How Pavis
Lost its Song
By Mike
Dawson
It was that in the time that Seven Tribes blocked the Five Gates,
when the cursed Jaldon camped in the Fields of Pavis County, that
the walls of the city stood against him, and our city was resolute
and unified against him.
Once, among the Noble houses of Ancient Pavis, there was a clan
called the Zalosadan, and they were known as friends to all true
citizens, and great in the sight of Pavis. They are no longer with
us, but we remember them.
Nonarathen Harp-Singer was of that Zalosadan clan, who are fond
in our memory. And she was a true Daughter of Pavis, of whom some
said was even of the City Founder's blood. She was wise, and kind,
and gentle, with a smile that made the blind sigh, and a voice which
made the deaf weep.
Nonarathen Harp-Singer and her family, and the city of Pavis were
greatly saddened by the trials that they and theirs faced from the
Nomads who followed Jaldon. Nonarathen beseeched the Son of Pavis
to allow her to go to the cursed Great Khan, and convince him to
lift his siege.
And so the Son of Pavis was moved by the tears and song beseeching
him, and he bade her "Take this Ivory Harp, which is the Harp
of the Temple, and play us a song that all citizens maybe moved
by, and with which they may sing along. Play that song, and go forth
unto Jaldon, and our voices shall follow you beyond the walls. Let
the harmonies of our voices reach the heart of Jaldon, and persuade
him we are his friends, not his foe."
So Nonarathen did as the Son of Pavis requested, and took the Ivory
Harp, and played and sang a magnificent song on the steps of the
Great Temple. All the citizens of the Blessed City were drawn from
their villas and joined in to that song. She passed down the temple
steps, and at the foot of the steps, a regiment of zebra cavalry
bowed down at her passing, mounts and riders both. Still playing
her harp, Nonarathen passed unto the Wyvern Gate, and the guards
there turned to watch, and sang. The gates there opened of their
own accord to allow Nonarathen to pass, and the wyverns rose up
and danced in the air along with the song, though they did not sing.
Blueblue the Dancer, Nonarathen's fool, made a angry gesture at
them for that.
Nonarathen and her troupe approached Jaldon's Camp, which lay before
Wyvern Gate. The pickets there made to ride over and trample her,
but their mounts would not be spurred and instead kneeled down as
the zebras had. Some nomads fled then, frightened of the power of
Nonarathen's song.
Nonarathen went among the camp, and Blueblue showed his master where
Jaldon's tent was pitched. Before it was a khan of each tribe, blood
man, scar bearer and guard for Jaldon. Nonarathen knew what all
khans truly wait for, and what they know they have lost. Nonarathen
sang of this to them, and they all wept and allowed her to pass
into their Master's tent.
Nonarathen thought that Jaldon most wanted assurance that his people
would not kill each other, so that they would survive and thrive.
She raised up the Ivory Harp as she entered Jaldon's tent, and she
played its secret harmonies, and sang them too, with a song of unity
and a way that people can live together despite their differences.
Jaldon, who would kill a citizen by only smiling, listened to that
song, and Nonarathen grew hopeful, because she could see that the
Toothmaker was hearing the song's message. She sang of how death
only brings death, and Jaldon grew sad and looked as if he might
cry.
And then he did. A tear rolled down Jaldon's face, and he wiped
it away and flung it off his hand, sending it flying across his
tent. But there, good citizens, it did not strike the ground to
nourish the soil. It struck Jaldon's Death Drum, and gave it a voice.
The drummers and shamans in the camp heard the voice of Jaldon's
Drum, and answered it back. 500 drummers beat their war songs and
500 shamans screamed to their beast gods. 50,000 braves clashed
their weapons in time.
Jaldon heard that terrible noise, and he smiled. First he smiled
to himself, then he smiled at Nonarathen. Nonarathen saw that smile,
and her voice broke. Into that break, Jaldon spoke. "You have
taught me harmony, and I will have it for me and mine." Then
he grabbed the Ivory Harp, and placed his hands on the strings.
"Let me show you what tune I can bring forth from these strings,
which are made from the gut and sinew of my peoples." With
his rider's hand he grasped the strings and ripped them from the
Ivory Harp. "Here are reins with which I shall direct Nations."
At that moment, all the common singers around the temple died, and
all the zebras who bowed down. Also the priests fell, the Son of
Pavis wept, and our song died and was forgotten.
With his Warrior's Hand he cast the Ivory Harp in the dirt, and
smiled his thanks at the Daughter of Pavis. Nonarathen died.
Jaldon took up the corpse of Nonarathen, and paraded it around the
camp, saying the death of a priestess was a great omen of the breaking
of the city's walls. There at the celebration, Jaldon took the seven
strings of the harp, and bound them each in secret knots with hair
from the seven tribe's beasts, and so bound each of those tribes
closer to him.
Blueblue the Dancer had hidden in Jaldon's tent, and during the
celebration he took up the Ivory Harp where it had been cast, and
he fled back to the Blessed City. But the gates had been closed,
and the guards were lost in sadness. When Blueblue climbed the walls,
he dropped the harp, and so you see the crack in it. But he brought
it back, and even without strings, we are happier to have than we
would otherwise be.
And so, since that day, no one can sing in Old Pavic, and we keep
no musical instruments, and the cursed Toothmaker can unite the
Tribes. But because we have the Ivory Harp, we know that it is better
to work together than to fight each other.
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