The exchange of art proved more natural than anyone had imagined.
Among the things Skypieans traded for aboard Blue Sea merchant ships, besides ironware and cloth, there were occasionally a few paintings, a few wooden sculptures,
and a few musical instruments.
An oil painting depicting a port city somewhere in the West Blue hung on the wall of the Brian Exchange, and passing Skypieans always stopped to take a look.
An old painter from Birka stood studying the oil painting for quite some time, then shook his head and returned to his workshop, where he found a panel of Processed Clouds and painted a view of Angel Island on it.
When he finished, he felt something was missing. He rummaged in a corner of his workshop for a small jar of blue paint bought from the Blue Sea, dipped the tip of his brush into it, and lightly dabbed it a few times where the sky was.
Afterward, he stepped back and studied it for a while, then set down his brush and hung the panel of Processed Clouds beside the oil painting.
Music crossed the language barrier more easily than painting.
The stringed instruments Skypieans made from Sky Coconut shells and Sky Fish skin had a deeper, more lingering tone than Blue Sea violins, like someone speaking in the distance.
To Skypiean ears, the accordions and harmonicas brought by Blue Sea sailors had a different flavor.
When the children in the Birka Church choir practiced, they occasionally added a passage or two of melodies learned from the Blue Sea. Those melodies mingled with the church's originally solemn tunes, and while the result could not be called harmonious, it was not unpleasant either.
The old monk conducting the choir listened several times with a frown, but ultimately let them keep