Eight Arms and the Mask

  I feel, as I present this work by my beloved Kivrin Aiun, the first "guest post" on here, as it were, that I have just completed a long swim through a peaceful ocean, and come up on the shore to shout, "Come on in, the water's great!" at whoever happens to be present. Please enjoy, Superharmony Kivrin Aiun This is a promotional selection from the Entekosiaddi , available in retailers across Nova Pelanda, including Sakkarbooks, Books-An-Eighty (and its sister store Books-A-Hundred), and Kinokuniya. === Purity wasn't at ease. Her supermodel hip-sway had an edge to it, and there was disdain in the tall Priestess of Dendara's eyes. "I can't believe you're still mad, sis," sighed Addisyn, Priestess of Entekos. "Like I said, you can't expect a Geo's everything bagel to literally have everything. At least now how you'd define it." A subdued smile played on Purity's lips. "That's not it, sweet...

 "Obsidian, or flint?" It's a question that used to preoccupy me, when I was a young lady. If I was called upon to perform the most delicate of operations, to open up the tiniest incisions, to dance along the line between healing and hurting- what would I use? You couldn't do it with bronze. Not for something that fine. The scalpel would bend too easily. Iron's more stiff. But even a scalpel of iron was not a tool for ordinary use. So it was quite simple. Stone. A well-knapped sliver of a knife, coming to a sharp little point, and with that you could cut away cataracts or lance a pus-filled blister. But I am older now. My hands have done this many times. It is no longer important for me to do this with a beautiful edge.  "Chert," I tell the girl, and I take a prim drink. "Chert's the best for it. Hard and sharp and durable. Only had to get mine reknapped every four, five years." She's nodding, and the boy beside her is nodding along. Th...

  The following is reproduced, in accordance with the benevolent wishes of Great Sister and the Red Emperor, wearing his mask of Celestinus, solely for the purposes of buseric, khoric, and ontoric discussion and consultation. It is not approved for ritual, ceremonial, or T&J usage, and I affirm no responsibility to the one who uses it for such! It was the custom, in the days of Carmanian rule, for the people of Raibanth to graciously emphasize the festivals of those gods that were shared between Carmanians and Dara Happans, and by this act of condescension and kindness even the most bullish of Carmanians could be mollified. This we Lodrilli, as we are known, have in turn understood from time immemorial. The trick is a simple one, which I will not go into here. But for this reason, in those days the twin priestesses of Entekos and Dendara were exceedingly important in the city, and it was indeed twin priestesses, as a single priestess for both would have caused Carmanian eyebro...