Saun 698 Sauni is born to a little but diverse nomadic tribe in the desert. It's a very difficult life, but Sauni and her family -her mother, father, siblings, and the others in the tribe- live a good life despite the difficulties.
Zi'da 704 When Sauni is six, the nomadic tribe is overrun by bandits. The bandits drive away the livestock that the tribe needs to live, and destroy their other belongings. Without their belongings, the tribe will not be able to live in the desert- it is simply too difficult. They go to Nashaki and because they have no money and no belongings, they live in Nashaki's outskirts.
Saun 706 When Sauni is eight, she is running through the outskirts of Nashaki, near the gates, when she runs into a man. The man is very wealthy and Sauni goes to run, but before she is able to run the man's guards grab her. The man looks Sauni over, looks at his robes, and his guards bring Sauni to the Tower of Arms. There they say she has damaged his belongings by dirtying his robes when she ran into him. The wealthy man is a member of the Tower of Gems and Sauni is sentenced on the man's say-so. Because she damaged his belongings, the law says she is to repair the damage.
Being eight years old and in no way learned in the luxury-level repair of garments, Sauni's sentence is remanded from repair of damage to monetary reparation. But neither Sauni nor the other members of her family nor the nomadic tribe have much money. With no monetary reparation to be had, on the wealthy man's and the Tower of Arms' say-so her sentence is remanded once more. This time, it is remanded from monetary reparation to reparation to be paid through slavery. Sauni is made the man's slave, to be released from slavery when the man has determined that her reparation has been paid.
Sauni is scared the wealthy man will remove her from her family, but the man has no interest in removing her. She is able to live with her family in the outskirts as long as she reports to the man's domicile in the mornings.
The first morning Sauni reports to the wealthy man, the man -whose name is Musa Sumar Grandidierite- looks Sauni over much like he did when she ran into him. He is interested most in her little hands. She learns that Grandidierite is one of the best gemcutters in Nashaki. It is his style to enslave kids from the outskirts to work with him in his delicate work with gems.
Sauni begins to learn Grandidierite's trade. Though it is scary to be a slave there is good in it too, because Sauni is able to learn a trade that she otherwise never would have learned. Through Grandidierite, Sauni begins learning the trade skills needed to live and thrive in Nashaki.
Little by little, Sauni's relationship with Grandidierite thrives. Her relationship with him is different than his relationships with his other slaves. Sauni is determined, and is a good listener and learner, but it is more than that. She is like sunlight. Her relationship with Grandidierite becomes more and more like a master to his student rather than like a master to his slave. More than that, it becomes more and more like a grandfather to his granddaughter.
Saun 708 When Sauni is ten, Grandidierite -who goes by Grandid with Sauni- says that her reparation has been paid. Though he brings her back to the Tower of Arms to have her released, because of their grandfatherly-granddaughterly relationship, when she is released she simply goes on working with Grandid. In Nashaki a Qi'ora's second name is given to them by the artisan they work with. When she begins working with Grandid he gives her the second name of Isatu, meaning sunlight.
The money she makes working with Grandid goes toward her family. Her mother, father, siblings, and the others in the tribe are able to go back to their nomadic life in the desert. Sauni doesn't go with them, though. When she lived in the desert she was very little, and now she is four years older, and two years into learning a trade that has brought wealth to herself and her family. In her soul she is no longer a nomad.
Saun 714 When Sauni is sixteen, she begins learning other trade skills from Grandid. She begins learning the business side of gemcutting, about the other gemcutting businesses in Nashaki, and about business management in general. She also begins learning a little bit of metallurgy.
Saun 718 When Sauni is twenty, she realizes that there is something about Grandid's gemcutting business that is different than the other gemcutting businesses in Nashaki. Grandid's business is gemcutting, he is a member of the Tower of Gems, but she senses that there is some other business beneath it. It isn't until later in 718 that she learns that Grandid is not simply a gemcutter. He has a second trade, a second business, obscured beneath his gemcutting business.
Grandid is an ensorcellor. Some of the gems he works with are not gems. In time, because Sauni is so determined to learn everything Grandid has learned, Grandid becomes Sauni's master and Sauni becomes Grandid's student in ensorcelling.
Beginning to learn ensorcelling is like beginning to learn gemcutting all over again. Sauni begins to learn about wells. She learns that working with wells is levels above working with gems in the sense of danger. But working with wells, to Grandid, is also levels above working with gems in all other senses too- it is his life's work, his soul's work.
Sauni begins learning Grandid's method of ensorcelling, rune ensorcelling. She begins learning the language of runes that he works into all levels of his ensorcelling, into his tools, into his workstation, and into the wells themselves. Grandid says that the runes, "bring forth the life in the stone." When he says this Sauni realizes that, to him, the well is like a living, breathing thing. He says this is something he learned from his grandfather.
In time, Sauni begins to see the life in the stone that Grandid speaks of.
Saun 720 When Sauni is twenty-two, she begins learning to make ensorcelling tools. But it is while she is learning to make the tools that her time with Grandid is suddenly stopped. Grandid, and his businesses, are suddenly in danger. He is ousted from the Tower of Gems along with all the other sitting members, and along with all the other sitting members in all the other Towers. This ousting of the Towers is done by the behest of the immortals. Business slows to a stop then, and other things speed up.
Grandid is imprisoned in the Tower of Arms as it rebuilds its sitting members. In time he is seen by the Tower. Though he is no longer a member of the Tower of Gems, it is determined that his imprisonment will be dismissed on the merit of his longstanding time as a member of the Tower, and on the merit of his gemcutting business.
As suddenly as he is dismissed by the Tower of Arms, though, the Tower of Flesh imprisons him.
Grandid's gemcutting business is seized by the Tower of Flesh. His ensorcelling business is seized by the Tower of Flesh, too, though it is seized in a way that obscures not only Grandid's work in the business, but the business itself.
When Sauni learns that Grandid's businesses have been seized and that Grandid is still imprisoned, she goes to the Tower of Arms. But the Tower says he is not there. They say he is imprisoned in the Tower of Flesh. Sauni goes to the Tower of Flesh, but the Tower of Flesh says Grandid is not there. Of the Eight Towers of Nashaki, the Tower of Flesh is the one most not to be argued with, but Sauni argues that Grandid is there. It is what the Tower of Arms told her. But she is told again by the Tower of Flesh that he is not there, and to go.
Sauni doesn't go, and she is imprisoned in the Tower of Flesh.
Sauni is imprisoned in the Tower for a little more than half a year. When she is seen by the Tower of Flesh, she is sentenced to monetary reparation for not removing herself from the Tower when told to. There is no law against this, but it is what Sauni is sentenced to. Because Sauni's money was seized by the Tower when Grandid's businesses were seized, her sentence is remanded from monetary reparation to reparation to be to be paid through slavery. Sauni is made the Tower of Flesh's slave, to be released from slavery when the Tower has determined that her reparation has been paid.
Sauni works in Grandid's gemcutting business, now the Tower's gemcutting business, with no say in the business and with no sight nor sound of Grandid. Her work there is a show of power by the Tower of Flesh.
Saun 723 When Sauni is twenty-five, the Tower of Flesh determines that her reparation has been paid. When she is released, the Tower says to go from Nashaki, and that if she argues again she will never again see the light of the suns. Sauni goes.
She goes back to her nomadic tribe.
Ashan 725 When Sauni is two seasons short of being twenty-seven, she determines that it is time to go again from the nomadic tribe. Though her mother, father, and siblings say she shouldn't go, that she will be by herself in the world without them and without Grandid, Sauni says that, like they say she shouldn't go, her soul says she should go. In her soul she is no longer a nomad. It is something she realized when she was in Nashaki.
The nomadic tribe goes on without her, and Sauni turns her sights to something new.
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