| October 2006 | << September 2006 | March 2008 >> |
| Gulhgra, Doorwatch of the First Coin |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Gold you say. Rrruth. Not Tailings one, look like coin learner from Pavings place. Hruh. Black wet guards not know to say nice to tail rain. Stupid guards.
Mrth. Guards not know to say nice to me. Wave sharp is not nice. Learn nice and tail rain not angry. Hruh. Stupid guards bad in Tailings, Tailings ones steal and steal.
Hruh. Where learning books and learning clothes, small learner one? Why come to Coin as surprise? Rrruth. No announce, no letter.
[ Posted by Reason on October 15, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Leli, the Fifteenth Note |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Umery, why will you not sing more to me? I heard your notes, so solemn with rain and splashing on the walls, and I danced! Where are you now, is it not your part in the Song? None here will dance, but they hide and walk in brown and rags and spill notes of nothing to themselves. Will you not even speak to me? Or you, with the stick that taps against the notes, or you, hidden in your cloak? Where are your voices; how can you not sing to the dance of rain and the tones of cloud and cobble?
Such music all about, all so strange; is this what a city is when lived in? But the notes are all so faint beside the Song I sang - as though soft Derema and quiet Toley sing to echo from the farthest stone pillar and back. Those who would sing are silent but for the notes that fall from all and about. Oh, how I wish I were above the old city once more! Will Myrelin fly high to sing my part ...
La! Such notes from kind Bethen and tall Ulvath. New notes, and more, and who tolls and swirls as the deepest bell amidst ivy in the wind?
Bethen, Ulvath, who now sings such deep notes? What song are you making, and can I not sing too? Oh! Not ivy, but gold all a-swirl, can't you see? He dances inside like the bells of the old city, so deep from afar but the highest notes of the Song hidden within. Why do not all here sing like this, what a wondrous place this would be - rain and Umery, the bells of the Song, and all such voices!
[ Posted by Reason on October 14, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Ulvath, the Dying King's Champion |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Aye, King's Champion, and never to die facing a foe with ax raised. So did Tulsrealm grow great! Foul beast before and foul rain behind, and you to speak of fair and foul as one and the same - and silver dagger in your hand whilst the words were on your tongue. Witch for a mother, but father from the Spear Hall, say I.
Ho, foul beast! Broad and tall, fat and grey you are, but long of teeth and troll-fast - and man-speech and man-thoughts behind those eyes. This I see, and my name is Ulvath, that you might know!
See, it thinks how best to cast us forth from this arch and passage, and wonders if it can. I need no witchery to tell me of the ways of man and beast - aye, nor troll and demon. Speak as you will woman, and thence will be what will be.
[ Posted by Reason on October 7, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Bethen, the Lost Dream |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Hold back your ax, Ulvath! Hold! A dream-path, a guide ... this spirit stands astride a path. No...yes, but it shifts, it shifts. There are too many paths here, too many and twining about!
Spirit, stand, we do not threaten - we shelter from this rain that burns.
Ulvath! This dream has need of speaking! You can see neither nightmare nor venom spirit by hide and fat, color and teeth. All can appear as any, and any may show the way; you must listen to me in this, King's Champion!
[ Posted by Reason on October 7, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Gulhgra, Doorwatch of the First Coin |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
Who bothers? Hruh. Who talk and talk but not enter? Hruh.
This is not drink house. You go now, leave door clear. Rrruth. Should know now. Hruh. Stupid Tailings ones. Stupid.
What? What you look at? Hruh. You not hear? You go now. Rrruth.
[ Posted by Reason on October 6, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
| Ulvath, the Dying King's Champion |
| Ten Thousand Gates > Conversing in the Doorway of the First Coin |
This is no clean, cold hurt of ax and battle - it is the burn of witchery! I'll curse it yet and again, and so long as any will listen, aye!
It burns you less woman, that I'll wager against my ax on a cast of the bone runes. You speak with the tongue of the witches who bedded trolls in Skara forest - sharp and a-babble with that best unknown to hard ax and long spear. Your witchery and knifes may stand beside my ax-arm, but that is no choice of Ulvath's.
A bard of Tallath's Hearth spoke a saga of the Tulsrealm as all but a dream of the Gods. Twas but a year past that trolls maddened by warmth and rot came upon the Hearth and tore him asunder. I and ten more strong ax-arms hacked trolls to blood and screams by torchlight that night - and how is that a dream?
Would that this place of blackened rain and hovels be a dream, aye, but that thrice-cursed Maggat would find a way betwixt knife and neck whilst I slumbered. No, Ulvath is awake; this is the workings of Maggat and demon runes against the King and Tulsrealm.
[ Posted by Reason on October 1, 2006 | Permanent Link ]
