There was a brief silence.

Elmar leaned back comfortably, watching my preoccupation for a moment before turning his gaze to the master.

“The day before yesterday he heard the retea singing. Before the curpulas were heard,” he added quietly, as if he were telling his friend some secret.

The master looked doubtful. "How old are you?"

"Five," I answered without hesitation. Mother counted the years of my life with anxiety.

The master was silent for a moment and then scratched his hair.

"That must be some mistake, Elmar," he shook his head in disbelief. "You know that the gift of listening appears only at a much later age. If he perhaps heard the swords of the guards, as it usually is. But immediately retea?"

"I know," the gura assured him calmly, rubbing the bridge of his long nose with his fingers. "But his mother swore that Ilan heard the crackle of the turnul before the listeners whistled curpulas."

“I'd like to believe you, Elmar,” continued the master. “If that were true, the boy would be gifted with great talent. But in all my life I have never met anyone so young who was able to hear retea. It would already be a wonder to hear sclenite at his age. You can't even imagine how many times a year some guy brings me a promising listener and then it turns out to be an error. Glaziers want someone special. We've always wanted it. But nowadays I'm rather skeptical."

"Come on, Agadon," sighed the gura, touched. "You know I wouldn't bother you just for the sake of an impression."

The Master stood and thought.

“Who is his mother? Do they have a listener in their family? Not that it matters. I am just curious."

From the beginning I was a boy for the master. He didn't ask about my gender. I knew from my mother that the work of lapidaries was rarely held by women, and with the advent of the new fayas they were no longer allowed at all. Mother had foreseen all this. She risked a lot when she denied that I was a girl. Still, she seemed to have a good reason.

"It's Heda. The tenth wife of the Amarian faya,” Elmar explained.

The master's eyebrows rose almost to the roots of his thinning hair.

"Oh," he finally exhaled.

My mother's story was known to every glazier in town and perhaps beyond. Beautiful Heda, a glazier with a clean face and no deformities, chosen by one of the tyrants, the faya himself, to be his wife. Likewise, everyone knew how she had failed him and how she had been rejected.

"Do you know that I can take him as a student only after he turns seven years old?" Master Elmara pointed out while assessing my height. Then he reached for my arm and examined how strong it was. I was so scrawny that I almost disappeared in his hand. "Provided, of course, that he has at least some gift."

"If he proves himself, why wait?" Elmar did not give up.

The master stepped back and sized me up again.

"We'll see," he finally said.

* * *

I learned that if I am truly gifted with the art of listening, I will hear retea all the time as an adult. As a child, the shield only spoke to the gifted in the event of a malfunction, when its voice was amplified. Even so, it usually only happened after the age of fifteen.

The master led me from one sclenite to another all day. Some were rough, unworked, different sizes. Some, on the other hand, are ground into special shapes, ready to be sent to the lowlands. And others were only partially worked. I knew very little about sclenite back then. Everything was one big surprise for me that day.

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At the beginning of the examination, I was given a glove with a glittery surface. It was so big I could stick my head in it. It kept falling out of my hand. The master was not ready for such a small glazier, but I had to deal with it. I kept stroking the soft surface and would have put it on my face if I could. The master already explained to me at the beginning that what covers the lower part of the glove is sclenite dust. Nothing else could amplify the voice of sclenite. As if the stone knew no equal.

Master also told me that in the lowlands, sclenite dust is used as an ingredient for something that women wash their hair with. And also for the oils and some creams they put on their face. The energy in the glass is said to have a beneficial influence on the skin, and even rejuvenating effects. But that was only for the people of the lowlands. We glaziers could not use it. Even though I didn't understand a lot of things the master was telling me, I was fascinated by everything.

We stopped at each individual piece, followed by the taciturn Elmar, and each time I stroked the surface of the glass to find out if it was flawless or damaged. Master didn't give me any hint. I was only told that if I can really hear sclenite, I will know the defect.

I hesitated for a long time with the first stone. It occurred to me that if I didn't hear the sclenite singing, mother would be disappointed and I would go to work in the mines. Elmar had to push me.

Once I made up my mind, the fear left me. As I touched the stone and carefully ran my hand across the surface, the sclenite rattled. I could listen to it for ages.

"It's weird here," I assessed the first stone. As soon as my hand reached the center of it, the soft sound faded away for a moment and turned into noise.

However, Master did not tell me if I was wrong or not.

"There must be something wrong here," I tried to keep going.

At the next stone, I jumped right at the beginning because I heard an unbearable screeching sound.

"This one is pretty ugly," I thought out loud.

Master didn't say anything to me this time either. He just watched me with a serious face.

There were many stones. And only a few of them sang in a pure, flawless voice. In total, I recognized three types of strange sounds that were repeated. But I had no idea what exactly they meant.

It was almost evening when we finished. I felt exhausted. When I entered here in the morning, I had no idea how vast the whole house was with several workshops. The master was kind and also a great connoisseur of sclenite. I listened breathlessly to his explanation. But all I wanted now was to curl up in my mother's arms and fall asleep. My legs could barely carry me, my stomach rumbled painfully. Still, I was afraid to show impatience.

Master led us back into the room that served as his study and told me to sit at the table. He placed a bowl of apa and bread in front of me and I started eating without hesitation. I tried not to let even a crumb fall out of my mouth hole in the voal. Meanwhile, I strained my ears to hear at least something from the master's words. What if the vocal fluctuations were fine and I didn't notice the real flaws?

"So what?" Elmar asked with poorly suppressed curiosity.

But the master hesitated to answer. He just watched me gobble food down greedily while polishing those weird transparent wheels.

"He never made a mistake," he finally whispered. "He didn't make a single mistake. He evaluated all the stones correctly and did not hesitate. He is sure of his hearing, which is excellent. I…” he stuttered, rubbing his tired eyes. "I do not know what to say. I have never seen anyone so young with such great hearing. It's supposed to be in the blood. The stone speaks to him even if he only touches it with his bare hand. It's amazing! It's possible that the gift’s growth will halt, but if it doesn't… If it grows as it usually does, its abilities will be invaluable.”

You couldn't help but notice how Elmar straightened up and puffed up with pride just because I came from his ghetto.

"So you're going to take him as an apprentice?"

To my surprise, Master shook his head. "He's five. Damn! This is going to be troublesome, but…” He ran his palm over his sweaty forehead and looked at the wet hand for a moment as if looking for a solution. "I'll arrange it," he finally promised. “I'll talk to the faya myself. I don't think he will miss such a chance. He loves experimenting with glaziers. He could brag to the other regents that he owned the youngest grinder in history. But I would wait a while with his listening skills. I have no idea what the faya could expose him to and what would happen if Ilan failed. He might not necessarily survive it.”

"It's his son," Elmar pointed out. “Even if the faya treats his tenth family poorly, this might help. As you suggest. We will play to the regent's pride.”

"I'd rather not mention the fact that it's his son just yet either," the master reasoned. "We'll see."

And the faya, the regent, the tyrant and also my father, agreed.

So I was apprenticed to the lapidary master at just five years old. I was to learn all about sclenite,

including its processing, grinding and utilization. I was happy and my mother was even happier. Her joy was still clouded by Fedor's death, but I saw hope for a better tomorrow in her eyes.

That evening, when I stood naked in front of her and she rubbed terelia extract on my body, she talked more and faster than was usual for her. She just couldn't contain her excitement at such news.

"You have to be careful, Ilan," she admonished me as she had so many times before. “Do you understand? No one must know that you are a girl. No one. Not even a master, even if he is one of us. He would feel threatened and I'm afraid he would report us. You have to learn everything you can from him. You have to listen to him and try to do everything as he wishes. You will get food there. They will feed you better. You won't be so skinny anymore. You will work in the workshop during the day and the guard will take you back to me in the evening, yes Ilan?"

I nodded eagerly, looking forward to never having a stomach aching from eternal hunger again.

"It's a great fortune that you have such a gift," continued mother agitatedly as she scrubbed my body until my skin was red in many places. “You won't have to work in the mines. You will have a long life.”

I glanced sideways at Gideon, who had just returned from the mine. He sat huddled at the table, shaking. His face, mostly hidden in shadow, looked tortured and tired.

"And may I ask the Master if Gedeon could work there with me?"

The mother stopped in mid-motion. She just stood still for a moment with her eyes cast down to the ground, then turned to her brother and looked to him for help.

"I'll be fine, brat," Gedeon comforted me in a tired voice. “I don't have this gift. I can't hear sclenite. But I'm glad you don't have to go to the mines. I feel relieved. Learn what you can and then tell me about it every night, okay?"

He slowly tucked his left hand, on which three of his five fingers hadn't developed, under his mantle. I watched my brother's movement before the disfigured limb disappeared from my sight and I knew one thing. That Gideon won't be okay. If something doesn't happen or I don't do something, he will die soon.

Nevertheless, I nodded enthusiastically. "I'll tell you everything."