Updraft: Update 6

Spoilers ahead!

So much has happened and I have so little time to post about it.

Kirit has started her singer training and it’s a bit like the Karate Kid where she does a lot of manual work, but still learns. Actually, it isn’t anything like the Karate Kid since the manual work doesn’t really relate to what she’s learning in classes. Whatever, she learns stuff quickly and even starts flying inside the Spire where she learns to fly the Singer way. The Spire has like a big shaft inside it that is open at the top call the Gyre.

Then the city roars. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but the city makes a huge sound that reverberates through the Spire and towers. I know the city is a living thing since it grows bone and stuff, but I don’t know what it’s nature is. Is it like a coral reef, or is it something more? Anyhow, the Singers act quickly to appease the city with a ceremony called the Conclave. Laws-breakers are brought from the towers and then, well, dropped to their deaths by the Singers. This was a big roar form the city, so thirty people are sacrificed. The last conclave happened well before Kirit was born so she isn’t used to this and is horrified. The sacrificed people are called ‘cloudbound’.

She has a talk with Rommal about it and learns more about the Singers. He tells her the sacrifices are needed because if the city isn’t appeased and continues to rage, then whole towers will fracture and fall away killing thousands. Kirit wonders if there is another way, but Rommal dismisses that. She also finds out the reason Nat’s father was thrown down. Nat’s father was preparing to sell a Singer secret and was turned in by a friend. That friend was Kirit’s father who had left the Spire to live in the towers for time in what the Singers call an excursion. Those born in the Spire sometimes take these excursions before they are clearly marked as a Singer. The secret was how to fly at night, something only Singers can do when it is dark. Kirit and Nat had flown as night descended, but that was at All-Moons where the moonlight is bright. I’m guessing it’s possible to do some flying on such nights, but it is still illegal for all but Singers.

So, Kirit also finds who Nat’s father was going to sell the secret too–Kirit’s mother. So Kirit’s father apparently turned his friend, Nat’s father, in order to save Ezrait. Family is never simple. Kirit recovers from this information and wants to learn the secret to flying at night. Rommal tells her basically that there’s no turning back from her Singer training if she starts to learn and Kirit agrees. She’s marked with tattoo on her hand and her training begins.

It turns out the Singers use echo-location to help them fly at night and Kirit starts to learn the secret with the help of Wick and Sellas (who has warmed up to Kirit somewhat). She’s quick to learn. Ah she also finds out that the young Magister than led her on her solo flight during the wing-test is Wick’s brother and was also Spire-born. Ok, I think that shoots down my theory that Wick could be an unknown half-brother or something. Maybe he’s attracted to Kirit, there seems to be a little something there when they touch as Wick is helping her. Wick is described as a young man so perhaps he’s reasonably close to Kirit’s age. Dunno for sure.

Kirit picks up echo-location quickly and gathers with Wick and Sellas for her first flight at night and her first flight outside of the Spire since she arrived there. And that’s where I leave off.

Still lots of very interesting world building. Fran does a great job of bringing this world to life.  I feel like another big development is coming soon. Kirit is getting pretty comfortable in her new Spire life and when things get too comfortable in a novel, you can figure something is going to happen.

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