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| − | [Obligatory] The ghetto where the Quiet is a warren of narrow streets and crowded buildings, and the neither the scrulpulous cleanliness of the buildings nor the careful patches can disguise the effects of poverty- slight bodies hurrying through the snow in too-thin cloaks, the age of the buildings, or the way half the houses seem to slump wearily under the snow.
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| − | [Obligatory] Some of the People do not know Obligatory, and these exchange polite greetings; but of those that do, eyes widen in slight surprise than turn swiftly away, reacting to the outsider-who-is-not-an-outsider in the safest way possible: by ignoring him.
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| − | [ST] It may be Obligatory's imagination, but the streets seem different this evening - slightly more silent, more tense. There seem to be more of the city watch milling through the crowds than usual, as well. But then, with the war on, all the city is more on edge.
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory's smile shrivels on his lips as he sees the woman he was to marry, Determined Flower, turn pale when she sees him, then turn to hurry down a side street. He had heard she was to marry Gentle Hopper now. It was as good a match as she could hope for, though Gentle Hopper's family was less distinguished. The three of them had been friends and lovers when they were younger. The rice and medicine he carries is a guilty weight under his arm.
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| − | [Obligatory] He bites his lip. If what Prudence had said was true- but it couldn't have leaked out. The snow would be red with the blood of the People if it had.
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| − | [ST] By the time Obligatory passes the side street, Determined Flower is out of sight. A pair of Quiet children kneel there, poking at the ribs of a skinny dog that is sleeping or dead.
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory pauses and squats down beside them, putting his hand on its muzzle.
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| − | [ST] The children draw back cautiously, their eyes widening in surprise as they edge away from him. The younger one, a boy of about ten, looks like he is about to wet himself. Doubtless, Obligatory has been making the rounds in bedtime stories.
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| − | [ST] The muzzle is cold under Obligatory's hand. The animal hasn't been dead long, but long enough.
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| − | [ST] "Y-you can have it-" the older child, a girl, says, smoothing her skirts down nervously as she backs away.
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory turns and looks at her. "Are you hungry, child?"
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| − | [ST] "Yes." She looks down at the snow. The boy is pulling desperately at her arm, still backing away. "I said you can have it."
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| − | [Obligatory] "I don't mean to steal from you," Obligatory says, after a stricken pause. "I was born of the Quiet. Bide a moment." He sets down his sack of and sorts through it, rearranging jars and coming up with a bag of rice a child could carry. "Here, take this. An offering in peace."
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| − | [Obligatory] He holds it out to her. An offering in peace was a traditional Quiet gesture of friendship.
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| − | [ST] The child backs away slightly, her eyes mistrustful. "Sister," the boy says urgently. "You cannot. It is him." She hesitates.
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| − | [ST] In the end, however, hunger wins out. Her hands dart forward, and she takes the sack, mumbling one of the Quiet's platitudes as she turns tail. Together, the two children race off down the alley, soon vanishing like Determined Flower.
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory looks after them. "Rice is rice." Was he a murderer to his people now? He remembers Prudence, impaled on the spike of wood. He was as responsible for it as if he had driven it there with his own hands: surely they were not far wrong. Grimly, he rises to his feet and continues down the street, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him.
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| − | [Obligatory] Though Obligatory's family has been Quiet for thirty generations, one of the oldest verified lines of descent among the People, his family's house is no larger or in better repair than the others. He knocks, and when there is no immediate answer, adds: "It's me!"
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| − | [ST] After a moment, the door opens. Compassionate Rain stands there in a smudged apron, hands on her hips. "So. The errant sheep returns at last," she says, sternly. After casting a cautious glance up and down the street to be certain that no one is watching too closely, she allows herself a wide, bright smile, displaying the tooth that was chipped when her face struck the cobblestone street
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| − | [ST] some months ago.
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| − | [ST] "Come in."
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory ducks his head humbly and folds his hands together. He steps inside, and as soon the door is shut behind him, he pulls her into a hug. "You have no idea how good it is to see you," he mumbles.
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| − | [ST] Her arms tighten around him briefly. "You are still my brother." She coughs slightly. "And you are suffocating me."
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| − | [ST] The room is small and cozy - the better to hold in the heat. Something simmers on the wood stove in the corner. Little Solemn Brightness sits on the floor near it, hands busy with needlework. A clumsy shirt is taking shape in her lap. She does not look up.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Sorry." He reddens. "I saw a couple children on the way here, by a dead dog...They were frightened of me. I don't look different, do I?" Compassionate used to tease him about being vain; he looks at himself in a metal plate by the door, and then he sees Solemn.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Sister!" he says cheerfully, going to her. He plucks the needlework from her lap, and sweeps her into a hug too, before she can squawk or wriggle away.
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| − | [ST] Solemn endures the hug with a strange stoicism. "Hello, brother. Grandmother says I may help carry in the wood if I finish my work. Please do not keep me."
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| − | [ST] "She has tended more to the Solemn lately," Rain says, apology tinging her voice. She sits the parcel on a rickety table and begins, almost absentmindedly, to go through it. "You've given us a boon yet again, brother."
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| − | [ST] "Your ear is missing," Solemn says after a moment, reaching up to poke at it. "Was it stolen by the Fair Ones? Like the story?"
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| − | [Obligatory] " 'The sparrow changes her nest when the hawk comes' : accept unexpected events, little sister," Obligatory quotes to Solemn, undeterred by her frigid greeting. He waves away Compassionate Rain's thanks with an embarassed gesture, then winces. "Nearly. By the wolf queen."
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| − | [ST] "The wolf queen?" Rain says, voice merry. "Brother, you know what happens to those who lie light..." there is a thump; a jar of medicinal ointment falls from her fingers, rolling across the table, as she looks up and sees that the ear is indeed missing. "...how?"
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory shrugs, avoiding glancing at her face. "It was a training mission. It went...wrong. I didn't do much. She sent us home as an example." He toys unconsciously with the stub. "But you always told me I care too much for the mirror!"
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| − | [ST] "Oh, Brother," Rain's laugh sounds a little strained. Her thick brows knit in worry. "Then it is true? She is come again? And you've seen her, a demon, face to face..."
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| − | [ST] "When one walks in shadow..." Solemn begins, then quickly loses interest in the rest of the proverb, poking experimentally at the scarred tissue of Obligatory's missing ear.
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| − | [Obligatory] "She didn't kill us, and she might well have," Obligatory says, striving to be just. "Oww! 'Gentle in spirit, graceful in touch!', , little sister!"
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| − | [ST] "I've been very good," she informs him, reluctantly stopping. "Yo Ping will make me well soon." Rain shakes her head.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Sister, the gods do not..." Obligatory begins with pained gentleness, when she gives him such a look that he stops. He turns to Rain. "Has there been much talk of the wolf queen among the People?"
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| − | [ST] "Some. One cannot escape talking about this war, but I have heard the People speak little of it. Mostly I hear the whisperings at the Blue Queen. You know how the Haslanti rant in their cups."
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| − | [ST] "Much of it I cannot repeat in front of Solemn."
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| − | [ST] "I will not be frightened," Solemn says, nodding slowly. "I walk in the Light."
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory grimaces. "Don't I just." He steps closer to her, and lowering his voice. "They don't abuse you there?" He ignores his little sister's pious muttering with the ease of long practice.
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| − | [ST] Rain's brows knit again. "But why ask me, Brother? Surely you know far more about her than any others." Her eyes flicker away from his face at his question. "No more than is to be expected."
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| − | [Obligatory] He touches her chin gently. "You know you needn't work there any longer."
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| − | [ST] "Appearances must be maintained." She turns her face from him. "It would be a poor example to the community were it known that we profit from your... employment." She suddenly becomes very involved in scrubbing a table that really doesn't need it. The sagging legs groan in protest. "So why have you come, Brother?" She laughs. "Just to tell your tales of the Wolf?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "I came to talk to Grandmother," he says abruptly. "Is she home?"
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| − | [ST] "She is upstairs." She looks up at him again, eyes searching his face. "Are you well? Has something happened?" It is only to be expected, she tells herself firmly, with the sinful life he chooses to lead. But Solemn lived because of that sin. Could she really disapprove? "Did you hear that Flower-" She abruptly closes her mouth.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Yes," Obligatory says heavily. "I am happy for them." And he means to be, he truly does. His marriage to Flower had been arranged by their parents: perhaps Flower would be happier. Perhaps she chose him. What did it matter if he snored like a squat toad? His heart was pure.
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| − | [ST] "'Jealousy pricks the heart. It is only mortal for it to bleed, but it should not run over.'" She shakes her head. "I need to boil Solemn's tea now, Brother."
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| − | [ST] "It tastes bad," Solemn offers. "I won't need it, anyway."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Perhaps we can get sugar ice when my talk with Grandmother is done," he says, striving for light heartedness. "And talk about when you're finally going to marry Sturdy Oak!" Their tardiness was an on-going scandal to the community. He ruffles Solemn's hair on his way up the stairs. "Drink your tea!"
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| − | [Obligatory] No one ever listened to Solemn, that was her trouble.
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| − | [Obligatory] He hurtles up the narrow stairs just as he used to, then pauses and knocks on the door. "Grandmother?"
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| − | [ST] "Enter, my son." Her voice sounds more strained than usual.
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| − | [Obligatory] He opens the door. "Mother," he says with great formality, kneeling at her feet in customary obeisance. She sat wrapped up in a blanket by the empty hearth. A few sticks of essence, too precious and expensive to burn, are in a vase beside her.
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| − | [Obligatory] He waits for her to touch his forehead in the customary blessing of the Mother to the Quiet.
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| − | [ST] Grandmother's hand stirs within the blankets. Almost, he thinks, it stirs. Her voice is taut. "You will always be my son. But you know you are not of our people."
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| − | [ST] "Now," she says, more warmly, trying to smile. "Rise, and speak to me of what you will."
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| − | [Obligatory] Always the same struggle, and the same answer. He swallows his disappointment and rises. "I remain true to the ways of the people, Mother." A small rebellion. He smiles back, because it was what the old woman deserved, beating back the shameful resentment, then the smile fades into a soberness that makes him resemble his youngest sister.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Did you know the woman Enduring Prudence?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "She is the source of my errand here. I fear a great danger to our- to the People."
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| − | [ST] "Were that true, my son, you would not bear the Haslanti mark on your person. I do not think you can weather its corruption forever. Not even the Wanderer could do so. Still, I have my hopes." Her bright eyes narrow. "I do not know her. She is not of this community of the Quiet. What danger do you speak of? Can she not tell me of it herself?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "She is dead, grandmother." Shame drives him from speaking the formal title he had no right to speak. "I fear I may have been responsible, but she- she fell gravely from the way of the Quiet. I fear others have accompanied her into a path of anger and hatred that will blossom into a great evil."
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| − | [Obligatory] He says it bluntly. "Some among the Quiet have become spies for the Wolf Queen, and pave her path to conquest."
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| − | [ST] Her inhalation of breath is sharp and sudden. "Who knows this? Who have you told? What have you done?" Her gaze finds the stump of his ear. "What has become of you?"
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory cringes as the weight of gaze falls upon him. All at once, he is stumbling over his smooth and practiced words. "Sh-she helped Shanarianas hijack an airship. Violence and murder ensued and I believed more would. I crashed the airship- I thought I could do it right, just- take away the source of the fight. But she-"
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| − | [Obligatory] "She died in the crash. I didn't mean for it to happen."
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| − | [ST] "You see, my son. You see now." She shakes her head, placing a withered hand over her heart. "You cannot walk among them and stay pure, any more than you can roll in a snowbank without getting wet. You understand now why I wished for you to remain with the Quiet."
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| − | [Obligatory] She is right. He knows it. But he meets her gaze stubbornly. "But if am not a Once Dead, Solemn will die. Perhaps Rain as well." Confusion makes him bold. "Perhaps you would all starve to death." It is the most direct a reference he has ever made to his support.
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| − | [Obligatory] Immedaitely he reddens. "Forgive me, M- grandmother. I did come to quarrel." He folds his hands together and dips his head.
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| − | [ST] "Perhaps we should, before you choke on your own pride," she snaps, displaying rare anger. His contrition seems to mollify her slightly. "Did you intend to do harm when you made the air-ship-" the word sounds clumsy in her accented tongue "crash?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "No, grandmother. I meant only to prevent more fighting." His eyes are wet, remembering the sickening screams and Jeral's ashen face.
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| − | [ST] "Then your motives, at least, were pure. I cannot absolve you, but that may comfort you. The workings of the world have a way of taking their price from you, regardless. Their deaths are a burden on your soul, and must remain, lest you can shift them off."
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| − | [ST] She reaches out to take his hand, squeezing it softly.
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| − | [ST] "Your other news is most troubling. Do you know, truly, that this woman, that the Quiet, are aiding the Wolf Queen?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "Yes. And the Fellai and the Shanarnaians as well." He looks her in the eyes. "Their trust is madness. I think anger at the Haslanti blinds them to what will happen. It is foolish to trust outsiders when they promise no bloodshed. They seek peace, but would walk to it over the tormented bodies of the Haslanti: it is not the way of the Quiet. If indeed, the Wolf Queen even means to keep her bargain with them," Obligatory adds.
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| − | [ST] "How many seek this? Who knows that they do? Did you- tell anyone?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "I have told no one of this but you, but Grandmother, I fear. These misguided Quiet are amateurs. I fear what will happen when the Haslanti discover it. Their spies are everywhere. What happened to the Sun-People will be nothing compared to what they will do to us, no matter that only a handful had any idea."
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| − | [ST] "I am old, my son. And weary." She sighs heavily. "I had hoped... I had hoped that the whispers I had heard were only the usual grumblings. But now..." She cannot meet his eyes. "It is true. There are those among us who have consorted with the enemies of the Haslanti. I am not one of them, but I know promises have been made."
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| − | [ST] "They may destroy us."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Who? I would speak to them. Speak to them of what happened to Prudence because she trusted the well-meaning words of an outsider. They must be dissuaded from this course!"
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| − | [ST] "She has been rebuked already." Still, his grandmother does not look at him.
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| − | [Obligatory] "Who?" he insists. Dread seeps into his voice.
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| − | [ST] "Your sister. I did not know... that the conspiracy was so widespread. She thought that she was doing no harm." Her eyes flash. "Will you turn her in to your masters?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "Of course not!" Obligatory says hotly. "I would never betray the People! I joined the Once Dead only to help us. But the foolishness must stop."
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| − | [ST] "It has stopped, here. I do not command the people in the other communities. I cannot be at every hearth. The Haslanti have soaked the ground with our blood and resentment." Her eyes are brimming with tears now. "I fear I do not have the power to prevent it. And it will destroy us."
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| − | [Obligatory] He clambers to his feet. "I have written this account of Prudence's death for her parents." He hands her a scroll. "Please, will you tell the tale to the other elders? So that they may reign in the young who stray from the path?"
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| − | [ST] She takes the scroll. "I will... do what I can."
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| − | [Obligatory] He goes to her at once and embraces her. "Do not fear, grandmother," he murmurs to her. "I will not let it."
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| − | [ST] She makes no reply, but her arms tighten around him with surprising strength. Fate moves in mysterious ways, they say. Perhaps he can do something to prevent it.
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| − | [Obligatory] He releases her. "I must speak with my sister now. Perhaps she will know others." He kisses her on the cheek and moves back.
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| − | [ST] "Tread- tread carefully, my son." She sinks back into her chair, looking much smaller than she did only moments before.
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| − | [Obligatory] He makes his way slowly down the stairs and when he reaches the bottom he fixes gaze on Little Solemn Brightness. "Solemn. Go to grandmother. You can sing to her," he says quickly. She was less likely to object if given a task that could concievably raise her in Yo-Ping's eyes.
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| − | [ST] Solemn nods, making her way up the stairs with lagging slowness. He can hear her wheezing from the foot of the stairs. Worse than last time. Rain continues to wipe at the table, smiling at him. "Grandmother give you the usual tongue lashing?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "We had more serious things to discuss." He sits down at the table, still watching her. "Sister, you lead me to believe you knew nothing of the coming war."
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| − | [ST] Her hands tremble. "I do not. I have not seen it."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Yet you have been a part of it!" he accuses her. "Sister, how could you partake in such madness?"
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| − | [ST] She sinks to her knees, resting her head against the table. Sobs wrack her body.
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| − | [ST] "I didn't- I d-didn't know. He s-said that it would be helping the People."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Who said that, sister?" He at once regrets his anger. Had he not sinned so greiviously himself? He touches her gently on the shoulder.
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| − | [ST] "Oak. He had... a friend. He asked me to d-draw pictures of the Citadel."
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| − | [ST] "I didn't know..." She cries again. "Oh, that's a lie, I did, I did. I did."
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| − | [ST] "They hurt me."
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| − | [ST] "I w-wanted to hurt them, too."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Oak," Obligatory repeats sadly. He had always like his sister's betrothed. "Shh..." He embraces her. "You sinned, sister, grievously. Returned evil with evil, as our most sacred scriptures abhore. There is no denying that. Now you must repent by helping prevent what harm you may have caused."
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| − | [ST] "I only g-gave a few of the pictures. Grandmother destroyed the r-rest. I'm sorry. I'm sorry-"
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| − | [Obligatory] "Shh..shhh..." He holds her for a while, then he quietly tells her about Prudence. Not to make her feel worse, but to be sure she understands the evil and misery that is the natural fruit of hatred. It was such impurity the Quiet sought always to drive from themselves.
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| − | [ST] She eventually quiets in his arms, trembling. "Oak... wouldn't say who, but I know there are others. There must be."
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| − | [Obligatory] "Yes. I will speak to him. They must give it up, or we all will suffer and be corrupted."
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| − | [ST] "I am already corrupted. As are you."
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| − | [Obligatory] He flinches. "Yet we must strive to purify ourselves. Cleanse ourselves with compassion and charity towards others. Pity the Haslanti for what they do to themselves- for there is no end to hatred. " He glances at the stairs. It was his grandmother and the Father of the community who had spoken the ritual of excommunication.
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| − | [ST] She still seems a crumpled, cheerless thing. "Please, brother. Do not hurt Oak. He seeks only to help the People in his way-"
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| − | [Obligatory] Obligatory looks astonished, and offended. "I would never hurt anyone!" Intentionally, at least. "I am only going to talk to him."
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| − | [ST] "If you tell the Haslanti, they will kill him. They will kill us all."
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| − | [Obligatory] "I will not tell the Haslanti." Did they think him a fool, or disloyal? "Of course I would not do that."
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| − | [ST] "They may find out any way." She buries her face in her hands. "What will happen to us then?"
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| − | [Obligatory] "We will endure, as we always do, as the People," Obligatory tells her quietly. "We will hold to our beliefs and we will be reborn as the righteous are. The Quiet will continue elsewhere. Do not be afraid."
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