Eltarki's Diary - Music of the Mind  

 

I have been forced to write this out of memory. It seems that the written word is not well loved in the realm called Windsong. Their belief is in all things produced by the voice. I must consider myself lucky to have a pleasant enough speaking voice or I would never have received the warm welcome I did.

It is another stunning place, though very different than that of the worshippers of Alra. The beauty here is ethereal, ghostly. Clouds and stone in stark contrast, but so perfectly conjoined. Certainly this place is the most wonderful place on Alaris.

The people here are very intriguing. They speak freely with me about their lives, their music and their stories. There is little else to them. They are so full of sound and history, but in some way so very empty. I don't think any of them have even considered leaving this island in the sky, yet they tell stories of places even I have never seen.

They tell me that Ryken, God of Oratory, can be heard in all things. All voices are Ryken. I have heard the stones in this place hum and sing. I have heard them speak words and fragments of sentences, as if I was listening to fleeting fragments of conversations, or perhaps the shattered thoughts of a lunatic.

The worshippers of Ryken firmly believe that they have the strength to bring back their god with the power of their voices. They constantly sing, chant, pray and shout, believing that every word brings them closer to their god. And they certainly believe themselves close to godliness. They tell me, in no uncertain terms, that they are superior to all others. When they say these things, it is easy to believe them, for that is their power.

They claim many things in the name of Ryken. They say that, though Oseka physically created the Sentry Stones and the Blind Dreamers, that it was Ryken that conceived them. They say that it was Ryken that brought the Triumverate together and that until alir death, Ryken controlled them. Ryken also, if they are to be believed, captured one of the the new gods of this world in some sort of complicated trap, using Alra to do the work and others of the new gods to bait the trap.

Now that I am free of direct contact with their voices, I can doubt what they say, should I choose to do so. Even so, I find it difficult not to accept most of that as truth.