Act V — First Fire

Page 36 — The Founding of The Forgotten, the First Fire

The name was not a vote; Wreckreate said it on the fourteenth morning.

The fourteenth morning came the way the mornings had come since the first day on the broken coast — with the light, and the water, and the cold, and the fire still in the center. We had kept the five keepings since the tenth day, and the keeping had not gone dark, and the fire had not gone cold, and the distance had not closed, and the kept place had stayed empty, and the staying had not moved. The world had not asked us about the five, and we had kept them without asking the world. The morning was the morning, and the fire was the fire, and the five of us were at it, and the keeping had not once asked for more than we gave.

Wreckreate spoke first. He had read the water that morning, and the water had said what the water says — the east, and the sleep, and the watch that did not come back — and he came to the fire with the reading in his hands. He did not raise his voice. He said: We should have a name.

He said it the way the wizard says a thing when the thing is owed — plain, and once, and with the reading still in the hands. We did not answer, because the fire kept the answer, and the fire was not ready. The five of us sat at the fire, and the fire sat in the center, and the keeping held, and none of us said the name, because the name was not ready, and the name had not yet been given by the fire.

Then Wreckreate said the name. He said it the way he said it — plain, and once, and with the reading still in the hands. He said: The Forgotten.

The guild took it as the fire takes wood. The fire did not ask where the name came from, and the fire did not ask who had kept it. The name went into the fire, and the fire kept the name, and the name kept the fire, and the two had not once gone apart since.

The name was right, and the name was owed. We were the forgotten — the one who had been lost, and the five who had kept him, and the world that had not kept either. The name did not cost us; the name kept us. The world had forgotten us, and the name kept the forgetting in the fire, and the fire did not sell the keeping. Rumzuck nodded once, and low, the ogre's nod at a thing that is right. Smackage put his palm on the ground, and the ground kept the name, and the ground kept the ground. Zahlia did not speak, and the Veil kept the name in the air, and the air did not sell it.

The guild was the guild of the five keepings — the distance, the sending, the fire, the kept place, and the staying. The guild did not keep the world; the guild kept the five, and the five kept the guild. The world kept the world, and the guild kept the five, and the two keepings had not once asked the other for the keeping.

The banner of the guild was the fire. "The fire is the banner of the guild," I said, at the fire, with the five of us around it. "The fire is the banner of the world, and the banner is the fire, and the two are the same fire. The banner does not cost; the banner keeps." I said it plain, and once, and the fire did not sell it.

The three laws went into the fire that morning, and the fire kept them.

The first law was the fire. The fire was the banner, and the fire was the kept, and the fire was the giving, and no one put out the fire of the guild, and no one took the fire from the guild, and the fire did not once go cold.

The second law was the kept place. The kept place was by the hearth, and the kept place was for the one who is not here, and the kept place was kept, and no one sat in the kept place, and no one broke the kept place, and the keeping had not once gone dark.

The third law was the leaving. No one left the fire unannounced, and the leaving was spoken before it was taken, and the leaving was what the guild did not keep in secret, and the world did not ask the guild about the leaving.

The guild's part in the world was the guild's part in the five. The guild kept the five, and the five kept the guild, and the world kept the world, and the three keepings had not once asked the other for the keeping.

That was the founding of The Forgotten, on the fourteenth morning, with the fire in the center and the kept place by the hearth and the distance around the lake. The name was The Forgotten, and the banner was the fire, and the laws were three, and the five keepings were the whole of the fourteenth morning.