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This Breathing World |
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| .. there came a Saturday in September, on which a fair and a market coincided; and the pilgrims sought double delights at the inns on that account. It was a fine September evening, just before sunset, when yellow lights struggle with blue shades in hair-like lines, and the atmosphere itself forms a prospect without aid from more solid objects, except the innumerable winged insects that dance in it. Through this low-lit mistiness Tess walked leisurely along. |
The fall equinox is the day of the "Great Fair and Market Day" in Korim.
Unlike the TaKanar fair in the spring, this is a working fair. The early
harvests are in, true, but the buying and selling of food and animals is
of secondary importance. Merchants are there to show their wares,
especially any items that are of particular use over the long winter;
chandlers are well-represented, as are thatchers, clothes merchants and
shoemakers. Again, though, their wares are not the main attraction.
The focus of attention, the goods most talked about, the items that
are the subject of careful evaluation and study, are people.
The Korim fall fair is opened, after an invocation to the gods, by a parade of the young men, women, elves and dwarves that are of an age to be apprenticed. Wearing a blue badge pinned to their arms, they dedicate themselves to the service of the islands and declare their willingness to "work hard, study long and remain faithful" to whoever will take them on. The next three days feature many contests, mock-wars, story-tellings, songs, dance and other demonstrations that show the visiting masters who might serve them best.
Of course, many of the masters have already struck a deal with the families of the young men who are there. Silver, or occasionally even a gold, may be needed for a particularly unhandy youngster to become more attractive to a craftsman. The best masters, though, know that money is no recompense for an inapt pupil, and they treat an offer of metal as admission that the would-be apprentice is not worthy. Wise families do not antagonize such masters, and merely note to them, over the previous year, that they feel their progeny has a talent for leather-working, a way with goats, a knowledge of the way the winds work, a sure hand with a lathe, or a call to the church.
Many of the masters at the market day are not, in fact, observing the blue-badged youths as much as they are the green-badged yearlings, the ones a year away from their apprenticeship. The humans among them are thirteen or fourteen, and have already received a share of training over their last decade; it is not the way in the islands, as it is elsewhere, to apprentice early. The islanders do not like the idea of tight guilds and dedicated service. If challenged on this matter, they will quote the proverb "You don't say to the sapling: 'You will be a chair' or 'You will be a ship'. You wait until it is grown, then see what it might best become." It is true that even by the time they are twenty, islanders might still be only journeymen in their field, but the extra years spent at home in the fields, or learning letters and songs, or throwing a bola is counted as valuable experience even when the young lad in question is aprrenticed as a sailor.
The dwarves and elves respect this human-initiated custom and even though nearly every dwarf is chosen by a dwarven master, they still come to the fair to formally make their choice. And, though rare, it does happen that a master of one race chooses an apprentice from another. Perhaps the main reason for them to participate is the opportunity for their young to become one of the YearGuard.
The YearGuard are chosen from the best of the yearlings, based on their showing in the competitions (often against their blue-badged elders). They are organized into three Pents of five, each of which is given an area to serve. The YearGuard are fed and housed by the locals in that area, and in return, for their year, they act as the guard for that region; protecting it against minor undead and rogue animals, finding lost children and goats, and helping in community projects such as building new barns, digging wells or repairing after storms. Membership in the YearGuard is accounted a singular honor, and nearly all of the leaders in the islands were YearGuards. Membership virtually ensures that they will recive an offer of apprenticeship by a master.