The Tervial

  "Please turn to your textbook, page 145. Tedrossan will read."   "Ya-yam, kenesset, sobili... Yakenet, umbara, solon."   "Who knows what this means?"   The whole class shrugged.   Tedrossan raised his hand.   "Yes Tedrossan?"   "It says just below... Nonsense phrases picked from a syllabary, 345AK, The Tervial, My Ideal Structures."   "You should continue then, so we can experience the full force of his discourse."   "This section is in Kagomine?"   "Yes?"   "Wasn't he Handy?"   "He indeed was, your textbook has a translation, as his archaic Handy would be quite unintelligible to most people alive."   "I am thought, thought made form, form given movement, given direction, given force. I am action, action given purpose, given meaning, given intent. I am desire, desire given want, want given limits, I am not an animal.   Whatever I am is belief, without purpose and belief, I am an animal. Check your privilege, just because I am not a believer, I am not chattel, nor unworthy, I only do not have the veneer of belief. Giving the veneer of belief to genocide is a heresy, and a crime. Much in Hand is hard-fought and even harder-won. Much in Hand is thankless, but neither thoughtless nor witless. Storm away your cares, they will still be there, the elements themselves play lotto with lives, in order to save even more lives. The virtues themselves bargain, for a bigger prize. I am a servant, yet I am also a Master, or Mistress, compared to you, dependant on my mood. I serve out of devotion, to a greater power, I serve out of love and emotion. I am neither commotion, nor sedition. But, all in all, I would rather be. I am the skills you see, I cannot be, yet I am the act you foresee."   "What does this tell us about the author?"   "Was the author herself... genderfluid?"   "We cannot be totally sure, but it would fit the current definition of the term, if not the term at the time, which, in archaic hand, did not as of yet, exist. The Tervial is attested by contemporary sources to have been Intersex, in the biological sense, however, and so her representation of that term is one of the oldest on record."   The class squirmed.   "Yes?"   "Was she both, or neither?"   "She was, physically, both, according to Alexandramas, who was for a time her lover. To what degree and under what constraints was not however, recorded. Does it matter?"   "It seems she's expressing it..."   "Ah, yes, or at least, there is a declaration there, if not as both, then certainly, as genderfluid, as you asked. The 'I am a Master, or Mistress, dependant on my mood.', has generated much debate, as if she could be anything but who she was."   "Do we have records?"   "They were recorded in Hand, as a Sorceror, in a primary source. That is attested, it is written, in a document we can request a copy of, if not the original, please do not request the original, we do not have such a budget..."   "Can accredited historians ask for the original?"   "If they have rich patrons, or work at a prestigious institution, perhaps they can."  

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  "What's that you're holding, Linni?"   "The Tervial's My Ideal Structures, the original."   "I thought it was funny you'd be holding a clay tablet. I didn't know you read Hand..."   "I don't, I have a Jade AR overlay to translate..."