The Rest of the Story: The whole of
Fire can be found on my
Writings page in PDF format, while the portion of the story that's been published on this blog so far is on
this page.
This chapter had a lot of interesting stuff, and I learned a lot about how the Domini operated. Most importantly, it moved the story forward in a lot of ways--more on that later. For now, here's Chapter 16 of
Fire.
Chapter 16
Verdict
"Yes."
While a ripple ran through the watching Domini, both Senators and observers, Randall just breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, he had thought that Victor would not go through with it. Kulsin was smiling now, ready for the kill. "Tell me about it," he said as the murmuring died down.
That Victor did, reluctantly, the words being dragged out of him by Kulsin's probing questions. Victor avoided meeting Kulsin's or Aulus's eyes, mostly looking at the floor. The tale he told, of meeting with Aulus several times a month over the last two years before he came here, of learning the basics of Essence and Circuits, was believable and convincing. He kept his story simple, only filling in details as Kulsin prompted him. If Randall had not known about Aulus's message to his nephew, he would have believed the story.
Kulsin fought hard not to grin, but Randall could see the triumph in his eyes. "Tell me, Victor, did Aulus ever have any contac' with your sister?"
For the first time, Victor raised his head, eyes darting between Randall, Kulsin, and Aulus. Despite his obvious uncertainty, it took him only a moment to answer "No."
"Are you certain?" Kulsin pressed.
"I'm certain that I don't know anything about it." Victor looked at Aulus openly now, a real question in his gaze. Aulus gave no sign that Randall could see.
"Did she know about your meetin's with Aulus? Did you tell her about them, teach her anythin'?" Kulsin was shooting blind now. Randall relaxed a bit, but Victor seemed even more wary.
"No, nothing. I didn't tell anyone about my uncle. What does Lucia have to do with this?" He then belatedly added, "If I may ask."
"Lucia is dead."
"What? Dead? How--?" Victor's voice cracked, halting his sudden rush of words. His face had lost color and expression.
"Lucia was killed by magic, probably her own. A Dominus went to speak to her about Aulus. We don't know what happen' between them, but some spark of uncontrolled magic started an unnatural fire that killed both of them. No one else was harm'." Victor's mouth moved, but Randall could not hear any sound which he may have made. Kulsin didn't wait for him to speak anyway. "Whatever happen' is the fault of the one who taught her so poorly. If you know anythin', you should tell us now and brin' that man to justice."
Kulsin's bulging eyes were fixed on his witness's, who just stared straight through him. The Kairnin at least had the grace not to point at Aulus as he invited Victor to name Lucia's murderer. The young man was firmly caught in Kulsin's trap, and Randall expected him to break down and tell Kulsin what he wanted to hear. In the end, truth won out, an odd victory considering that Victor had been lying only a moment ago. "I don't know of anything between Aulus and Lucia," the Acolyte said slowly. "I'd tell you if I did." Randall believed that.
Kulsin kept his eyes focused on his prey's a moment longer, then turned to the presiding Dominus. "I have no more questions for him."
"Very well," Marton, who ran the Senate this year, replied without standing. "Does the Accused have any questions?"
Aulus stood. "I believe the boy has suffered enough. I won't add to his misery."
"The witness may go then," Marton said. "Randall, will you take the Acolyte Victor to his quarters?"
Randall rose and went to Victor. Taking hold of his arm, he steered Victor out of the chamber. As soon as they were past the door, the boy came to a stop. "Is it true?" Victor asked. "Is Lucia dead?"
Randall glanced around. With the trial in session, no people wandered the hall, but even an empty public hallway was too exposed. He placed a finger to his lips, then led Victor down a side corridor, then another, then a third that ended in a blank wall. No doors led off the narrow, dead-end passageway. Aulus wrapped a protective sphere around them both to keep their voices from traveling.
"What's going on?" Victor asked, angry and grieving.
"Kulsin thinks your sister is dead. Aulus believes otherwise."
"What do you think?"
"I think that it is very important for Kulsin to believe Lucia is dead. I think he would kill her if he found her alive."
"So she
is alive," Victor said, wiping damp eyes with his red sleeve. He took a slow breath. "What happened? Is she all right? Where is she?"
Randall lay his hand on the boy's shoulder, "I never said she was alive, and I will truthfully deny using that particular phrase if you tell anyone that I have." His eyes flicked back down the hallway, "I suggest you don't do that. Kulsin didn't send that Dominus to just talk with your sister. And I cannot tell you any more than that without putting you at risk."
"I don't care about that," Victor snapped.
"I do," Randall said calmly enough, considering the strain he felt. If this boy didn't keep quiet, he could destroy not just himself and Aulus, but Randall as well. "Aulus thought enough of you to risk himself for your sake. I'm not going to let your recklessness throw that away. Is that perfectly understood?"
Victor ignored the question, instead looking in the direction of the Senate chamber. "I've doomed him, haven't I?"
"No, you haven't. It was his choice."
Victor shook his head. "No, it was mine. He asked me to do it, which may make his actions noble and honorable. That does nothing to justify mine."
Randall had nothing to say in response to that.
After escorting Victor to the large wooden gates that marked the border between the Inner and Outer cities, Randall made his way back to the Senate Amphitheater. He slipped in quietly through a side door so that he would not disturb the proceedings, but the care seemed unnecessary, as the entrance of a Novar army would not have drawn attention away from the drama taking place on the floor. Aulus and Kulsin were both standing, red-faced and engaged in a shouting match. At the moment, Kulsin was drowning out Aulus. "Your disregard for the laws of the Domini have hurt us in the eyes of the world, not helped. It is your fault that we are unwelcome in Quian, forbidden from even enterin' Manuel's capital."
"My fault?" Aulus's voice rose to an even greater volume. "Quian hates us because
you murdered dozens of innocents."
"I destroyed a Necromantic cult. There were no innocents there, no matter how youn' they were. You're the one who brought outsiders into the Order's affairs. They should never have witness' what we did there."
Aulus trembled with anger. Randall, taking his seat near the front of the Senate, thought for a moment that the Novar would launch himself bodily at Kulsin. When he spoke, however, his voice had returned to its normal tone. "This isn't about me, Kulsin. You know that and I know that."
Randall should have recognized it as a bad sign when Kulsin just let him speak. "This is about the Order. You and I each hate what the other represents. You want the Domini to remain the same, unchanged after seven hundred years. I believe the time has come for us to change. Whatever laws I have broken, I've only harmed the Order if you see any evolution as harmful."
Aulus began to move now, pacing back and forth. Kulsin stepped out of his way. Looking around, Randall could see the nearby Senators following Aulus with their eyes, hanging on his words. "We have decided that the way we are is the only way we can be. The only way we can perform our function. Thus we will Expel any one of us who threatens to change that, by teaching our skills to someone else, by telling an outsider about our affairs, by loving a woman. These things don't harm our Order, they help it. They make us part of humanity again, allowing us to identify with those we're supposed to be helping, actually doing something for them rather than watching from the shadows. What have we done to help the human race recently? In what way have we improved the lot of a single person? We don't feed the starving, we don't heal the sick, we don't educate the ignorant. The Philosophers may look down on the rest of the world, but at least they're not afraid to go out into it. Thousands have benefited from their knowledge and skill, as expensive as it is. Name one human being who is better off because we exist. We are so intent on protecting them from mythical enemies that we can't be bothered to care about the people we're protecting."
"And what of these enemies, Domine? What can you tell us about them?" Kulsin spoke softly, but he nearly bounced on his toes in excitement.
Be careful, Aulus, Randall thought, certain that Aulus must see the insane look in the Kairnin's wide eyes.
His thoughts went unheeded. Aulus had been planning this speech for a long time, and he gave no indication he even heard Kulsin, though his next words addressed the question. "And what enemies are we supposed to be defending humanity against? No inhuman army has moved against any human state in centuries. Orcs, Kawyr, the mythical Malwer, all seem content to stay where they are." Aulus came to a stop in his pacing, near where he had started. "Humanity doesn't fear any of them as much as they fear us."
Kulsin stepped forward then, his smile revealing his victory more loudly than his words. "Aulus wants us to forsake our mission, abandonin' our defense of humanity in order to befrien' them. There's a reason why nations have professional armies. Even the Novar citizen soldier is more ideal than reality. The men who guard the welfare of nations need to be harder, stronger, better train' than those they guard. They need a ruthlessness, a willingness to kill and to die that would be dangerous amon' the citizenry. We are the soldiers of humanity. Aulus wants us to become soft and weak so that the world will like us. They don' need to like us, and only selfishness would make us think that it's more importan' than protectin' them. The greates' love we can show for our people is to not seek their love at the expense of their welfare.
"Yes, yes, Aulus will argue that we are not helpin' their welfare. We watch and wait for a threat that will never come. The time for waitin' has passed. This mornin', I received the news that the Orcish horde has return'." This morning? Kulsin had to have known for days. Randall vividly remembered how Kulsin had put off the trial for nearly a month, suddenly agreeing to this date only five days ago. That's when he must have received the news, somehow keeping it secret until now. "The Dominus bearin' this news has jus' arrived."
Nathan, a long-time ally of Kulsin, entered from a side chamber. Aulus didn't wait for his report before he spoke sharply, "How long have you known about this, Kulsin? It's just a little too convenient that you share this news now." So Aulus saw through the Kairnin's deception as well.
"Do you think I would hide somethin' this important from the Senate? If you're goin' to sugges' that, at least make a clear accusation. As I said, Nathan just arrived this mornin', an' he came to me so I could presen' him to the Senate. I admit I intended to wait for the en' of this trial so we could focus our full attention on his news, but it seems that it is relevan' to the trial as well."
"
If the Orcs have returned, then it is more important than this mockery of a trial. Let Nathan speak." Aulus resumed his seat. Marton gestured for Nathan to speak as soon as he had done so.
The newly arrived Dominus went to the center of the floor and faced the assembled crowd. He looked tired and dirty, although his travails had left no mark on his robe. He waited for Kulsin's nod before speaking. "Two months ago, Dominus Kulsin asked a number of us to accompany the Novar army headed to the Austral Pass. Their commander, Proconsul Aurelius, believed that the Kawyr were planning an offensive, and he intended to seal the Pass in order to prevent it. Our agents had heard of this, and Kulsin thought it best that we go along in case the threat turned out to be real. Once we arrived at the pass, a patrol went through to investigate further. One of our own, Danil, went with them.
"While they were away, a Kawyr raid attacked the Novar fort, a very specific raid which targeted our means of communication, both mundane pigeons and more magical means." Nathan drew a Speaking Glass from around his neck and showed it to the audience. Something had shattered the half-orb.
"We learned why when the remnant of our patrol returned. They had encountered Orcs on their patrol, thousands of them, accompanied by dozens of warlocks. Fully half their men had died in the flight, Danil among them. The Orcish horde was heading for the pass. They didn't know the exact number, but they had discovered a cache with enough supplies for twenty thousand. Sosto, who led our expedition, ordered me to report to the Senate as quickly as possible. I came by the nearest Doorway, in Martia, to arrive here today, twelve days after I left the Austral Pass."
The assembled Domini had remained quiet during Nathan's speech. Now loud voices stirred among them, demanding action, asking questions, creating utter confusion. Kulsin walked to the middle of the floor beside Nathan, raising his hand for silence, which he got. "Now, Aulus, do you see that there is indeed a threat against humanity that we alone can face?"
Aulus stood. "I see. I see that you have taken advantage of this disaster to get your way. You kept critical information from us so you could use it for political advantage." Shouts and jeers rose from the assembled Domini, aimed at Aulus. Even Senators were shouting at him, some of them among those whom Aulus had counted as allies.
"What would you have us do, then? Nothin'?"
"No, we should do what is right. Here and now, that means fighting this enemy. However, we must not use it as an excuse to undo whatever small progress our Order has made in the past few centuries." They were fine words, Randall thought, but hopeless. Randall knew it, Kulsin had known it from the beginning, and even Aulus must know it by now.
Kulsin turned to face Marton, a light in his bulging eyes. "This trial is no longer the most important issue facing the Senate. I move for an immediate vote on Aulus's guilt or innocence. The issue is not whether he broke our laws: he's admitted as much. He merely argues that his lawbreakin' is somehow justified because there is nothin' to defen' agains'." He didn't need to state his opinion of that argument.
Aulus looked to the dais. "Kulsin is right, there is nothing more to debate. He believes that defending humanity, whatever it takes, is more important than caring about it. I believe in helping people, and yes, that means defending them, but it also means sharing our knowledge and our skills. We cannot serve them by destroying what is human about ourselves."
Marton said, "The advocates have spoken. We will now take the vote."
Randall's initial assessment had been right: Kulsin had already won.
The vote had been close, but enough of Aulus's support had evaporated with the return of the Orcs that Kulsin got the two-thirds necessary for a guilty verdict. For Aulus's crimes, the only possible punishment was Expulsion from the Order. Two guards escorted the convicted Dominus from the chamber. A moment later a hush settled on the amphitheater as the significance of what had happened began to sink in. The Domini did not Expel their own every day, or even every year. No Senator had received that sentence for at least a century, and never one as admired and respected as Aulus. Kulsin did not allow the moment to last, moving to claim the floor immediately. "Fellow Domini, we all feel the tragedy involved in judgin' one of our own, but the business of our Order must go on. The Orcs will not give us a chance to grieve."
Randall didn't wait for Kulsin to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Even Domini could be manipulated by a man like him. Certain that no one would miss him, he slipped out through the same side door by which he had entered earlier.
Leaving the Amphitheater, he headed in the direction of the prison. The trial and the subsequent news had lured everyone but himself out of the streets. Despite the mild weather--the weather was always mild on the island--the warm sunlight on his black robes caused him to sweat. Or that may have come the shame and fearfulness he associated with his upcoming interview. He avoided thinking about that by focusing on navigating the streets. Usually the eclectic collection of buildings both amused and impressed him. The Amphitheater, where the Senate met, and the Basilica, where much of the daily work of the Domini took place, matched the Novar model, with graceful columns and domes. The Library was invisible, its five floors burrowed beneath the Basilica. The Dormitories, where most of the younger Domini lived, had the utilitarian, brick design of the monasteries inhabited by the Manuelite priests. More common than the public buildings were the private homes. The Domini who had built them came from all over the world, so the buildings looked like they had been lifted directly from the four corners of the earth and transplanted here. From quaint Manuelite cottages to Novar villas, from squat Kairnin houses to turnip-domed minarets from the Sovereign Cities, the Domini had brought to life dwellings both familiar and envied in their childhood. Since the land allotted for each building had decreased with time, the larger buildings were invariably older. Particularly disconcerting was the weather-worn, deliberately simple cottage which dwarfed the newly-erected miniature palace which stood next to it. Even in the midst of all this confusion, the Order's prison drew the eye.
The smallest building in the Inner City, it had a single story built of black granite blocks. The heavy wooden doors had a similar color, not painted but hewn from some rock-hard, dark wood which had lasted for centuries. The building had only four small cells, each with a high window too narrow for a man to fit through. The Domini had never intended that their prison hold anyone for more than a few days, since they did not use incarceration as a form of punishment. While indiscretions might earn a mere censure from the Senate, all true crimes merited Expulsion. That lacked even a hair's difference from a death sentence, since the Domini hunted down and killed Renegades. Even the condemned received a chance to contemplate their crimes, so the Order always waited three days before carrying out their sentence. After that time, all Domini had the duty to kill the Renegade on sight. If the Domini seized the Renegade before then, he would be imprisoned here. Holding a magic-wielding Renegade for even a few days required something extraordinary. Eight simple obsidian pillars, no more than narrow cylinders, surrounded the structure. No Essence entered the perfect octagon marked as much by the black flagstones which surrounded the prison and formed its floor as by the obelisks. Like the ocean encompassing an island, Essence lapped at the structure without entering.
Still wondering what he would say to Aulus, Randall stepped between the black monoliths. He hesitated as he noticed that the door stood open. He would prefer it if no one knew about his meeting with Aulus. If he could come back later, speak to him through the window of his cell... Then Randall made out the barely visible black-robed form lying on the black flagstones in the shadow of the doorway. He rushed to the side of the fallen Dominus and threw back the hood.
It wasn't Aulus. He did not know whether he felt relieved or dismayed to find Yestal, one of Aulus's guards, lying there. He had the beginnings of a black eye and a knot on his head, but he'd survive. Aulus must have fought his guards physically. Leaving Yestal, Randall circled around the prison to find Jerod lying on his face within the octagon, seemingly unharmed aside from some scrapes. Aulus had neutralized him with magic. Once outside the prison grounds, he would have used a Circuit against Jerod, who had not yet reached the perimeter. Few Domini had the power to drive Essence through the octagon, a feat akin to making a river flow uphill, but the new Renegade did. Randall shook his head at the stupidity of the guards. One of them should have remained outside the octagon while the other escorted the prisoner within. Even if that one couldn't manage the trick of sending a Circuit inside, he could have maintained some advantage. Didn't they know the proper procedure? Then again, Jerod may have stayed outside and only entered once Aulus escaped and headed for the other side. Entering the octagon rather than circling around on the outside was even worse foolishness.
Aulus himself had vanished. Randall hiked up his robes and sprinted in the direction of the runaway's destination, certain that Aulus would be heading for the Hub if he was thinking rationally.
Randall had not gone far before he spotted the Renegade hurrying along one of the main boulevards. The young Senator assumed that the Dominus he had found was Aulus, since the figure had his hood up, an uncommon practice in the Inner City. Randall might have called out to him if he had not seen another Dominus heading in their direction. Instead, he forced himself to slow to a fast walk so he would not draw attention to himself or the fugitive. The stranger passed Aulus without a second look. By the time Randall could no longer see him, another Dominus had appeared. This close to the Hub, people came and went all the time, no matter what happened in the Amphitheater. Randall recognized this second Dominus as Seth, a young man who had only recently donned the black robes. Fortunately, Seth was in too much of a hurry to accost his former instructor, and Randall hoped he would not remember the encounter, lest he mention it to the wrong person. The odd chase nearly drove Randall crazy. He did not dare run or call out to Aulus where others might see. For his part, Aulus didn't slow or look back. More than once, Randall doubted it was even Aulus that he followed, especially when he turned aside instead of entering the Hub.
The oddest building among odd buildings, the Domini had built the Hub out of dozens of small domes connected to a large, central one by hallways like spokes on a wheel. These spokes had different lengths and spacings, and the domes varied in size. Scattered inside these domes, hundreds of Doorways led to towers all around the world. The cavernous central dome was even bigger than it looked, as it extended a whole story beneath the ground, where it held Doorways big enough to transport goods rather than people between major cities. The Domini sometimes called this the Chamber of Winds, as locations around the world tried to equalize pressure and temperature within that one room. Only a powerful Circuit prevented full-blown tempests from erupting. A walkway which circled the dome at ground level gave access to the spokes which connected to the smaller domes. Each of these domes contained a particular domain, a set of Doorways which might be in the same region, or might all be national capitals, or might all trade similar commodities. When distance did not matter, the Order felt free to group its outposts by other criteria.
The Dominus whom Randall followed skirted around the edge of the Hub before walking into the space between two of the outer domes. As far as Randall knew, there was nothing but empty flagstones there. Hoping it was Aulus he followed, he hurried after the black-robed man. A grinding rumble met him as he passed between the two domes. Following the sound around the left side of a third, even smaller dome, he arrived just in time to see his quarry disappear into the ground. Randall paused to stare at the gaping rectangular hole, where stone stairs led downward beneath the pavement. This could not have been here all this time: even in such a secluded area, a large hole in the ground could not go unnoticed.
Randall summoned a small globe of light and went into the darkness. The narrow stairs descended thirty feet before reaching an equally narrow hallway. As he set foot on the grey stone, a sudden blast of freezing wind cut through him. He wrapped his robe tight against the cold and pressed forward. Aside from the seams of the stone blocks, nothing marked the walls of the corridor, no niches, no sconces, no doors or cross-corridors. Beneath the cold wind, it smelled of age and stale air which had only begun to stir. Randall felt certain this hallway had been here centuries before the Domini had built the Hub right on top of it. He had begun to feel the weight of the stone pressing down on him when he reached a large iron door, just recently forced open. The small stone chamber on the other side, a room which must sit directly beneath the center of the Hub, contained nothing except Aulus and the Doorway from which the wind came.
"Aulus!" Randall shouted through chattering teeth. The Renegade turned around to face his friend.
"I hope you haven't come to stop me," Aulus said, speaking loudly to be heard above the wind.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm fleeing, of course. It's either that or face my death with dignity."
"Why shouldn't you choose dignity?" Randall asked. "You did a noble thing back there. Are you going to throw it away by running?"
"Throw what away? I didn't achieve a thing. Kulsin got what he wanted and all that's left for me is to die in disgrace."
A new thought occurred to Randall. He licked his numb lips before voicing it. "You thought you could win, didn't you? I thought you were sacrificing yourself for your nephew, but that's not it at all. You believed that speech of yours would somehow win over the Senate and vindicate you."
"That was too much to hope for, wasn't it?" Aulus said with a rueful smile. "Still, it was all I had."
"Don't do this, Aulus. If you run, you'll be remembered as a Renegade. If you go back now, turn yourself in, your ideals might live on."
"But I won't. I'm not cut out to be a martyr, Randall. For a moment there, I thought I'd have to be, but then I remembered this." He pointed to the Doorway. It opened into a dark room, lit only by the two glowing spheres accompanying the Domini on this side. Randall could make out nothing but a stone floor.
"Where does it lead?"
"To the truth. Do you have any idea how long I searched for this? Until I found it three years ago, I didn't even know for certain that it existed."
"That doesn't tell me anything."
"No, I suppose it doesn't. You know the legends of the Malwer. We call them that instead of demons and think we know something, while we really know almost nothing. Search our libraries long enough and hard enough, however, and you'll find something more, the location of their prison and the Doorway that leads to it."
"You mean this particular Doorway leads to
the prison?" More than cold caused Randall to shiver now. "Have you... been there?" He whispered the last two words.
Aulus spoke as if he had heard Randall's whisper above the windstorm. "Not yet. You see, it's is one way. A ward on this side prevents any living creature from coming to the island. You can communicate with someone on the other side, but this Doorway can only send people to the prison. It can't bring them back."
"Why would anyone design it that way?"
"The other end lies in a keep watching over the prison. In the old days, we manned that keep. Any Dominus who went made a lifetime commitment to guard the Malwer. If ever the need arose for reinforcements, the entire Order could travel there in a moment, but anyone who went knew he had no means of retreat back here. And if the Malwer ever captured the Keep, they could not use it to launch an attack on us."
"You intend to go there now. Why? How can this prison help you?"
"I want to see the prison, to discover whether there's any enemy left to fear, or if we've lived for centuries frightened by a myth. If I can return with news that the prison is empty and the enemy dead, maybe we can put aside that fear and change the way we live."
"How can you come back if the Doorway's one way?"
"The prison is somewhere in this world, and I have an idea where. It may take years to find my way back, but I know I can do it. When I return, then I will accept the Order's verdict. Only I'll be able tell them the full truth before they kill me." A fierce smile broke out on Aulus's face, making him seem young despite the grey hair.
Randall had to admire him. He knew Aulus had no intention of accepting the Order's conviction; he still intended to win. "I should try to stop you."
"Thankfully you won't," Aulus said. "Can you reseal the stairway? I knew someone was behind me, so I didn't get a chance on the way in. Just place this Component in the Circuit that controls it." He constructed a simple Component that Randall had no trouble memorizing.
"Good luck, Aulus."
"You too." Without another word, Aulus let his globe of light vanish and stepped through the doorway. A spiral stairway leading upward appeared out of the darkness when Aulus reignited his glowing sphere. When the Renegade had vanished up the stairway, Randall went about the business of eliminating the evidence. He burned the memory from the room, even though he doubted any Dominus would find much: neither he nor Aulus had done much here. Then he headed back to the corridor, closing the iron door behind him. Just before he reached the steps, he heard bells clanging in alarm, signaling the Order's discovery of Aulus's escape.
Once outside he completed the Circuit which closed the opening. The top steps rose, stone grating against stone until they were level with the pavement, just eight parallel flagstones. Randall could no longer see the Circuit. In order to open the staircase again he'd have to place the Component exactly, without reference to the Circuit he was completing. He had never heard of any means to hide a Circuit, and he wondered how, and why, the early Domini had done it. As an added precaution, Randall wiped clean the memories around here as well. Satisfied that no one in the Order would be able to discover where Aulus had gone, he emerged from the maze of the Hub's exterior. Outside, Domini hurried in all directions with their hoods carefully lowered to show faces. He ran into Yestal almost immediately.
"Are you all right?" Randall asked, seeing his ripening black eye.
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. The Renegade slammed me into a wall, but I'll live. I'm luckier than Jerod."
"Jerod? What happened to him?"
"Didn't you hear? He's dead."
"Dead?" Randall stopped breathing for a moment. Jerod had been alive when he left him by the prison. He couldn't have misjudged that, could he?
"Yeah. We can't be certain what happened. I was out cold, and there's no Essence near the prison to leave memories, but they've examined the body. It looks like dark magic killed him." Yestal's voice lowered and became thick with his clipped Kairnin accent as he rushed ahead. "Aulus used Necromancy an' tore his soul clean from his body."
This 5,494 word chapter is an excerpt from a 90,110 word novel.
There were lots of interesting things in this chapter. I had to play out the end of Aulus's trial, and then do something with him. In the course of that, I showed a little bit about how the Domini work, introduced the concept of Voids--places which are devoid of the Essence which the Domini use for magic--even though I wasn't using the term yet. I also talked a bit about the Hub, which was a natural outgrowth of the concept of Doorways. Of course most of them would lead back to the Order's city, and placing them all in one building makes travel easier and keeps them more manageable. I'm still a bit uncertain of Aulus's departure to the Malwer's prison. I think it makes sense, but there are some things I intend to do in the revision that will come when I combine
Fire and its sequel.
The most interesting thing in this chapter is a casual mention of the Necromantic cult which Kulsin destroyed thirty years ago. I was casting about for some specific point of contention between the two, and the different ways they'd deal with a threat like the Necromancers struck me as a particularly good one. I
think I'd already played a bit with the concept of a society counter to the Domini which studied Necromancy, and one of the more interesting aspects of it is that it would have difficulty recruiting boys with the ability, what with the Domini snapping them up and likely noticing if they started to disappear, but the Domini might not even notice if someone started training girls with the ability. That developed into the Necromancers, and when Aulus and Kulsin started to argue over an encounter with them, I knew I had to write about that incident.
Which I did.
