Kherishdar

For the Ai-Naidar, a species of slim, gracile aliens, caste and tradition are not the shackles that imprison the spirit, but the silences that make sense of the music of their lives. The Aphorisms of Kherishdar collects 25 short tales about what it is to have an Ai-Naidari soul: to find comfort in tradition, law and structure; to revere interdependence over individualism; to know one's place...to always have one. 

In Kherishdar, when a person commits a crime, they become their sin.... Suicide. Rape. Child Abuse. Addiction. Twenty-five crimes. Twenty-five stories. Twenty-five narrators...and one minister over them all, to judge, convict, and correct the faulty: the priest who serves shame. This companion volume to The Aphorisms of Kherishdar explores the wayward and their journey back to society, offering another glimpse into the Ai-Naidari culture. A darker, more difficult glimpse... 

The high priest of Shame in Kherishdar is shattering, and the only thing between him and his ruin is the gentle Calligrapher, Farren Nai'Sheviet-osulkedi. When they are dispatched by the god of Civilization to Qenain, the House of Flowers, they find it in disorder, having fallen prey to a mysterious influence...an alien influence...a human one. Can one man heal Shame in time to save him and Qenain both? Or will they both fail? And what will happen in - and to - the House of Flowers?

When alien taint destroyed her former house, Haraa nai‘Qevellen-osulkedi was raised out of casteless despair to translate human languages for the god of civilization, the Ai-Naidari Emperor. At first her curiosity and intelligence serve her well, but the longer she spends among aliens, the more questions she has about her world. How did Kherishdar come about? Why is the Emperor singular, and the priest who serves Shame? Why does Kherishdar need an exception, and why is it always a woman, and why does she annoy Haraa so badly?