runsforcelery wrote:
[Snip]
Despite himself, Merlin blinked at her chosen comparison. Seijin Kohdy was deeply embedded in Safeholdian folklore, but unlike the double handful of “attested” seijins recorded in The Testimonies left by the Adams and Eves who’d survived Shan-Wei’s Rebellion and the War Against the Fallen, there was no historical record of him at all. Not only that, but while the seijins of The Testimonies were all sober, focused, intensely disciplined warriors for God, Archangels, and Church, Seijin Kohdy swirled through the tales about him like some sort of traveling conjurer or laughing vagabond. Or an Odysseus, perhaps. His times had been anything but humorous, yet the vast majority of those tales related as much to his craftiness, his ability to gain his objectives by guile and subterfuge as much as by the deadliness of Helm Cleaver, his magic sword . . . and to his humor, his weakness for attractive women, and his fondness for a glass of good whisky. Indeed, “Seijin Khody’s Premium Blend,” one of the most popular Chisholmian blended whiskies, was named for him, and its label featured not simply the magical sword which was inextricably bound up with his name but also an artist’s impression of Khody himself . . . with not one but two scantily clad barmaids sitting on his lap.
The stories about him were full of laughter and warmth, stories about someone who was very, very different from the officially recorded seijins, and Merlin had come to the conclusion that he was, in fact, a fictional creation. A construct, fashioned by later generations from the legend of the “real” seijins and seasoned with more than a dash of the trickster DNA so many of Old Earth’s mythologies had treasured.
It would appear, however, that Aivah was entirely serious, and that behooved him to move cautiously.
“Interesting you should bring up Seijin Kohdy,” he said after a moment. “Especially since I don’t recall him being mentioned in the official list of seijins who served the Church and the Archangels.”
“No, he isn’t,” she agreed, and her expression was suddenly much grimmer, her tone darker. “All of those ‘official’ seijins are saints of Mother Church, and he’s not listed there, either . . . now.”
“Now?” Merlin’s deep voice was gentler than it had been.
“Now,” she repeated. She uncrossed her legs, sitting up straighter, and her nostrils flared as she inhaled deeply. Then she looked directly into his eyes.
“Who are you really, Merlin?” she asked. “Where do you truly come from? And don’t just tell me ‘the Mountains of Light.’”
“Where else might I come from, Aivah?” he asked in return, holding out his arms in a gesture which took in not simply the bedchamber, nor even the Republic’s capital, but the entire world beyond them.
“I don’t know,” she told him very quietly, her eyes deep and dark in the fire-spangled bedchamber’s dimness, “but I’ve come to suspect that wherever you truly come from is also where all of the Adams and Eves who awoke here on Safehold on the Day of Creation truly came from, as well.”
One hopes the next Snippet will answer some of our speculations. One wonders if the Nunnery she was shipped off to was founded by another arrow in Shen Wei's quiver with some knowledge of the time prior to creation, perhaps founded by
Seijin Kohdy himself
Will she tell of the papers of
Seijin Kohdy? Tantalizing speculation.
Poker
and, Mangy Fur the Smart Alick Spacecat.