The Color from Beyond Space
«Oh! Do you remember ko-oc? The color that is “whiter than white, purer than pure” that only the truly blessed can see? I have decided that it is not a color per se, but that the ability to perceive ko-oc is simply lluyewception,» Roroku wrote one day.
«A sense which you have and kysps do not?» I was pretty sure Roroku had the sense; everyone said she had come through her Great Separation intact. I didn’t know of any small people who had lluyewception, though later on I learned that the spens of Spendularé have a form of it.
«Exactly! So I did their test unambiguously. The pelt of a small climbing animal like a squirrel has a modestly attractive lluyew. So I bleached one white. I had the kysps construct a gross of identical boxes, and we put the pelt in one. We had all the interested kysps of Dwe-Mwe (that’s a big city) try to figure out which one it was in, and about one in 144 got it right. I picked it out every time of course. Cheating half the time! The right box smelled different too. Kysps can’t really smell.»
«Did this cause a theological rennaissance?»
«No, but it put to an end one quarrel between the Kogoans and some of their opponents. The Kogoans are my power base really, and I don’t mind keeping them happy in harmless little ways.»
So I lectured her for a while on why it’s a bad idea in the long term to play favorites. My experience counted for nothing in her estimation. I reminded of Rankotherium’s careful devotion to enforcing his laws fairly, and how his mhelvul have been content about it since we conquered Mhel, and that seemed to count for her.
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