59 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
59 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
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<title>Zk | seeing</title>
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<h1>Zk | seeing</h1>
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<article class="content">
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<p>It is the last night of the week of fasting and it is the thirtieth year that Lyut has served Ýng and myself that I have decided to change him and to change the world, for I am the god of the water and the god of watching and I am also a trickster god. My trouble will come back on me thirtyfold, I am sure, but Lyut is the thirtieth ascetic who has served me and I am ready.</p>
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<p>Lyut has once more gone to sleep hungry, belly filled with prayer and sorrow and boiled water. I come to him then. I come to him and I touch the back of his neck, then the crown of his head, then the lids of his eyes, and then I sit in the clearing and wait for him to waken.</p>
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<p>When the pekania stirs at the slow warming of day, his eyes drift open as usual to the slit that is his habit, and then he shouts.</p>
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<p>He shouts because I am a trickster god and after thirty times thirty years of blind ascetics serving Ýng and myself, I am ready for change and I have given him sight.</p>
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<p>I know his thoughts: I know that when he perceives the light of the sun for the first time in his forty years that he is struck with a mighty pain and a fear far greater than any accident with a knife could cause him, and so I watch him scramble back into his cave and face the back wall for ten minutes, barely breathing, eyes clenched shut. </p>
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<p>“Ýng!” he cries. “My lord, my lord, what is happening?”</p>
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<p>I answer in Ýng’s stead: “You see.”</p>
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<p>“You are not Ýng.”</p>
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<p>“I am Týw. I am the god of the moon and the water and of watching.”</p>
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<p>“Týw?”</p>
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<p>“Týw,” I repeat, and smile at his confusion.</p>
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<p>“But Ýng is the god of all things.”</p>
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<p>“Ýng is the god of many things, and They are the god of me, but of those things not under his direct dominion, some are under mine, and I am the god of watching, of looking, of seeing. When you serve Ýng, you also serve me.”</p>
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<p>Tears course freely down his cheeks, and he says: “It hurts to see.”</p>
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<p>“You have never seen before. Come out of your cave.”</p>
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<p>He does not move, and so I wait. I know that he will need to make water soon, and I know that he is praying to Ýng, but feels the compulsion to perform his acts of service, and I know that the village below is waking up to ready itself for a day and night and week of celebration. So I wait.</p>
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<p>Too, Ýng waits, because although I sense Their wrath on the horizon, I think that it will not come yet, because this is also new for Them.</p>
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<p>Eventually, Lyut, crawls, eyes clenched shut, on hands and knees, crawls out into the sun, and sits cross-legged in the center of his clearing.</p>
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<p>“Open your eyes, Lyut, faithful.”</p>
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<p>“You are not Ýng, you cannot command me.”</p>
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<p>“No, but you are as faithful to me as you are to Them, and so I can ask for this small obedience, just this once.”</p>
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<p>Lyut ponders this for a long while, his tail flitting agitatedly behind him, drawing praises to me in the packed earth. Finally, opens his eyes, a crack, a squint, and looks at his naked body, at the ground before him, at the trees around him. Tries, even, to look at the sun, and learns that the suns arrows are keenest above all to the eyes.</p>
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<p>“It hurts! It hurts!”</p>
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<p>“Do not look directly at the sun, faithful,” I laugh. “Ýng has decreed that the sun provides your life, and so it is too dear for you to behold.”</p>
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<p>“Where are you, Týw?”</p>
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<p>“I am with you.”</p>
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<p>“Can I see you?”</p>
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<p>“We are also too dear for you to see, Ýng and I, for do you not feel the way we pierce your heart and burn along your arms as you prepare the incense for our offering?”</p>
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<p>Lyut is silent once more, still once more. Tears stain tracks down his cheeks as he struggles with the sudden sight, a sense he now possesses.</p>
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<p>“Go and prepare for your day, faithful. I am with you.”</p>
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</article>
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<p>Page generated on 2020-11-23</p>
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