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The entrance to Sawall Ways lies through the Maze of Art; all of the below is from 'Prince of Chaos': | The entrance to Sawall Ways lies through the Maze of Art; all of the below is from 'Prince of Chaos': | ||
"And so I came, again, into the Ways of Sawall. I had emerged from the red and yellow starburst design painted high upon the gateside wall of the front courtyard, descended the Invisible Stair, and peered for long moments down into the great central pit, with its view of black turbulence beyond the Rim. A falling star burned its way down the purple sky as I turned away, headed for the copper-chased door and the low Maze of Art beyond it. | "And so I came, again, into the Ways of Sawall. I had emerged from the red and yellow starburst design painted high upon the gateside wall of the front courtyard, descended the Invisible Stair, and peered for long moments down into the great central pit, with its view of black turbulence beyond the Rim. A falling star burned its way down the purple sky as I turned away, headed for the copper-chased door and the low Maze of Art beyond it. | ||
| − | "Within, I recalled the many times I had been lost in that maze as a child. The House of Sawall had been a serious collector of art for ages, and the collection was so vast that there were several ways into which one was cast into the maze itself, leading one through tunnels, a huge spiral, and what seemed an old train station before being shunted back to miss the next turn. I had been lost in it for days on one occasion, and was finally found crying before an assemblage of blue shoes nailed to a board. I walked it now, slowly, looking at old monstrosities, and some newer ones. There were also strikingly lovely pieces mixed in, such as the huge vase that looked as if it had been carved from a single fire opal, and a set of odd enamelled tablets from a distant shadow whose meaning and function no-one in the family could be found to recall. I had to stop and see both again, rather than shortcutting the gallery, the tablets being a particular | + | "Within, I recalled the many times I had been lost in that maze as a child. The House of Sawall had been a serious collector of art for ages, and the collection was so vast that there were several ways into which one was cast into the maze itself, leading one through tunnels, a huge spiral, and what seemed an old train station before being shunted back to miss the next turn. I had been lost in it for days on one occasion, and was finally found crying before an assemblage of blue shoes nailed to a board. I walked it now, slowly, looking at old monstrosities, and some newer ones. There were also strikingly lovely pieces mixed in, such as the huge vase that looked as if it had been carved from a single fire opal, and a set of odd enamelled tablets from a distant shadow whose meaning and function no-one in the family could be found to recall. I had to stop and see both again, rather than shortcutting the gallery, the tablets being a particular favourite of mine." |
"I delivered us into an eerie hall that had always been old Sawall's chief delight in the maze. It was a sculpture garden, with no outside light sources and small base lighting only about the huge pieces, making it several times darker than my favourite lounge. The floor was uneven - concave, convex, stepped, ridged - with concavity being the dominant curve. It was difficult to guess at its dimensions, for it seemed of different size and contour depending upon where one stood. Gramble, Lord Sawall, had caused it to be constructed without any plane surfaces - and I believe the job involved some unique shadowmastery. | "I delivered us into an eerie hall that had always been old Sawall's chief delight in the maze. It was a sculpture garden, with no outside light sources and small base lighting only about the huge pieces, making it several times darker than my favourite lounge. The floor was uneven - concave, convex, stepped, ridged - with concavity being the dominant curve. It was difficult to guess at its dimensions, for it seemed of different size and contour depending upon where one stood. Gramble, Lord Sawall, had caused it to be constructed without any plane surfaces - and I believe the job involved some unique shadowmastery. | ||
"I stood beside what appeared to be a complicated rigging in the absence of a ship - that, or an elaborate musical instrument fit to be strummed by Titans - and the light turned the lines to silver, running like life from darkness to darkness within some half-seen frame. Other pieces jutted from walls and hung like stalactites. As I strolled, what had seemed walls became floor to me. The pieces that had seemed floored now jutted or depended. The room changed shape as I went, and a breeze blew through it, causing sighs, hums, buzzes, chimes." Space itself is folded there, making the hall much larger than it seems; one can wander through many times and see different displays each time; there may even be some internal movement too. | "I stood beside what appeared to be a complicated rigging in the absence of a ship - that, or an elaborate musical instrument fit to be strummed by Titans - and the light turned the lines to silver, running like life from darkness to darkness within some half-seen frame. Other pieces jutted from walls and hung like stalactites. As I strolled, what had seemed walls became floor to me. The pieces that had seemed floored now jutted or depended. The room changed shape as I went, and a breeze blew through it, causing sighs, hums, buzzes, chimes." Space itself is folded there, making the hall much larger than it seems; one can wander through many times and see different displays each time; there may even be some internal movement too. | ||
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"Two turns later I came to a way to the main hall and decided I'd better take it. I popped through beside the massive fireplace - high flames braiding themselves within it - and turned slowly to survey the huge chamber, trying to seem as if I had been there a long while, waiting." ... There is a great staircase to one side of the fireplace, and a rose and green and gold-flecked pillar of ways set in a mirrored alcove across the room. One of the ways from it, accessed in an anticlockwise direction, is a beach of pure white sand in a luminous crystal grotto by the black water of an underground sea, with a domed ribbed interior, which has its own storms, and which is sailed by black-sailed ships. | "Two turns later I came to a way to the main hall and decided I'd better take it. I popped through beside the massive fireplace - high flames braiding themselves within it - and turned slowly to survey the huge chamber, trying to seem as if I had been there a long while, waiting." ... There is a great staircase to one side of the fireplace, and a rose and green and gold-flecked pillar of ways set in a mirrored alcove across the room. One of the ways from it, accessed in an anticlockwise direction, is a beach of pure white sand in a luminous crystal grotto by the black water of an underground sea, with a domed ribbed interior, which has its own storms, and which is sailed by black-sailed ships. | ||
They keep records on everyone who they train in magic, which allows their magical signature to be recognized later, if necessary. | They keep records on everyone who they train in magic, which allows their magical signature to be recognized later, if necessary. | ||
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==='''SWAYVIL'''=== | ==='''SWAYVIL'''=== | ||
