The Temple of the Zenith

The Temple crowns the spur of Auren, and everything in the city descends from it. It is a long mass of white marble with grey veins, a colonnaded front and, at the far end, the golden dome, gilded since about 400 AE. For a thousand years the dome looked as honey-coloured as the rest of the city. Today, at noon, it is the brightest thing in the highlands: from the forests it looks like a second Sun resting on the plateau.

The Temple was built around a hall older than itself, and it shows. The walls of the Church are pale marble with simple lines; the Meridian Hall at its heart is made of darker stone, with hair-thin joints and bronze that has gathered no verdigris in a thousand years. Its floor is a map. This is where the squires swear their oath, and where the Breaking came.

Since the Breaking the Church lights tapers in the twelve windows of the dome’s drum, so that the city can see the Temple “awake” even in the hour of shadow.