Act V — First Fire

Page 38 — The Map Begins

The mappers of the guild put the first marks on the first map, and the first map was the back of a sheet of hide, stretched flat on the stone by the hearth.

The hide was Smackage's — the first hide the new world had given us. We stretched it on the stone by the hearth, and the stone the coast had broken off was flat, and the stone was by the hearth, and the stone had kept the hide since the first day. We pegged the corners of the hide with the four stakes we carried, and the stakes held the hide flat, and the hide held the stone's flat, and the flat was the first of the map. The front of the hide was for us, and the front had the hide on it, and the hide had the world on it. The back of the hide was for the guild, and the back was the first of the guild's keeping, and the back had been empty since the first day, and the back had waited for the marks. The hide was cold when we stretched it, and the hide was warm by the hearth, and the cold and the warm were the two parts of the first day of the map, and the two parts had not once gone apart since.

Wreckreate made the marks, because the reading is what has to be kept in a record. He came to the hide with the reading in his hands, and he set the reading down on the stone, and he took the charcoal from Smackage's hand, and he sat at the edge of the hide, and he did not begin at once. He said: Three marks. The coast, the lake, the fire. He said it plain, and once, and with the reading still in the hands.

Three marks.

The first mark: the coast. The broken coast, and the scar in it, and the scar's color, which he gave in words, because the words were the only part of it that was true. The broken mark was the coast; the scar was the crossing, and the crossing was the white's doing; and the color the world did not give back was the color of the scar, and the color had a name Wreckreate gave it in the mark. He drew the broken mark with the hand, and without the lifting, and the charcoal did not once leave the hide, and the coast went into the hide the way the coast went into the world.

The second mark: Hollowmere. The lake, and the flat silver light, and the lid under it. He drew the lid as a mark that does not end, because the lid does not end, and the sleep's part in the lake was the mark that did not end. The flat silver light was the water's part in the lake, and the silver was the light the water kept when the dark was over it. The distance was marked — the distance we keep, and the distance the guild keeps in the map. Wreckreate drew the lake a little to the east of the coast, and he gave the east in the mark, in the mark itself, not in a word, and the east was the water's part in the lake, and the east had not once moved since.

The third mark: the fire. The fire in the center. Wreckreate drew the fire as a point, and the point had no color, and the fire's part in the mark was the point that had no color, because the fire is not a color, and the fire is what gives the color. The fire is the guild's, and the guild keeps the fire in the mark, and the mark keeps the fire in the guild, and the two have not once gone apart since.

The three marks were all the first map had. The map had three marks, and a back-of, and a keeping. The map did not have the world, and the map's part in the world was the having of only three marks. The map is not the world: the map is what the guild makes of the world, and the guild makes the map for the guild, and the guild does not make the map for the world.

Wreckreate kept the map closed, under the stone, away from the weather. He folded the hide at the edge, and the fold was the wizard's part in the keeping, and the fold held the marks from the weather, and the stone held the fold, and the hearth held the stone.

The old world's guilds kept their maps in the halls, for the world to see, and for the world to take. The guild's map is on the back of the hide, by the hearth. The map is what the guild does not give the world, and the hearth is the place the world does not take.

I said it at the fire. The map is the guild's. The guild's is not the world's to take. We will make more maps — the coast as it goes, the lake as it reads, and the fire as it keeps. The maps will be the guild's part in the world. Wreckreate nodded, and the nod was the wizard's part in the keeping, and the keeping went into the fire.

The first map was the back of a sheet of hide, stretched flat on the stone by the hearth. The hide was stretched, and the stone was by the hearth, and the three marks were on the back of the hide. The fire burned in the center, and the lake was to the east, and the coast was the broken mark. And the map, with its three marks, was the first map the guild had made, and the guild's part in the world was the keeping of the map from the world.