"Dear Vren." Shar-wu greeted her language student with a hug and it took all Onion could muster to avoid cringing in pain. The embrace of her teacher aggravated her scarred and raw skin under her clothing. "I'm glad to see that you've finally started to pick up on Yibouh fashion." she remarked, noting the Onion's gradual retirement of her wardrobe. First went the Eirdred style, loose but stiff linen short jacket then the Nüish style tight leather torso wrap and belt and finally the nondescript leather breeches that were standard issue for off-duty City Enforcers in Eirdren City. Instead, they were replaced with soft flowing robes of layered, light silk, known as bhuon with a satin belt keeping it together. "I wasn't going to say it directly, but... well, "she looked at her student searching for understanding as well as forgiveness, "Well it doesn't matter what I think of fashion in other parts of the world. Your foreign features really fit nicely with that purple bhuon! It's so smooth and shiny. And I love the crane embroidery. All we need to do now is change those dirty leather boots to some proper ket, and maybe do something with your hair. You will be gorgeous."
Onion held her tongue, not waning to make an issue of the matter, so all she did was smile. She couldn't tell Shar-wu that her other clothes were blood-soaked. Nor could she divulge that the bhuon wouldn't cling closely to her beaten flesh like the leather did. The loose fabric was the only thing that felt bearable to wear.
"I want to do something different for our lesson today. Tell me, how much do you know about the Circle of Keepers?"
Onion felt herself involuntarily heave in disgust. "We have our own gods in the Outer Crest."
"I'm not trying to convert you, don't worry," she chuckled, "You look so unattractive when you frown. But the Circle is an important part of Yibouh, and really, just about anywhere within the Empire. If you don't understand it, you'll never get a good grasp of half of our idioms and customs. I want to show you the University Cathedral."
They arrived to a massive building, made of white marble like most of the University on High. Onion had seen the building from a distance - it was an unavoidable sight from just about anywhere on the campus, bu she'd never been up close. Looking at the giant hexagonal monolith so closely, Onion felt small, even smaller than looking at the imperial palace.
At its base - a walk around which would probably take no less time to encircle than what is needed to finish one's morning meal- huge stones taller than Onion connected in a circle to form the foundation. of the cathedral. After climbing two stories of stairs, the building proper began with smaller, but equally smooth, straight and unblemished marble stones were constructed in hexagon, no doubt one side for each Keeper.
At its base - a walk around which would probably take no less time to encircle than what is needed to finish one's morning meal- huge stones taller than Onion connected in a circle to form the foundation. of the cathedral. After climbing two stories of stairs, the building proper began with smaller, but equally smooth, straight and unblemished marble stones were constructed in hexagon, no doubt one side for each Keeper.
Further up her eyes traveled to see that eventually, after 5 or 6 stories, each wall separated from the other and continued in a triangular spire until its tip. From this angle, she could not see it, but at each spire's tip, flying buttresses of carefully wrought steel, gilded with vines of gold, bridged each point to a center circle, also made of gilded steel. Within that circle a globe of polished copper and steel hung suspended, occasionally rotating with the breeze. The globe was only visible from the palace, being as high as it was, however. When Shar-wu told her of it, and that it was to represent the world, Onion laughed at her face.
"You're being serious?" she quickly recanted.
"The world is round," Shar-wu replied sparking another laughing fit from her student.
Onion made a gesture of surveying the land from left to right, "Doesn't look very round to me."
"But it is. Our scholars figured it out ages ago."
Onion liked Shar-wu, but she didn't know if she could believe something so outlandish just on her say so.
After a long climb, the two stood at one corner of the hexagon and before two giant oak doors - imports from Eirdren. One was just slightly ajar, to allow access to visitors. Upon entering the cathedral, Onion saw that the inside mirrored the outside. Where each spire had begun, a huge pillar made of rose marble held it up. Six pillars in total, alternating with each wall, which helped give a sense of an alcove though no inner walls separated each section. At each wall, richly colored oil paintings, marble and plaster statues and hundreds of candles surrounded an altar, one for each of the Keepers; Ganthay's altar sat opposite of Sheg's, Vera of Rüern's, and Dagleth of Rel. To Yibouh's credit, or perhaps it was merely a reflection on the diversity of people that traveled to the University, Ganthay, the patron keeper of Yibouh, had an altar that was only slightly more adorned than that of the other Keepers.
Before each altar were a series of benches that looked more like slabs of marble thrust from the polished floor. There were no backs to these seats so that patrons could face either the altar of the Keeper they had come to appeal to, or during a service, turn around and face the center of the building.
After a long climb, the two stood at one corner of the hexagon and before two giant oak doors - imports from Eirdren. One was just slightly ajar, to allow access to visitors. Upon entering the cathedral, Onion saw that the inside mirrored the outside. Where each spire had begun, a huge pillar made of rose marble held it up. Six pillars in total, alternating with each wall, which helped give a sense of an alcove though no inner walls separated each section. At each wall, richly colored oil paintings, marble and plaster statues and hundreds of candles surrounded an altar, one for each of the Keepers; Ganthay's altar sat opposite of Sheg's, Vera of Rüern's, and Dagleth of Rel. To Yibouh's credit, or perhaps it was merely a reflection on the diversity of people that traveled to the University, Ganthay, the patron keeper of Yibouh, had an altar that was only slightly more adorned than that of the other Keepers.
Before each altar were a series of benches that looked more like slabs of marble thrust from the polished floor. There were no backs to these seats so that patrons could face either the altar of the Keeper they had come to appeal to, or during a service, turn around and face the center of the building.
A railing of rose marble, gold and silver formed an inner ring beyond the pillars, and beyond that railing, the floor disappeared, save one little bridge of stairs originating from Ganthay's side and terminating at the direct center of the cathedral. It was here that the pulpit rested.
"Come here," Shar-wu motioned towards the break in the railing leading to the pulpit bridge. The bridge was fenced off with a black iron grate, but just to the side a simple staircase of unimpressive granite hugged the walls of the round opening in the floor. After only 12 steps, it stopped at a landing where a velvet bench of red sat before a lacquered wood board covered in knobs.
Onion didn't know what to make of it. “What is this thing? What possible purpose could it have?”
Shar-wu smiled, offered a finger pointing overhead as the captivated Nü took in her surroundings. While the wooden board, with its two dozen knobs or so stood no higher than the nose of a tall man, wires of steel fed through the compartment behind the board, through holes in the wall and up along the sides of the one corner of the cathedral that didn't have doors. They continued, strong and taut up into the rafters. And well up above the two, and all the altars, about two dozen sheets of metal, all the same sheen of silver and the same rectangular shape, but of varying sizes and thicknesses, lay suspended from those rafters.
“This is called a Khon’ţun. ‘Khon’, of course, meaning…”
“Sound." Onion repeated the word, pointing to her ears, "I know that.” Onion said defensively, “but not ‘ţun’”
“In your language,” asked Shar-Wu, “are there words that don’t mean objects or actions, but they mean the very sounds themselves?” Shar-Wu paused, and stomped her feet hard on the stony floor. “’puţ‘ is what this sounds like, so puţ is what we call it. ţun is a sound of those sheets of steel we see above us, as then bend back and forth with a pull of the knob on the board. Let me demonstrate.”
Shar-Wu lifted a delicate hand but the mechanical Khon’ţun made the knobs easy to pull even by her.
dund dund dund. Went the notes that Shar-Wu selected. The echo of the sheet metal as it flapped back and forth reverberated throughout the cavernous cathedral chamber and Onion could feel the vibrations pulse through her, from her toes to her heart. Surely any within the Sextant ground would have heard Shar-wu’s performance.
She continued, dund dund dund. fa dund woh dund bu. dund.
Onion knew she has heard the tune before, but could not place it. It seemed background noise to the music of her life of late, but spiders are visual creatures, and the sounds of the world often pass them by.
“Why is it not called an ophlin’ţun?”
“Because the khon’ţun does not produce music."
