It is the poster for Zena Ardei and her trio’s evenings at the Taval, the venue in Yantra where the concert of the story takes place. It is written in kudamaf, with the letters of Solaria’s writing system, and is posted in the venue.
At the top is Zena’s name and the word trea, “trio”; below, the phrase the story uses to describe her music, rasat ar efugag ekezen, “variations on a recognized form.” The three taut strings running across the sheet, one per musician, vibrate on the first, second, and third harmonic. Further down are the three musicians with their instrument: Zena Ardei on guitar (anrub), Matme Atame on drums (avuzez), Nakshu Ratega on bass (derbeb).
The trio plays shusazen sarvem, every sarvem: the third day of the Solarian week (see Measurement of Time). It plays at hour 12, written in base seven according to the island’s numeral system. The row of numbers under the line are the fourteen dates of the season: seven in the month of sunar and seven in that of zemash. They change color at the point where the light shifts from ganeba, “waning,” to shadsem, “transparent,” the two names written above the venue’s logo.
In the white band at the bottom are the name of the venue, taval, its address, ufat ularaden · mupet 4 · sameb 13 (Old Workshop, canal 4, door 13): not the Old Workshops of the eastern districts, but the old winch workshop of the climbers, carved into the rock of the Western Edge beneath the scenic terrace, where the venue now stands (see Yantra); the canal is one of the technical tracks running inside the wall’s rim. These are followed by the words napar eralen, “free admission,” and the call number pekeb 4062. The QR code leads to this wiki.
Outside the story
The poster really exists: it is printed in A3 and hung at Bar Locos in Rovereto, where Lorenzo plays in trio every Wednesday. It was created alongside Rasha, Yantra’s newspaper, in the weeks of Zena’s piece, and is told in episode 27 of the Music Diary, does madness start like this?.
Next to the kudamaf sheet are two others, with the same graphics but each in its own color (the kudamaf one is burgundy, with coral and pink strings). The first is the same sheet transliterated into the standard alphabet, in night green with lime and brass strings: the words are still kudamaf, but they read normally.
The second is in Italian, on the warm gray of stone with white, amber, and light blue strings, and carries the real details of the evening: Bar Locos, at via Valbusa Grande 7 in Rovereto, every Wednesday at 21:00. The Solarian hour remains in small print, “12:00 in Yantra,” and below Solaria’s dates are those of the Earth calendar.
