Chapter 8

The Unbinding

After the Stale Years had gone on a long while, someone wrote down one small promise beside a date again. And that promise was kept. A small bell rang. People began to gather before the calendar once more.

Even now, when something greatly awaited arrives on its day, that is a dated promise kept once more, and true Unbound Light rises from it. At that tremor the old Dregs wake, thinking "my day has come." The Held walk out seven days before the promised day because they are living again the seven days that were slipped in long ago, still guarding something.

We do not fight them out of hatred. The fight is a way of saying, with our bodies, "you may set it down now." Long ago their neighbours' words never reached them, but an Unbinder's word has the right to be heard, because a true day stands behind it. That is why this work is called not killing but unbinding, and why we who gather at the calendar are called Unbinders.

The fight undoes the extra knot one loop at a time. Just before letting go, they clutch the hardest. That is not anger; it is one last knot tied once more. Only when fully unbound do they hear the bell they never heard that day, set down what they were holding, and are gone. In that place one object remains, and one song made of the heart that had been laden there.

Even if we cannot unbind them by the day, the Day still comes down. Then other people's Unbound Light brushes past them, and they fall asleep again, still bound, to wake once more at the next great wait. We go to meet them again then.

The DropDay calendar is a ledger of the dates on which they may finally rest. On the promised day, at the promised place. We will see you at the calendar.

End of chapter 8

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