A servant named Osa spoke to Iyjiia. "Has the God of the Day Light revealed to you the name of the next chief of the Sindie servants?"
"There is a child that Uhe took from the ashes of the Diruvedah. Uhe named the child Sindieah. Before it died, Uhe said that the ruler of the Sindie must be one who is not tainted by either war or cowardice. Too young to know war, Sindieah cannot be tainted by war. And it had the courage to live when its people had only the courage to die.
"We, the servants of Aakva, shall rear this child. And when it performs the rites of adulthood, we shall make Sindieah the chief and ruler of the Sindie."
The tomb was built, the temple begun, and the city named Butaan soon covered the mountain, while the world surrounding the mountain lived in peace and plenty under the rule of Sindieah.
All praised the wisdom of Aakva.
KODA NUVIDA
The Story of Shizumaat
I, Mistaan, set down before you the words of Namndas and Vehya who recited before me the life of Shizumaat and the second truth.
I am Namndas, child of Piera, who was the child of Rukor, who was the child of Ivey, warrior of Uhe’s Seventh Denve. I stand before you here to speak of Shizumaat, for I was Shizumaat’s childhood friend and companion, and I was the one who stood the watch at the mark.
Sindieah Nu the Ancient was the child of Sindieah, Born of Fire. The rule of Sindieah Nu was marked by an increase in the road system begun by its parent, the expansion of cultivated crops in both the Kudah and the Dirudah, and the beginning of the great project to irrigate the Madah by tapping the hidden reservoirs in the Akkujah Mountains.
Regional centers, each governed by a servant appointed by Sindieah Nu, settled disputes, caused way stations and granaries to be built, and built and maintained the roads.
The works ordered by the servants and their chief were accomplished by each Sindie’s performance of Aakva’s Laws of Gift and Labor handed down by the servants during Sindieah’s rule. When the harvests were plentiful, the Law could be served by giving one-twelfth of the harvest to be stored in the granaries. When the crops were poor, each adult over the age of four years had to spend at least one day out of twelve working under the direction of the servants. In exchange for this, the workers were fed from the granaries administered by the servants of Aakva.
The firstborn of Sindieah Nu was Sindieah Ay. And after its parent had retired from the servants, and during Sindieah Ay’s rule of the servants of Aakva, the Temple of Uhe was completed. The cut-stone walls of the temple were as tall as eight Sindie and they enclosed an area of sixty by ninety paces. The roof of wooden beams and slabstone was supported by square stone columns arranged in six proportionate rectangles. At the center of the smallest rectangle was the great stone tomb that covered Uhe’s ashes.
The eastern wall of the temple was an open row of stone columns. Northern and southern walls each had center doorways only two paces wide. The wall facing the Madah had no opening. During the day, light was provided by the Parent of All; during the night, light was provided by the three hundred oil lamps that were suspended from the temple’s great ceiling.
The shelters around the temple were separated by narrow streets, and were made of both stone and wood. In one of these houses, covered by the afternoon shadow of the temple, a Sindie shaper of iron, in Butaan to perform its duty to Aakva through labor, gave birth to a child. The shaper of iron’s name was Caduah, and Caduah named its offspring Child of Duty, Shizumaat.
Because of the birth of the child, and because Caduah had received from those who served Sindieah Ay’s court several commissions for iron house ornaments, the shaper of iron made its permanent home in Butaan. Caduah was a dutiful worshipper of Aakva, and Caduah instructed its child in the ways and truths of the God of the Day Light, and of the servants. Shizumaat learned the story of creation, the laws as revealed to Rhada, and the story of Uhe.
On the beginning of Shizumaat’s third year, Caduah entered its child in the temple to perform before the servants the rites of adulthood. Shizumaat recited the story of creation, the laws, and the story of Uhe; and then Shizumaat recited its family line from its parent, Caduah, to the founder of its line, the Mavedah hunter called Limish.
And when the rites were completed, Caduah applied for Shizumaat to become a servant of Aakva.
Ebneh was the servant who had heard the child’s recitation, and Ebneh was sufficiently impressed by the performance that it enrolled Shizumaat into the Aakva Kovah, the School of God. The nights Shizumaat would spend in its parent’s house; the days Shizumaat would spend in the temple learning the secrets, signs, laws, wishes, and visions of the Parent of All.
I, Namndas, had entered the Aakva Kovah the year before Shizumaat, and was placed in charge of Shizumaat’s class. I drew this duty because the servants of the temple considered me the least worthy of my own class. While my companions sat at the feet of the servants and engaged in learned discourse, I would chase dirt.
My charges were assigned a place in the darkness next to the Madah wall where my own class had begun the year before. On the morning of the first day of their instruction, Shizumaat’s class sat upon the smooth stone floor and listened as I spoke the rules of the temple.
"I, Namndas, am your charge-of-class. You are the lowest class in the temple, and for this reason, the care and cleaning of the temple is left to you. I tell you now that I will never find as much as a single fleck of dust in the temple while I am your charge-of-class. You will clean the filth from the air before it lands upon these stones; you will wash the dust from the feet of those who enter the temple." I pointed toward the soot-blackened ceiling. "Every evening it is your responsibility to trim and fuel the temple’s lamps. Through all of this, you will keep clean yourselves. Your bodies will be clean and your robes clean and mended."
Shizumaat stood. It was tall for its age, and there was a strange brightness to its eyes. "Namndas, when are we to be given our instruction? When will we learn?"
I felt my face grow hot. Such impudence! "You shall be allowed to receive instruction when I inform Servant Ebneh that you are worthy. Sit and be silent!"
Shizumaat resumed its seat upon the floor, and I issued a glare that encompassed all nine of them. "You will not speak except in answer to a question from me or from one of the servants. You are here to learn, and the first thing you must learn is obedience."
I returned my glare to Shizumaat and saw it carrying an enigmatic expression upon its face. I spoke to Shizumaat. "I cannot read your face, new-charge. What does it say?"
Shizumaat remained seated upon the floor, but looked at me as it spoke. "Does Aakva, then, judge its servants by how well they imitate the dumb animals, and their skill at wielding a scrub rag?"
"Your words court disaster."
"Namndas, when you asked your question, did you want from me lies or truth?"
"This is a temple of truth. What are you called?"
"I am called Shizumaat."
"Then, Shizumaat, I must tell you that I see little hope for your graduation from the Madah wall to the center of the temple."
Shizumaat nodded and looked past the forest of columns toward Uhe’s tomb. "I think the truth serves you at last, Namndas."