Dragon student sythyrys.., p.55
Dragon Student: Sythyry's Journal 1, page 55
Q: Do you still think so?
A: I should have invested more effort in military engineering about it, to kill fewer people we didn’t mean to.
Q, by Prof. Phrass: You were a Hrreptite?
A: Yes — I still am. (Aside: We had learned that the Hrreptites were — and are, I suppose — a philosophically-motivated rebellion against the Calanchian Empire (that part being very much finished, (and, I guess, victoriously, in the sense that there seems to be one Hrreptite still around and no permanent inhabitants Calanchian Empire unless someone in New Calanchia has an exceedingly bad case of diarrhea)) and against the traditions of hereditary ruling nobles in general (that part being, at best, work in progress). (I must introduce Yylhauntra to Strenata.))
Q: How could you not know about the viceroy of Pelcour?
A: We didn’t have very good informants among the nobility of Pelcour! They didn’t generally support us. Even if they had, it wouldn’t have helped much in this instance. The viceroy naturally kept his discussions with the emperor very quiet; he had various political enemies who might well have wanted to know for their own purposes. The nobility of Pelcour, in particular, would have been very upset to learn that the imperial viceroy was considering taking the opposing side. But we weren’t particularly aiming at the viceroy.
Q: Prof. Phrass said you were trying to destroy the whole city, though.
A: It was during the Holocaust Wars, and that was the spirit of the times ... but, no, we were trying to destroy the Hausdorff Militia hall, and as many of the militia as we could. I claim no virtue though. We would have tried to destroy the city if we could have done ... if we had known how devastating the tubers were.
Q: Who were they? The Hausdorff Militia I mean.
A: A Cani and Rassimel gang who had been burning our cities and impaling quite a lot of us. The Holocaust Wars weren’t a very nice time, really.
Q by Prof. Phrass again: Cities? The Hrreptites had cities? I thought you were a philosophically-motivated rebellious movement.
A: Cities, yes. Perfy and Hrauminy, in particular — that’s the “hr” and “p” in Hrrept, you know. Client cities, not city-states in their own right. The movement started as a bid to make Perfy and Hrauminy into their own city-states in the ordinary way. The philosophical side started when we were thinking about who the dukes of those cities would be. It was never that important a part of it to us — we were mostly trying to take advantage of a lot of confusion and discord elsewhere to get our own independent city states. Not even really that even — we’d still have been part of the Calanchian Empire, just like Pelcour.
A: Prof. Phrass: But the philosophical side distinguished you from the various other local rebellions.
A: It certainly brought us to the attention of more historians!
Q: So, um, what happened, that so much of Pelcour was destroyed?
A: Killed, not destroyed. Our best guess was that a dying Hausdorff sorcerer — probably a bit mind-burned — exploded the guildhall. We’d expected them to burn it, which we thought would have been safe. The tubers came packed with firespells to burn them if they were accidentally opened. Exploding it sent bits of very dangerous tuber all over the city, we gather.
Q: What were those tubers, anyways?
A: Something that Vimirance — one of our scout types — stole from the Imperial Arsenal of Dentheia. We never knew exactly what they were, but they weren’t guarded as heavily as the things that could out-and-out destroy a city.
A: by Prof. Phrass: Katarhezoi Varidementia, from one of Birkozon’s sub-realms, imported by Thremantia the Polythiator, and first used in... He rambled on for three whole minutes about them. Probably trying to prove that he actually knew something.
Q: So was it really as stupid a massacre of innocent people as Prof. Phrass made it out to be? Idrissa does not like Prof. Phrass and wanted to embarrass him.
A: Yes, it was. But that was the spirit of the time, really.
Q (to Idrissa): Is there such a thing as a sensible massacre of innocent people?
A (by Yylhauntra): Sure, a massacre of anyone but us. Zie used a somewhat obscure pronoun that pretty much had to mean “primes.” I’d be glad to help massacre cyarr again. Or nendrai if I could manage it.
Q: Massacring nendrai?
A: Next question please. Zie gave me a meaningful glance from which I elicited absolutely no meaning.
Q: How did the Hrreptites decide to attack Pelcour in the first place? What were your command and information structures like? Q by a Cani, of course.
A: ... Zie said quite a bit about it, and about further questions about what they should have done to avoid mistakes like that in the first place. (Point 1: Don’t let the Calanchians take over everything.) I got bored and didn’t take many notes.
Yylhauntra to Dinner [11 Lage 4261]
The Cani made dinner. That’s Anoof and Narngi, plus Havune and Broon and Leiska. (Havune and Leiska are definitely going to be mates when they get married — that’s the middle degree of marriage — and everyone in that not-yet-family is glad at how diligent Havune is being about girls despite not actually being attracted to them.)
At dinner were: Yylhauntra, me, Dustweed, Tethezai, Agrimony, Mendrugai, Esory, and Sprillet, and of course a pile of Cani.
It was ... um ... just like a dinner, except that the Cani were showing off their culinary prowess, and we had a fair number of guests.
Some culinary prowesses included:
Chub-beetles smoked over smouldering ginger.
A roast breast of wudgeon, stuffed with about six hundred and eighty-three kinds of onions, doused in pren brandy, and served levitating and ablaze.
Cream of Three Flavors of Parsley soup. I didn’t know there were three flavors of parsley. Havune smugly informed me that there were actually five flavors of parsley in the soup, with one of them being (1) fresh, (2) dried, and (3) dried and toasted. I refrained from turning Cani to try to taste them.
Glazed prens with clotted cream.
Yylhauntra and Mendrugai and Havune got into a long discussion about Creithian iconography. Yylhauntra and Esory and I got into a medium discussion about the use of ginger in ceremonial fumigations. Dustweed, Broon, and Leiska got into a short discussion of appropriate marriage practices for Cani, and for Herethroy.
Agrimony pointed out to me that the discussion was entirely theoretical in Dustweed’s case, even if she (not zie, but she) weren’t planning to get married to someone of another species.
Me: “Dustweed uses ‘zie’. And I hadn’t heard zie was planning to marry Tethezai.”
Agrimony: “Who else would have her?”
Yylhauntra: “Tethezai’s the Rassimel woman there?”
Me: “Yes. And Dustweed’s the both-female Herethroy. They’re sweethearts.” I was hoping to either (1) embarrass Agrimony enough so that he’d leave this topic alone forever, or (2) delicately probe Yylhauntra’s opinion of transaffection.
Yylhauntra:“They seem as devoted to each other as Cani.”
Which I took as a good sign.
Agrimony: “Were there both-females in the first days? Or traffs?”
Yylhauntra: “No both-females ... the first one was Kivretta, and that must have been ... at least thirty or forty years after I was born. She was third generation Herethroy. What’s a traff?”
Me: “It’s a vulgar word for ‘transaffectionate person’.”
Yylhauntra: “Not in the first days, no. We were all made cisaffectionate. Intentionally, on the gods’ part. We were supposed to have lots of children in a hurry, after all.”
I lost the next few minutes to private moping.
Yylhauntra to Dinner, part 2 [11 Lage 4261]
By which time, it was open season on first-generation Zi Ri.
Tethezai: “How long until people were transaffectionate? Or otherwise, well, not wholly bent on sex as a means of reproduction?”
Yylhauntra: “Transaffection, I do not know for sure. Karrakavva (Rassimel) married Barabrith (Gormoror) at one point, but they were born not created. Sex for fun, in ways that couldn’t lead to children ... I can’t say for sure. One day in the eighth year, I remember, all the Cani were lapping each other intimately in public. Though that might simply have been the invention of that particular modality — or the first public demonstration of something that a few people had been doing for some time — or if publicly doing that was the innovation — or something else. It was so unlike what Zi Ri were doing that I wasn’t very interested.”
Havune: “How did clothing get invented?”
Yylhauntra’s counterattack was devastating, though...
Yylhauntra: “Before my time!”
It is certainly perplexious when one of the first-created declares something “Before my time”. Indeed, it can destroy many manners.
Havune: “Really?”
Yylhauntra: “Oh, yes. Not cloth, but leather and leaves. Everyone looked rather wild and Gormororly, by modern standards.”
Narngi: “When did people start trying to look elegant?”
Yylhauntra: “By your standards, I should say that they have not yet done! By our standards, oh ... about twenty years in. About the time the first-born were starting to grow up a bit.”
Mendrugai: “What did they wear, for elegance?”
Me: “Perhaps we could be a bit more like a group of friends and relatives gathered for dinner, and a bit less like a gathering of the Inquisitors’ Club of Oorah Thrassen. ”
Yylhauntra: “Thank you, Sythyry, but I don’t mind: my powers as a conversational centerpiece are mighty! Mendrugai, we lacked many modern ornaments. Glirries and feathers, fur-dye and sparkling scapulae: these were popular, each in their turn.”
And they continued to interrogate zir for the better part of an hour. Zie endured it with practiced grace.
* * *
Esory: “Are you a wizard, then?”
Yylhauntra: “Hardly! I’m reasonably skillful at magic, but I’m no Glikkonen or Llezcaryg or even Tabragore.”
Esory: “Tabragore?”
Yylhauntra: “One of my great-grandchildren. Only a few centuries old, and quite impressively strong. No, I’m more of an architect than a mage of any kind.”
Esory: “Architect?”
Yylhauntra: “Oh, certainly. I designed the previous Ducal Palace in Vheshrame, the one that got torn down three centuries ago and replaced by the current one.”
Havune: “Were you angry about that?”
Yylhauntra: “Not particularly! It wasn’t very good work. The then-Duke of Vheshrame wasn’t willing to pay very much — she wanted the cachet of a Yylhauntra design, but not any of the actual value of it — so one of my assistants copied and adapted the palace of, as it happens, the Duke of Pelcour.”
Me: “You designed the Viceroy’s palace of Pelcour?”
Yylhauntra: “No, the Duke’s, a good long time after I’d slaughtered the city and there wasn’t a Viceroy any more, or a Calanchian Empire to be Viceroy of. I do have a house in Hrauminy, in Pelcour Mene.”
Me: “Is that all you meant when you said you’re still a Hrreptite?”
Yylhauntra: “No — I still think Hrauminy and all should be their own city-states. It’s ridiculous, having a single country two hundred miles long... but after Perfy won independence one century and rejoined Pelcour the next, it’s distinctly a minority opinion.”
* * *
And, over brandy, zie sprung zir trap. “You have asked me many questions about the first days! But now you must pay the price. I shall ask you many questions about the current days!”
All my friends had the good sense to look quite worried.
On Memory [11 Lage 4261]
(This was in the middle of the dinner, but some monsters asked about it, so here it is. *sigh*.)
Anoof: “Do you start losing track of memories after four thousand years? I know Glikkonen gave Sythyry an enchanted journal, and zie’s very diligent about recording things in it.”
Yylhauntra: “You’re Glikkonen’s child, Sythyry?”
Me: “Zir grandchild. Eitharheinen is my quasi-mother.”
Yylhauntra: “Ah!”
I don’t know if that was real or feigned ignorance.
Yylhauntra: “In any case, I don’t have any trouble with memories: I can remember the fifth century as easily as you can remember last year, and I can remember the first days a great deal more easily.”
Anoof: “Because they were more memorable?”
Yylhauntra: “Perhaps, and perhaps because I am more often called upon to describe them than than the fifth century. Though the fifth century was far more interesting, really.”
Havune asked “Why?”. Yylhauntra ignored him.
Yylhauntra: “In any case, Glikkonen’s journal is an excellent idea. I don’t forget many facts about previous times. But later memories and thoughts certainly color the earlier ones — it’s hard to think about the Holocaust Wars without a great deal of hindsight, for example. I imagine Sythyry will read zir journal in ten thousand years and exclaim, ‘My! How naïve I was back then!’!”
Everyone but me: “Zie’ll do that in about two weeks!”
I took this opportunity to die horribly.
Yylhauntra gave me a curious look, but didn’t probe in public.
Interrogation by Yylhauntra [11 Lage 4261]
Yylhauntra: “Well, then. What should a visitor from Hrauminy be sure to see or do, in Vheshrame, this century?”
Various unrecorded people answered:
The Gallery of Grand Duke Mhirvohany. (That’s three dukes of Vheshrame [carefully pronounced “of Heshrame” -Sythyry] ago, if you’re counting.) I should get an invitation and go see these — it’s not hard to get invited, since they are really there for the dukes to show off their loot. Wealth. Still, you need to apply to a secretary to get an appointment.
Darraden’s.
Vaanghevandar’s Library. That’s really by invitation only, though Esory’s family has a standing invitation. A very good collection of sorcerous books and instruments gathered over eight hundred years by a post-immortal Rassimel.
Flooooosh’s bakery, especially if one has romantic problems.
Yylhauntra: “What are the worse problems facing Vheshrame at the moment?”
Discord in the Choinxeian League.
Oorah Thrassen!
The destruction of the good morals. (By Agrimony.)
My impending marriage! (By Havune. Pillows were hurled by his fiancés.)
Yylhauntra: “What about your own social set, would you like me to mention to people who ask about it?”
To which there were no good answers. People looked at each other blankly for a while. That was a very embarrassing question. Though there was some muttering that they should at least answer it to my satisfaction, if not necessarily Yylhauntra’s.
Yylhauntra: “What’s up with Sythyry, that you all are saying zie’s being naïve about?”
Dustweed: “Perhaps you should ask zir about it in private. Or let zir bring it up.” This defense of me must be remembered forever!
Agrimony: “Zie’s got a lover.”
Yylhauntra: “Hezimikkinen?”
Me: “Well, no.”
Yylhauntra: “Who, then?”
Me: “A child of the Count of Estrario, in Daukrhame. A student at the Academy.”
Yylhauntra: “And what, specifically, is the concern, that most of your friends are worried about? ... Actually, I think I agree with Dustweed. No more of this topic for now. Instead, let us ask, are there monsters in the area?”
There are ulgrane. Which the Duke evidently has diplomatic relations with.
An eighth of a chromodon was seen prowling around in Vheshrame’s villages — or, perhaps, was not.
There is a nendrai, named Vaisessasilmin (or something like that), in the near Verticals, and has been for a year and a half.
There ...
Yylhauntra: “I do not know about this nendrai.”Zie sounded very intense, suddenly.
Broon: “Seeks-this-and-that and Rhedwy have talked to it.”
Me: “And Spirshash, too.”
Yylhauntra: “What is it doing?”
Broon: “Foresting.”
Yylhauntra: “Foresting?”
Broon: “Gathering things from the deep Verticals, and trading them with the towns by the edge. Glirries, lead moss, hethica, feathers. For food and magazines and clothes and such.”
Yylhauntra: “That seems an odd choice for a nendrai. What variety is it?”
Broon: ”N. magus. The kind that’s good at magic.”
Yylhauntra: “Well, the common kind that’s good at magic. It’s not trading magic, though, you say?”
Broon: “Not that I know of.”
Narngi: “Well, hethica must take a great deal of some kind of force to cut.”
Yylhauntra: “Is Hezimikkinen still the Shadow Duke?”
Everyone looked perplexed.
Yylhauntra: “I suppose not. Zie’s still fairly influential with the current duke, at least?”
Someone: “Oh, yes.”
Someone else: “Not as much as last year.”
Someone perhaps still else and perhaps not: “Still quite a lot. And with many other people too.”
Yylhauntra: “I wonder if zie has a few moments to spare for me?”
Nobody volunteered much about the state of Hezimikkinen’s social calendar.
Yylhauntra: “Ah, well, I shall see what I can do tomorrow.”
Everyone expressed relief and politeness. The dishes were removed to the kitchen to be Jarmiet’s morning labors. Yylhauntra interrogated Broon a bit more — he didn’t know much — and then blasted me with moderate fire. “Sythyry? Would you like to chat about your Count-spawn?”
No, in fact, I wouldn’t. But that wasn’t one of the choices of answer.
A Digression on Monsters [timeless]
Several of you have asked about chromodons and nendrai. As a prelude to the next section, here’s what I know about them off the top of my head. It may or may not be wholly accurate.
