125 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
125 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
REC ON
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TRN ON
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ENC FAILED
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SYS GOOD
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Entry 4 -- Sister Asiya
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I am Asiya, called Choden in Hazen, Tashi among the drokpa, named
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Lobsang by the lama after the eighty-second of his name, and this
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is my story. I give it to the stars that you might know me and
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know our plight. If I succeed, let this be my testament. If
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I fail, may my words carry the mantel to your shoulders. The Jinn
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are enemies of all life. They are your enemy, my sisters.
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My village in the southern mountains of Hazen's Emirat continent
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was called Shannan Karpek. We were far from the influence of the
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emir and lived the old ways. My brother inherited our farm when
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our bubākō passed. He was a devout child and grew to become an
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honest man I was proud of, my Utkrishta. He met a muslima while
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trading and they were to be married with the next harvest
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celebration. This was not unknown in Shannan Karpek where we all
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understood the Buddha and Allah as the faces of a coin. I was
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proud of my brother, as were my sisters and our cousins.
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Through all of this I was a herdswoman, a shepherdess, and my kyr
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were lush and beautiful. I was too young still to be married, but
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already I knew my passion in flesh was not for men. This also was
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not unknown in Shannan Karpek. My brother loved me, as did my
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sisters and our cousins.
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The season of growing and birth was upon the land when the Jinn
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came to Hazen. We saw nothing of this at first being so far from
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the cities and star ports. Even when word reached us of the
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fighting and the dying, our elders spoke with sadness about these
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things happening far away. The Jinn had no reason to come to
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Shannan Karpek, no reason to take our kyr and our wheat. They flew
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in cities among the stars. They ate stardust and the light. They
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could create wonders and destroy cities with ease. We were safe.
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My brother's cry woke me in the night. It was sharp and high, the
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sound he made as a child waking from a nightmare. But he was not
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a child any longer and my fear grew. So quickly roused from sleep,
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perhaps I still had something of the dream upon my eyes, or
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perhaps I knew something terrible had come deep in my heart.
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I know that I was a coward then, whatever the reason. My brother
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cried out and I froze. I did not go to him. When other voices
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began to join his, when the village was filled with screaming,
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I did not go to them. I hid.
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I crawled first beneath my bedding, and then into a corner of
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a storage cellar under our flooring. From my hiding place,
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I listened to the suffering of my family and friends. I listened
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as they were gathered up and torn apart, one after another. Men
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torn to shreds, women in pieces, even the children. My people were
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butchered like kyr at market. The screams. The endless screams. My
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people took days to die while I hid. Between sobbing I ate stored
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goods in the crawlspace under my hut. I stayed in fear and shame,
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lying in pools of my own waste waiting for those screams to end.
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My shame. It knows no limits.
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The Jinn are not like us, sisters. They do not have hearts of men,
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though they may look like men when they choose. They are not
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created as we are, called toward goodness and family. They do not
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battle and war to preserve what they have or even for conquest of
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land and goods that they need. They do not make war, they make
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havoc and pain. They butchered us in the mountains, they butchered
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us in the cities. They left one village untouched for every twenty
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ruined, driven into dust. That village they visited and gifted the
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meat. Those poor, poor people. They... they were forced to accept
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our meat.
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The Jinn knows our ways and our customs. They know our souls and
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they know how to injure us there at the core of our faith. They do
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not seek to kill us, they want us broken. They watch as we rot
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from the inside.
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I am a coward who survived the massacre of Shannan Karpek, who
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survived the ruin of the Emirat, who survived the consumption of
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Hazen. There are others who lived, but none of them survived. I am
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alone in my shame and honor.
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These women with me share that burden. We are what happens when
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the pick strikes a stone in the field. The earth may be tilled
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again and again. Then, with a suddenness that can only come to
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those who are assured of their control, a piece of flint. The
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sparks will fly soon. They will seem small in the vastness of
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space and time, but we have a secret.
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We know the Jinn. We now know their ways and customs. We know
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their souls, or lack thereof. We do not seek to kill them. We will
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break them so fully that their rot will consume them.
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I have no life remaining but the one they gave me that night in
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Shannan Karpek. I have no path left but the one they set me upon.
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All of our Gods have seen what will come. The Jinn have none to
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warn them, so I will do it myself.
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I have shared with you in the clear. I do not hide my story from
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the Jinn or from my sisters. It will not save them from what is to
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come. Let them burn with my words upon their lips.
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To my sisters--
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EMAHO
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No-tsar sang-gyä nang-wa ta-yä dang
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yä-su jo-wo tug-je chen-po dang
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yön-du sem-pa tug-chen tob-nam-la
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sang-gyä chang-sem pag-me kor-gi-kor.
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De-kyi no-tsar pag-du me-pa-yi
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de-wa-chen-she-cha-wä shin-kam-der
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dag-ni di-nä tse-pö-jur-ma-tag
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kye-wa shen-kyi bar-ma chö-pa-ru.
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De-ru kye-nä nang-tä shäl-tong shog
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de-kä dag-ki mön-lam tab-pa-di
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chog-chu’i sang-gyä chang-sem tam-chä-kyi
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geg-me trub-par chin-ji-lab-tu-sol.
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TAYATA BENTSA DRI AWA BODHA NA YE SOHA
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Asiya
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