Overview

A second-person narrator addressed Bartholomew and recounted a formative, half-forgotten episode at Aisling Cathedral on Traum’s highest tor. The scene evoked a ritual of learning and suffering, where Bartholomew’s craft became obedience, dreams, and drowning. The narrator admitted unease and questioned whether the rest of the story could exist without this painful origin.

Full Summary

The chapter opened with a narrator speaking directly to Bartholomew, claiming to know a story Bartholomew had forgotten and promising honesty while acknowledging that storytelling is inherently deceptive. The setting was Traum’s highest tor, where wind carried a minor tune and the ground was cold with gray stones and white gowan flowers.

A cathedral stood there, and a younger Bartholomew slipped quietly through its parts—narthex, nave, and aisle—emphasizing his smallness and vulnerability. Blood stained Bartholomew’s lips as he fell into a spring that issued from ancient stone at the chancel, while the rose window’s light touched stained glass above him.

The narrator stated that Bartholomew’s craft was obedience, that he learned the names of gods and how to read their signs, and that he learned how to dream and to drown, linking knowledge with pain and submission. The juxtaposition of sacred architecture, bodily harm, and ritual study suggested initiation and sacrifice.

The narrator then interrupted with an apology, expressing reluctance to revisit this memory, and ended by wondering whether the rest of Bartholomew’s story could exist without this difficult beginning. The tone remained intimate, elegiac, and reflective, framing Aisling Cathedral as a crucial, traumatic origin point.

Who Appears

• Bartholomew — central figure addressed in second person; as a child entered Aisling Cathedral, bled, fell into a spring, and learned obedience, divine signs, dreaming, and drowning.
• Narrator — intimate voice addressing Bartholomew; claims knowledge of his past and expresses reluctance and a commitment to honesty in telling.
• Gods — referenced entities whose names and signs Bartholomew learned; mentioned but not shown.