Work Text:
Arrell,
We have arrived safely at the University. Most survived the journey. Our Velasian group reunited with comrades at the New Archives of the orcs, including Prince Ephrim, and since our arrival at the University we have been joined by a wide array of lost folk.
The gnawing Dark that swallowed Velas has not touched here, though the mundane rots of disuse have made their presence known in the decayed wood, molded foodstores, and crumbled stone. The University has been empty since your ilk left it. In the weeks since we arrived, we have begun to rebuild, and my back aches as I write after hours of breaking down rotted crates for firewood.
As we walk the winding halls in search of supplies, I imagine how vibrant these towers must have been when the University was at its apogee. I have tasked myself with dispelling lingering magicks: the wards that repel hungry refugees, the traps that send us wandering in circles, the enchantments that render barren tables laden with feasting goods. Some are too powerful for my unstudied mimicry, and some are too useful to negate.
We have also found the library. Its shelves are heavy with damp-swollen volumes. When the moments allow, I will set out to inventory and catalogue them. I do not know if any books will be of practical use to us in this dark time. Nonetheless, the books are where I can be of use. My back cannot take much more hard labor.
When we parted, I was too cowardly to speak to you. I know not where you are, though I expect you are in the west. The Heat and the Dark is never far from my mind; nor, I imagine, from yours. In this we are once again not so dissimilar.
I will send this off with the next foolhardy traveler and pray that it reaches you.
Yours,
Exarch Alyosha
A Shelflist of the Library of the University
Shelf 1 – Cosmogony
Shelves 2 through 4 – Metaphysics and the Theory of Magic
Shelves 5 through 7 – Elemental
Shelves 8 through 12 – Practical (incl. Navigation)
Shelves 13 and 14 – Healing and the Body (incl. Necromancy)
Shelf 15 – Illusions
Shelves 16 and 17 – History and Politics
Shelf 18 – Religion
Shelves 19 and 20 – Reference
Shelves 21 through 25 (behind screen) – Restricted ( many shelves are sparse; books missing? )
Arrell,
I do not know if you received my previous letter. If you did, you have not written back. This would not be a cause for concern—our correspondence has been erratic in the past—were it not for the news trickling in about the ravages of the Heat and the Dark all throughout Hieron. I pray daily for your and our safety, though I know you would scoff at such uses of my time.
I have lost track of the days. My astronomical computus relies on the position of our most holy sun, yet its motion has been chaotic as of late, and the seasons do not change as our Lord Samothes decreed. It is bitter cold, unrelentingly. People are dying. The food is scarce, firewood scarcer, and medicine scarcer still. I have spent my last days in the infirmary, healing those that I can and consoling those that I cannot.
In spare moments, I continue to explore the towers. One room intrigues me—or at least, I believe there to be a room. One of the floors of the central tower has one fewer doors than the floors above and below, yet there is no apparent place for the missing door. It is not a magic concealment, at least not any magic I know. It is simply that on this floor, one fewer door exists. And yet that unseen door compels me.
I have begun to inventory the books within the main library. Those, unlike the door, are real now. Most books are in place, if their tight packing onto the wooden shelves is to be trusted. The exception is the restricted books, which proved disallowed by procedure, not by magic. The shelves show missing books, in some places entire rows. If you were here, perhaps you could tell me what used to rest in the two shelves between The History of the Ordennan Empire from the Time of Samothes and An Index to the Collection at the University Library . Or perhaps you would refuse and tell me to deduce the answer myself. Your forename spoke well of your disposition.
Yours,
Alyosha
A Descriptive Inventory of the Tower Room, with Speculation as to the Character of its Prior Occupant
One bed, large and soft. The curtains around it whisper of trysts. The sheets smell faintly of rosemary and oud, though they have not been slept in for decades or centuries. A small table beside the bed holds a drinking glass, a candleholder, and a vial of oil.
One cedar chest full of neatly-folded robes. Those visible on the top layer are silk in deep purples, blues, and greens, dyed so finely so as to glisten like jewels in the candlelight. The necklines and sleeves are ornamented with embroidery and beading.
Painting of a cabin nestled in thick pine woods. The frame is carved wood with vines and leaves, matching the lintel carvings pictured on the cabin. It resonates with warmth and the weight of kinship. The bottom corner is signed with an S, in the old style, wrapped around a goblet.
Painting of Lord Samothes with a handsome, light-haired man and a child with tawny curls and tan skin swinging between them. They are smiling and light on their feet. The bottom corner is signed with the same S wrapped around a goblet.
One dressing table with a large mirror atop it. The matching chair has a cushion of purple silk. The mirror is without flaw—incredibly rare for its size and age. The looker would have seen their face undistorted, indeed only beautified by the flickering candle glow. An artifact of vanity.
A velvet ring-box without a ring. The indent suggests a thin band in a small size. The lid is inlaid with abalone that shines as the lid moves in the candlelight. Taking out and putting away the ring this box once held would have cast light over the room and the holder.
A wooden jewelry box containing an assortment of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and loose jewels. Many drape with countless stones, as stars in the sky. Some are far simpler in a way that speaks of importance. These are signed with a minute “S” burined into the metal. The weight of gold may be light, but these are heavy with significance.
Hanging next to the dressing table, a long cloak of pure white fur. It is warm to the touch. The wearer was of moderate height and narrow shoulders. It is a garment that conveys prestige and luxury, the authority of a prince, and the instincts of a wild wolf.
One desk carved of sturdy wood, well-kept. Even the best varnish could not keep out faint ink stains. The chair matches that of the dressing table.
A set of fountain pens on an ornate brass rest. The inkwells are dry, but once held black, blue, and red ink—based on the hues, likely iron gall, turnsole, and vermillion. Turnsole, I am obliged to note, is so named because the plant from which we produce it turns towards the most holy sun.
Two wax seals, brass faces with ash wood handles stained dark, in a velvet-lined box. One stamp face depicts an open book and a goblet, other stamp face a goblet with a sun’s rays behind it. The wood is carved well and rubbed glassy by use. For letters sent to lovers, enemies, or both.
A large stack of books spilling onto the floor around the desk. Their spine shelfmarks correspond with gaps in the library. There is a copy of the Holy Book, as well as copies of all known commentaries that predate the Erasure, and a few commentaries not recorded. Gods beyond Samothes appear. Closer study will reveal much.
In the desk drawer, a sizable stack of unsent letters on fine paper written in a beautiful looping hand. The iron gall ink has bitten through the pages where the hand applied the ink thickly. The hand is archaic; the only word I recognize without careful study is their salutation: “Samothes.” It is a wonder that they have not decayed into dust. Does the room hold them?
Tucked behind the letters in the deepest recess of the desk drawer, a velvet ring-box with a ring, box in the same style as above. The ring within is a narrow band of twisted gold. Its simplicity belies its clear importance. It radiates the warmth and light of the sun, yet with an acquired bitterness, as the most holy sun casts shadows where mildew festers. I dared not touch it.
To the Wizard Arrell:
Enclosed is a copy of my completed inventory of the tower room of the University. I suspect it to have belonged to a figure of great importance.
Exarch Alyosha
Arrell,
Much has happened in the two years since I last wrote. The good Prince Ephrim has become Baron Ephrim and oversees our life here in tandem with Baroness Corsica Neue, an unstill woman. Our community is limping along in spite of everything. The cold eats at my bones, and some mornings I cannot find the strength to rise and greet the sun.
For months I did not know what to make of the hidden tower room. It is a thick tapestry of a life lived. You have scoffed previously at the pattern magic of the New Archives. And yet, I wonder now if their cataloging and manipulations are not closer to the soul of the divine impulse from which your and my magic derives. This room tells of repetitions, patterns, routines: the smooth open of the jewelry boxes, the dogears in the books, the robes folded along the invisible lines of flexibility encouraged into the fabric. The archivists craft detailed descriptions to determine and characterize the rivulets of least resistance. Our lives follow such divots as a stream follows its bed.
A conversation with Ephrim revealed much. In his travels into the underworld strata, he learned that Lord Samothes took for a husband another god. His name was Samot, God of Books and Wine. Together they built this university. Those living below knew Samot to be a beautiful man with curling golden hair and the cunning alacrity of a wolf. I scoured the books in the library and found a reference to the City of Light, but the histories of the City of Light were expurgated of any reference to the god save one book within the restricted section. There I learned that he once ruled the City of Light, formerly known as Marielda, which he conquered from Lord Samothes before the Erasure. They had a son together. He was named Maelgwyn. I believe the painting in the tower room features their family.
Ephrim also revealed that Maelgwyn—or should I say Samothes—is dead. He killed him. The god who I had communed with for my entire life was not the first Samothes, but the Samothes his son became after killing him. Two gods, one god; two deaths, and no more. The sun has been out of alignment since his death, and the world cold. I cannot put more into words.
I do not know if you are receiving my letters, never mind if you are alive, and yet I write regardless. I am tempted, like Lord Samot, to leave this one unsent. And yet I still hold hope that you will receive this letter and find it within yourself to reply. We have never been at war with each other.
Yours,
Alyosha
An Excerpt from the Inventory of the Books of Lord Samot
Completed by Exarch Alyosha
In the Fifth Year of Dark Winters
A Book of Secrets of Scrivener Albrecht, Concerning the Nature of Hieron as Determined by its Founding.
A slim volume bound in limp vellum over boards, with three ownership signatures to the title page and the library stamp. Shelfmark 1 A 2.
The Darkness Beyond.
A slim volume bound in alum-tawed vellum over boards. With some underlining and marginalia not in Samot’s hand. Shelfmark 1 D 3.
The Nature of Hieron and the Dark That Lies Beyond Its Edges.
A large volume bound in dark calf over boards with blind tooled borders. Heavily annotated. Shelfmark 1 H 4.
The Heat of Our World’s Coming, Proven Through Observation and Experimentation by Proctor Mela of Porthes.
Shelfmark 1 H 5. Small, bound in red leather over boards with the seal of Porthes stamped into the front cover. Inscribed as a gift from Proctor Mela to the University.
Cany Elucidations of the Nature of Matter and the Constructs Governing Natural Laws, with Reference to the Coming Heat.
Small, bound in limp vellum, with dogeared pages and annotations throughout. Shelfmark 2 N 13.
An Investigation of the Inky Noctiluca Found at the Seams of Corporeality by the Mages of the North. Bound with: Further Investigations of the Inky Nocticula of Incorporeality Discovered by the Mages of the North, with Details on their Perception, Corruption, and Effability.
A slim volume in calf, copiously annotated in Lord Samot’s hand. Annotations feature most heavily in the sections on the nature of the inky noctiluca and the successful methods for driving it back from pocket dimensions. Shelfmark 2 N 16.
The Gods of Hieron and their Times.
2 large volumes in library bindings. Heavily corrected in a hand resembling Samot’s, though identification is unclear. The section on Samothes and the Marieldan War is filled with marginalia in every blank space. Shelfmark 16 G 6.
Marielda and the Days of Samothes.
Bound in calf and heavily annotated in an angry tone. Shelfmark 16 M 3.
The History of Marielda from the Building of the City to the Present Day.
Four volumes. With notable annotations in the sections on the fall of Samothes’ rule, the construction of the white tower of Samot, and the role of their son Maelgwyn in the fighting. Shelfmark 16 M 4.
Lectures Concerning the Calamity and Fixation of the Lamina of Hieron, Delivered at the University in the Third Century of Recovery, by A Scholar.
Bound in limp vellum. Shelfmark 16 H 12.
Commentary on the Holy Book of Samothes, Assembled by Prelate Fiona of Carmeli.
Five volumes. Bound in library binding with blind stamps to front and rear boards. Shelfmark 18 C 2.
The Lost Gospels of Samothes, Discarded by the Creed in the Council of Salman, Compiled with Elucidatory Commentary and Reference to History by An Anonymous Fellow of Great Renown.
Three volumes. With an index containing reference to Samot, Maelgwyn, and a plethora of historic figures. Shelfmark 18 G 3.
Fifty Good and Learned Sermons Divided into Five Decades, Containing the Chief and Principal Points of the Creed of Samothes.
Bound in limp vellum over boards; a scholar’s copy. Shelfmark 18 S 4.
The Glory of the True Church of Samothes and the Disciples of the True Son, Being an Account of Exarch Trellis’s Journey to the True Forge and Reunion with the Spirit of Samothes in the Flesh.
Bound in ornate tree calf leather tooled in gold, with the crest of Exarch Trellis and the Southern Reach stamped in gold to the front cover. Inscribed to the University by Exarch Trellis, with her regards. Shelfmark 18 S 15.
The Legends of the Western Reaches.
Bound in thin vellum over boards, alum-tawed, with the title written on the cover and spine in a manuscript hand. Shelfmark 18 W 2.
The Wolf God, an Account of the Appearance of Wolves in the History, Culture, and Religions of Hieron.
In light calf over boards, well worn, with an archaic emblem of the Grand Tour stamped in blind. Shelfmark 19 W 1.
The Teachings of Samot, God of Books and Wine, the Boy-King in Leisure; with an Addendum Concerning the Relationship of The Good King Samot to Ingen [remainer of title page ripped].
Bound in dark leather over boards with gold tooling in a vegetal motif. Inscribed to the University by an unsigned hand that matches Lord Samot’s. Shelfmark 24 S 1.
The Book of Samot for the First Time Assembled and Printed, Collecting the Revelations of Witnesses to his Holy Being.
Bound in dark calf over boards with gold tooling and the emblem of Samot stamped in gold to center boards. With the ownership inscription of Samot. A previous reader has gone through and corrected typographical errors. Shelfmark 24 S 2.
The Fruit of the Vine, as Preached by The Good King Samot to the Gathered on the Plains.
Bound in dark calf over boards with gold tooling and the emblem of Samot stamped in gold to center boards. With the ownership inscription of Samot. Shelfmark 24 S 3.
On the Holy Suitability of Mutable Amorous Bonds, with Citations to the Creed of Samothes and the Teachings of Samot.
Bound in dark calf over boards with gold tooling and the emblem of Samot stamped in gold to center boards. With the ownership inscription of Samot. Annotated in places, including ink illustrations depicting topics discussed in the book executed with considerable skill on rear endpapers and throughout. Shelfmark 24 S 4.
The Gospel of Samot, Being a Call for All to Shed their Burdens and Indulge the Gifts of the Earth.
Bound in dark calf over boards with gold tooling and the emblem of Samot stamped in gold to center boards. With the ownership inscription of Samot. Shelfmark 24 S 5.
The Canon of Samot .
Bound in library binding with the stamp of the University tooled in blind to front and rear covers. Bears the signs of heavy use: stained pages, dogears, and at least one questionable chemical stain to the rear endpapers. Shelfmark 24 S 6.
The Didactum Samot, being a Compilation of the Dogma and Practices of the Disciples of Samot .
Bound in library binding with the stamp of the University tooled in blind to front and rear covers. Utterly destroyed inside. Pages ripped, ink spilled, and the names of mages (I believe those involved with the Disciples at the time of Marielda’s fall) crossed through with curses written beside them. Shelfmark 24 S 7.
Four notebooks in the manuscript hand of Samot, with no discernable title, containing detailed notes on many of these books. Bound in richly-stained calf over boards with deep purple marbled endpapers. Covers tooled in gold with the emblem of Samot stamped in the center.
Arrell,
Lord Samot is coming from the City of Light. I have ridden out to meet him at the bridge with the ranger Throndir and found a moment to write as we wait with our horses.
The Paladin Hadrian and his companions, thought dead, returned to us two months ago. They were living for all these years in a realm called Aubade, housed within the Blade in the Dark wielded by the warrior Hella Varal. That same sword slew Lord Samothes a millennia ago, and he is alive within it. Hadrian has been seeing to his family and his affairs in Hieron. His companion Lem King told me in passing, as is his peculiar scattered way, that he had given to Lord Samothes a mask of the Good King Samot that allowed communication across time and space. Perhaps they were able to speak. I cannot fathom what such a conversation would sound like all these millennia later.
I have gone through the books within Lord Samot’s former chambers. They tell a story of a life of love, companionship, and a world built together with Lord Samothes. The text does not comment on the dissolution of that life, but the books themselves do, in expurgations and destruction and the wrinkled spots where tears once fell. The books on the void that surrounds Hieron, which I long understood to be a theoretical convenience for the purpose of conducting magical experiments, tell of longstanding work to combat its encroachment on the fabric of life.
Now, Lord Samot is coming to visit the University. I hope he does not look unkindly on my investigation into his possessions. The books speak of him as a god of inquiry, curiosity, and knowledge shared; I can only hope that he finds within his heart an understanding of what compelled me to study his life so. Scholarship has always been my holy devotion.
I can hear the tambourines. I will write again with all that I have learned from conversations with him.
Yours,
Alyosha