The Place
The Sanctum is a floating sanctum above the clouds, and the sanctum is 2 km wide and 500 m above the ground, and the sanctum holds and keeps. The base of the sanctum is a ring of white stone, and the white stone is the sanctum's only ground, and the ground is where the power is kept. The white of the stone is the sanctum's only light, and the light is what the Demi-Gods keep in the sky. The clouds below the sanctum are grey where the wind has kept them, and the grey is the sanctum's way of keeping the distance. The air around the sanctum is thick with the thunder, and the thunder is the sanctum's only voice, and the voice is what the sky keeps in the stone.
The halls of the sanctum are cut in the white stone, and the stone is white where the power has kept it, and the keeping is the sanctum's way of holding the sky. The largest hall, the Oath Hall, runs 200 m end to end, and the gold of the power glows in the walls where it is kept, and the gold is the sanctum's only fire, and the fire is what the oaths keep in the dark. The sanctum does not echo, because the stone takes the sound in and holds it, so the halls sound like a place that is holding its power. The entrance to the sanctum is a single gate of white stone, and the gate is kept by the oldest Demi-God, and the keeping is the sanctum's only welcome. In the deep of the sky, where the clouds are thickest, the grey turns blue, and the blue is the sanctum's way of saying the distance is kept. This is the place where the power is the only honest thing, and the power is the sanctum's only harvest.
How They Live
The Demi-Gods keep the sanctum in the sky, and the sky is the sanctum's only house and the halls are the sanctum's only room. The halls are cut by the power, which is the Demi-Gods' only tool, and the power cuts the white stone as easily as air, and the cutting is the sanctum's only building. The Demi-Gods do not eat, but they remember every oath they have sworn to the mortal world, and that memory is their sustenance, and the remembering is the sanctum's way of keeping the year. Water is drawn from the clouds below, and the clouds give their water to the sanctum in the slow rain of the sky, and the raining is the sanctum's way of keeping the day. Light comes from the power, which glows gold in the walls of the Oath Hall, and the gold is the sanctum's only lamp.
The defense is the sanctum, and a being that rises into the clouds is already inside the word, and the word is the alarm, the welcome, and the sentence. The day is measured by the thunder, and the thunder is also the calendar, because the sky is the only clock the oath needs. The rite of the sanctum is the oath: when a Demi-God swears in the Oath Hall, the stone keeps his name, and the name is the first oath he will ever pay, and the paying is the sanctum's only word.
People
Home of the Demi-God, whose sanctums are counted by thunder, and the Demi-Gods of the sanctum number in the dozens of heads that keep the sky. The oldest Demi-God holds the single gate, and rank in the sanctum is decided by how many oaths one has kept, and the keeping is the sanctum's only rank. No mortal is welcome in the sanctum, because the mortals are the oath, and the oath is kept in the stone, and the keeping is the sanctum's way of turning the mortals off. A mortal who has risen to the gate once calls it the honest sky, and he says the sanctum there keeps the power and the power keeps the oath, and he says the white of the stone there is the only ground that keeps its word.
In Stories
The place where the oath is the only honest thing, and the thing is the thunder, and the thunder is the word, and the word is the end. Uaellaen rose to the gate once, in the dark year, and the stone did not keep his name. He did not stop, and the sanctum did not ask him back.