.........the Grove of Green Immortals. At this mountain-monastery resides a group of renegade Taoists specialising in horticulture and medicine; amongst other practitioners of the Invisible Arts, patronised by the mysterious Hour known as the Applebright. A god-from-Nowhere, presiding over matters of youth, healing and mutation.
Enter the lush, Suzhou-style garden, and climb the stairs carved out of stone - much more forgiving, as someone who once was carried on the Ascent of Knives by maids-in-the-mirrors, one would find the residents of the Grove. One of them, who taught me a great deal in my youth, whenever that was, goes by "Three Faces, Nine Colours". It sings a song, the Applebright Euphonies, and the song is such:
"Breath is the temptation of the soul. Pleasures and insights that the Church would call 'the Secrets', the Sisterhood 'the Mysteries', and the Bureau 'unsanctioned.' Certain knowledge cannot be learnt by any entity below the rank of Know - outside the covenant of the Watchman's Tree. The enforcement of this rule is Calyptra. The three who enforce it are Calyptra also. It is said that Janus elects Calyptra, that the Chancel is the judgement of Janus, that Janus is the wound in the Law..."
It continues. It does not end. It never ends.
I woke up with Father Schaller calling my name. Years ago, it was he who brought me back from my home, to this conclave in the new world. He set off for the Grove of Green Immortals with a 'restless waxwork' - after finding what he needed at Hush House, to keep the thing contained on the journey. Schaller's relations with the Grove are cautious - it's a Library of the Tree, but under the hand of the Hour named Applebright. In time, however, Schaller comes to be more sympathetic to the Applebright, which he suggests 'causes harm only when so invited. He found friendship with Black Elie, who much later became Damascene Matriarch of the Sisterhood of the Knot, whom at the time was a love of Three Face, and was charged with my ward, and to take me westbound. This act, as he recites, was not from sentiment, but rather grandly, to ensure the continuity of the Histories.
Enter the lush, Suzhou-style garden, and climb the stairs carved out of stone - much more forgiving, as someone who once was carried on the Ascent of Knives by maids-in-the-mirrors, one would find the residents of the Grove. One of them, who taught me a great deal in my youth, whenever that was, goes by "Three Faces, Nine Colours". It sings a song, the Applebright Euphonies, and the song is such:
"Breath is the temptation of the soul. Pleasures and insights that the Church would call 'the Secrets', the Sisterhood 'the Mysteries', and the Bureau 'unsanctioned.' Certain knowledge cannot be learnt by any entity below the rank of Know - outside the covenant of the Watchman's Tree. The enforcement of this rule is Calyptra. The three who enforce it are Calyptra also. It is said that Janus elects Calyptra, that the Chancel is the judgement of Janus, that Janus is the wound in the Law..."
It continues. It does not end. It never ends.
I woke up with Father Schaller calling my name. Years ago, it was he who brought me back from my home, to this conclave in the new world. He set off for the Grove of Green Immortals with a 'restless waxwork' - after finding what he needed at Hush House, to keep the thing contained on the journey. Schaller's relations with the Grove are cautious - it's a Library of the Tree, but under the hand of the Hour named Applebright. In time, however, Schaller comes to be more sympathetic to the Applebright, which he suggests 'causes harm only when so invited. He found friendship with Black Elie, who much later became Damascene Matriarch of the Sisterhood of the Knot, whom at the time was a love of Three Face, and was charged with my ward, and to take me westbound. This act, as he recites, was not from sentiment, but rather grandly, to ensure the continuity of the Histories.