On a beach near the village of Otara, a portal shimmers into existence. When fully formed, it is a round opening, just over three feet high, through which the view is very slightly different if looked at from the right angles. Someone looking closer might be able to make out the edges, wavering like heat haze.
A few motu fishermen are nearby, hauling in their day's catch. They do not notice the portal immediately, but the sound of their singing carries through it on the breeze.
Ey snorts.
"That was deliberate. It's a...you don't have gods, do you?"
"Well. It's a gods thing." Ey shrugs.
"I gave it to my god and told em about meeting you."
"They like offerings. Different kinds for different gods," Darya explains.
"Burya will take anything, but ey likes things from far away, things made by non-dwarves..."
"No, there's all sortsa reasons. Most of the time, you give an offering to a priest, they see it goes where it's needed. Back to the community. But giving straight to a god, that can be to thank them, to ask for something, as repayment for breaking the rules..."
Ey smiles at Peka. "This one was thanks. For meeting you, and saving Katin."
"Might have been. Might be ey made sure I walked down the right street or something." Darya seems pretty unconcerned by this possibility.
"And if not, it's the sort of problem Burya'd like to know about so ey can help fix it for other people."
Which reminds em...
"What was the problem with you leaving your district? No-one seems to talk about Amentans with pink hair; it illegal or something?"
"Didn't want to ask before, when we'd have had to explain to the people in the next room why we're talking about pink hair when yours is lavender," ey clarifies.
"But, like I say, no-one told us anything about a red caste, just green yellow purple...whatever. No red. So what's red hair for, and why's it different? Never really held with caste systems, myself, but...it's important to you, it was your life."
"Reds are the untouchables, we do unclean work. People hate us and don't like to think about us."
Ah.
Yup, that would do it.
"Yeah, my clan used to have that. We decided it was dumb. Other dwarf clans, ones that still have castes at all, have untouchables."
Ey chuckles. "Some of them think my whole clan count as untouchable now, since the exile. One of the reasons we stopped having a separate caste for it."
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
