I stood in the midst of several huts made of various natural materials: sticks, stones, mud, and even animal hides or canvas. Everyone around me, moving in and out of those buildings wore the same kind of old-fashioned clothing, robes and tunics instead of dresses and trousers.
"The Wordspinners serve the community by their craft," a large, warm voice boomed out from all around me. I watched a dark-haired man with a short beard--looking a good deal more civilized than the rest of these villagers--emerge from a canvas tent. He smiled and greeted the people he saw, and they responded with courtesy and politeness. Was I looking at Dobran Allius, himself?
"They made clothes and wares for the people, and also grew plants for food and medicine to give to those who needed it, as well," continued the voice, and I saw several booths just like the one I'd witnessed in History class, with people selecting items they wanted, or the seller picking out what they wished to distribute.
The ground before me tilted and twisted, and when my vision balanced again, I saw the small settlement had been replaced with a large village of modern buildings. For the second time that day, I saw the woman selling hand-made pots outside the Factory Market, and the people walking by as if they never even noticed her.
"The King's reforms are less about fixing what is necessarily wrong with the native's practices," observed my disembodied narrator, "and more designed to alter and replace their normal way of life. However..." and here the scene shifted to the grand hall of some palace or something. I saw a crowd of courtiers in fine clothing. Some of them bore a grand medallion hanging from their necks. "With the relocation came opportunities. The King saw much benefit in welcoming a few Wordspinners into his court. He heeded their advice, and the land flourished. So began a Golden Age for the kingdom of Gramble..."
I watched the medallion-wearing people gathered around the king, and it all made sense somehow in my mind. Were these the Wordspinners?
The ground lurched again, and I felt someone grab my hand...
"Whoa, Callista, are you all right?" Terra's voice broke through the dense fog around my senses, at at a blink, I was back in a seat a the table in the Academy library. Dobran Allius' book, mercifully, had been placed out of my reach.
I inhaled a deep breath, feeling exactly the way I did when swimming underwater for too long.
I stared at the fair face beside me. "Terra! How long was I out this time?"
Terra's face was rarely serious, but she looked it now. She fiddled with the laces of her bodice as she declared, "Out? You mean you had one of your bizarre memory-flashes just now? You've only been sitting there long enough for me to finish the passage and realize you'd stopped moving." Her hands lifted to the edge of her collar. "Well? Tell me everything! What did you see?" She leaned forward with a giddy expression on her face.
For once, I didn't feel afraid of discussing this strange phenomenon. Terra was the only person I could talk to about it, and between the two of us, she had been the first to embrace it as something exciting for me, rather than evidence of some aberration in my brain.
I stared down at my notes, once so thorough and concise, now sounding so pedantic and hollow, after what I'd just witnessed.
"I saw the Wordspinner encampment," I said, "and the same seller's booth I witnessed in History Class." I gave her a meaningful glance. "And that is what sparked my outburst in the middle of Scholar Mikel's lecture--what he was saying didn't match up with what I was seeing, and I wanted to know which one to believe."
Terra made a contemptuous noise and leaned back, easing the tension on the laces of her bodice. We were taught during our formative seasons that a flat stomach appeared healthier than a distended, bulbous one--but on girls like poor Terra who enjoyed good food far too much for the limited capacity of the laces, the effect was rather less aesthetic and more tortuous. "It wouldn't be the first time our authorities chose to ignore the obvious in favor of the preferable narrative." She perked up with a sly grin. "At least you were sitting down for both flashes, so you didn't start wandering around in the middle of class! Wouldn't that have been hilarious?"
I snorted and went back to my notes, filling in the details based on what I'd heard from Dobran Allius. "Of course, Terra--it's always absolutely amusing to go dashing about like a headless chicken, with my eyes seeing impossible dangers that aren't even real!" Terra had seen it happen to me before: if I was standing when the images overtook me, I tended to wander around within them, my eyes not registering the same places my feet traveled. As a result, I ended up in more strange, out-of-the-way places than I was comfortable with! "Anyways, this time I heard... I think I was hearing Allius giving his own account."
"Oh wow!" Terra breathed, leaning in and running her fingers over the sweeping script. "Like, you heard from the Explorer himself? Was he old and creaky? Did it sound really pompous and stuffy, or did he have a strange accent that twisted his words into unintelligible gobbledegook?"
"Terra!" I folded my brow at her. "He just spoke, it sounded normal, and I think--" I broke off speaking as I reached for the journal. I hesitated to pull back the cover, after what had just happened to me, but I had to see for myself.
I glanced through the words on the pages, and his kind, calm voice rang in my ears as I comprehended the words, but thankfully my psyche remained rooted in the present.
"Unbelievable!" I muttered, reading the very words that had narrated my experience just moments earlier. Even entries that the visions had somehow skipped still filled in the missing details, resounding in that same voice."It's the same as Senevere's report," I mused, flipping back in my notebook to compare, "but so different!"
Allius spoke of the Golden Age, yes--but Wordspinners were still accepted as contributing members of the burgeoning society. They weren't welcome at the Academies because of their religious ties, of course, but they could still make and sell wares in the local market square. According to this record, as Academies taught and trained more of each generation, the number of Wordspinners arrested, accused of spreading falsehoods and tried for treason also increased. Allius at one point concluded that they retreated into hiding, and then died out in obscurity some time later.
I scribbled down what I could of Allius' perspective, and handed the book back to Terra.
"You need to put this back exactly where you found it," I warned her. "I don't want either of us to get into trouble for breaking the rules!"
Terra nodded and eased over to the shelf as I put away my pencil, packed up the notebook, and left the book exactly as the Archivist directed. High over our heads, the great bell tolled the end of one class period and the impending start of the next.
Something in the sound gave me pause. I felt as if we'd been in the library for three days, not just half a class period.
On our way out, I asked the Archivist, "How many times has the bell rang since we entered?"
He sniffed and stepped out from his desk. "The bell? It's rung twice since you walked in."
Twice! I grabbed Terra's hand and groaned. "I've missed Sewing," I muttered. "Mistress Needle is going to expect me to make it up tomorrow. Why didn't you tell me the first time the bell rang?"
Terra wagged her head. "You were out of it, I suppose--I thought we both heard it, and the reason you didn't respond is that you had permission to skip as many class periods as you needed for this project. How was I supposed to know you were up to your eyeballs in some invisible environment?"
"But you could have left me!" We emerged in the hallway at about the same time as other ranks of students swapping classrooms. "Just because I had permission didn't mean you could also stay behind!"
Terra tossed her lively red curls. "It's only Dance--I'm Level 9 competent in that subject already. But let's get back to you." She fixed her gaze on me and pressed her lips. "Are you going to be all right? Two memory-flashes in one day--"
"Hush!" I gripped her arm and gave it a little shake to stop her as eyes slid and heads turned ever so slightly in our direction.
Terra didn't take the hint. "Well, I mean, really--aren't you the least little bit curious as to why it happens all of a sudden, and today has seemed worse than ever--you don't think people have already noticed and are starting to wonder?"
"Not if I can help it!" I retorted, falling in line for Level 9 Etiquette. "Go on to Music, Terra. We'll talk about this later."
Sitting in my straight-backed chair, listening as Madame Collette explained the proper use of one's fan for communicating careful signals, I thought about Terra's parting words.
Why was I singularly plagued with these rampant memories that hardly seemed to have anything to do with me? What did it mean when one historical account reflected everything I'd been taught, and another one triggered bizarre visions and communicated just the opposite?
I blandly went through the motions of the lesson, copying Madam Collette exactly, and the final bell rang to release me. I shuffled along with the crowd flowing toward the front doors of the Academy, my thoughts spinning as I thought of my house, my family, and the long, confusing essay I would need to write before tomorrow.
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