Misheemnekuru, Liglim, Sunday Fandom-Time
Blind Seer proved less able to read the notes taken by the various maimalodalum than he had hoped. Although the wolf had come to comprehend an astonishing amount about how various signs stood for sounds, and how those sounds in turn fit together to represent words, his wolf's eyes were not made to focus for long at such a short distance.
Within a short time, it became evident that having the various scribes read their notes to Firekeeper and Blind Seer would be far more efficient than the pair attempting to decipher them on their own.
Embarassed by her lack of literacy, Firekeeper sat with unwonted patience through the long sessions. By the second day, Firekeeper was beginning to despair that the archives would contain anything more of significance when Surf Hands, whose turn it was to read to them, picked up a nearly flat journal, covered in something that cracked and flaked under even the fox-woman's delicate touch.
Blind Seer sniffed some of the flaking matter and sneezed. Surf Hands laughed.
"It is a fabric of some sort, but not one I know. If I did not know it was impossible, I would say spider silk was woven to make this cloth."
Firekeeper lifted a larke flake of the material to the light. That told her little more than that it was indeed woven material. Impulsively, she dropped it onto the tip of her tongue. Sometimes taste proved far wiser than her other senses.
The main sensation was sour, but there was a hint of something else, something familiar. In a moment, she placed it.
"Silk!" she said. "Very old and nearly perished, but the taste is there."
"Silk?" Surf Hands asked, twitching her ears to indicate curiosity.
"It is a fiber that comes from New Kelvin," Firekeeper said. "As far as I know, the New Kelvinese are the only people in all the new world to know the secret of its making. Whose book is this? Does it say?"
"This book was written by Bhaharahma, a young man from Liglim. Much of this journal is quite interesting, but useless for our needs. All but here- at the end. Bhaharahma writes about how his mentor fell ill. Later, he writes about his own illness." Surf Hands went on to describe how Bhaharahma had written about the symptoms of the illness, including sometimes terrifying hallucinations.
One particularly vivid recurring hallucination was of a mountain sheep with horns of cut crystal and hooves of pure gold. Upon discussion with a young woman who had been sitting vigil with him over his dying mentor, Bhaharahma had discovered that she, too, had seen this figure. His mentor, who had not spoken a coherent word for over a day, screamed out: "He dances on the backs of my eyes! I can hear him laughing even now! The light from his horns, it burns! It burns!"
"Something in that," Firekeeper mused, "sounds familiar." She snapped her fingers, echoing a human gesture that she'd seen people use in Fandom. "Toriovico's tale!" she cried out. "Of how he became the Healed One of New Kelvin. You remember how he was not the firstborn son," she said to Blind Seer. "He had an older brother, Vanviko, who died in a hunting accident. It was a curious hunting. A wanderer from the northern mountains came to tell of how he'd seen a fantastical creature..."
"Not a mountain sheep with horns of crystal and hooves of gold?" Surf Hands interrupted.
"The very same," Firekeeper nodded. "Vanviko resolved to go hunting this beast. There was an avalanche, and several of his companions were killed. When I first heard the tale, I thought perhaps he went hunting for this creature because he was bored. Human tales are full of such stories. But now I wonder if Vanviko or his father had heard tell of this strange sheep before. Might others have had such dreams, and those dreams been recorded in the lore of New Kelvin?"
"The trail is even more clearly marked than that," Blind Seer noted. "Remember why the Healed One bears that strange title? In all of New Kelvin, the first Healed One was the only sorcerer to survive what they called the Burning Times. What if he had recorded what he had seen in his hallucinations? Perhaps Vanviko did not go on an idle hunt, but went bravely chasing something his ancestor had seen."
"I certainly would like to ask questions of a hallucination made flesh," Firekeeper said, rising to her feet. "Indeed, perhaps that is exactly what we must do."
[ooc: establishy, and taken from "Wolf's Blood".]
Within a short time, it became evident that having the various scribes read their notes to Firekeeper and Blind Seer would be far more efficient than the pair attempting to decipher them on their own.
Embarassed by her lack of literacy, Firekeeper sat with unwonted patience through the long sessions. By the second day, Firekeeper was beginning to despair that the archives would contain anything more of significance when Surf Hands, whose turn it was to read to them, picked up a nearly flat journal, covered in something that cracked and flaked under even the fox-woman's delicate touch.
Blind Seer sniffed some of the flaking matter and sneezed. Surf Hands laughed.
"It is a fabric of some sort, but not one I know. If I did not know it was impossible, I would say spider silk was woven to make this cloth."
Firekeeper lifted a larke flake of the material to the light. That told her little more than that it was indeed woven material. Impulsively, she dropped it onto the tip of her tongue. Sometimes taste proved far wiser than her other senses.
The main sensation was sour, but there was a hint of something else, something familiar. In a moment, she placed it.
"Silk!" she said. "Very old and nearly perished, but the taste is there."
"Silk?" Surf Hands asked, twitching her ears to indicate curiosity.
"It is a fiber that comes from New Kelvin," Firekeeper said. "As far as I know, the New Kelvinese are the only people in all the new world to know the secret of its making. Whose book is this? Does it say?"
"This book was written by Bhaharahma, a young man from Liglim. Much of this journal is quite interesting, but useless for our needs. All but here- at the end. Bhaharahma writes about how his mentor fell ill. Later, he writes about his own illness." Surf Hands went on to describe how Bhaharahma had written about the symptoms of the illness, including sometimes terrifying hallucinations.
One particularly vivid recurring hallucination was of a mountain sheep with horns of cut crystal and hooves of pure gold. Upon discussion with a young woman who had been sitting vigil with him over his dying mentor, Bhaharahma had discovered that she, too, had seen this figure. His mentor, who had not spoken a coherent word for over a day, screamed out: "He dances on the backs of my eyes! I can hear him laughing even now! The light from his horns, it burns! It burns!"
"Something in that," Firekeeper mused, "sounds familiar." She snapped her fingers, echoing a human gesture that she'd seen people use in Fandom. "Toriovico's tale!" she cried out. "Of how he became the Healed One of New Kelvin. You remember how he was not the firstborn son," she said to Blind Seer. "He had an older brother, Vanviko, who died in a hunting accident. It was a curious hunting. A wanderer from the northern mountains came to tell of how he'd seen a fantastical creature..."
"Not a mountain sheep with horns of crystal and hooves of gold?" Surf Hands interrupted.
"The very same," Firekeeper nodded. "Vanviko resolved to go hunting this beast. There was an avalanche, and several of his companions were killed. When I first heard the tale, I thought perhaps he went hunting for this creature because he was bored. Human tales are full of such stories. But now I wonder if Vanviko or his father had heard tell of this strange sheep before. Might others have had such dreams, and those dreams been recorded in the lore of New Kelvin?"
"The trail is even more clearly marked than that," Blind Seer noted. "Remember why the Healed One bears that strange title? In all of New Kelvin, the first Healed One was the only sorcerer to survive what they called the Burning Times. What if he had recorded what he had seen in his hallucinations? Perhaps Vanviko did not go on an idle hunt, but went bravely chasing something his ancestor had seen."
"I certainly would like to ask questions of a hallucination made flesh," Firekeeper said, rising to her feet. "Indeed, perhaps that is exactly what we must do."
[ooc: establishy, and taken from "Wolf's Blood".]