Heavenfall

"No, only when we wish to express something in this creative way, or with more feeling."

He smiled. "Otherwise, most speak much as any other."

"Oh, good," she says, relaxing. "This one has thought that you had started to go a bit loopy. She is glad that is ot the case!"

Haka motions toward the wood. "Is that all it says? Or are there more word forms?"

"That is all this one says. It is a small piece of wood."

He tilted his head. "But there are other forms. The Haiku is the one you heard, but there is the Tenka, the ballad, the limerick, though the Lady isn't fond of those, the list goes on. The form should suit the intention, and when intention, words, and form work as one, something changes. It is...good."

"And difficult to explain."

"That is many ways to talk," she says. "Perhaps too many. This one thinks it would be easier to find one that works and stick to it."

Kaze considered that for a moment.

"Does one ward defend against all spirits?"

"For harmful ones, one ward is usually enough." She smiles a bit. "This one understands what the woodworker is suggesting, though. Different ways for different uses. It still seems overly complicated to this one, especially for something without a use."

Kaze shrugged. "I truly like it. It is beautiful to me. Is that not useful?"

"The walls are rising higher, the fields are spreading wider. In time, the tyranny of hunger will pass, and the people will discover they had other needs, other hungers, that have also gone unsated. And I know that then this and other things like it--the things that seem now to be useless--these will be precious to us."

"But I...acknowledge...that their time is not entirely come."

Haka took a few moments to ponder that.

"So woodcarver believes someday that tribes will have all the food and land they need, and that they will instead go to war over... which words have been carved into the wood of each tribe?"

He hesitated. "Perhaps they will go to war...yes, that is possible. But perhaps they will find peace as well. My words are not great enough, but we have just begun."

"Peace rarely lasts for long." She frowns. "But maybe these new.ways of doing things will help? There are.many different tribes, and many people who want land and slaves and to be the best warlord in the world."

"Hai, many want these things. But what warlord can outlast Hida? What slavemaster holds more sway than the Emperor? The desire of the old age pales in the face of the age that has come. The desire for power will not end, but the practical and the wise will look for other roads to it. And so power itself will look different. It may be in marriage, or in the growth of grain, or even the art of words."

"Unless the fallen ones begin fighting among themselves. Then the world will see war on a far larger scale than before." Haka's tone is light, and she smiles as she finishes. "Perhaps not, though. This one just tends to be a bit pessimistic about the future, she thinks."

Kaze smiles. "It is understandable. Life's struggles lend themselves to pessimism."

"Is it so? Even among the Crane and their expanding lands and inspiring words?"

"Not so much, no. But the world is wide. It will take some time, I think, for all to hear. In the meantime, there is hope growing among the people. The Crane made a space for the hopeless, silent thing I was before I became a woodcarver and a lover of words. How much easier will it be for the pessimists of this world?"

"The world shall see," she replies, smiling. "This one hopes that the Crane have a long and prosperous future. There should be more people seeking peace in the world."

Kaze smiled. "Hai. I think so, too."


/scene?