authorities cleared her house they found many papers and books, and these identified her. She had kept a journal for all the years she lived on Piqay, and although most of the material has never been published the journals themselves are now kept in a closed case within the Academy Library, on Aay.
From the sole published section of her journal, which describes a period of roughly a year in length, a decade after she had arrived on Piqay, and from other papers which were found in the house and are available for inspection in the Academy, as well as certain artefacts discovered in the grounds of her house, it has become possible to gain a glimpse of the life she led in her self-imposed seclusion.
The journal describes her decision to plant trees on the hillside behind her home. For much of the year she writes about she is concentrating on this. Not every kind of tree was suitable to be grown in the Piqay soil, and she chose the hillside site because it was exposed to the wind, and this further restricted her choice of trees. However, the planting went on throughout the period of the journal, and quite clearly for some time afterwards. There is now a whole arboretum, mostly mature, on the Piqay headland where she lived. It has become a protected zone administered by the Piqay Seigniory on behalf of the Academy of the Four Winds.
Muy believed that each different species of tree responded to the pressure of wind in a unique way: the density and grain of the bark, the number of branches and the spread of them, the shape of the leaves on deciduous trees, the resonant qualities of the timber itself, the time of year that buds would appear or leaves would fall, the fineness and length of needles on evergreens, even the kinds of wildlife that might be attracted to inhabit the trees with their nests. All these would have an influence on the way the wind was received and responded to by the tree, and Muy believed she could identify many trees solely from the soughing they made.
She described the sound of a cypress as similar to the mild harmonies of a harp, a tall pine in full finery of needle as an ecstatic clarinet solo, an apple tree in blossom as a frivolous dance of clashing cymbals, an oak as a baritone voice, a narrow poplar bending to a gale as a coloratura.
The yard at the rear of her cottage was also put to use in the strong winds that flew across her headland. She hung one side of the yard with wind-chimes: wooden, glass, crystal, plastic, metal. They were rarely silent. More scientifically, Muy erected a number of wind measurement instruments. Five masts of different heights stood at the upper end of the yard, each bearing different types of anemometers and wind-pressure gauges. She analysed the results on data logging equipment in a specially built cabin, together with the readings from rainfall, humidity and temperature gauges. A tall lightning protector stood above everything.
Although this laboratory has since been dismantled, visitors may experience something of its unique concentration on the winds, because a reconstruction of it is in the Academy Museum in Aay Port. Normal opening hours apply.
Towards the end of the published section of the journals, Muy recorded a declaration that she wished to become a native Piqayean. According to the tradition of the island she said that she intended never to leave it again. She abided by that intent until the end.
In the light of her scientific discoveries the role played by Dryd Bathurst in this long final sequence of Esphoven Muy’s life is now trivial. However, it seems that Muy did fall victim to an enigma of the heart. Although Dryd Bathurst never worked or set up a studio on Piqay, it is known that he arrived there not long after leaving Aay, and left again soon after. No one was believed to be accompanying him at the time, but the dates roughly coincide with Muy’s arrival on the island.
The standard biography of the artist,
Although Muy lived and worked on Piqay for much of her life, it is with Aay that she will always be firmly associated.
A springtime breeze that Muy often noticed during the years she was living and working on Aay, now bears her name. The VENTO MUYO is a light, warm zephyr, scented with the fragrance of the wild flowers that grow on the shallow cliffs to the south of Aay Port.
Aay is regularly served by inter-island ferries, but there is no direct link with the mainland. Standards of cuisine and visitor accommodation throughout the island are reportedly excellent. Seafood is a speciality. Daily guided tours of the Academy are available. Visitors require a visa and all normal inoculations — check with your personal physician before travelling. There are liberal shelterate laws, but property is expensive. Visitors should avoid the weeks of late spring as the fohn wind is most likely to be active then.
Currency: Archipelagian simoleon; Muriseayan thaler.
Annadac
CALM PLACE
One of the remotest islands in the Swirl, ANNADAC is situated close to the tidal anomaly that millions of years ago helped form the Swirl.
For the most part, continental Sudmaieure is an icy, snowbound waste, with only a few coastal strips adjacent to sea that melts for part of the year. There is, however, one peninsula, long and narrow, steep with mountains of volcanic origin, that extends to the north. This is the Qataari Peninsula, in the coldest part of which there are several glaciers, and these calve to the eastern side into the stormy Southern Midway. The turbulent combination of warm salty seawater from the Southern Oscillating Stream and the cold fresh meltwater from the drifting icebergs creates a churning and treacherous stretch of ocean, with a multitude of different currents. These, together with several thousand years of volcanism, threw up the hundreds of small islands that are now known as the Swirl. Annadac is one of these Swirl islands, far to the south and close to the continental mass.
With the coming of spring, a huge tidal bulge of water forms in the sea to the south of Annadac, every day, twice a day. This moves rapidly around the island. Over the centuries the phenomenon has caused serious coastal erosion and unpredictable weather patterns. The Annadacians are legendary for their forbearing and stoical nature.
Perhaps the most celebrated Annadacian of her era was the conceptual and installation artist named JORDENN YO.
From an early age Yo became enthralled by the rock and beach formations that had been created all around her island by tidal movements and gale-force winds. Yo came to believe that the island was in essence a permeable being, that it was alive in some mystical sense, and that it could be moulded to react to the elements. She became fascinated by this idea, latterly obsessed by it.
Some of her first installations were cairns or dolmens built on exposed hillsides, carefully situated to catch the light of sunset or sunrise, or to present thrilling silhouettes against the sky, when seen from the most commonly used roads.
Many of these cairns still stand today and are in the care of the Annadac Seigniory offices. Three in particular are of interest to visitors, because Yo set them up in a configuration that would modify the pressure and direction of the wind, and set up a series of dust-filled twisters to march and scatter across the flat land around.
The site is open all year round, but the best time to visit the cairns is in the early fall. Then the prevailing CHOUSTER wind from the south-west, famous for its gusts and sudden changes of direction, will produce the wind funnels for about seven days and nights. Twisters appear other times of the year, but they are randomly produced and therefore the casual visitor cannot be guaranteed to see them.
Then as now, many young people on Annadac enjoyed the sport of tunnelling, and Yo was one of them. It was prohibited on many islands, but Annadac was still tolerant of the activity. Yo soon realized that tunnelling was a pastime that could lend itself to serious artistic activity. Her cairns had brought her work to the attention of the Covenant Foundation on Muriseay, and she was able to raise a small grant to drill some experimental tunnels.
The first one she completed ran from the south side of the island to the north, with a shallow turn at the midway point and a gradual narrowing throughout the length of the tunnel. The southern entrance was built below the tide line. When the tunnel was completed, and the buffer dam opened, the tidal waters began to flow through, twice a day. As the tunnel was opened in midsummer, the tidal effects were at first unexceptional, giving Yo extra time to run flow tests and make suitable modifications and improvements. A few months later, with the tumultuous rising of the spring tide, Annadac experienced for the first time the fantastic rush of water now known as the YO
