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The herd elder watched with a hard focus, resting her ancient basalt face on the back of her hand as she sat. Somewhere between the deep pockmarks that roughened her head lay old red eyes that had seen much, and judged well.

Around her was the herd, arranged in a circle, smallest pebbles to the fore. Their parents looked over their shoulders, no less interested. On their backs rested wooden struts that held baskets, leather platforms, racks, even crates; And in them crystals, aromatic wood, horn and skulls, seeds, salts. These were trading Urtelem, for they had found a Sculptor. And that Maker, whose name began with Star-Gazing-Just-Before-The-Dawn, stood now on her three legs like a translator between the elder and the strangers.

As they all watched together, Star-Gazing had done many strange things with his geomancer's touch. Had pulled metal out of malachite, fused sand into rock-glass and then back again into sand, spun pebbles in the air so quickly that they could be used to light fires against wood. All this was effortless work in the shadow of the Maker, from whom huge amethyst crystals grew against a supple skin of flowering haematite [url=http://68.media.tumblr.com/8b9fef1301c6f712062c4871903d700f/tumblr_o9cr7eGaTo1r6g9m4o1_1280.jpg]rosettes[/url].

On his other side sat the second Maker, a heavy, six-legged being with auburn feathers and a face like an owl's mask. Halo alloys glinted from their neck, and from the gilded orb they carried emerged a spirit made of light.

[color=cornflowerblue][i]'I do not mean to tempt you with my offer, friends. This is no attempt to dazzle you, or take you for fools. I speak honestly, for deception is not part of your way.'[/i][/color]

The spirit spoke by moving itself, forming patterns. Though she was an alien thing, she was beautiful, and every word they read was perfectly clear.

[color=cornflowerblue][i]'All this is simply my way of showing you the future, and the earnestness of my plea. Your herd is aloof, as are many others of the earthen folk, for this is natural. Though you may stay by a village for a hundred years, you may yet find the desire to wander, for your love is given to the whole world and the family that reads it beside you.

'And yet I offer you something that is not family, but like it. I am building a people of many tongues and many ways, weaving the sands of a hundred disciplines into a single stone. You know you can offer much, and much you have- The strength of your arms and the magic of your eyes, the wit of your brains and the peace of your hearts. 

'So, too, I can offer much to you. I am Composer of the Light; It was I who wrote the steps of the Distant Dance. I offer you art and sorcery, culture and prayer. I offer you fellowship with the other folken, a chance to teach and a chance to learn. The thrill of ambition. These you will find in the Holy Land. Only consider adopting yourselves to the grand family.'[/i][/color]

The elder stared at the fleshless being, this Chiral Phi who had solved every riddle in a heartbeat, who spoke to the Maker from afar, whispered songs that chilled the heart with awe. And slowly she signed: [i]'We will go, and we will see.'[/i]