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The World of Pern(tm) is copyright to Anne McCaffrey (c)
l967. The dragons riders of Pern is a registered copyright. Archives - Harper Hall A quiet, well-illuminated room containing several dragonlengths
of shelf space piled with record hides, slates, and books. The central
work area contains several tables at which many apprentices may be seen
laboring at various penmanship exercises and copying records.The door
back to the hallway is to the south. Tirom comes in from the tunnel, shutting the door quietly. Tirom slips in the door and pauses just inside, biting his lip a little. Edris tiptoes quietly across the room and slides into a chair, giving a quick grin to Tirom as she passes. Tirom grins back to Edris and then slips into a chair quietly as well. Rodric is sitting at the back of the room, trying to be unobtrusive. Master Kurion looks up as the classroom starts to fill, and eyes the clock with a sniff of disapproval as some tardies peter in. "Well then -- today we'll be looking at the art of embellishing your scripts and scrolls." Edris opens her eyes wide, and mouths "Embellishing" to Tirom. And here she thought that simply making them neat was effort enough. Nevertheless, she turns her attention back to the front of the room to try and learn. Tirom blinks a bit at that as well, looking back to Edris and then to Kurion again, biting his lip again. Since he became an apprentice, his writing skills went from appalling to tolerable..though he's still barely at the minimum for that. He nervously listens. Master Kurion gestures to one of the journeymen, one of his assistants, who holds up a beautifully illuminated scroll containing the text of one of the Traditional ballads. "As you can see, a fair amount of work went into this piece -- the colors were carefully chosen to emphasize the words ... the drawings within the capitals to illustrate each verse -- this is the sort of thing that one might make for a Lord Holder ... or a gift for a Craftmaster ... today we will be covering the -basics- only until you are ready for such sophisticated work." Edris heaves a sigh of relief. She had momentarily thought, as the scroll was revealed, that -that- was the quality of work that was going to be expected of them. She pauses, then raising her hand slightly asks "So who would be doing work of that quality? and how long would it take to complete something like that, for example?" Tirom relaxes a bit as well, but still looks somewhat nervous and fidgetty. He glances to Edris, and then back to the Master, listening closely. Kurion sniffs a little and eyes Edris closely. "Only the most advanced journeymen or a master would be entrusted with something so precious, not to mention the quality of vellum that this was written on." The journeyman closes the scroll and a senior apprentice bustles around distributing scrap practice hide, ink bottles and finely nibbed pens. "It takes many hours to construct a scroll properly from design to execution." Edris nods solemnly as she listens, looking up to smile her thanks as she receives her own scrap of hide. Picking up the pen and examining it closely she rests it back on the table again until she gets instructions on what is required of her for this class. Tirom looks to Edris again, saying softly, obviously intended to be just for her but ending up a bit too loud in the quiet room, "Glad I didn't sub in archives." The eagle eyes of the Master archivist pin Tirom in his seat. "I'm not sure I'd have -let- you anyway, Apprentice," he says rather acidly and then gestures to another Journeyman who unfurls a much more simple scroll. "Today, you will learn how to make the figures and forms on this scroll, and when it is customary to use them." Edris tilts her head slightly as she examines the new scroll, her fingers tracing the more simple of the shapes on the hide in anticipation. As she does so, she turns briefly to give a sympathetic smile to Tirom, then back to peering at the scroll out the front again. "So there's different ones for different uses?" she asks hesitantly, realising that this means that there is probably a -lot- to learn in this class. Tirom's eyes widen slightly and he sinks a bit in his seat, biting his lip and staying silent again. He looks quietly to this new scroll, though, curious. The scroll contains several lists of symbolic elements, as well as an alphabet of fancier characters than usual, including wide open drop-capitals with plenty of space for drawing in between. "We will start with the symbols here," explains the Master, and you will learn their different meanings and how to use them in a scroll in a topical fashion." He nods to his assistant who tacks the scroll up on the board so all can see. Edris leans back in her chair so that she can watch up the front more easily. She doesn't at this time of course pick up the writing instrument, not wanting to appear over eager. Not being comfortable however, she sits up and rests her elbows on the table, and watches intently. One hand raises slightly and she traces over some of the symbols in the air, not hugely, just shapewise, and rather inconspicuously. Tirom looks closely at the scroll still, and he too waits for some signal to start. Still silent, he seems to be doing his best to stay as still as possible, and thus perhaps not get noticed again. Master Kurion steps up to the scroll and taps a line of round sigils. "You may recognize these as smaller forms of the Craft badges ... it is appropriate of course, to take note of mentions of specific crafts in a test your are embellishing and use the appropriate symbol in your illumination." Edris nods again as she thinks and listens. "So the scrolls become more personalised.. individualised." Realising that she had spoken this out loud and not actually in her head as she was thinking, she colours slightly, then turns back to the front of the room again to ask a more formed thought. "So they would commission these or would they be done as a matter of course for ranked persons?" Tirom smiles a bit to Edris again, and hen looks back up as well. He swings his feet a little to slide them along the floor under his chair. Kurion eyes the apprentices again and clears his throat. "Both -- sometimes we receive important commissions from important persons, but we also strive to provide regular scroll and archive service around Pern. Often, the Masterharper will give illuminated texts as gifts when he's trying to maintain good relations with an area. For example, he recently gifted the Weyrleaders of Fort, with a full collection of Traditional dragon songs, fully illuminated, to honor the new Weyrleader. Personalization is, yes, an important factor, most especially with commissions." The journeyman assistant perches at a desk and lifts up his pen. "Now -- Journeyman Neahan will demonstrate proper use of the type of pen that is used to make the symbols and the alphabet on this page and you will all then proceed to practice the reproduction of those symbols and letters on your practice hide." Tirom nods, turning his attention to the journeyman now as he picks up his own pen, starting to copy his movements in the air above his hide. Edris sits up straight in her chair and lifts her pen in imitation of the journeyman. She pauses, pen mid-air, however, to question again. "Would someone write the rest of the page and leave the ornamentation to someone better, or would they do the whole thing themselves?" Master Kurion stands back to let his assistant get underway. Neahan holds his pen up. "This pen is cut with a slant to the nib to give you those thicker lines you see on the page. You need to hold it at a slight angle, in order to be able to get the best flow out of the nib," he explains and demonstrates a few characters. He smiles over at Edris, far more friendly than his Master. "That all depends on the scroll, the commission and whether or not it's been assigned to you. Sometimes Master Kurion assigns one of us to do the main lettering -- he'll map out the scroll or script and we put in all the regular lettering and then he or one of the other Masters puts in the 'art', so to speak." He demonstrates a few more characters, then draws one of the symbols. "See -- you start from a fixed point and move the nib without lifting it as much as possible, then return to a point on the same line as where you started." Edris lowers her pen to the page following the demonstration and attempts to copy the lettering. All appears to be going well, until she starts on the return to the starting point and manages to send a small spattering of ink across the line that she had just completed. Undaunted, yet with a sigh, she tries again, a little more successfully, albeit none -that- neatly. "I could get to like this you know.' she whispers to Tirom as she attempts it once again. Tirom lowers his pen to start working on it. He works slowly, carefully, doing his best to get this down. He blinks, though, to Edris, "You could?" Neahan continues to demonstrate, he writes a character a a few times for the benefit of the class, then stops to let them practice. Kurion is walking up and down amongst desks providing ample critique. "No ... no hold your wrist looser and your fingers tighter, tuck your elbow in more ... not so much pressure on the nib, it should -flow- from your shoulder ..." Edris simply nods to Tirom as she continues practising, and avoiding the scrutiny of the master. Glancing up to the examples, she attempts the next of the characters, and copies this a number of times until it meets with her approval. Probably not the approval of anyone who -knows- how to do them, but she's happy with one of them at least. She waits until Tirom completes his next character so that she doesn't break his concentration , then points out the one character on her hide with a whispered "Look!" Tirom finishes up his next one at a slow enough rate that it makes Edris wait a few moments. But finally he look up, blinking a bit as he sees what she did, and smiles brightly to her. Whispering back, he says, "Good!" One apprentice is struggling to even get his pen at the right angle so that his characters don't look like they're sliding across the page. Kurion looms over him, brows abristle. "Here now -- hold your hand like -this-" he corrects the boy's posture and closes his hand over the smaller one and guides the apprentice with firm motions. "Let it -flow-," he keeps saying that like a mantra. Edris listens in attentively to the instructions that carry around the room. "Let it flow.. let it flow" she repeats under her breath as she continues to practice, starting on a new line and a new character. For a change she makes some of the characters larger and some smaller, still looking the same, just experimenting with sizes. She tries to take note of all of the different ideas that she hears from around the room. Master Kurion finally abandons that apprentice, a grimace of annoyance on his features. He approaches Edris and Tirom, examining their work. Tirom doesn't pick things up near as fast as Edris. He works hard though, his hand in the right position, but he seems to be putting too much force on the pen. Finally, he gets frustrated, looking up, "*How* do you let it flow?" Edris pauses and waits to see what happens for Tirom. There's got to be something that she can pick up to make this a little easier if she watches someone being helped this close to her. Master Kurion looms over Edris now and peers closely at her hide. "Not bad -- you're a little tight in your shoulder though -- that's how you got those spatters going. You need to loosen here, and tighten here and loosen again here," he taps along her arm in spots. "Keep it up though -- we might make an archivist of you yet." Then he's looking at Tirom's page. Tirom doesn't pick things up near as fast as Edris. He works hard though, his hand in the right position, but he seems to be putting too much force on the pen. Finally, he gets frustrated, looking up, "*How* do you let it flow?" Following her instruction, Edris rests her pen down as she rolls her shoulder around to try and loosen it and flexes her fingers a few times before picking her pen up again to continue in her practice. Characters become a little more rounded as she relaxes and she smiles to herself as she writes. She does however glance over to watch Tirom's writing ocassionally. Kurion purses his lips examining Tirom's work and arm position. "You need to get the shape of the characters fixed in your head and then -feel- them onto the page ... it comes down your arm, like so ..." the Master traces lines down the apprentice's arm. "If you're too tense, you can't make -anything- flow." Tirom bites his lip again, nodding as he tries to relax his arms. After a few moments, he starts to hum a slight, soft tune in time with his writing..it seems to help him relax and move fluidly. Kurion makes another face but nods. "If the noise helps ... go ahead with it ... but do try to learn to do this -quietly-" he intones and moves onto the next vict-- person. Edris giggles to herself and returns her attention to the task at hand. Hand starting to cramp somewhat, she sets her pen to rest again, and takes a deep breath. Composure.. yep. Tirom nods a tiny bit, and continues to hum as soft as he can manage, as he practices the shapes. Kurion continues to march through the ranks, giving advice and criticizing roundly and finally steps up to the head of the class. "All right -- a practice sheet will be posted in the barracks and you can use that to copy from whenever you have a chance. Please complete the rest of the sheet here and then class will be dismissed." Edris pricks up her ears at that and hurries, though not at the loss of quality of work as she nears the completion of the page. With efficiency, she completes the task at hand and then looks around to see if anyone else has left yet. Tirom, on the other hand, winces at that. He continues to slowly work, though faster now compared to earlier. With the aid of his tune, he manages to finish before being the last one. Rodric slips out quietly as the class ends |
