THE HIGH TABLE

PLATE I

The Taking of Erynd

Memorandum of Lord Oryn:

The Empire does not conquer Kuluz for land. It harvests it for its extraordinary sons.

Administrative Note: Erynd of Kuluz was captured on the first day of his command—the last day of the Kingdom of Kuluz.

==

PLATE II

Award of the Prisoner 

Note: Transferred by decree of His Dire Grace the Oriarch.

Observation 4: 

The prisoner excelled equally in arms and verse. The latter gift appears the more significant.

==

PLATE III 

Oryn’s Laboratory

Private Letter of Lord Oryn:

Brother,

I selected him not for strength.

I selected him for survival.

==

PLATE IV

Observation 7:

The captives do not generate force.

They collect it.

==

PLATE V

Observation 12:

Reality does not resist him.

It refracts through him.

==

PLATE VI

Notebook of Erynd:

Captivity does not break a man.

It blurs him.

==

PLATE VII

Observation 18:

The body learns before the mind consents.

==

PLATE VIII

Observation 19:

The subject spoke only one word.

Three prisoners became incoherent.

The experiment was repeated at my request.

==

PLATE IX

Observation 20:

One subject who had heard the utterance executed a fellow prisoner without instruction or apparent motive. The effect appears durable.

==

PLATE X

Erynd's Notebook:

It pleased my master to bring me often to the house of his brother, the Lord Corrector. There Roland and I were made to contend. The brother-generals believed that between us lay the fragments of a complete man.

==

PLATE XI

PRIVATE LETTER:

Brother—

Where I expose, you reduce.

Together, perhaps,

something entirely new. 

We should exchange them.

For a season.

==

PLATE XII

Erynd's Notebook:

I admired him.

That was my second captivity.

==

PLATE XIII

Notebook:

Literature binds meaning to form.

Music refuses to specify.

It spreads like weather.

==

PLATES [UNNUMBERED]

Instruction of the Lord Corrector:

“Pain is his lens.”

==

 

Instruction:

“Write it again. The Fall of Kuluz.”

==

Instruction:

“Look closer. What if you are the magnifier?"

==

Instruction:

“His correction is yours."

==

Instruction:

“Watch him."

==

Instruction:

“Again."

==

Notebook:

His suffering became my lesson. 

==

Notebook:

My Lord invited me to punish my brother.

==

Notebook:

Roland never argued philosophy. He endured it.

==

Notebook:

I began to see myself in him.

==

Notebook:

Poetry names pain.

Music inhabits it.

==

Notebook:

Even as the Lord Corrector's Weapon, he still listened.

==

Notebook:

We each found our office.

==

Notebook:

My Lord determined I, too, needed correction.

Maxim:

Each slave of the Empire is given what he needs. 

==

Note: The original sequence of the following leaves has not survived.

==

Maxim:

Balance. 

==

Instruction:

“Hold."

==

Instruction:

“Do not anticipate."

==

Instruction:

“Stand."

==

Fragment:

At midnight, my heart opens.

==

==

Fragment:

The shield breaks.

==

==

Published: 2026-08-09, viewed 53 times.