Chapter Text
Traveler’s notes: Devotees
The Devotees were the simplest people of the Tower in some ways- as much as such a thing as a “simple” people has ever existed. That which they venerated was, straightforwardly, God. The church was the place of God, and as Devotees they were the people of God- more or less. Their glyph for “Devotee” was composed of the elements for “man” and “God”. In the spoken tongue, the etymology was less cleanly delineated, as is often the case.
The thing the Devotees called God was not the same on all levels. It’s something like old news anymore, but the moment of realization that day was… transcendent. I believe there is something to the Alchemists’ beliefs, that there’s a spark of something divine in moments like that, in that kind of change. There’s something to all of them.
I came to believe that the Devotees came to the Tower some years after the first doors were closed. They still had some contact with the Warriors, and the homing pigeons meant for the Abbey still had a place marked for them in the Gardens, but by the time the Devotees arrived the Warriors had already shut their doors and refused them passage higher in the Tower. The Abbey grew up around those doors, and there they tried with persistence only the faithful can have to gain entry to the Fortress in search of God who was on high.
The Warriors called them Impure- the same word they used for more monstrous creatures. After the Days of Change, it fell out of use. I’m still not certain how many outside the Warriors’ numbers realized that they equated the Devotees to monsters; it became considered impolite very quickly in the Fortress to keep using “Impure”. At least, it was rude to say it to their faces. This is the sort of thing that’s always slower to change in private.
A note from a Devotee child to a younger one, undated:
I found a new way into the inner abbey! You know the corner under the window where the cats sit all summer? Move the pots. There's a hole in the wall there. Everyone but maybe Tal will be able to fit through. You'll still have to sneak across the yard there, but there's only ever one watcher and they still always fall for the bell trick.
-Sín
PS: make sure you move the pots back or they’ll fix the hole again
From the journal of a Devotee groundskeeper, Days of Change:
Nox says the plants are still dying. People have been saying that God is angry with us- like those old reliefs outside the abbey proper. That seemed stupid three weeks ago but… The plants aren’t getting better. It’s one thing if it’s just the decoration plants in that section, but if it’s everywhere? If it spreads to the food plants? What will we do then? The Warriors haven’t opened the doors in all the time we’ve been here. Why would they change that now?
We can’t be the only ones in the Tower with problems, either. I could hear the bells from the Fortress earlier- the big, brassy ones they always ring at night and in the morning. This wasn’t like any of their normal songs, and it was the middle of the afternoon. Even the guards at the door looked nervous. Maybe we really have offended God. No one has found the Preacher yet, either.
I wonder where that stranger went. He wandered off towards the gardens and I haven’t seen him again. Never met someone with such ungodly terrible luck at cards.
A note scratched into the stone of the uppermost level of the tower by a Devotee child, undated:
Sín and Traveler watched the sunset here :) it’s really pretty! you can see forever
From the journal of a Devotee groundskeeper, Days of Change:
Soren says they weren’t supposed to sing up in the Gardens- not his people, anyway. I still don’t really get what makes them “stupid” as opposed to “bards”, but he says they were always insulted- at best- when they sang where the “bards” could hear. It’s taken me months, but I did finally convince him he could sing here if he wanted, and he still only agreed if I could find him somewhere he would have no audience.
It’s a shame. He has a beautiful voice.
Now, I’m not a musician of any sort- never have been, never will be- but he keeps insisting that he’s only going to sing again if I join him. He’ll teach me the words of this song he’d been working on that’s secret even from his friends, but I have to try, too. He said it’s something about… I don’t know, honestly, because he started talking way too fast for me to follow. I still barely speak his language. Something about freedom.
There was another thing. I don’t know how to describe the look on his face when I called him a Musician. It’s what they call themselves up in the Gardens, isn’t it? It was… surprised? I don’t know if it was in a good way or not. I think some of his other friends who came down to the Abbey are calling themselves the Free. Maybe he’d like that better. I’ll ask next time he comes around for a game.
(T.N.: the words translated in “quotes” were written as isolated words in the Bards’ script and language while the larger text is written in the Devotees’ script and language)
A map drawn and annotated by a Devotee child, undated:
Here's this week’s map! Talia and I got all the way to the Fortress this time- we found a room full of old, dusty carvings like the ones outside the abbey, but we can't read them. Is the Traveler back yet?
This hall goes way down into the Tower before it comes back up. So many stairs. We spent an hour going up the stairs. I’m never going this way again. It goes to the Fortress, though.
This hall we think goes towards the center, but a bunch of rocks fell in awhile ago. I could get through, but Talia wouldn’t let me go on my own.
This hall is just a shortcut between the gardens and the cemetery.
This hall actually heads out. I think it might even go outside the Tower.
We’re going to look over here next week. There’s a bunch more carvings and something Talia said looked a lot like his language but wasn’t quite right.
From the journal of a Devotee groundskeeper, dated summer of the Year of Change:
We went down to the gardens today- our gardens here, not the Gardens where he wasn’t free. All the flowers are blooming now and it smells like heaven at twilight. We played cards, and he sang for me, and yes, I tried to play along. (Drums are manageable, for the record)
I don’t think he understood what it meant to take me to the orchids and sing, but it’s still sweet. He’s sweet like that. Aria told me a bit about the romances that are popular up in the Gardens the other day. Maybe I will work on that song some.
God help me, you’re going to make me a poet and a musician both, aren’t you, Soren?
From the journal of a young adult from the Abbey who was a child during the Year of Change, 6 PYC:
I went back to the top of the Tower today- under six hours without using the terminals, by the way- and watched the sunset. The little carving I made the first time I went up is still there. It’s been years, and I still haven’t heard from the Traveler. He’s still… asleep? hibernating? I’m not sure what it is he does there. I wonder if I should wake him up. I don’t think anyone else knows where he is, except maybe Bellus. He asked me to keep it out of the maps a long time ago.
You can still see forever from up there. I can’t really make sense of all their talk of constellations and everything, but they’re very pretty. I get why the Bards care so much for pretty things.
The Warriors say some of the stars make a boat. I can’t see it, but I can see the river down below. We’ve found most of the Tower’s secrets, I think. I want to know what’s out there . All of us came from somewhere- we all have stories about it, even the Anchorites, if they go back far enough.
The river is still there. The Warriors’ boat is still here. I love the Tower, but… I can’t help but wonder about the world. Tal thinks I’m crazy, but what does he know? He ran off to the Fortress to make swords forever. Even when the doors were first opened he barely cared about what was out there. He just talks about the stories of people who left and didn’t come back, which is stupid but… I don’t know that even the Bards have stories of people who came back.
Maybe… maybe someday. Once I understand how to get back. Then I’ll go.