“Failing to get behind the school is getting involved in politics, and risking splitting the wizarding community in two. Overbearing 'we want to do this, or we're not coming' is getting involved is politics. Presenting a range of options ranging from, say, the school starting with one building suitable to teach thirty people and a dormitory with teachers flying in to give lectures and never actually being part of the community, going up to a small self-contained village off on it's own half-way to Tnut, with something more sensible and what we actually want in the middle is not getting involved in politics, it's presenting options and ideas and letting the community make the decision. I'd like to point out of course, that the separate village isn't what the community wants either. I hope you're happy with the idea of a community decision.”
“Very happy with the idea of a community decision.” Ranth said, “But what about the inter-village political aspect?”
“Well, firstly, tough, I live here, this is where I've been legally posted and I'm certainly not planning on robbing Hnut of its excellent teacher. So if you go elsewhere, I'm still going to teach what I know as I've vowed, and so you'll end up with three schools. Secondly, since it was founded, Hnut has been the leading village of the area, that's why I'm based here, that's part of the reason that Lenepoli can teach up to ISC here, and she wasn't pressured to go to another village next door. I don't know if that's because Hnut started out with more noble families or because it's got the ford or just because it's closer to Uttown and isn't a mining village, but if you're going to turn a village into a centre of learning then round here the right village, politically, is Hnut. If you wanted to turn a town into a centre of learning then it would defeat the purpose; a town like Uttown is not that much better than a small version of the city, in terms of reputation as a good safe place to send your kids, and again, which town? Thirdly, there is already an invitation, there is even a bylaw that says the stranger may walk safely here.
"Refusing that invitation is playing politics, and as for trying to use the fact that Hnut has invited you here to get an invitation somewhere else, well, if that's not politics I don't know what is. But... so as not to play politics, I suggest that if somewhere else offers an invitation, this council keeps enough teaching staff that you could answer that request without much wringing of hands. That was part of my thought of when I suggested that we base the research staff here and make much more of a thing of the ASC. Pretty much any of us can teach ASC level, maybe excluding Sithinilala ow, who gets annoyed too easily, and we'd spreading learning and understanding, without overtaxing the teaching staff, and helping raise the scientific understanding in the communities and not depleting the neighbourhood of their brightestminds.”
“Very well said, Dirak, but I do wish, just once you'd use the real long form of my name, Sithinilakiina. I know I told it to you once.”
“I thought you'd just made that up, sorry.”
“I apologise for our little squabble, councillors.”
“Sithinilakiina, you and I must talk,” Keldi said, “I don't think I ever heard your full name, and I'm sorry to say I thought your colour was from a jar.”
“I can't explain it myself,” Sithini said, with a shrug.
“Your name explains all, dear. I'll tell you about it once you're back in the city, I've got quite a lot of books to show you that you've probably never looked at.”
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SKEW STREET, MOTHERDAY, FORTY-FIFTH OF AUTUMN.
“Hello,” Keldi said, entering the shop just as it was getting to closing time. “I was visiting an old student of mine, named Dirak, up in Hnut, yesterday, and he suggested you probably would have something to interest my book-worm of a daughter.”
“Ex-apprentice Dirak sent you did he?”
“Yes, we have changed policy, slightly. Chairman Lepnew has died, but before he did he remembered that our understanding of non-intervention was wrong.”
“Ah? Lepnew was a good man. So there will be changes?”
“No wizard will be punished for doing right as long as they don't use wizardry to hurt people or things. Dirak has been granted the title of wizard that he deserves, though he remains the sheriff there. He sends his best wishes, his little library is winning him some friends among the older generation of deep reds up there, and he's planning to marry the pastor's daughter in time for spring.”
“Dirak's marrying a red?”
“Oh no, Zerker Dirak has managed to find himself a true blue who knows the Zerk herself.”
“Ah! The old colours aren't as mixed up there, then? The lines keep pure?”
“Quite pure. Quite pure indeed. There are not so many unmixed lines in the city, these days, and even Lanthithanapoli is embarrassed by her classmates reaction to her own colour, so she wears dyes.”
“Lanthithanapoli?”
“My daughter. Normally she goes by Lanthi.”
The old man's crest shivered, “And do I have the extreme honour ...?”
“I am Keldithanapoli, daughter of the late Janithanapoli, yes. And do I have the honour of meeting the hereditary archivist-royal?”
“That honour is mine, yes. I am named Grawn.”
“My mother did not tell me, I apologise for my ignorance, and for the lack of decades of thanks that you and your forbears are owed for your faithful service.”
“We have done our best, my queen.”
“I don't wear that title, master archivist, as wizardess I'm apolitical, as heir to the empty throne, I'm merely a thorn in the flesh of parliament from time to time. Finally duelling is illegal, though it took the death of my son to accomplish it.”
“I saw your letter, and grieve with you. Of my own sons, one died similarly.”
“Dirak said you have a fine red-plumed daughter in law, and a grandson?”
“Yes. A noble daughter-in-law, and a grandson and a granddaughter. He is thirteen, she twelve.”
“Lanthi is sixteen, so I doubt they will be persuadable that a match is possible. But, perhaps next generation?”
“You honour me enormously.”
“Bah! Do you know how hard it is to find anyone of noble blood to preserve the blood-line? Sorry, of course you do.”
“For myself, it was a chance meeting on the street. For my son, she was a client... I don't know if she was more drawn to the books or my son. But yes, to find a noble male is not an easy task.”
“I have made a discovery, noble archivist, and your archives may help us both. The village of Hoo on Utt, now known as Hnut of course, was I'm told, founded as a rebellion against the purges of the princes. There are other villages nearby: Tnut and Gorp, founded similarly. In those rebel villages, at least, the bloodlines have mostly kept themselves pure, marrying from another village if there was no suitable bride or groom, rather than staying within the village and crossing old divisions. There may be other rebel villages.”
“There are, yes. Hnut was one of those which made a by-law against cooperation with purges, wasn't it?”
“Yes.”
“The archives do have a list of such villages. Under the princes they paid for their rebellion with extra taxes and lesser doctors and teachers. But that time is long past, praise be to the saviour.”
“May his name forever be praised by our children,” Keldi said.
“It is time for me to return home, or the children will worry. Will you accompany me to see the pitiable state of the archives, such as they are?”
“Before I see the archives, master archivist, I hope you and your family will join me and my family for dinner. I took the liberty of arranging for a table in the side-room of the college, and hopefully your daughter-in-law got a message that the family would likely be invited for a meal. You may think of it as recruiting, if you wish. I am a firm believer that lovers of learning should be encouraged to consider learning as a career, and I doubt that you have raised any who do not at heart love knowledge.”
“You prepared this all, before we met?”
“I do have some resources, such as a number of students who you know as clients, though perhaps not as dedicated to the cause as Dirak.”
“I have heard rumours great changes. Of the end of angar wood staffs, and of a second school.”
“That was quick.” Keldi said. “Please, feel free to close up while we talk.Yes, It is true, There will be few new staffs of angar, and those will be recycled bean-poles from Hnut. Apprentices will have a staff of common wood, journeymen will make inserts or perhaps their entire staff from a material we have long known how to make, called crystal. And there will be a new school in Hnut.”
“What do the politicians think of this?”
“They do not interfere in the activities of wizards too much.”
“But they will be asked to foot the bill?”
“They expect an increased number of wizards. Each year. They ask can you help to teach this or that, or find out what is happening there. I do not think they will object very much. And if they decide that they will not pay, then I will have to remind them of the alternative.”
“The alternative?”
“That wizards earn their income by starting to provide services. Long-distance transport, for instance, or putting up buildings as fast as we plan to put up the new school in Hnut. There would be a lot of upset people if we had to do this. Not just us, but the older guilds too. Speaking of travel, would you prefer to walk, or shall we travel by one of the ways of wizardry, where you hold my staff to stop you from wobbling, and stand on solid air?”
“Solid air?”
“We call it a force-field. You can think of it as solid air. It is not slippery. It is how I went to Hnut yesterday. I came home a faster way, but that's only for long distance travel. The way I suggest is we float into the air here, fly above the city and settle down outside your home.”
“Is it safe?”
“Much safer than fighting a duel, or climbing a rickety ladder. It is very safe unless I make a mistake or a someone else flying in the say way does not look where they are going.”
“Then, as my knees do not like walking, I accept with thanks.”
“It will be something for your grand children to boast of, quietly, that their grandfather flew with the heir to Queen Poli's vacant throne.”
“You prefer to not be known?”
“Of course. The fact that the heir exists is important. It is... somewhat awkward for the wizards that one of their number is heir to the empty throne. Of course, I am apolitical in both roles. It is just that in one role I am... more political than the other.”