Presentation to the Consortium

The Presentation of Return

How a Hue Ends Exile and Claims Citizenship

When an exiled Hue finally believes he has brought back something worthy, he approaches the great gate. Two Awakened ravens wearing brass Consortium bands meet him at the outer wall and escort him through the distrcits until he stands at the foot of the Alabaster Frame. There, beneath the sundial-tower, the returning Hue waits in silence until the great glass doors open.

Inside the Presentation Chamber, the Glasshold Consortium sits in a perfect ring of thirteen elevated seats, one for each district’s leader and a single Prismatic. Below them, on the chamber’s polished floor, stands a single circular dais of white stone. The returning Hue steps onto it carrying only his offering (be it a seed, a gear, a vial of mysterious compounds, a folded sketch, or even an idea spoken aloud). No words are allowed until the Consortium speaks first.

The present Prismatic speaks, acting as Voice of the Pool, asks the same three questions every time:

1. “What have you brought that Huetopia has never seen?”
2. “What did it cost you to bring it?”
3. “What do you ask in return?”

The Hue answers plainly. He then places or performs the offering in the center of the dais (or wherever is most appropriate for the presentation). A soft pulse of light ripples outward from the enchanted pool far below; every Hue in the city feels it as a brief warmth in the chest (the pool itself tasting what has been brought home).

The district leaders now rise in unison. Each looking towards the offering with their arms either open wide to declare, “This belongs in Skyreach,” or “This belongs in the Verdant Circle,” or keeping their arms crossed over their chest if they feel no claim. A Hue may receive claims from one district, several, or none. When all twelve have spoken, the Consortium votes by dropping colored glass beads into a central basin:

• White bead = full citizenship granted.
• Black bead = exile extended (try again).
• Gold bead = the offering is judged so extraordinary that the Naming of Recognition begins immediately.

Most often the basin fills with white. When the final bead falls, the Voice of the Pool declares the result aloud. If citizenship is granted, the returning Hue is immediately surrounded by the leaders of the districts that claimed him. This is where the returning Hue has a chance to speak his intentions and motivations. He will answer questions from the district leaders to find where his work and research would be most useful. After the final decision is made, the leader escorts him personally to his new workshop. His old exile number is formally retired and is given a citizenship id. From that moment he is a full citizen of Huetopia, free to live, work, and invent within the walls for the rest of his days.

Only when the basin fills with gold does the chamber fall completely silent, because everyone present knows the next ceremony will now be the far rarer, far holier Naming of Recognition. But for the overwhelming majority of returning brothers, the Presentation of Return is the moment their long road ends and their true life in the city begins.