The Heartstone Chronicles: Windchaser

Chapter Four

FOUR

No one has seen Kessavyan. Two-thousand-year-old tomb-scratchings abound that tell of Ryalac or Oramas, but these are Archangels, only – and what, pray, are Archangels? All we know is that they worship Kessavyan, who may Himself prove to be merely a remnant of the Old Realm pantheon. Is the Allarei proof of His existence? Or is it all but lucky happenstance that this magic-breeding mineral should come to Lor in the Cataclysm’s wake?

From “Musings on the Graces” by Ethelban Halmaro



Sergeant Redorick cleared his throat as he waited patiently outside the Cardinal’s chambers, wondering not for the first time how swords and sermons had ever become bedfellows.

It was a strange hierarchy that governed the Church of the Ankh and Cloth, the result of a religion built as much upon fighting as faith. Although Cardinal Elmacy was the Premier, to all intents and purposes he and Commander Danhelligan were equals. The religious side of the Order neither condoned nor condemned their military counterparts, whilst the military just wanted to do their job without having doctrine pressed upon them at every juncture.

During the time of the Old Realms, Kessavyan – the One God – had been a warrior-deity known as Last, the God of Protection, and His legend told of endless wars and conflict with the Archfiends of Ulgatha. It was the faith in a God who preached not only compassion and temperance but also courage, determination, strength of arms and mental will that had spawned the Talnathyr, for though Kessavyan was a forgiving God, He could also be vengeful when the iniquitous threatened.

Whilst Danhelligan was a man of action and iron faith, Elmacy was above all an idealist. He believed without a doubt that there was no need for swords and windcannons in the world; he steadfastly held that love and goodwill were solid weapons against the gathering dark and that no matter who or what the enemy, they could be overcome with reason, charity and faith. Redorick had always maintained that whilst reason, charity and faith had their place, nothing argued so well against the doctrines of Havoc Itself as a fully charged windcannon and a nice sharp sword.

The problem was that the Cardinal, like many within the Sceptery, made the common mistake of confusing a lack of war with a time of peace. Although Admiral Kircaldy and the Coriathi fleet were across the Hot Sea, chasing down taromaani rabble-rousers and pirate kings on the Wastes, the conflict was so far from Coriathi shores that it was almost entirely out of the public consciousness.

Coriathir was a subcontinent of Mel’rasil, a sprawling landmass encompassing Deladen’hir, Drumandor, Shojin and the jungle regions of Kalizkan in the north, as well as other, smaller nations. Despite the constant warring among the Delad tribes and the ongoing conflict against the Court of Il’hadan on the Wastes, nothing resembling an invading army had approached Coriathir for over five centuries. This was attributed as much to those foreign nations themselves as to the fact that Coriathir had little to interest potential invaders; the infighting and territorial disputes among the Delad kept them from uniting into a single empire capable of conquest and progression, and the so-called Court was scattered, held at bay by Kircaldy’s fleet. Redorick had served on the Wastes during his youth, running campaigns across the broken, barren islands – and in the twenty-five years since, the Court of Il’hadan had come no closer to unification.

However, the lack of a true political enemy did not necessarily mean that Coriathir existed in a time when reason, charity or faith could reign. The war fought by the Coriathi was one against evil in its purest form – against daemons and the Ven, against the Seed epidemic and gutter-scum like Jharek Doon. Redorick could not, with a straight face, call Coriathir a country at peace. There had been talks recently of accepting the taromaani country of Prenoria into the Sceptery, bolstering trade and perhaps increasing the chance of permanently subduing the Court – but for now Prenoria remained separate and the Arbiter of Y’del-fayr, Naghma Doon, was no less a criminal than his younger brother Jharek.