Act V — First Fire

Page 37 — Who's Seventh?

By the fire there are six seats, and one of them is kept for the one who is not here.

I will tell you the keeping, because the keeping is the record. The seat is by the hearth, set a little back from the light — I want the record to be exact about the back-from-the-light, because the exact is the whole of the page: the found will come into the light, and the light is the one the guild owes, and a seat that is in the light is a seat the world can see, and a seat the world can see is a seat the world can fill with its own, and the not-filling is the one the guild does not give the world. A seat back from the light is a seat the world cannot see, and the not-seeing is the one the guild owed the seat, and the seat owes the not-seeing to the one who is not here. I have sat in a hundred halls in the old world, and the hundred was the archmage's part in the old world; I have never kept a seat for a person the world had not seen, and the never was the one the old world did not owe the hall. The kept seat is the first seat the new world has kept for the camp, and the first is the one the camp owed the kept place.

Who the seat is for, is the question the guild will not answer, and the not-answering is the one the guild owes the question.

I have said the name of the one who is not here — Uuaellaen — and the name is the one I have kept since the third morning. But the keeping of the seat is not only for him. I want that plain, because the plain is the whole of the page: the seat is not a grave, and a grave is a keeping the world does let go of, and the not-letting-go is the one the guild was built on. It is for The Seventh, the one the guild was built to find, whether that one is the one who fell through the Veil or the one the world is keeping for us, and the either-or is the one the story keeps open.

I will not tell you which.

I want the record to be careful about that, because the not-telling is the whole of the guild. The guild is built on the finding, and a guild that has told you which has finished the finding, and a finished finding is a finding the world does not owe, and the not-owing is the one the guild does not give the world. The guild is built on the keeping, and a guild that has told you which has finished the keeping, and a finished keeping is a keeping the world does not let go of, and the not-letting-go was the one the guild was built on. The guild is built on the fire, and the fire burns for the found, and the found is the one the fire does not name, and the not-naming is the one the fire owes the guild. I have kept the either-or since the first night on the broken coast, and the keeping was the archmage's part in the camp: the either-or is the thing the guild cannot spend, and the not-spending is the one the guild owed the either-or. A guild that has spent its either-or is a guild that has finished, and the finished is the one the guild does not owe the world.

There are two readings of the seat, and I will keep both in the record, because the record is owed both.

The first reading is the one the camp has kept since the third morning: the seat is for the one who fell through the Veil. I will keep the falling in the record, because the record is owed the falling: the white took six, and the white gave back five, and the five is the one the white owed the camp, and the six is the one the camp owed the white. The camp kept the six the way the camp keeps everything it is owed — in the count, and the count was the one the camp owed the white; in the kept place, and the kept place was the one the camp owed the six; in the fire, and the fire was the one the camp owed the kept place. The falling is the one the Veil did, and the doing was the Veil's part in the camp; the not-falling is the one the camp kept for the found, and the not-falling was the camp's part in the Veil. The first reading is the one the camp owes the record, and the record owes the first reading to the camp.

The second reading is the one the guild keeps since the fortieth day: the seat is for the one the world is keeping for us.

I will keep the second reading in the record, because the record is owed the second reading, and I will keep it the way the guild keeps the thing it is built on — without telling which. The second reading is the one the guild owes the finding: the guild is built to find, and the finding is the one the guild owes the world, and the world owes the finding the keeping, and the keeping is the one the guild does not give the world. The found may be the one who fell, and the falling was the one the Veil did; the found may be the one the world is keeping, and the keeping was the one the world owed the guild; and the found may be the one the guild is not looking for, and the not-looking-for was the one the guild owes the found, and the found owes the not-looking-for to the guild. The second reading is the one the guild does not finish, and the not-finishing is the whole of the second reading's part in the guild.

The guild has a law about the seat, and the law is the one the guild does not write on the rock.

The law is: the seat is kept until the found sits in it. I will keep the law in the record, because the record is owed the law: the law does not say who the found is, and the not-saying was the one the law owed the guild; the law does not say when the found will come, and the not-saying was the one the law owed the waiting; the law does not say what the found will say when the found sits in the seat, and the not-saying was the one the law owed the found. The law says only the sitting, and the sitting is the one the found owes the seat, and the seat owes the sitting to the guild, and the guild owes the sitting to the fire, and the fire owes the sitting to the world, and the world owes the sitting to the found. The five owings are the whole of the law, and the law is the one the guild does not write on the rock, because the rock is the thing the world can weather, and the weathering is the one the world owed the rock.

I have been asked the question, by the camp, more times than I will put in the record.

I will keep the asking in the plain voice, because the record is owed the plain: the asking is the one the camp owes the question, and the question owes the asking to the guild. Rumzuck asks it the way the ogre asks things — with his hands folded over the grip, and the folded is the ogre's part in the asking. He asks it once, and the once is the whole of the ogre's part in the question. Smackage asks it with his palm flat on the sand, and the flat is the ground's part in the asking; the ground has the answer the way the ground has everything on this world — without saying it, and the not-saying is the one the ground owes the asking. Wreckreate asks it at the water's edge, and the at-the-water's-edge is the water-reader's part in the asking; the water has the answer the way the water has everything — in the flat, and the flat is the one the water owes the asking. Zahlia asks it the way Zahlia asks everything — with her hands a little raised, the air around them going thin, and the thin is the one that is not belief; the Veil has the answer the way the Veil has everything — without putting it in the camp, and the not-putting is the one the Veil owes the asking. And I, the archmage, am asked the question the way the archmage is asked things — by the camp, and the by-the-camp is the one the camp owed the archmage, and the archmage owed the camp the not-answering, and the not-answering is the one I have kept since the first night on the broken coast.

I will not tell you which.

I will say it once more, in the plain voice, because the record is owed the plain: the seat is for the one who is not here, and the not-here is the one the camp owed the seat. The seat is by the hearth, back from the light, and the back-from-the-light is the one the guild owed the seat. The seat is kept, and the keeping is the one the guild has kept since the fortieth day. The found will come into the light, and the light is the one the guild owes the found. The found will sit in the seat, and the sitting is the one the found owes the guild. And when the found sits in the seat, the guild will say the thing the guild has kept since the first night on the broken coast, and the thing is the one the guild owes the found: the seat was yours, and the seat is yours, and the seat is the one the guild does not give the world. The saying is the one the guild keeps for the found, and the keeping is the whole of the page, and the page is the one the story has kept since the first page of it.