Decrees & Observances — Cathedral of the Grey Saint

"Be vigilant, and be obedient, and the Light will keep you."

These notices are posted by order of the cathedral and the United House Tribunal, read aloud in the squares at the Midday Blessing. The faithful are bound to heed them. A notice remains posted until the danger passes or the matter is closed.

The Cathedral of Corvael — observances, warnings to the faithful, and the missing.
The United House Tribunal — judgments, the wanted, and exile under the law of the five houses.

The Reckoning of Days

The year is 395 After Fissure. We stand in the month of Sól — the High Sun, the longest light, when fires are kept on the hills till dawn. The Feast of the High Sun has lately passed; the year now leans toward the first harvest of Quinte.

The wheel turns Aescan · Hollin · Marth · Avril · Sól · Quinte · Lammas · Mabon · Veil · Frost · Yul. The notices below were posted across the first half of Sól, and remain in force.

THEY ARE LYING

Warning — The Lower Walls

Posted 4 Sól, 395 · By order of the Watch

Things have been seen again beyond the lower wall after the fifth bell, even in the long light of Sól, when the dark comes late and briefly. Residents of the lower tiers are advised to be within doors by dusk and to keep their lamps lit through the short night.

Do not answer voices from beyond the wall, whatever they sound like, and whatever name they call. Those who keep the observances and dwell in the upper tiers are under the Light’s protection. The Watch will not open the lower gate after the fifth bell for any reason.

SEALED · THE WATCH OF VATIRA

Advisory — The Wells of the River Quarter

Posted 6 Sól, 395 · Cathedral Office

Two wells of the river quarter have been closed by order of the cathedral, the water having turned in the heat and sickened those who drank of it. The faithful of the lower tiers are directed to the upper cisterns, where water is given to those in good standing upon proof of observance.

Boil what you draw from the river. The wasting-sickness spreads fastest in the warm months; report any household where the grey creeps into a face, that the sick may be tended and the rest kept safe.

SEALED · CATHEDRAL OFFICE

[ the wells did not "turn." i have walked the river quarter. the ones they closed sit over what runs beneath — the old rail cutting. the water is fine. they do not want you drawing from ground above the thing they feed. ] THE LOWER CITY IS WHERE THEY LET THE DANGER IN

Wanted — The So-Called Gilded Choir

Posted 9 Sól, 395 · By order of the Tribunal

The Tribunal warns all the faithful against the band of heretics and thieves who name themselves the Gilded Choir. They move among the tiers in stolen dress, take what is not theirs — relics, records, coin, and on occasion the dead themselves — and are known by the mark of the lyre.

When these heretics take a body, they do not return it to the cathedral for the Remaking, but cast it into the earth and the roots in their own foul rite. This is blasphemy of the highest order.

Any who can name a member of the Choir, or the hand that leads them, should bring word to the nearest Tribunal embassy. A reward in Goldroot is offered.

SEALED · UNITED HOUSE TRIBUNAL

[ read it again. they are not angry that the Choir kills. they are angry that the Choir buries. a body given back to the true Root cannot be given to the thing below. every corpse the Choir "steals" is one that will not be fed into the dark. that is the whole of the crime. ] THE CHOIR SINGS THE TRUTH — THE CHURCH FEEDS THE LIE

Missing — Of the Lower Tiers

Posted 8 Sól, 395 · Cathedral Office

The cathedral asks the prayers of the faithful for those lost from the lower tiers this season, that the Light may guide them home:

Maren of the tanneries. — The boy Tomas, of the river quarter, fourteen years. — Sela the weaver and her daughter. — Old Harrick, who kept the lower shrine. — Three of the almshouse, names withheld.

Any who have word of them should bring it to the cathedral. There is no cause for alarm. The lower tiers are merely perilous, as they have always been. Be vigilant. Keep faith.

SEALED · CATHEDRAL OFFICE

[ i keep my own count, and have for years. add the missing, the exiled, and the "returned to the Root" across one season and the number is always larger than they say, and always larger by the same amount. old Harrick asked the wrong question about the Sisters. Tomas saw a procession wagon go where no wagon should. they are not lost. they were spent. ] THEY ARE NOT MISSING. THEY WERE TAKEN

Notice of Exile

Posted 11 Sól, 395 · By order of the Tribunal

By judgment of the United House Tribunal, the following are declared exile from their houses and territories, their names struck from the registers, their protections withdrawn. None shall shelter them, feed them, or speak with them, on pain of sharing their judgment:

One of Eikthyr, for forbidden seer-craft beyond sanction. — Two of Apophis, for carrying messages against the houses. — One of Corvael, name struck, for speaking against the Remaking. — One of no house, for the wearing of the lyre.

The exiled may not appeal. The judgment is final under Article IX of the Joint Charter.

SEALED · UNITED HOUSE TRIBUNAL

[ "name struck" does not mean forgotten. it means the opposite. they keep a second register below, of every name struck from the first, and where they were last seen, and who loved them. the one of Eikthyr practised no forbidden craft — she read the true scripture aloud. that is the only heresy they truly fear. ] STRUCK FROM THE REGISTER MEANS THEY KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE

Decree — The Keeping of the High Sun

Posted 1 Sól, 395 · Cathedral Office

Be it known that the Feast of the High Sun is a day of Obligation. All the faithful in good standing shall keep the hill-fires from dusk until the sun returns, and shall not let the flame fail, for the Light must be seen to answer the longest day.

The Pale Sisters will carry the first flame from the cathedral to the lesser shrines. Tithes of oil and tallow are received at the Almonry. Let no household of the upper tiers be dark upon this night; the cathedral will note those that are.

SEALED · CATHEDRAL OFFICE

Tribunal Broadcast — The Decree of the Season

Broadcast 12 Sól, 395 · Church Frequency

Read upon the Church Frequency to all five territories at the third bell, and posted here for those who did not hear it. The cathedral announces a sacred event of great rarity, to be held within the season — an honour for the Grey Saint not seen in living memory.

All the faithful are called to attend, or to gather at their nearest public receiver. The Silver Crow herself shall preside.

▶ THE BROADCAST — [ recording to be restored ]

SEALED · OFFICE OF THE JOINT RECORD

[ "an honour not seen in living memory" means a Remaking. they mean to take him up — the Grey Saint, the living one — before the year turns. do not gather at your receiver. listen instead to what bleeds through the dead air between the cathedral’s words. that is the only true broadcast, and it is not theirs. ] LISTEN TO WHAT BLEEDS THROUGH THE DEAD AIR

Posted by the Office of the Parish Register, under the Light of the Root. New notices are posted at each Midday Blessing.