Who Followed the Kish Toward the Smoke
Session: 2022-08-17
They came down in the south-east corner of the city. It was crumbling, and trees grew through it. Lichen grew on the landing pad itself. The clouds were thick and red. Its signals of energy were still weak and erratic, and Som wrote down why the city was falling: Age.
Age is a slow fire. It takes everything, and asks nothing.
— the Cycle, I.9
To the south, an archway stretched over a walkway and led into a large building. A holographic sign hung on it, written in swoops and swirls. It matched no language the crew had seen.
Light carries what it carries. It does not promise to be read.
— the Cycle, I.10
The pad was scorched. He knew the marks: cult of the devourer engine. A ship of the Devourer's cult had set down on that stone before them.
Choose the ground before you step onto it.
Where there is one place to stand, the enemy knows it too.
— the Forms, Form 14
In 42 I set this Form beside the one place to stand. Someone had stood there before him.
They fought four. Three were killed. One got away. The journal does not name the four, and does not say whose hands did the killing.
Who stood on the scorched stone, and three of four did not rise.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 17
He wrote the one that fled as plainly as the three. Surely he had reason to keep the count.
Among the fallen was a handheld device, an instinctive stabilizer, made for steadying the dying. They ate the lichen, a fungus grown through with algae. Som wrote that it was no food for the crew.
Look to what the fallen carried.
A thing that steadies the dying is worth the carrying.
Know what they eat, and whether you can eat it.
(Zigu, from his journal.)
— the Forms, Form 33, later additions
They went on to the larger building. It was a staging place for gathering the lichen. Food, he wrote. The walls were covered in murals, crude, in paint and charcoal, and in tally marks.
What is counted is kept.
— the Cycle, I.12
In 16 I asked why he kept the token numbers. Here someone else had kept count on the walls, and he wrote that down too.
The upper floor stood thirty feet up, and its windows were open holes. On one side was a crude symbol: a shield, with a teardrop upside down. He named it. Talavet, the Storyteller, goddess of community, self-reliance and tradition.
Who read the Storyteller's sign on the high wall.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 18
Two Kish, one of them injured. Then, Aliens use stabilizer. The journal does not say who used it, or on whom.
What gutters may yet be kept.
— the Cycle, I.11
The crew followed the Kish and their friend. Thirty minutes' walk from the port lay a neighborhood of ruined houses and small suburbs. A community centre, for gardening and casual sports. A small church. Symbols drawn in haste everywhere.
Small fires, kept close, keep each other lit.
— the Cycle, I.14
Then, Gong, horn, and smoke! The journal stops there.
Who followed the Kish through the old city, toward gong and horn and smoke.
— the Long Names, Zigu, 19
Heat is known before it is seen.
— the Cycle, I.3