The Place
The Shatter Sounds is a shore of black rock and kept air, and the shore runs 12 km along the waterline, and the cliffs rise 60 m out of the sea, and the rock keeps the voice and the oath. The rock is black where the sea has not touched it, and the black is the shore's way of saying the oath is kept. The sea breaks against the base of the cliffs, and the break is white where it is fresh, and the white is the shore's only foam. The kept air hangs above the shore, and the kept air is grey where it is thin, and the grey is the shore's only breath. The Oath Stones stand in a line along the top of the shore, and there are nine of them, and each one is 2 m tall and the width of a man's arm, and the stones are the shore's only count. The Voice Shore is the flat of rock where the Sirens keep their voice, and the Voice Shore runs 400 m along the cliff face, and the flat is the shore's only floor. This is the place where the voice is the only honest thing, and the keeping is the shore's only harvest.
How They Live
The Sirens keep the shore in the rock, and the shore is not a house but a voice, and the voice is kept in the air. The sirens do not build, because the rock was cut before the current oath, and the oath only keeps it, and the keeping is the oath's only work. The rock was cut by the first voice, and the cutting is the shore's only building, and the building is what the rock keeps. Light comes from the kept air, which glows faintly in the dark, and the glow is the only light the shore has, and the glow is the shore's way of keeping the night. Food is the shore itself: the small game of the shore, the voice that is sung, the word that is kept, and the oath that keeps the life honest. The singing of the voice is the shore's only eating, and the eating is the shore's way of keeping the hunger. Water is drawn from the springs of the cliff face, and the water runs down in channels cut 20 cm deep in the rock, and the running is the shore's only trade. In the warm months the kept air runs full, and the running is the shore's way of keeping the year. In the cold months the kept air runs thin, and the running-thin is the shore's way of keeping the oath. The day is measured by the voice, which is also the calendar, because the shore is the only clock the oath needs.
People
Home of the Sirens, whose shore is counted by voice. There are three voices in the shore, and the three are the shore's only population, and the population is kept in the air. Each voice keeps a line of its own Oath Stones, and the line is the voice's only house, and the house is what the rock keeps. The oldest voice keeps the Voice Shore, and the keeping is the voice's only rank, and the rank is what the shore keeps. No living thing is welcome on the rock, and the not-being-welcome is the shore's only law, and the law is what the stone keeps. A trader who stands on the Voice Shore is already in the voice's path, and the path is the shore's only welcome, and the welcome is what the shore keeps. A human trader calls it the Shatter Sounds, because the sound of the sea against the rock sounds like a thing breaking, and the breaking is the trader's only word.
In Stories
The place where the voice is the only honest thing, and the thing is the word, and the word is the oath, and the oath is the end. The Sirens keep the very long, very quiet, and very patient oaths of the shore, and the keeping is the shore's only word, and the word is what the air keeps. The voice of the shore is the voice of the sea, and the sea is the only singer that never stops, and the stopping is what the shore keeps.