THE SUN HAD NOT brightened the sky of Si’Empra for two weeks and would not do so for another two weeks. Outside the Cryptal caves, a blizzard had been raging for days, blowing snow and ice horizontally across the landscape. Inside the caves, insulated from the outer world though they were, the Crystalmakers knew instinctively that midwinter had arrived. They gathered in the Illiath audience chamber to participate in The Telling: the story of their creation.
It began:
We crawled from the sea
Into Cryptal arms
They give us our warmth
They give us our light
They give us our homes
They give us our Order
On the plateau we lived
Though through all of Si’Empra
Over rivers and mountains
Through the winds and the rains
On glasaurs we roved
We made crystal and cloth
From hair of the Cryptal
Fashioned so fine
With dye and with skill
Virigin too
From hair of the Cryptal
With skill
Cryptal faced Cryptal
Others their quarrel
Bloody the battle
Land they divided
Our roots in the clouds
Our lives belowground
From out of the waters
The Skyseekers came
They reaped the land’s bounty
Sheltered in caves
Shared what they reaped
For crystal and cloth
Cryptal our lives
Below and above
The Order is all
The beginning section of The Telling was a summary. A vast portion of the many verses of the thirty-four sections of The Telling was told over many days. However, the verses were not chanted in sequence and some were even repeated, though the ceremony always began with the summary verses. Initiates and acolytes from the Guild of Memory led the ritual. Sometimes they used tapestries, displayed only at the time of The Telling, to illustrate their verses. Some verses were chanted or sung only by the initiates or acolytes. Other verses allowed everyone’s participation; wind, string and percussion instruments striking up in harmony as people sang and danced.
People came and went throughout The Telling, including Guild Masters and initiates and acolytes from the other Guilds, depending upon the call of other duties. Almost everyone participated at some time, exploring the verses with their interpretations and memories of past discussion.
Click Follow to receive emails when this author adds content on Bublish
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.