Updraft: Update 2
Spoilers Ahead!
Note: After more listening, I think Nell’s name is closer to Ellna so I’m switching. There needs to be an IMDB for books so I could look this stuff up. If I had the time, I’m be tempted to make one.
I listened to most of chapter 3 on the way home from work. As per their punishment, Nat and Kirit are in a lower tier of the tower where they clean out the refuse and scrub the bone. The lowest tiers are not unoccupied, however. They are home to some of the elderly and infirm who fall through the cracks of this society and into the lowest of social rungs. Nat and Kirit encounter an old man who appears to be only part sane. Ellna treats him with kindness and respect, instructing Nat and Kirit to do the same, and he even helps them toss junk out of the tower. After getting teased by some fellow flying lessons students, they quit for the day and the old man gives Nat a string of old bone chips that he and Kirit assume are just laws.
Laws are important in this world of bone and sky where resources are scarce. We learn that Kirit and everyone else starts to learn them as children by singing the laws–first as children’s songs, but growing in complexity as they learn more. In fact singing laws about flying is part of her and Nat’s upcoming wing-test where which they must pass to gain the right to fly away from the tower without supervision.
Kirit is pretty nervous about the test. It’s the day after tomorrow and they still have to clean three tiers of the lower tower. She sees the wing-test as a pivot point in her life. If she passes, then she’ll go on to apprentice as a trader with her mother. If she fails, then she thinks she won’t be able to keep from being taken to the Spire to become a singer. All the cleaning means that she and Nat will miss two days of flying lessons, and she know she has weaknesses to address.
The bone chips that the old man, Tobia?, gave Nat also turn out to be more interesting than they thought. The carvings on the chips aren’t like what they expected and they can’t figure out what exactly they are, though later Kirit realizes that some of the carvings remind her of the tattoos that the singers have. I wonder what the connection is. Kirit also has a dream where Ellna discovers the string of bone chips and gets very angry with Kirit for having them without telling her what the chips are. The real Ellna doesn’t have any particular reaction to them. Obviously there is something important about these chips.
During my morning commute I finished chapter 3 and most of chapter 4.
Kirit and Nat start work on the three tiers of lower tower than remain to be clean. Tobia returns and helps them by driving away other denizens in this squalid area, leaving Kirit and Nat to work uninterrupted. During a break for lunch, of which Kirit shares a little bit of with Tobia, Tobia gets upset when he discovers that Kirit has the string of chips he gave Nat. He settles down when Nat takes them again and indicates that they once belonged to Nat’s father and with saying some other stuff that Nat and Kirit can’t understand. If they once belonged to Nat’s father, did they anything to do with him getting tossed from the tower? These bone chips just keep getting more interesting.
But Kirit doesn’t have time to worry about that now. They still need to finish the last tier as the day starts to fade. When they climb up, they discover the level is already clean and Ellna is waiting for them. A tower official is there too, Magister Vance, who is hostile toward Kirit’s mother. He is obviously disappointed that Kirit finished in time to take her wing-test tomorrow, but he still cuts off the punishment chips from her and Nat. When they leave the level, Ellna leaves a gift/payment for whoever actually did the cleaning. I’m thinking it was probably Tobia. Kirit adds one of her scarves to the gift as well.
Kirit’s mother has sent a message that she won’t be back until after the wing-test due to being delayed. She also had a goose (a luxury) delivered to Ellna so Kirit and Nat could get a good meal the night before the test. Nat speculates on being a hunter, guard, or maybe a wing-fighter (a sport) after passing the wing-test. Being a trader is all Kirit wants. Kirit’s wings are also brought Ellna, but they aren’t Kirit’s new adult wings. Instead they are her old wings, though freshly mended. Kirit is disappointed that her mother won’t be there to see the test and that she won’t be using her new wings, but recognizes her mother’s wisdom in using the wings she’s practiced with. She practices moves with her wings inside since it is too dark to really fly, which they are allowed to do if they stay close to the tower. There’s a lot of detail about the wings in this section and it’s pretty interesting. Nat is less concerned, relying on his natural talent for flying.
We’ve got the mysterious bone chips and the upcoming wing-test on which Kirit feels her whole future depends. I’ll check in after my next listen. So far, so good. I’m liking this book.
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