I awoke, and my heart beat furiously in anticipation. Judgement day. After decades of fantasy, sating my ever gnawing awe toward the hearers only with daydreams and imaginations, the real experience was to come. I kicked the blankets away then walked out my room. Rial still appeared to be in bed.
"Rial?"
I tested my hypothesis.
"Mmm, yeah?"
A grumbled reply returned.
"Oh sorry, did I wake you up?"
"No, I was in that half-sleep half-awoken state for a while."
Reaching out to my pre-packed baggage, I informed her of my intentions.
"I'll be going, Rial."
A pause. Shortly after a her answer in a much more lucid voice came back.
"Have fu-, no, good luck."
The shaggy brick residence shrunk out of view as I stepped out and set foot onward to my destination. Back once more moving toward the brighter hemisphere, toward where Sun shines greater light.

It was a long, tedious walk to the nearest mirror, which laid at least 4 generous spins on foot. Naturally I began entertaining myself with personal thoughts and recollections. While then an interesting, yet curious question popped into mind.

Why did Pyio's words upset me so much

An odd memory, surely. I was enraged at such a measly comments. Comments about how hearers are not some sacred clique of holiness. Yet that anger was more than enough to drive me to challenge Rial's no-touch zone and ask for her permission for me to visit the mirror. I respect hearers, yes. However I'm fine when Rial talks down about them, labeling them hypocrites. What did Pyio do differently?

Perhaps the fact that an actually hearer confirmed, no, accused, themselves of showing hedonism is what gave the sentence emotional leverage over me. Nevertheless, it'll be settled soon. The mirror inches closer with every footstep taken.

The silhouette of the mirror was caught in my sight. Each step grew hastier and hastier. My heart pumped gallons of blood explosively throughout my veins. When the entrance to the grand structure began to be recognizable, so too did the person who stood beside the gate. A rather familiar face. Pyio.
"Welcome to the mirror, my child."
Pyio greeted me with her frozen gaze.
"You."
I murmured.
"Yes, I believe we've met before, no? Come inside, boy."

She led me through the white hallways. Cobwebs and dust marks clouded the ceiling. Pyio noticed me staring around, and spoke out.
"We don't quite have enough people here to keep everything absolutely spotless. I hope you understand."
I kept silent. The image of the mirror was, truthfully, a lot more elegant and charming in my past imaginations. I turned around the subject.
"Are you the only hearer here?"
"Of course not, every mirror requires at least three of us assigned to there. This is a rather remote station, but we keep the bare minimum number."

Pyio led me to a small room containing two chairs and a crude chair. She told me to sit down.
"You're here to see a hearer, right?"
I nodded.
"And you'd prefer someone other than me."
Speechless.
Pyio feigned a smile than walked off. She shouted back as she left the room.
"I'll fetch someone else!"

After some thought I figured Pyio being here wasn't all that unexpected. She still is, while I remained skeptical of its authenticity, a hearer, isn't she? She was bound to be a hearer here, unless she walked all the way from another mirror to the bar until her legs gave out to have a drink.

An elderly man, with hair completely greyed out and struggling to walk, came inside the room supporting his balance on a cane. He sat down as well. He wheezed for a bit, then spoke to me in a raspy voice.
"Hello there, the name's Marcius! So! What brings you to the mirror, boy?"
An awfully cheery tone that didn't exactly match his looks caught me off guard.
"I'd like to ask some questions."
He leaned back against the chair, smiling. Again with the hearer's smile. The mouth made a smile, but the eyes didn't so much as move an inch.
"Curiosity! A wondrous trait of youth!"
He chuckled. The despondence of movement between the upper and the lower part of his face gave his laughing expression an eerie feel.
"As is. Tell me, boy. What tricky thoughts vex your mind?"

I invested a great amount of time before falling asleep yesterday articulating what I was going to ask when precisely this moment came at last. Wonders about the beginning of the Zenith, mirror, and the hearers. The meaning behind the lyrics of songs I could not even attempt to wrap my head around. However, having seen Pyio just back then and the thoughts that sprang to mind on the walk to here contributing to twisting my tongue to make me blurt a new, on-the-spot curiosity.
"Do-, do hearers drink?"

Marcius paused for a moment, studying me. His gaze shifted upwards as of he was pondering to fully grasp the question I just asked. Then out of nowhere, laughter exploded out of him, presenting an incredible scene where his mouth pulsated bigger and bigger, releasing droplets of saliva, while his glaring eyes locked onto me staying dead-still. Certainly the look of a madmen if I weren't aware of his occupation. Marcius, having finished his spasms of 'Bwa-ha-ha's, coughed and wheezed violently in a desperately joyful endeavor to catch his breath. Once he regained moderate control over his exhales and inhales, he answered, still in his raspy tone.
"Oh, ho-ho, boy! You must be who Pyio was talking about!"

My face blushed with embarrassment. So he knew about the awkward ordeal between Pyio and me back at the restaurant. I fumbled around my words trying to let out a reply that made sense.
"You, you know about what happened? She told you?"
Chuckles.
"Well, when there's only so many people working in a single mirror, one gets rather close and talkative with one another. Pyio gave me a in-depth story of you and your sister. 'The Heretic and the Fanatic' siblings she called it. So that's why she insisted that I took her place with talking to you!"
I dropped my head in not knowing what to say. Marcius, noticing my behavior, reached out to pat my shoulder in supposedly an effort to provide some mental comfort.
"Now, now. I understand. And I'm sure neither you nor Pyio had any malicious intents. But you do have to see, everything she said holds some truth."

I propped my head back up. My world prepared to crumble down. I asked, staggered.
"Do you drink too?"
"I don't. But not because of any hearer-restrictions or commandments, but rather because my liver and age can't endure it."
My world halted its progress of falling apart.
"And you're allowed to eat anything?"
"Again, I refrain from certain food, but also because my body can't accepting it, and not my mind forbidding it."

I kept silent for a second, puzzled. Again with these truths about hearers. Marcius then broke the conversational frost.
"Now, if I may ask you. What made you have all these oddly restraining ideas about us? Definitely hearers don't go around spewing out those mercurial details, and from the small sample of books I've seen about hearers, I never saw any kind that talked about us living like isolated monks. The most you might make out of anything about hearers is that we may be a litter calmer or stoic and have odd eyes, not that we act like pure souls."

Yes, why? Giving it some thought I've never seen even in children's books I read as a child back at the... nightmare mansion about hearers mention any of the high standards I expected hearers to hold up. Then why? From where did I get these fantasies?

Before I could finish my train of thoughts, Pyio burst in the room abruptly pushing open the door.
"Sorry, um..."
She paused, stared at me while she gave efforts trying to recall something, then continued.
"By the light. I never caught your name."
I answered.
"Mu-, no, Faln."
An alias, the one thing Rial made sure I use here. Pyio replied snapping her fingers.
"Right, sorry Faln. Marcius, a girl on her ninth spiral is here for a vessel check. I can't both sing and check her reaction. I need your help."

Marcius, hearing this, turned to me and apologized.
"Apologies, my boy. But I'm afraid we'll have to cut this little meeting short."
I spoke to Pyio, calling back something she had said earlier. I'd very much prefer to continue this conversation.
"I thought you said at least three hearers were appointed to a mirror. Where's the third one? Couldn't he or she help?"
Marcious answered me.
"Why, yes. Other than Pyio and I, Evis is here too. But he's off at a trip to the Zenith to report back our mirror's state. That's why three is the bare minimum; two to ensure the mirror can provide vessel checks, and one to occasionally travel to the Zenith to report anything. Evis is expected to come back rather soon, but as of now it's only me and Pyio."
Pyio giggled.
"It's not like it'd be any different if Evis was here. He wouldn't be any use-"
"PYIO!"
A sudden, tremendous roar blasted out of Marcius, interrupting Pyio's words. His earlier kindly, welcoming face disappeared.
"We do not speak such words in the mirror!"
Pyio froze.
"Uh, sorry. But we still need you out there with me. I, I'll be waiting in the usual room."
Pyio scurried out. Marcius stood up out of his seat, preparing to exit the room as well.
"Be sure visit us again. I'll answer more questions then, and get you and Pyio patched up out of your awkward situation with her. Oh and sorry about raising my voice, I must have surprised you."
"Uh, no problem. I'll see you some other time."

Marcius left the room and so did I. I treaded back toward home. Some questions were answered, but some still remained unclear. Perhaps I would need to visit here again, yet I doubt Rial would enjoy that.

On the steps back a sudden jolt of mental lightning struck me as a question I asked myself was answered. I realized where I got these ideas about hearers came from.

Sacrial.

She told me. She said they were forbidden from drinking. She said they only ate food that wouldn't upset their emotions.

But why? What she said, apparently, did quite stray far from the truth. Yet she spoke about them so confidently, and that was her reasoning behind calling them hypocrites.

I knew she undergone a somewhat-hearer training course when she was younger, but she wouldn't have experienced anything different from what Marcius and Pyio were saying.

Then why did Sacrial have all these weird assumptions about hearers?