Ashes of the Sun

by Django Wexler

  The threat of plaguespawn is ubiquitous throughout the former Chosen Empire. In the Dawn Republic, a large proportion of the Legions at any given time are engaged in plaguespawn sweeps, repeated at multiyear intervals throughout Republic territory. Along the borders, the Auxiliaries keep constant watch for incursions. This keeps Republic territory reasonably safe from plaguespawn attack, though the effort involved is enormous and periodic outbreaks still occur. In the Splinter Kingdoms, with their lesser resources, such sweeps are impossible and plaguespawn attacks are a fact of life. Towns and villages are walled, houses are fortified, and travelers go well armed. Fortunately, the mindlessness of plaguespawn means they are usually no match for the well prepared.

  Plague War—The conflict that brought about the destruction of the Elder races and the fall of the Chosen Empire. The specific events of the war have largely been lost in the chaos of the times, but an outline is preserved in the histories of the Twilight Order. The ghouls rebelled against the rule of the Chosen, and when their rebellion was suppressed they unleashed the Plague, which eventually wiped out the Chosen completely. The dwindling Chosen, however, were able to exterminate the ghouls in turn, and then founded the Twilight Order and the Dawn Republic to help their human former subjects survive in the wreckage of their empire.

  pony—A small equine sometimes used as a mount or beast of burden. More expensive and less capable than loadbirds, thickheads, or hardshells, ponies are relatively rare, and primarily used as status symbols by the wealthy.

  quickheal—An alchemical creation that functions as an anesthetic, prevents infection, and promotes rapid healing. It can be made either in a liquid form or as waxy, chewable tablets. Sanctioned arcana when produced by an Order-approved alchemist.

  Republic—The Dawn Republic.

  sanctioned arcana—arcana or alchemical products approved by the Twilight Order for general use, including quickheal, glowstones, and other staples. All other arcana and alchemical products are considered dhak by the Order. Sanctioned arcana is always expensive and in limited supply, which creates constant problems with smugglers selling dhak.

  skyfortress—The largest class of skyship created by the Chosen Empire. Only eight of these massive vessels were ever built. During the Plague War, they were used to deliver the most devastating of the Chosen’s weapons against the ghouls. Of the eight, three were lost over the sea in a last-ditch attempt by the Chosen to find land outside their continent-wide empire, in the hopes of escaping the Plague. The other five were either grounded and eventually destroyed, or crashed due to mishap or ghoul attack. One, the skyfortress Grace in Execution, overhangs the city of Grace and was the original reason for its settlement.

  Skyreach—The capital of the Dawn Republic, and former capital of the Chosen Empire. The heart of Republic wealth and power, and the home of its Senate and ruling class. The huge Chosen buildings that form the heart of Skyreach would be impossible to inhabit without a continuous supply of sunsplinters charged with deiat to power their elevators, ventilation, water, and so on, and so only here, with the cooperation of the Twilight Order, is something like the Chosen’s old standard of living maintained. Living in such a tower is a mark of extremely high status, only available to the hugely wealthy and powerful.

  skyship—Any of the wide variety of flying vessels used by the Chosen. These ranged from small one-man skiffs to the massive skyfortresses, generally taking the form of flattened teardrops, with the pointed end being the bow. They were some of the most advanced and complex arcana the Chosen created. Many were destroyed in the Plague War, and while the Twilight Order maintained a few during the first few decades of its existence, they quickly broke down beyond human capacity to repair. No operational skyships are currently known to exist, though there are always rumors among scavengers.

  Splinter Kingdoms—portions of the former Chosen Empire that have broken away from the Dawn Republic. After the Plague War, the Republic asserted authority over the entirety of the old Chosen Empire, but maintaining control over such a vast area proved impossible in the face of rebellions and plaguespawn attacks. Some regions were abandoned as the Legions retreated to a perimeter they could keep clear of plaguespawn, while other cities declared themselves independent under local rulers or ambitious warlords. The Republic crushed some of these rebellions, but strained resources meant that others had to be accepted.

  Life in the Splinter Kingdoms is generally more dangerous than in the Republic, without the arcana-armed Legions to keep order and suppress plaguespawn. However, this varies greatly from polity to polity. In spite of their name, not all the breakaway states are monarchies—there are free cities, republics, and other political experiments, sometimes changing rapidly as they war with one another. As a general rule, the farther from the Republic they are, the smaller and less stable they become, with larger kingdoms like Grace, Meltrock, and Drail being stabilized by the opportunity to trade with the Republic.

  While dhak is illegal in the Republic, its status in the Splinter Kingdoms varies. Some attempt to maintain the Republic’s ban, while others, like Grace, embrace dhak and encourage its creation and sale. Smuggling across the Republic border is a major business. The Twilight Order asserts that its centarchs have the right to go anywhere in the old Chosen Empire to hunt dhak and dhakim, but as a practical matter some Splinter Kingdoms are openly hostile to Order agents, and they must move secretly there.

  sunsplinter—an arcana device that serves as a deiat battery, storing power for future use by other arcana. Most notably used by blasters as a power source. Only someone with a connection to deiat can refill one, so fully charged sunsplinters are rare and expensive.

  sunstone—an arcana light source, powered by deiat, which produces bright white light. Controlled by deiat and requiring periodic infusions of power to keep operating, so used only by the Twilight Order or Republic elites.

  swiftbird—A cousin of the loadbird and the warbird, specialized for riding. Generally resembles a loadbird, but with longer, leaner legs. Contrary to its name, the swiftbird specializes not in speed but in endurance. A warbird might outrun one over the course of a short charge, but a swiftbird can keep up a rapid pace for ten to twelve hours a day with sufficient food and water, allowing riders to cover long distances.

  thickhead—A large reptilian creature used as a beast of burden. Thickheads resemble giant lizards, with short tails, tough, scaly skin, and bony protrusions around their skulls. They are tremendously strong and can pull very heavy loads, although their fastest pace is not much more than a walk. They are also very sure-footed and can traverse almost any terrain. Slow and expensive to maintain compared to loadbirds, they’re used for particularly heavy burdens or as pack animals over bad roads.

  Though thickheads look fierce, with their beaks and spiked skulls, they are pure vegetarians and display almost no aggressive behavior. Their smell tends to rile loadbirds, who sometimes snap at them or shy away. When threatened, a thickhead lowers itself to the ground and puts its forepaws over its face, protecting its vulnerable eyes and belly and relying on its tough hide to repel an attacker. Once hunkered down, they are notoriously difficult to get moving again.

  Twilight Order—an organization created by the dying Chosen, in the last days of the Plague War, to give humans the ability to use deiat and sustain civilization after their extinction. Key to this purpose are the haken, Chosen arcana that allow the few humans capable of drawing on deiat to wield its power.

  The purposes of the Twilight Order are to defend humanity as a whole, especially from plaguespawn and ghouls; to suppress knowledge of dhaka and destroy dhakim, as part of that defense; and to make sure the power of deiat is wielded for the common good. These themes are laid out in a book called the Inheritance, which details the history of the Chosen and the Plague War and explains the goals of the Order.

  The core of the Order are the centarchs. Every human capable of wielding deiat that the Order is able to locate is brought to the Forge to become a
n agathios, a centarch trainee under an experienced teacher. When they are deemed ready by their master, usually by their early twenties, they receive their cognomen and are declared a full centarch. Apart from the Kyriliarchs, all centarchs are theoretically peers, and free to choose their own path, though in practice a great deal of deference is paid to seniority and unwritten tradition. Centarchs, wielding deiat through their haken, travel throughout the Dawn Republic and beyond, fighting plaguespawn and hunting dhak and dhakim.

  The governing body of the Order is the Council of twelve Kyriliarchs. Generally senior centarchs, these members are nominated by the other centarchs, approved by the Council, and serve for life. Only a majority of the Council can issue directions that centarchs are bound by the laws of the Order to accept. The Council sets broad policy for the Order, directs centarchs to particular areas of trouble, and rules on intra-Order disputes and transgressions.

  In addition to the centarchs, the Order includes supporting staff of several sorts. The Forge is maintained by hereditary families of servants, who do manual labor in the fortress. An extensive logistics service handles supplies and tracks the vast storehouse of arcana the Order maintains, and a courier service uses the Gates to provide rapid delivery of information. Arcanists help maintain equipment and work with centarchs in the field to research arcana. Another group, called scouts, supports the centarchs directly on missions and maintains outposts and intelligence-gathering operations throughout the Republic and the Splinter Kingdoms, working undercover where the Order is not welcome.

  While the Order is not in charge of the Republic, nor subject to the instructions of the Republic Senate, the two groups maintain an uneasy but close relationship. The Inheritance instructs the Order to stay out of mundane politics, to preserve their independence and reduce temptation to corruption. But the Order has traditionally been willing to intervene when the Republic is threatened, and the power of the centarchs is the ultimate guarantor of the Republic’s continued status as the most powerful nation in the remains of the Chosen Empire.

  unmetal—a material used by the Chosen for a wide variety of purposes. Unmetal is lighter than steel but enormously stronger, essentially indestructible except against deiat. Even deiat takes significant time and effort to damage it. It can have a variety of colors and finishes but is usually identifiable by its iridescent sheen.

  With the fall of the Chosen, the means of creating unmetal has been lost, but enormous amounts remain from various Chosen ruins. Modifying and repurposing them is obviously a challenge, however. The Twilight Order retains a limited capacity to reforge unmetal, which they use to create equipment for themselves and the Legions.

  vulpi (pl. vulpi)—a livestock animal raised for meat, with a unique life cycle. They are omnivores and will eat nearly anything, but can thrive on grasses and weeds. Vulpi are born small and helpless, but rapidly grow into boisterous, playful creatures resembling both pigs and weasels. This yearling phase lasts for approximately their first year or two. Toward the end of it, they mate repeatedly, and females store enough sperm to last for the rest of their lives. They then mature into breeders, nearly doubling in size and becoming squatter and ill-tempered. For the following year or more, the females will give birth to litters of pups every eight to ten weeks.

  Finally, the mature vulpi enter their final stage of life, during which they are called terminals. They become sessile and increase enormously in size (up to tenfold if provided with plenty of feed), and their legs atrophy and are eventually lost in the vast bulk of their bodies. In this phase they are extremely efficient eaters and produce little waste. On their own, terminals simply die of starvation, but properly tended and eventually slaughtered they produce large amounts of high-quality, pork-like meat. Vulpi is a staple throughout the Dawn Republic and the Splinter Kingdoms. Culled at the yearling or breeder stage, they can also provide useful leather and other by-products.

  warbird—A rarer cousin of loadbirds and swiftbirds, warbirds are large, flightless birds bred for combat. They resemble loadbirds but retain larger wings, which they flap for stability while kicking. Unlike their more docile cousins, warbirds have long talons on their toes and a sickle-like claw on the back of their foot, and are capable of tearing an unarmored human to shreds.

  In battle, warbirds are typically equipped with armor and have blades affixed to their beaks, while carrying an armored rider who fights with a lance or spear. Outside the Republic (where the Legions with their arcana weapons remain the dominant military force) warbird-riding cavalry is often the preeminent military arm.

  Warbirds are more difficult to train than their cousins, and more expensive to keep, eating mostly large insects and rodents. They are therefore expensive, and owning one is usually a mark of status.

  extras

  meet the author

  Photo Credit: Rachel Thompson

  DJANGO WEXLER graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and he worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not writing, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.

  Find out more about Django Wexler and other Orbit authors by registering for the free monthly newsletter at www.orbitbooks.net.

  if you enjoyed

  ASHES OF THE SUN

  look out for

  LEGACY OF ASH

  The Legacy Trilogy: Book One

  by

  Matthew Ward

  A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.

  Ruling families—once protectors of justice and democracy—now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire.

  Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.

  Viktor Akadra is the Republic’s champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic.

  Josiri Trelan is Viktor’s sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother’s failed rebellion.

  And yet Calenne Trelan, Josiri’s sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy, to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunt the family name.

  As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their home. Yet decades of bad blood are not easily set aside. And victory—if it comes at all—will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined.

  One

  Preparations had taken weeks. Statues had been re-gilded. Familial portraits unveiled from dusty canvas and set in places of honour. The stained glass of the western window glittered in the afternoon sunlight. Come the hour of Ascension it would blaze like fire and cast an image of divine Lumestra into the hall so that the sun goddess too would stand among the guests.

  It would not be so elsewhere. In the houses beneath Branghall’s walls the part of Lumestra would be played by a doll, her limbs carved from firewood and her golden hair woven from last year’s straw. There, her brief reign would not end with the fading of the sun. Instead, hearth-fires would usher her home on tongues of flame.

  The chasm between rich and poor, ruler and ruled, was never more evident than at Ascension. Josiri strove to be mindful of that. For all that had befallen his family, he retained comfort and privilege denied to many.

  But a prison remained a prison, even if the bars were gilded and the guards polite.

  Most of the guards.

  “That will have to come down.” Arzro Makrov extended a finger to the portrait above High Table. “She has no place here, or anywhere else in the Tressian Republic.”

  Josiri exchanged a glance with Anastacia. The seneschal’s black eyes glimmered a warning, reinforced by a slight shake of her head. Josiri ignored both and stepped closer, footsteps hollow on the hall’s flagstones. “No place?”

&n
bsp; Makrov flinched but held his ground. “Katya Trelan was a traitor.”

  Impotent anger kindled. Fifteen years on, and the wound remained raw as ever.

  “This was my mother’s home,” said Josiri carefully. “She would have celebrated her fifty-fifth year this Ascension. Her body is ash, but she will be present in spirit.”

  “No.”

  Makrov drew his corpulent body up to its full, unimpressive height. The setting sun lent his robes the rich warmth of fresh blood. Ironic for a man so pallid. The intricate silver ward-brooch was a poor match for his stolid garb. But without it, he could not have crossed the enchanted manor wall.

  Josiri’s throat tightened. He locked gazes with Makrov for a long moment, and then let his eyes fall upon the remaining “guests.” Would any offer support?

  Shaisan Yanda didn’t meet his gaze, but that was to be expected. As governor of the Southshires, she was only present to ensure Josiri did nothing rash. Nonetheless, the slight curl to her lip suggested she found Makrov’s behaviour tiresome. She’d fought for the Council at Zanya, and on other battlefields besides, earning both her scars and the extra weight that came with advancing years.

  As for Valmir Sark, he paid little attention. His interest lay more with ancestral finery… and likely in broaching Branghall’s wine cellars come Ascension. Josiri had heard enough of Sark to know he was present only to spare his family another scandal. The high-collared uniform might as well have been for show. Sark was too young to have fought against Katya’s rebellion. And as for him standing a turn on the Hadari border? The thought was laughable.

  That left Anastacia, and her opinion carried no sway.

  If only Calenne were there. She’d always had more success in dealing with the Council’s emissaries, and more patience. Where in Lumestra’s name was she? She’d promised.