On the close-work

On the close-work

The anchored, who cannot be saved, can wear what the restless cannot. We call it close-work. The smith-cultures of the high ranges speak of heart-stones; the southern academies, when they speak of it at all, write of the heavy inscriptions.

The close-work is dangerous to make and difficult to wear. A loose breath cannot hold its bindings closed long enough to fire; the inscription dissipates before its work is done. Only a tight breath, body-bound, can channel a close-work cleanly. A heart-stone concentrates the breath. A fire-knit ring channels heat through the wearer. An augur’s burn is taken into the skin, and grants what no augur without it can see.

In some kingdoms the close-work is revered: its bearer has refused the soul-hold and committed to the single life, and the priests call the commitment holy. In other kingdoms it is forbidden, as a step too close to certain rites we will not describe in this letter. In a few it is both revered and forbidden, depending on whether the bearer is foreign and whether the king is in want of taxable enemies.