Entry tags:
I thought of this last night - and updated my weird wordpress novel-collection
The Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences has the sense to find the matter that interests you.
Make a mark, one of the radicals that corresponds to the nature of your inquiry, make another and another. The Groves are many now, the Index is very large, be as clear as you can when you make the marks. & the Sparrow – your sparrow will fly through the iron trees of the index, the forest of knowledge & find for you the record you seek. The Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences will return to you, your sparrow, with a little strand of gossamer clutched in its claw. You will fumble with the thread, try to grasp it. The Sparrow will cock its head & look at you as you do so. You will drop the thread, perhaps more than once – again and again the Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences will fetch it out of the air, offering it to you resolutely – you will finally take the strand.
Following it back to the place, the copse in the Iron Forest – the sparrow will hop to the tree & perch in the right place. It will raise its head up – its beak will point to the sky & will sing a different song Li-Fa-Li, victorious. It will have guided you to a place that seems right to it. The chances are good that it is what you wanted. You will find the record carved in the tree is in the knot-script etching of the most ancient age.
You have learned the script & read. It is the record you sought – you are gratified & offer some sugar to your Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences. It sings its triumphant song, raising its beak – down then up. Fa-Li-Fa-Li-Fa.
This is the reason that Proficients are given their lump of sugar, it is the essential tool of our trade.
You could ask, on your first arrival – why does the Iron Tree use the Iron Forest as its index. When they could keep sensible records in books, on paper. Why do they, now we, you’ll think – one of us, if you’re present in the Index, why do we keep these records in this way. In this secret script that is difficult to learn. Carved in the iron skin of artificial trees in an artificial forest?
You’ll ask this as you learn the Forest Script – radicals modified by radicals, angular signs indicating words instead of phonemes. You will learn it and you will come to wonder why it is that everyone else uses the Double-Pen. Why not write in the concise, unambiguous script of the forest?
You might even look into it. The why, the reasons. There are a few. Principally, you will learn that the Forest Script is older than the Double-Pen. Much older – as old as Klial itself. You might learn of the Secession of the Trades – which led, 500 years ago now – to the founding of the Church of the Builders – the Crafts Faith. You might learn of their Celestial Scribe, patron of the scriptoria – who gave to all people the Double-Pen and half-pen but who never offered the Forest Script. Perhaps he never learned it himself. It is no small undertaking.
You might glance back – far enough – to the earliest days of the Everliving Dynasty of the Kannyltines – to a long ago dangerous time when the great metropolis at Klial & its tributaries were surrounded not by docile provinces – but by rivals, antagonistic nations from whom secrets had to be kept, who needed to be shown the nature of permanence which is expressed by the Golden Dream and the Tree of Iron.
The Whole thing is here
Make a mark, one of the radicals that corresponds to the nature of your inquiry, make another and another. The Groves are many now, the Index is very large, be as clear as you can when you make the marks. & the Sparrow – your sparrow will fly through the iron trees of the index, the forest of knowledge & find for you the record you seek. The Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences will return to you, your sparrow, with a little strand of gossamer clutched in its claw. You will fumble with the thread, try to grasp it. The Sparrow will cock its head & look at you as you do so. You will drop the thread, perhaps more than once – again and again the Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences will fetch it out of the air, offering it to you resolutely – you will finally take the strand.
Following it back to the place, the copse in the Iron Forest – the sparrow will hop to the tree & perch in the right place. It will raise its head up – its beak will point to the sky & will sing a different song Li-Fa-Li, victorious. It will have guided you to a place that seems right to it. The chances are good that it is what you wanted. You will find the record carved in the tree is in the knot-script etching of the most ancient age.
You have learned the script & read. It is the record you sought – you are gratified & offer some sugar to your Sparrow of Myriad Intelligences. It sings its triumphant song, raising its beak – down then up. Fa-Li-Fa-Li-Fa.
This is the reason that Proficients are given their lump of sugar, it is the essential tool of our trade.
You could ask, on your first arrival – why does the Iron Tree use the Iron Forest as its index. When they could keep sensible records in books, on paper. Why do they, now we, you’ll think – one of us, if you’re present in the Index, why do we keep these records in this way. In this secret script that is difficult to learn. Carved in the iron skin of artificial trees in an artificial forest?
You’ll ask this as you learn the Forest Script – radicals modified by radicals, angular signs indicating words instead of phonemes. You will learn it and you will come to wonder why it is that everyone else uses the Double-Pen. Why not write in the concise, unambiguous script of the forest?
You might even look into it. The why, the reasons. There are a few. Principally, you will learn that the Forest Script is older than the Double-Pen. Much older – as old as Klial itself. You might learn of the Secession of the Trades – which led, 500 years ago now – to the founding of the Church of the Builders – the Crafts Faith. You might learn of their Celestial Scribe, patron of the scriptoria – who gave to all people the Double-Pen and half-pen but who never offered the Forest Script. Perhaps he never learned it himself. It is no small undertaking.
You might glance back – far enough – to the earliest days of the Everliving Dynasty of the Kannyltines – to a long ago dangerous time when the great metropolis at Klial & its tributaries were surrounded not by docile provinces – but by rivals, antagonistic nations from whom secrets had to be kept, who needed to be shown the nature of permanence which is expressed by the Golden Dream and the Tree of Iron.
The Whole thing is here
