Solari and Ekl

393 VY, Month 4, Day 11

Whenever Hannah was on Daira, she always felt like she was out of place. While the people around were still people, being unable to talk to them directly made the cultural differences even more clear. Entela was highly technological. Daira was not. Entela had a unified government. Daira did not. These differences were part of why she was instructed to frequently spend time here, so that she could get used to how different the societies that Entela assisted were, but that wasn't why she was here today.

Today, Hannah was supposed to find and talk to the local branch of the Church of Solari. That made sense to her. Most Entelans didn't follow the Church of Solari, and even among those that did, Hannah was the only one that actively worked with the Eternity Project. Therefore, it was expected that she would be the most reasonable person to find and talk to whoever was in charge.

What didn't make sense to Hannah was the building she found in the location she was given. It was about three times larger than the shrine in Entela, and where that one was mostly empty aside from a few seats and a bookshelf, this had an entire second floor. The outer walls were framed by logs and filled in with thin wooden posts, which were spaced apart to allow people to see inside on the lower floor. The upper floor had another set of horizontal logs that meant Hannah couldn't see inside without excess effort.

In the front half of the lower floor were sets of benches that faced towards a large disk in the carefully cultivated grassy ground. That was more familiar to Hannah. Three rings of painted stone, with yellow on the inside, white farther out, and then a lime green on the outer edge, made up the disks that the Church used for their rituals. When the sun rose, as it was doing just now, the sunlight refracted through a circular lens of yellow aetherglass that was held above the back of the building by thick wooden logs, and the light landed entirely on the disk at what Volaria would consider exactly hour 9. Hannah wasn't sure how Daira counted time, so she also wasn't sure how this disk was timed.

Behind the familiar disk was a thick staircase starting on the right, leading up to a second-floor mezzanine. To its left, the vacant space left by the upper floor held bookshelves and a carpeted floor. From outside, she couldn't see anything but the railings of the upper floor. She could make out the inside of the roof, which, just like the shrine in Entela, was crossed by branches of leaves but was otherwise left open to the sky. Quietly, she stepped through the large open doorway.

Some member of the Church, recognizable by his white robes and the symbol of Solari on his chest and necklace, was giving a speech to a group of children in the still-unfamiliar-to- Hannah Dairan tongue. The children each had a book, which seemed to have the same cover as a song book that Hannah had almost committed entirely to memory, and were dressed in smaller white robes with only a green stripe along the edge of their sleeves.. Hannah thought briefly about Solari, and wished for the deity's happiness. Solari had already saved the most important person in her life on multiple occasions, but Solari was still trapped in a place between life and death. These were things Hannah said every so often, but only the most faithful believers seemed to put stock in what she said.

Of course, the most faithful believers tended to end up in charge of buildings like this one, which is how the man delivering his speech recognized her. “Mistress Hannah, how wonderful of you to join us.”

Hannah jumped when she heard her name. “Mistress?”  That was what she chose to say? Hannah was annoyed at herself more than anything else, but then it seemed easier to go with it than to ask any different question. “I wouldn't have ever thought to call myself that.”

The man blushed. “Ah, yes, right. Apologies, that was Dairan etiquette. Miss Hannah. My name is Kirin, I am the local bishop of Ekl and the northern Dairan hemisphere. I can be with you in a second.” He continued speaking to the children, each and everyone of them taking an opportunity to look back at her. They instantly knew she wasn't from Daira. Her transceiver was a red flag in that regard if nothing else about her was. A few of them gave responses to whatever he was saying. Finally, he continued to her in Volarian. “It appears they've heard your name too, from the stories of the Blessed Children of Agahia. They want to see you use some of her magic.”

“I, uh… do you have aether?” Even with aether, Hannah would have a problem with making a spell out of nowhere, but she could try. She took a look around, not waiting for a response, and felt the air. There was a little bit, so she could do something small. Hannah closed her eyes, took a breath, and opened her hand. Light.  When she opened her eyes, a small orb of yellow light had formed, and she could feel the slow drain on her magic. She let it dissipate only moments later, but the children were already in awe.

“Well done,” the adult commended. “Controlled magic is a sign of nobility on Daira. They look up to you now. I trust you to guide them well when you can speak their language.”

Hannah stared blankly at Bishop Kirin. He continued, adding, “As part of Project Eternity, yes? Give me a few minutes and we will be able to speak properly.”

A few minutes passed, and as promised, the children put their books away and ran up the stairs to something in the front of the building. “So,” Hannah started. “This is different.”

“Ah, yes,” Kirin said. He carried himself like the other Church advisor she had met: very proper, and very calm. He didn't look nearly as old, but definitely older than barely-an-adult Hannah. “You are from… Entela, if memory serves?” Hannah simply nodded. “Yes, then you must be familiar with the Shrine served by Miv Niri, correct? That explains things. Welcome to the veista of Ekl. This is currently the only location of Daira that— what are you confused about?”

He noticed. “What's a veista?” Hannah asked. “That's a completely new name for me.”

“Oh, of course. In Entela you only had the Shrine, which is much smaller. In most other locations with Solari's presence, such as the holy cities of Theria and Agahia…” Holy city crossed Hannah's mind. She wasn't certain what was holy about Agahia yet, but if stories were spreading, then it could be anything. “We set up buildings like this one, called veistas. Unlike shrines, they are designed to be living spaces in addition to places of worship or prayer.” Kirin looked up to the direction the children left.

“Who lives here? Just the children?”

Kirin shook his head. “First, you surely know that the church is led by the Master of Theria, yes? She appoints people to organize the Church in other regions. You are familiar with Miv Niri, of course. They are the one appointed to Entela. In some extraplanar religions, they refer to the person in the same role of the Master of Theria as the “archbishop”. It makes sense, then, to call people such as Miv Niri and myself “regional bishops”. However, Miv Niri lives in a location in Entela near enough to the Shrine that they do not need to live on-site.”

The “regional bishop” waited for Hannah. She took the opportunity to think about the Shrine in Entela, where she first learned about the Church of Solari. Miv Niri had taught her about the functions of the Church and her role in it — mostly supporting positivity in her environment — but hadn't taught her about what it looked like outside Entela. Suddenly she had a lot more to learn.

He was still waiting. Did he want Hannah to ask a follow-up question? “So not everyone lives in the rest of the city?” That should do.

“Many of us do not have that luxury. Entela pays for the housing of people inside Entela, but most places either charge for rent or land. Travel from off-plane is worse, as it requires going through multiple tunnels and passing through administration each time. I recall that's something you're well familiar with.” The bishop motioned around with one hand, pointing out the frame of the veista. “The Master of Theria, being the head of the Church of Solari, pays for the land that we use for our shrines and veistas, so we are allowed to use them for housing. Then, any people that are directly under our employ — hunters are important on Daira and Agahia especially — live here or treat it as a base of operations. Then, as you saw, children without homes for whatever reason live here. Watching after them is another of the regional bishop's duties.”

Karina used to be an orphan, and suddenly she was the only thing Hannah could think of. She didn't know a lot about how Karina lived before she became Hannah's most important thing in the world. She tried to imagine how life without parents had to have been, but even when her parents were absent, Hannah had Master Sara and Seiva in Entela. She was never really alone, not like Karina was.

Were the children here okay? The Church didn't exist until a short time ago. It couldn't have been more than a year. So then, what was their life like before the Church? Each of them had their own story, their own suffering to hold. Even now, their situation was more like Hannah's, where most of their time was spent in the care of people that couldn't really act as parents.

“Are you okay? You haven't said anything.” About fifteen responses flew through Hannah's head, but she didn't take any time in thinking through which of them to choose.

“How can I help?” Oftentimes, Hannah would immediately regret her decision, and stumble over her words trying to change her answer. There was none of that here. Not a single glimmer of doubt was left.

“Learn the local language. There are a few across the world, but Ekl and Arghivi, the Dairan capital, share a language with many other locations. Once you know that language, then you can help further.”

That would take too long. She couldn't help now if it required learning the entire language. “What about now? Is there anything I can do while I'm learning?”

“Were you not here with a purpose?” Kirin deflected. “I can fulfill most roles that don't require communication with the youth. However, I don't have knowledge in many of the Entelan studies that you would have, so I would need you to learn it. Follow me.” Kirin motioned with a hand and calmly walked farther to the back of the veista, where the stairs were. As she followed him, he guided her upstairs. “What did you come for?”

“The Head Advisor wanted me to understand the Church's interplanar…” Hannah paused to think of the word. “Interactions. What we do while on worlds other than Volaria. So I guess it kinda was just to see the building and children, I just didn't know it yet.” The upper mezzanine was floored with a finished wood. It was almost entirely a floor of its own, with a hole cut out of the middle so that the morning sunlight could hit the disk right until the afternoon. A railing surrounded the hole, forcing people to go all the way to the other side to cross it. On this side of the floor, tables and chairs were set up with candles. On the far side, long wooden sticks and dummies wearing Church robes stood near what seemed to be a bathroom. A boy was using one of the sticks, swinging it into the open air. They taught how to fight here too? Interesting.

On what Hannah recognized would be the front wall of the veista, there was a small hallway that split off two rooms before finally reaching the actual exterior wall. One room's door was open, and inside it was a single bed, a kitchen, and a desk with a few books. The other room was closed, but presumably it was where the children slept.

Sitting at one of the tables was a girl from earlier, no longer wearing her robe. She was sketching out some kind of landscape, but Hannah didn't recognize what it was yet since it wasn't finished. At another one, a boy was writing something, but Hannah wouldn't be able to read it, even if she tried.

Kirin said some words to the girl. She said a few words back, but not nearly as many. “Rique is working on a drawing of a place she heard of once called Leritha. As I recall, the stories say that there is no water, and instead islands are split by nothing but air. I haven't been there myself.”

“That sounds like the Leritha I know, yep,” Hannah confirmed. “They use large ships like Daira does, since they've got to land on water on other planes.”

“Interesting. I'm sure Rique will be happy to hear that detail.” Kirin looked over the boy's work, but said nothing to him. “I believe Sik is trying to recall the tale of Sylvares the Usurper from memory. A merchant told it to us once, and promised us to return with a novel about it. He has been gone for a couple of months now, so we aren't certain if he forgot, was lost, or has still not made it back yet.” Hannah started to consider telling the story of it, since she had been there for at least part of it, but Kirin continued without her interruption. "Yesterday Sik was trying to explain why aether induction loops work, but he seems to have given up.”

“Oh, those!” Hannah was well familiar with that specific piece of technology. They saw use in smaller-scale industrial cores, like the type she had to make frequently.. “They just work by channeling aether past aether, it's not super complex.”

“Naturally, to a Volarian that makes sense. The Entelan government prevents us, any of us, from teaching new knowledge to Daira so it can remain in ordinance with the Seventh Circle guidelines. That means that even if I knew about engineering to that degree, I would get in trouble if I said more about it.”

“Right, Master Sara said that, didn't she?” Hannah asked herself. “Too much risk in jumping technology levels. I think the Seventh Circle example is teaching a monarchy about aetheric weapons before they have kinetic weapons, or something. Have to let them get closer first. What would I be able to teach, then?”

“Well, the nobles have a curriculum. You would be allowed to teach these youth anything that the nobles would be able to learn. They have no better source of information, and in a growing world, that will be vitally important for their future.” Kirin guided Hannah to the fighter.

Almost immediately when she arrived, the fighter noticed and took a swing at her. Hannah screeched and, in her panic, reached her magic out for one of the staves. It joined both her hands and the fighter's strike got caught in it. The hit wasn't strong enough to knock the staff out of her hands, but Hannah could feel it.

Kirin's tone of voice indicated some kind of criticism to the fighter, but the fighter said nothing back. He simply stood up straight with the staff in his hands, smiled, and nodded. “Livik is training for combat, so that he can protect merchants overseas. He was practicing aethercasting yesterday too, but he is still far from mastering it. It seems the swiftness in your spell has reinvigorated him.”

“Really? All I did was a simple thing that it took too long to learn.” Hannah looked at Livik and smiled so that it didn't seem like she was disappointed.

“Again, to these youth, magic is a sign of nobility. The five children we have here believe this to be an opportunity at life that they would have never seen, so they are making the most of it. If any of them master the skills they are trying to learn, be it magic, technology, or art, they can gain favor with a noble. That is why they need people to help them.”

Hannah looked across to the closed room. “They sleep there, I bet?”

“They sleep there, yes. It is also where any possessions they happened to have are stored. Necklaces from outside sources, clothes, anything that they had before they came here. And, lastly, it is a place they can be where they expect to be left alone unless an emergency or a meal arises. As such, we should leave them for the time being.” Kirin motioned for Hannah to continue to follow him, prompting Livik to return to fighting the air.

Hannah was guided back downstairs and then to the place underneath the stairs. Bookshelves, boxes, hangers, more important-looking staves, and aether canisters were stored under the stairs. “That's a lot of stuff,” Hannah remarked.

“Quite. It works better if we have everything we need here than having to ask Theria for it.” Kirin looked along the spines of the books on the shelf until he found a collection of identical books labeled Volarian-Argvi. “Take this with you. It is the book First Contact gave us to learn the language of Arghivi and Ekl.”

Hannah accepted the book and bowed. “Thank you, Bishop Kirin. Is there anything else I can help with?”

“Not immediately,” Kirin replied with a smile as he guided Hannah to the doorway. “But I am hoping you will return soon, even if just to show your presence to these youth. To see a blessed woman of the Church in person will raise the spirits of any among our believers. Remember that.”

Hannah stepped outside, turned to face Kirin, and took a slight bow with a fist on her chest. “May the light of Solari guide your way, Bishop Kirin.”

Kirin chuckled. “May the light of Solari guide your way, Miss Hannah.”

Characters

 * Bishop Kirin