The Audience Chamber - an excerpt

by John Williams

In its day the audience chamber was a true battle ground. These decorated walls were in themselves priceless pieces of art. The edges of said walls were sculped from pale stones in the shapes of people who should have names and families. The lining of the walls were hand painted from top to bottom. This marker of workmanship is nothing less than astounding because, Sethyn was convinced, that only a large team of the best artisans could achieve such a feat. All made within a lifetime where that selection must have been great, and the pool of talent greater. This was from a time when artisans had a station higher than any labourer or soldier.

He would walk along these walls to be inspired by the battle of wits that made the land of the Nordamm what it is today. He would shut his eyes and brush his hands over its markings and imagine being in the midst of those who stood here before him; moving as if chisel and paintbrush were held by his hand.

“With it, I would carve a new future—for the Nordamm”, He thought.

 “I do what I do for the Nordamm; and they can write my legend on as many walls as they like after I’m gone”.

The Audience Chamber was a place for sharp words and wit, and this is why some have used derogatory terms such as “bear pit” to describe it, but this is not so, it is only for the ill-prepared the ill-tempered or the plain stupid, that will find themselves torn and broken in here. So much that they do not return. Politics is not about the loudest, it never has been.

There is a reason that it is a chamber and not just a room or a hall. The acoustics were perfect for its purpose, the artisans new this. They were not just painters or sculptors; each part of the room was designed to be enjoyed by its occupants. For instance, the walls would amplify the speaker without echo, but if a group would diverge into argument or many tried to talk over each other, the reverberation would force them to halt in the incoherence.

When Sethyn was a boy he thought the walls were magic, until he realised when talents create marvels in their work, the untrained would measure it against their own (lack of) skill and reduce this talent, perseverance and commitment to mere…magic!

It took growing up to allow such magic to enter into his life and this began with music, in of all places, this very same audience chamber. Yes, the excitement of a four-piece composition telling the stories from his childhood through the strings and wind instruments. He could never master an instrument, neither did he want to. His place was to take pleasure from the art, except the folk music of “Elvegg” in any variation; it was a painfully slow song and the story behind it was even worse.

            When real music began in the Chamber it was like no other music existed before, it was the closest thing to “magic” one could be, without kneeling for prayer by a red autumn tree. Though Sethyn did not reject the old ways, he did not blindly accept its wild traditions either (unless it formed a flavourful recipe). He knew plenty of people with the power to fly, to generate fire from their hands or to influence the elements. He often noted these same powerful people put their focus entirely into their gifts. They all believe they are divinely chosen, but they couldn’t influence peanuts from a shell, and this is why no world leaders have these powerful gifts—none of them are thinkers.

            Sethyn could not fly, show remarkable strength or manipulate the elements, but he could speak well enough to be heard and in the Audience Chamber in the country of the Nordamm, that was all that matters.