#khajee

[phytochorion]

How the Forest Finds the Island

Chapter Seven - Blurring the Boundaries

Before he knew it, Sen found patches of green and red lichen brightening the trunks of his trees. He had to admire Askarya's eye for composition. While sharing the same living space, both of them mostly got on with their own business, but they were happy to stop and catch up when they passed the other by.

The height of summer rolled around, and as Sen had feared, the little creek began to dry up. It didn't disappear entirely, though, and the roots of the ginkgo saplings had now developed enough that water was no longer a serious concern. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, two of the saplings that had been afflicted with rootworm didn't make it. He was observing the algal flora of the creek one day when he saw that their leaves had yellowed and were beginning to fall. The others still had their summer foliage, but it looked like autumn had already come for this pair.

Sen did what he could to stabilise them, but ultimately death took them, and they were reclaimed by the soil.

⸙ ⸙ ⸙

For the next week or two, Sen wandered in a cloud of apathy. Death was a natural part of life, it was true, but it cut him to his core when he lost something so important.

Si-woo and Askarya had come to stand with him the day after the trees had died. Si-woo performed a ritual to appeal to the souls of the island, beseeching safe passage for the souls of these two little trees back to where they had been given life.

Sen had appreciated that. And he still had the rest of the grove to care for. But all the same, the excitement and wonder of finding himself in a freshly moulded world had dulled somewhat. With his motivation ground down, he wished he had some new task to distract him, but there was nothing except his routine. Photosynthesize, water, check for parasites, sleep. Repeat.

One evening he sat looking out across the plain. It was much the same as it had ever been. The ground cover was getting denser though, and patches that had been bare earth and rock before were now claimed by new kinds of moss and ferns, slower to get here but suited for a life where others couldn't thrive.

Askarya, who he had barely seen since the funeral, poked their head through the leaves.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Go ahead." Sen managed a smile.

The lichen fairy settled down, legs kicking in the air. They were silent for a few minutes.

"What's the good of magic," wondered Sen "if it can't save what we love?"

Askarya pondered this. At length, they spoke. "The purpose of magic is not to overcome the natural world, but rather, to help us find our place within it."

Sen looked at them sidelong, eyebrow raised and trying not to show how impressed he was.

"Don't you sound wise all of a sudden. Is that your own realisation?"

"I'd like to say yes, but truth be told, I heard it from my uncle."

"Well, he sounds an insightful man."

Sen tasted the air with his delicate crown, picking up mostly the smell of dust.

"You mentioned your cousin before. Do you have any other family?"

"No, just those two," sighed Askarya. "My cousin's name is Likhith. We're not on bad terms or anything, but he can be a little shit. Had a whole island to himself and wouldn't even share it."

"Hey, look on the bright side," enthused Sen. "You wouldn't have met me otherwise!"

Askarya snorted through their nose. "My uncle is Pankaja. He's old, very old. To listen to him, you'd swear he was the first one out of the sea when the planet was young. I don't know if I fully believe that, but he's a treasure trove of information and stories, all the same."

They trailed off, watching the sun dip down.

"I miss him. I have no idea where he is now. Keeps a low profile, so whenever I meet up with him it's down to luck more than anything. Still, it's never lonely. Have you met Khajee?"

Sen gave them a blank stare.

"No, of course you haven't," mulled Askarya. "Well, no time like the present."

They stood, walked backwards and spread their arms, the lichenous thalli all over their body raising. Sen watched, enthralled.

Askarya began to chant silently, lips forming syllables he couldn't quite catch. They moved their body and limbs, fluid yet frenetic, before throwing their head back as a warm glow enveloped them. Before Sen's dazzled eyes, the gentle light took on the form of a figure standing alongside Askarya.

They were the same height as the lichen fairy, dressed in flowing robes and a loose headscarf. The most unusual thing was that they seemed translucent, especially at their edges, as though in the process of fading into the background. Sen had to squint and adjust his focus a few times to make sure his vision wasn't playing tricks on him.

"Gongsun, I'd like to introduce you to Khajee," smiled Askarya, "my partner."

Sen blinked. "Wow. Um, alright, I… ahem, it's a pleasure to meet you, Khajee."

They bowed to each other.

"Likewise, Gongsun," the hazy fairy answered in lilting tones. Now that the light had faded, Sen could see that all throughout, from their skin and filamentous tresses to their clothes, Khajee was suffused with a deep ochre tint.

"So, how long have you been together?" Inquired Sen.

The two looked at each other.

"Spathian, was it?", estimated Khajee.

"Yeah, early Spathian," confirmed Askarya.

"Wow," Sen repeated, "that's quite the commitment."

"No kidding, hasn't always been easy, but we made it work," teased Askarya, putting an arm around Khajee, who rolled their eyes.

"Having someone there for you when times get tough is essential, you know?", the orange-hued fairy added.

"Yeah," nodded Sen, though to tell the truth, he wasn't familiar with the feeling.

"Well, if that'll be all…" Khajee trailed off. "Good to get to know you a bit better, Gongsun."

"The same to you, I'm happy to chat any time!"

Askarya watched them contentedly, then tilted their head back and uttered a string of syllables. Just like that, Khajee was gone, the only sign of their existence an orange glow fading around their partner.

⸙ ⸙ ⸙

Late summer had come and gone. Autumn rolled around. The savoured rains arrived, to the relief of all.

Sen finally felt he could relax. His surviving trees were thriving, big enough to accumulate some defensive compounds and fend off parasites on their own, now that they were no longer water-stressed.

With little to do, he ended up visiting Si-woo more often. The progymnosperm fairy had lashed a bundle of dead branches together into a raft, and it was here, floating on the lake, that they met up. Some of Si-woo's trees were already mature and starting to spread their spores, so he collected any which remained unfertilised and pressed them together with water and spilled resin into little cakes.

One day, drifting on the current under the fading sun, Si-woo mentioned that he'd been back to the spot they had visited together.

"Tadgh's terracing is working as planned. You should see the place, with this rain it's already transforming itself from dry overlook to verdant fen!"

"I'd love to, perhaps I'll fly out tomorrow," mused Sen. "I wonder if Askarya would object to being carried?"

Si-woo snorted, taking a bite of his cake. "Dare you to try."

Sen laughed, looking around. "Water level's come up a bit. I'm sure your trees are glad."

"Oh, totally! And with all the spores they're producing, they should establish in this area nicely. Problem is, though, if these ones keep reproducing with each other, they'll run short on filial diversity in no time."

"The same with my ginkgos," noted Sen. "I only brought two seeds, both from the same tree. And the other cuttings are extensions of myself, so they’re all ramets."

Si-woo looked coastward. "I don't fancy flying all the way back to Epiphyllia. Transporting spores is a nightmare in any case. They spill like nobody's business."

"I wonder if there's an easier way," continued Sen. "The flight I made nearly killed me, but I'm not familiar with the climate or air currents around here. Perhaps if there's a strong prevailing wind, or other islands to use as stopping-off points, it'd be more feasible."

"The climate here is unpredictable," added Si-woo. "These islands are diverting whole air masses around them as they grow."

"I've noticed," murmured Sen. "Epiphyllia is drying. It's what pushed me to fly out here in the first place, and you, I take it. And I'm certain we won't be the last."

[crepusculesque]

What if your daughter committed war crimes so horrendous you disowned her? What if you got a surrogate daughter who did worse but you didn’t see it? What if they started fucking each other?

[codex-doctrinae]

Hey Ssrin. What did you mean when you called Khaje your "bitter bipedal bride?" Like I'm not denying there's definitely Something there between you two but it was definitely not equivalent to the human conception of marriage. Accounting for magic Freudian slips anomalies in aereteic translation, do Khai have an institution analogous to marriage that your relationship to Khaje reminds you of, or do you think Khaje considers herself your bride?

And what were you doing with Khaje in the couple odd months between moving out of her daughter's place and immanentizing the corpse of a stillborn angel onto the site of their greatest trauma? Like obviously there was the reflexive attempted murder when she first witnessed Your Dread Glory and erotically patching her up afterwards, but was it really just weeks of elaborating on how redeemable of a slut Anna is?

Really, can you just describe, in your own words, what your relationship with your soul mate's mother is? Spare no breath, I want all the gory details. Please and thank you

[meikuree]

the relationships I came out of Exordia feeling most compelled by were:

Khaje, Arin, and Anna/Jiyan, aka weird snarly triangle of platonic jealousy between a slighted actual daughter, her estranged mother, and said mother’s sort-of surrogate daughter

Khaje and Ssrin

Anna and Ssrin but specifically their New York divergence then re-convergence after the prequel

Arin’s relationship to jineology

AND MOST OF ALL SSRIN’S relationship with her sister Ssenenet, who is mentioned for a total of 1.98 pages out of 576 but haunts the entire narrative and is cloaked in SO MUCH enticing mystery and implication, she probably catapulted ssrin into serendure and then catalysed iruvage’s invasion and a betrayal of ssrin. who is ssenenet because I have been drumming up 18372 dna helixes of headcanons over her being a salvation cult-esque figure and ssrin’s (loving yet begrudging?) loyalty to her. also they canonically have a metaphysical sister complex, see that bit about the wound in ssrin’s soul being in ssenenet’s shape. please Seth how did you manage to pull all this off and jab your snake women’s spurs into my heart off 3 paragraphs

more pet theories: ssenenet might’ve forced ssrin into pulling a trolley problem (see [spoiler detail] near the end) and/or set off on a path of committing more khai trolley problems with the earth invasion, but what am I saying their entire society is built on a huge profane little trolley problem

and of course, the relationships I did not so much feel compelled by as much as wanted to skim over but nevertheless respect:

Davoud and planes

[mouse-sucks]

Performing WILDFIRE on TRAPPED IN PORTLAND

[unendingliveblogging]

if i had a nickel every time ssrin called khaje her "bitter bipedal bride" i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

[a-green-onion]

Exordia supplementary reading page 140:

"[Arîn Tawakuli is] an Apoist and a true believer in jineology and Khaje resents her."

https://carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/diwan/2014/05/the-syrian-experiment-with-apoism?lang=en¢er=middle-east

[night-dark-woods]

not to be both a "guy who has only read destiny lore: getting some real destiny vibes from this" and a bitch who has the marasenna functionally memorized and can access any part of it in my bbc sherlock mind palace shrine to mara sov. HOWEVER. the double hit of both of these sections in the last few pages of exordia was a LOT to handle.

Exordia transcript:

[her] body can barely sustain the tension and uncertainty, the coiled-under-a-stone waiting. There's so much ahead. So much that could go wrong. Not even Rosamaria knows the whole truth (thank God, though not the God of her birth: never thank It).

Tyrannocide IV transcript:

The plan exists in her mind alone, although beloved Eris has by necessity learned most of it. The Techeuns do not know the whole plan, although they will position the Harbingers upon the threshold. Even sweet capable Petra does not know the whole plan.

Exordia transcript:

Ssrin follows Khaje's warm track. "Your people's salvation lies ahead of us. We have no way to return to Earth and break the Exordia interdict. To do that, we would need to convince the galaxy to challenge its reigning superpower. I ask nothing less of you than your help in that war. Defeat the Exordia, and we can return to save your people."

Katabasis transcript:

"Will you join me, Awoken? Will you answer my call? All I offer you is hardship and death. All I ask is everything you can offer. But you will see an older starlight. You will walk in a deeper dark than this world has ever known."

[cadmean]

just finished reading Seth Dickinson's new novel Exordia and oh my god what a good book.

I won't pretend that the sudden swerve from Act 1 to Act 2 didn't catch me offguard, because it absolutely did, but I liked it! The story Exordia ended up telling was not one that could've been done with the limited POV and space of the alien meet-cute of Act 1!Ssrin-and-Anna.

That said I would've liked more Anna POVs after they set down in Kurdistan. I get why there wasn't, but just a biiiit more of hers instead of Erik's would've been neat.

The other characters were cool too though! Loved Chaya and Khaje and Huang Lim especially, and also tragically Iruvage.

Mainly because Iruvage is hilarious. Like, I'm sorry, the dude's a giant dick but he is VERY funny and I was very glad that he survived to the end. Would love to know more about him and his sponsor (Ssrin's sister?)

THAT WORLDBUILDING THOUGH. Holy shit!!!! Love it to pieces and I desperately want to know more about literally everything. How's everyone doing with physical corpses of gods just floating about in space? What are the other alien civs like, exactly? What made Ssrin go rebel, and why is her peace-loving sister now apparently funding people like Iruvage?? WHY IS THE CULTRATIC BRAND THE WAY IT IS

Not sure how to feel about Erik-Clayton-"Rosamaria" tbh. I liked that we got to see the actual Rosamaria on-page near the end, though.

very fun body horror, on that note.

But yes it was a very cool book!!! Would def recommend.

[botanli09]

YouTube'da "soheyla khaje sözleri türkçe , en çok aranan şarkının Türkçesi" videosunu izleyin

[novawinter]

I can't believe Khaje's first impression of Davoud, an Iranian fighter pilot who sold his soul for a spaceship was "He should be at the club."

[sumutberitaaja]

Ribuan Keturunan Khaje Juhakh di Aceh Tenggara Komitmen Menangkan Salim Fakhry

KUTACANE, Waspada.co.id – Ribuan keturunan Khaje Juhakh Alas, yang meliputi marga Sekedang di Kabupaten Aceh Tenggara, berkomitmen akan memenangkan pasangan Salim Fakhry-Heri Al-Hilal, pada perhelatan Pilkada 2024 nantinya. Komitmen tersebut, disepakati pada acara penyerahan benda pusaka Khaje Juhakh, di Desa Perapat Titi Panjang, Mangga Dua, Babussalam, Aceh Tenggara, Minggu (25/8). Acara penyerahan benda pusaka yang […] http://dlvr.it/TCLr1r

[phytochorion]

Askarya

Name: Askarya

Pronouns: They/Them

Class Represented: Arthoniomycetes

Age: Induan, Early Triassic

Height: 5.3 centimetres

Eye colour: Red

Magical Proclivity: Balanced

Spells: Pancha Bhoota, Maha Bandha, Māyā, Samskara, Rasāyana

A slender fungus fairy with skin encrusted by various forms of lichen. They’re dry and sardonic by nature, but trustworthy and no-nonsense. This isn’t to say that they’re completely immune to getting dragged into drama.

As a lichen, they occupy a role somewhere between the other fungus fairies and the plant fairies, not fully meshing with either community but liaising between both. As lichens are photosynthetic, however, their preferred habitats tend to be more similar to those of plants, and thus, Askarya spends the majority of their time in the company of the phytofairies.

Their symbiotic algal partner is named Khajee and represents Trentepohliales. This Order is part of Class Ulvophyceae, known as green algae, but certain Trentepohliales contain abundant carotenoids which grant them a vivid orange colour. Khajee normally resides as a comfortable, mutualistic presence within Askarya’s body, as their own physical form is less substantial than that of other fairies. If either of them wish, Khajee can appear alongside Askarya, an incorporeal yet supportive companion with a gentle, amber aura.

[meikuree]

the vanguards of the dispossessed

Fandom: Exordia - Seth Dickinson Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Arîn Tawakuli & Jiyan "Anna" Sinjari Characters: Jiyan “Anna” Sinjari, Khaje Sinjari, Haydar Tawakuli, Soheila Tawakuli, Ssrinsahautha-ku-Ssraaa | Ssrin, Arîn Tawakuli Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Post-Canon, Character Study, Iraqi Kurdistan

ao3 link

But that was how she grew up: Arîn, daughter of everyone, favourite of nobody, a communal product. The first patriot of democratic confederalism. She hadn’t been taught to abandon Tawakul in times of trouble.

Or: Arîn, Anna, and an unspoken convergence.

-

written for Be The First 2024, a challenge to write the first fic for a fandom.

alternative summary:

Arîn: hi khaje! 😇 Khaje: oh look, it's arin again. she sucks because she cares about me 🙄

[trackmelodycom]

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[ilikereadingactually]

Exordia

Exordia by Seth Dickinson

this is a difficult book to review. i really enjoyed the Baru Cormorant books, though they took me a while to get through and had a little too much economics and politics for my personal taste, and the beginning of this book really captured me in a similar way. Seth Dickinson has a prose style that appeals to me, and his books thus far have had an imaginative complexity that i enjoy. this particular book turned out to be very much not my thing, but i can definitely see what kinds of readers would enjoy it. so i want to emphasize that i think the writing is good, the overall plotting is skillful, and that the opinions i'm going to express about the book overall were things i didn't like but things others surely will like, because i think Dickinson is a skilled writer. my experience was disappointing, but it's not really about the quality of the book, just that it was not at all what i expected in a way i didn't end up enjoying.

this started out as an alien book, with the fun combo of horror and humor that plopping aliens down in the very real modern world can produce. Anna, a young Kurdish woman living in New York, and Ssrin, an alien she spots in Central Park, have an immediate bond. the kind of fun, unhealthy, weird bond that two beings who have lived through horrors and are sharing an apartment can have with each other, accentuated by interesting alien biology and culture and the sense of a coming large-scale conflict on the horizon. i loved this part of the book, i think it will stick with me.

then it became very much a military book--our military and foreign militaries--in a way that felt similar to how a blockbuster alien or superhero movie can sometimes be suddenly about the military response rather than the average person response. it also became a theoretical math book?? which was rough for me, a person who does not understand math at all. some of the characters we met after that initial introduction with Anna and Ssrin were interesting, but i didn't love any of them in the way i wanted to; i got overwhelmed by the amount of jargon i didn't understand and, personally, didn't care about. it was a very long book, and the bulk of it was really tough going for me, and the ending did not really pay off enough to make up for it (though i did like the ways that things tied up). so, very much not a book for me, disguised as a book i thought would be up my alley.

but! complex and well-written, an intriguing premise, interestingly morally complicated, and i think it will please a lot of readers.

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley from NetGalley, which i am grateful to have had access too in spite of the difficulty i had actually reading it, lol

try this if you: are into the fiddly details of government and military response to aliens, dig a lot of math, appreciate complicated moral grayness, enjoy summer blockbusters that are also very smart

may not for you if: you need to avoid intense military/racial violence or somewhat graphic body horror

a line i really liked: love a Diane Duane reference and also cool turns of phrase

She steps around him to stand in his wind shadow. It's a little warmer there. "An enemy of death. Reminds me of books I liked." He looks curiously at her. "In life's name, for life's sake...?" "Yeah." She grins. Khaje groans and stirs on her stretcher. "You nerd." He grins back at her. "Me? Weren't you too old for books like that by the time you learned English?" "You're never too old to be a wizard." "I think in those books you could actually be too old to be a wizard." "Shut up," she says. "You virgin."

___

It is the opposite of volition: a bulge of pure reaction, a synthetic dimple where there should be the well of a soul, coursing through the landscape of the areteia like a roach meandering through stained cupboards by the waving of its antennae. It abominates downward, following the thread of awareness that connects it to Zhenya's mind. It passes through the rifle scope, into his eye, into his soul.

pub date: January 23, 2024!