Glassbreathers
The people of the Breath. They breathe the lilac vapor that kills every other living thing, keep it in the glass sac at their throats until it calms, and breathe out heat: with it they melt fulgurite and blow glass. Their houses are glass bells on the islands, every one with its own voice, and the lightning season is their working season. A guest in a suit they call a little bubble: air from somewhere else, kept in glass.
«Oh! A bubble on our glass. We see you sealed ones so rarely that the bells start ringing on their own. I am …. You keep your breath inside that shell, yes? Keep it close. Ours would eat you through.»
The settlement and its dwellers
Crafts
Looks
Where they live
Chiming Isles. A settlement of the Glassbreathers: houses that are glass bells, each cast from fulgurite the whole family melted with its breath, each on an island shard moored to the main island by railed bridges. Lightning ribs of fulgurite run down the glass, and a glowing tongue hangs inside every bell. In the middle stands the Tower of Last Breaths, hung with little bells that keep the last breaths of the dead, and the elder stands at its foot.
Tasks
The Deaf Ringers' Floors· ElderClimb into the Fulgurite Spire, the tower of the deaf Ringers, and come back down to the elder.
«Thirteen floors of brick, bubble, and every one baked from a bolt. The deaf Ringers lived in that spire until the last of them stopped ringing. None of us goes in: the spire is a mouth. But you carry your own air. Climb in, walk their halls, and come back down to me. I want to know whether their bells still hang over the bunks.»
Scatter the Mute Breath· ElderDefeat the Vapor Wyrm on the crown of the Fulgurite Spire.
«You have seen the floors; now the crown. The Mute Breath coils there: breath that wanted to be a word and became a hunger. Lay two drake skull glasses on the Ringers' altar, and it will come down to it, remembering the dragon. Then scatter it, bubble. Not for revenge. A breath that never became a word should at least be let go.»
The Ring of Fused Frames· ElderWake the ring of fused frames on the Breath: the gate between the worlds.
«Now the old road. The lightning fused the ring's frames shut long before my first season, and it waits: for the Wyrm's lung, for one who has stood a lightning season under the open sky, for charged glass and vapor pearls in its frames, and for the void shards your kind collects for the road. Wake it, bubble, and the isles will hear a note so low that our sacs hum along.»
Old Breath in Glass· GlassblowerLive through the dragon's exhale on the Breath and bring the glassblower two bottles of dragon's breath.
«Every glassblower dreams of one bead: a bead with the old breath inside, the breath of the One Who Breathed Us. When the exhale comes down on the isles, the clouds lie where the runes burn and scorch everything. Stand at the edge with an empty bottle, bubble, and it drinks the cloud in a moment. Bring me two. One I will blow into a bead. The other I will only look at.»
Sand for Glass Lambs· Glassblower· repeatableBring the glassblower thirty-two blocks of sand: glass from sand is clear enough for toys.
«Ash makes honest glass, but gray. Sand from your worlds makes glass you can see the sky through, and the young fight over every glass lamb I blow from it: a clear lamb with a spark inside is the best toy there is. There is no sand on any island here. Bring me some now and then, bubble, and I will pay the way a glassblower pays.»
A Bell for a New Family· Bell FounderVisit the Vapor Chimes and bring the bell founder sixteen blocks of fulgurite for a new family's bell.
«A new family is breathing together for the first time, bubble, and a family needs a bell. Usually they bring a season's worth of fulgurite themselves, but they are young and slow. Bring me sixteen pieces. And on the way go to the Vapor Chimes, our oldest bells, and listen to them before a storm. I will cast the new one in tune with the old.»
A Bell Without a Name· Bell FounderCarry the nameless bell from the bell founder to the elder, for the tower of last breaths.
«The elder says even a hunger deserves a last breath. So I cast this one for the Mute Breath: small, plain, no name on the rim, and no tongue inside, because a hunger has nothing to say. It is cool now. Carry it to the elder by the tower, bubble. I cannot: my hands still remember what sat on the crown.»
Storm Lambs to the Rod· Lightning CatcherLive through the ball lightning on the Breath and bring the lightning catcher two pieces of charged glass.
«When the charge gathers into balls and they drift between the isles, we call it a lambing. Storm lambs waddle toward anything alive and bite with a spark. But a lamb can smell a rod or a fulgurite column six strides away: lead one there, and it lies down and turns into charged glass. Walk a few home for me, bubble, and bring me two pieces of what they leave.»
A Season at the Lantern· Lightning CatcherFind the Storm Lantern and stand a whole lightning season through under the open sky.
«The Storm Lantern was built to call the storm, not to warn of it: when the season comes, it lights by itself and pulls the bolts to its island, away from our bells. Every catcher goes there once, to see it lit. Go and see it, bubble, and then stand one season under the open sky. Not under a bell. A catcher who has never stood in a season is only a bubble with a jar.»
A Storm for the Little Lamps· Lightning CatcherCarry a storm lantern from the lightning catcher to a vein opener of the Facetkin, in the Facet.
«The sealed ones say there is a stone world behind another tear, where little lamps with heads of cut glass keep light in vessels, one color to a vessel. Light that sits still. Let them have one light that never does: a storm in a cage, from my jars. Carry it to whoever opens their veins, bubble. A lamp should know what lightning looks like from inside.»
What Would Not Dissolve· Acid TamerFind the Acid Shrine and bring the acid tamer four bones from its pits.
«The sealed ones paved a square on the vapor, set a bowl over blue fire and brought things there to dissolve. We go there only for the acid. But in the pits lie things the acid gave up on, and I keep wondering why it gave up. Bring me four of them, bubble. Bones, I think. Whatever the acid cannot eat, I want in my glaze.»
Wax from the Combs· Acid TamerLand your shuttle in the Hive and bring the acid tamer six pieces of chorus wax.
«The sealed ones who went to the Eye bought our fulgurite for an eyelid made of wax: wax from a world of combs behind another tear. Wax! Soft, and still the Eye could not see through it. I glaze my jars with glass because acid gives up on glass. Would it give up on wax? Fly there, bubble, and bring me six pieces. If my jars can wear wax, the bridges can too.»
Drakes over the Flock· Lamb Herder· repeatableDefeat two vapor drakes that hunt the mist lambs.
«Every few breaths a drake comes up out of the Deep and circles the flock: two lights in the vapor, then one lamb fewer. I cannot fight a drake; I have a crook and a sac, and it drinks sacs. You carry a weapon, bubble. Drive off two of them, for good, and I will pay with what the flock gives. Come back whenever you like: they always come back too.»
Wool for the Whisperers· Lamb HerderCarry four tufts of cloud wool from the lamb herder to a lash weaver of the Lashkin, in the Eye.
«You have been to the world that looks back. The sealed ones say the folk there whisper so as not to wake someone, and weave cloth that makes no sound. Our lambs' wool is mist: it weighs nothing and never rustles. Take them four tufts for their loom, bubble. Whoever is so afraid of noise should at least sleep in something soft.»
A Storm of Your Own· Lamb HerderCook a storm stew yourself and show it to the lamb herder who asked.
«You eat our roast, but have you ever cooked a storm? Roast mist mutton, two handfuls of sour berries, a steam bell and a bowl: it crackles in the bowl like a season. Make one yourself, bubble, not bought, and show it to me. Only to me: a herder knows the smell of his own flock.»
Quartz for the Pipe· Breath HolderBring the breath holder six pieces of chorus quartz from the islands of the Interrift.
«Little bubble. Good. The pipe. Sings wrong. Chorus quartz. From the islands. Six. Then it sings right.»
The One That Does Not Blink· Breath HolderFly to the Vigil Eye, the station of the Lashkin by the rift of the Eye, and come back.
«Far off. An eye. It looks. At us? Fly. Ask what it sees. A breath should know. Who is watching it.»
The Breath We Kept· Breath HolderBring the breath holder three vapor pearls from the Breath for the Quiet Chamber.
«Below. The quiet drop. A breath we never let out. It wants pearls. Three. From home. Bring. Then go down. Once. Do not speak there.»
The Chorus Breath· Breath HolderMake a chorus skip — touch a ripe chorus drifter with your ship under way — and bring the breath holder two chorus pods.
«Little bubble. Listen. On the currents. Bushes drift. Ripe ones. Touch one. Under way. It breathes out. Hard. And the ship is. Elsewhere. Do it. Bring pods. Two. I want. To hear. That breath.»
What to talk about
What else do you remember of them?
Warmth. Hhh. The first Storm Lantern — not ours. Found. Already lit. And the warm hand — the steam that rises and catches you when you fall off an edge? We say that is the Hands. Remembering. A breath that big... was never cold.
Where did the Hands go?
Hhh. Into the dark. All the bells agree on that. On nothing else. One old bell says: they went to hold something else. Something you cannot breathe out. Something hungry. ...That bell is cracked. We keep it anyway. A cracked bell can still be right.
The tablet says: a warden was set by the road.
Set. Hhh. So the Hands did not only hold it. They put it there. At the door. A question at the door — not a lock. Whoever answers goes through. ...You went through, bubble. You answered the One Who Breathed Us. Then one of its words is finished. Two breaths. I need two breaths. ...There.
How can you breathe the vapor?
Breathing it in is easy; keeping it is the trick. The vapor eats meat and lungs, but our sac is glass inside, and glass it eats slowest of all. We breathe in, hold it in the sac until it calms and glows, and breathe it out as heat. You would dissolve before your second breath, bubble. Do not try.
Is there any way I could take a breath here?
Not of ours. But sometimes the vapor settles around a grain of glass, layer on layer, and becomes a pearl, and a pearl, crushed, gives back clean air, the kind your shell likes. Here: a breath of the Breath for your road. Do not crush it before you need it.
Why don't the islands fall?
Because they are full of breath. Break a piece of searing glass and look: bubbles, thousands of them, each a breath the glass kept when the lightning fused it. Glass full of bubbles is light; the stone your people call pumice floats on your water the same way. Our islands float on the Breath like foam.
What is below the vapor?
The Deep: two tiers of vapor, lilac and pale, where the lambs graze and the drakes hunt. Below that is the Bottom, a dark haze where breath goes to sleep. Whatever falls there does not come back... unless the warm hand catches it. Some days the lower vapor warms and rises, and whoever slips off an edge sinks slowly, as if somebody were holding them.
Who else lives in the Breath?
The mist lambs, little clouds with hooves: we herd them. The fulgurite crawlers, lightning that grew legs: leave them be and they leave you be. And the vapor drakes, breath that grew bones of glass and remembered how to hunt. A drake drinks the air out of a shell through its gills. If you see two lights in the vapor, bubble, those are its eyes. Go under a bell.
Did the whisperers like the lamb wool?
The herder sent our lamb wool to the whisperers in the world that looks back, and they hung it at their elder's door. Since then the herder shears more carefully, as if every tuft were going to a door somewhere.
What is worth seeing on the isles?
Ask about what you have seen, and I will tell you whose it is. Some of it is ours, some the lightning made by itself, and some the sealed ones left behind.
What is the frame of bells on a shard?
The Vapor Chimes, the oldest bells we have, older than any house. There is no wind on the Breath, and still they ring, a few notes at a time, always just before the lightning. Our grandmothers' grandmothers built the frame to hear the storm coming. One bell has fallen; we leave it where it lies. A bell that fell has said its last word.
And the tower with the lantern?
The Storm Lantern. Ours too, but not for warning: for calling. When a storm comes near, the lantern lights by itself and pulls the lightning to its island, away from our bells, and the bolts fuse the ash there into fulgurite for the founders. Someone tore the railing off the gallery. Drakes, we think. They hate a light that is not theirs.
Who planted the forest of glass columns?
The lightning. Every bolt that strikes an island leaves a column of fused glass where it went in, and the sky likes some places better than others. The oldest columns are taller than a bell. Our catchers go there in the season to listen for the columns that still spark.
What is the lumpy glass that looks like coral?
A glass reef. Nobody blows it: it grows by itself where the vapor is thickest, a skin a year, around whatever it touched first, and charge glows trapped in its hollows. Our glassblowers say a reef is the Breath trying to blow its own glass, and doing it badly.
Names
Hwill · Tsefa · Hliss · Fhoun · Ssirru · Hethe · Tillo · Phaa · Wiss · Ooril · Hassu · Tinka