Chen Chuan slowly sipped his tea in the temple lounge, patiently waiting for the divination results. Worried that he might grow bored, the temple attendants had brought him a treasured bark book to browse.
The book was quite distinctive, half as tall as a person and extremely heavy. An ordinary reader would not only have had to stand to read it, but also needed an attendant to turn the pages.
Only after opening it did he understand why it had been made so large. It was a book of rituals, describing many ceremonies unique to Quizatek. Many of the finer details simply could not have been depicted accurately without enlarging them.
These bore some resemblance to the rituals he had seen the people of Isutar perform at the Star Spirit's Throat, but there were also many stark differences. Although this was not his field of study, learning about it was still useful. Who knew when it might come in handy?
Moreover, the illustrations in the bark book were exquisitely detailed, with the distinctive aesthetic of the First People. It would have been worthy of appreciation as a work of art alone. Each page also had spaces deliberately left along its margins, filled with illustrations of legends that seemed to hover between truth and fiction. They were quite entertaining.
He read with great interest, and an entire day passed. As night approached, the doors on the side of the temple opened, and the rather weary-looking Great Priest emerged with the other priests filing out behind her.
The Great Priest accepted a platter of fruit from an attendant and ate two pieces, recovering a little of her energy. She gave the other priests a few instructions. They bowed to her, then offered Chen Chuan a salute from afar before leaving one after