Civic Affairs
The Aegis
The great apparatus of the mount, by which the island's weather is held fair and Aurei keeps its own counsel.
Over the central mount, ringing the Helion, stands the Aegis: a vast and beautiful apparatus of brass, crystal, and worked stone, the keeping of which is among the oldest charges of the rings. By the Aegis the weather of the island is held fair and its harvests sure; and by the Aegis, too, Aurei keeps its own counsel, and is come upon by those who are brought, and by no others.
How the Aegis does what it does is the keeping of its wardens, and is no matter for the visitor; that it does it, the visitor need only stand upon a high bridge and look about to see. It is tended day and night, and its slow turning is, to the people of the rings, the very sound of safety.