The Threnody

The Threnody’s voice carries farther than his frail appearance suggests. His master buried captains from many houses, and he learned each name so the dead would not depend on a record that might burn, be stolen, or be altered.

When the master died, the list became the Threnody’s responsibility, and the order that had shared the burden was dissolved soon after. So he sings the names himself, once a year, from the bridge of Slow Procession, on a channel the Dominion no longer monitors. The full song takes most of a day. Nobody official listens, and that has not shortened it.

He sings rather than reads because a voice can carry uncertainty as well as fact. When he does not know which account of a death is true, the song says so. The Threnody welcomes anyone who can help him remember accurately, but he will not drop a name to please the living. A book can be confiscated. His memory has proved much harder to take.