His head was bowed
thoughtfully, with his hand to his chin, stroking his beard sagely.
"Humph! Mm, yes," Emperor Euphrates nodded, as he agreed readily enough
with Borla's idle comment. "It has been fetched far alright; all the
way from the land of Noah. But--how can one possibly determine what
degree of truth there be in such a case?"
The question was asked of no one in particular, and there was no reply
forthcoming.
Then Emperor Euphrates turned to Si'Wren, and said, "Well chosen were
you, Si'Wren, of all possible souls, to be appointed Royal Scribe,
against this day of judgement by your strange Invisible God, who
regards all idols with such abomination, and whom this great prophet
Noah also worships, even as you. Make a proper summary of our words,
and so mark the record as befits all that you have heard. You may use
one tablet."
Si'Wren bowed low and quickly began to enter long, tiny lines of dainty
hash markings with her ivory sticks.
When Emperor Euphrates told her she had one, two, three, or more
tablets with which to record, he was usually giving her a pretty good
idea of the scope of the spontaneous summarizing and editing which was
expected of her.
One tablet, here, was significant because of the brevity and impact of
the record called for.
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