ForgeFyre

[Jubal]

The world as the child sees it is different. She sees clearly. Her eyes are young and crisp and see... everything.

How is a birch different from an oak? From a pine? She looks, she feels the bark, sniffs the resin. She counts the twigs on the branches, and remembers. When she goes into the village or wanders around the house it is always the same, always remembering, always looking.

She knows the difference between hands that have worked with a plough and with a needle and with a pen; she can tell from feel what brass and bronze and steel are, the difference of their colour. She knows from memory the inscriptions on every column in the temple, and can draw any of the villagers' faces near-perfectly, as she saw them yesterday, as she saw them last week, as she saw them when she was a year younger and even wider of eye and fresher of face.

Occasionally she is surprised to find that not everyone can do this.

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