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Summer islands noble asoiaf6/15/2023 Currently the Elder Brother occupies the cave. It is the original residence of the first holy man to live on the Quiet Isle roughly two thousand years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire. The Hermit's Hole is a cave located in the side of a hill with a wooden door at its entrance, near a chestnut tree. Behind the sept is a vegetable garden where some of the older brothers pull weeds. The wooden sept has leaded glass windows and wide doors carved with the likenesses of the Mother and the Father and a seven-sided steeple with a walk on top. The top of the hill has a low wall of unmortared stone encircling a cluster of buildings, including a windmill, the cloisters where the brothers sleep, and the common hall where they eat there meals. Food includes bread, fresh churned butter, honey, and a thick stew of crabs. The brothers provide themselves with their own food and appear to be self-sufficient. The brothers brew ale, and their mead and sweet cider are famous. A summer arbor produces small, tart grapes used for wine. ![]() There is a low barn on a lower slope, while a lichyard is found on a higher slope. The brothers built a flight of wooden steps that wander back and forth across the steep hillside and among the buildings. A pebbled path from the shore leads through a grove of apple trees to a whitewashed stable with a peaked thatch roof. The Quiet Isle's prosperous septry stands on a island half a mile from the shore, where the wide mouth of the Trident widens further to the Bay of Crabs. Drowned creatures and slain bodies also wash up on the island. The brothers have found driftwood, silver cups, iron pots, sacks of wool and bolts of silk, rusted helms and shining swords, and rubies. Where the river meets the bay, numerous objects are washed toward the Quiet Isle. Sheep graze on the hillside and storks wade in the shallow waters around the ferry landing. The isle's slopes are covered with terraced fields, with fishponds down below and a windmill above, its wood-and-sailcloth blades turning slowly in the breeze off the bay. When the tide is in the brothers use a ferry to get to the mainland. Because of the dangers of quicksand, tidal pools, and drowning, the crooked approach is called the path of faith. To get to the island from the mainland by foot one must cross the mudflats when the tide is out. Thick mudflats surround the island when the swift tide goes out. The hill is steeper and the path meanders back and forth through weeds and briars, wind carved rocks, and twisted, thorny trees that cling to the stony hillside. The isle is colder and wilder on its east side than on the sheltered side. Some are women who are sick, hurt, or with child. Occasionally some visitors are allowed to stay on the island. ![]() ![]() The Elder Brother keeps the worst of the tidings from outside to himself, so as not to disturb the tranquility of the septry. Many brothers wind lengths of wool about the lower halves of their faces as well, so that all that can be seen of them are their eyes. The brothers wear brown-and-dun robes, with wide bell sleeves and pointed cowls. Septon Meribald takes confession when he visits the isle. The brothers are allowed to break their silence when confessing, as it is hard to speak of sin with signs and nods. Only the Elder Brother and his proctors are permitted to speak on the island and the proctors only one day in seven. ![]() Those who dwell on the Quiet Isle are male penitents seeking to atone for their sins.
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