Pica’s residents warn visitors away from the abandoned socavones. A geologist ignored them to survey the structures and promptly disappeared. Now the evening winds carry his voice.
’This geologist was meant to work for us. Now she risks spilling her secrets across the four winds.'
'Echoes in the air, echoes in the earth. The Hours work to spill Obliviate secrets. We will contend, but wisely.'
'The Hours of the Roost are known to steal secrets like this, passing them back and forth at the Roost. That opens an angle for me to negotiate through the single loop in the Ivory Chain, though it is still a narrow path. I will do my best.‘
Sra Silva sought to negotiate with the one Hour of the Roost with whom she can directly converse, whom she suspected of wielding Obliviate secrets.
’I’ve been asked to consult on land management in the area. I have expertise in these matters that few in government share.'
'I’ll call on some power on the government’s behalf, but whose I’m not quite sure.'
'I feared this was the work of chthonic agents. Happily, it seems my friends among the Lower Skies are merely having fun! I’ll go have a chat with them, but I expect this can all be resolved by a few handshakes and a sizable gift of interesting trinkets. I don’t suppose you have any of the Dottore’s you could lend me?‘
Senator Esquivel set off for a jovial meeting with his friends in the Lower Skies whom he thought were playing a prank.
'I’ve come to consult some notes that an old friend left in the margins of something around here. He warned me specifically about what to do in cases where the wind starts speaking.'
'Wind-rumours and that old lost music… what was it he would say about them? He wrote with so much clarity before this place got to him.'
'Leonel did indeed think this might happen and he knew exactly what could be learned from it. I ought pay him a visit and see if he has any lucidity left to help me learn what we might from the Wind’s Echoes.‘
Libreng found notes made in a text about wind-rumours by his old colleague Leonel and went to see what insights his friend might still have.
’That geologist knew a great many secrets. Someone has asked me to learn them.'
'The question is how to interrogate a disembodied voice… or how to even pin it down in the first place.'
'It seems there’s a way through the bloodiest rites of the Black-Flax, performed with blood of the Earth and blood of the Tide. That sounds like a nightmare. Perhaps this hunt is best left to others. Unless I stumble on an Antaean anytime soon.‘
Tte Cruz found in my collection a technique for isolating a voice carried on the wind, but deemed it too much trouble.
’The socavones are one of the world’s great treasures. Have you ever seen them, librarian?'
'You must make the journey, if you ever escape this place. I’ve come to see specifically what connection these socavones have to the Well in the Wood…'
'So it is true that the Velvet lurks in those shadows, just as she watches from the Well. She watches here in the roots of the Haustorium too, you know. She might be the only reason you still live.‘
Bartolina reminded me that just as the Velvet lurks in the socavones and the Well in the Wood, she protects the Haustorium.
’This geologist was meant to work for us. Now she risks spilling her secrets across the four winds.'
'Echoes in the air, echoes in the earth. The Hours work to spill Obliviate secrets. We will contend, but wisely.'
'The Velvet doesn’t just keep secrets; she wields them, and does so strategically. We enter into a delicate game here. Perhaps some appeasement could be arranged in a way that does not break the Ivory Chain.‘
Sra Silva entered a dangerous game with the Velvet, whom she suspected of wielding Obliviate secrets.
’Allow me to tell you the story of Zaid Al-Bokhari, the Dead Lord of the Qanat.'
'Al-Bokhari was a great builder of aqueducts, beloved by the people for the precious water he shared. But he was a gossip and a voyeur, and through his water-tunnels he came to learn everything about everyone at court. When the lords discovered his spying, they first shed Al-Bokhari’s blood in the water of his great projects. But then, afeared of further spying from beneath their feet, they moved their cities away from the water Al-Bokhari had given them. Without his water, they found themselves parched.‘
’In the earth, the old sins which have been forgotten but not forgiven fester still.'
'It is one of the Velvet’s many kindnesses that she quiets the memory of crimes long past. When the Twins sought protection, they found her quiet support. When the Moth slew the Wheel, the Velvet emerged. When the Beach-Crow has a treasure too great to flaunt, she will take it. But oh how the Elegiast loathes her.‘
’Another tragedy beneath the earth, retold by the spirits of the air. I will add this geologist’s disappearance to my catalogue of reasons to weep tonight.'
'You must never venture down, librarian. It is too dangerous. Stay safe by seeking the knowledge that drifts through the air. The Roost and their servants are mercurial and esurient, but they can always be bargained with. Offer a trade, like your name or your hair, and they will often let you persist a day longer.‘
The cat’s ears ascend at the mention of echoes. She paws zealously at the brittle window-glass and yowls for me to throw the latch open.
I hear nothing beyond the mountains’ usual echoes, but the cat surely hears some countermelody. She pants and mews and taps a disconcerting song until I too can hear fragments of the wind’s echoes: ‘Flowstone-knives… knives… bat-song… song… Leonel did not err… err.‘