by Kat Ross
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Lezarius. The Pontifex of the Northern Curia in Jalghuth. Also called Lezarius the Righteous. He alone controls the ley in a physical sense. Creator of the Void and the stelae. A geographer by training.
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Liberation Day. A holiday commemorating the surrender of the mage cities and the end of the civil war, marked with parades and celebrations in the streets.
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Light-bringers. Also, lucifers. What nihilim were called before Beleth and Balaur led their fellow clergy to disgrace and excommunication from the Via Sancta, they are a species distinct from humans, although the differences all involve the structures of the brain. Light-bringers learned to use the ley and offered refuge to those fleeing the Second Dark Age.
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Lithomancy. Divination/magic using gems and minerals. Practiced by the witches in Dur-Athaara. Kaldurite, for example, absorbs the ley and prevents it from being used against you.
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Luk. The Pontifex of the Southern Curia in Kvengard. His unique talent is wielding the ley as an evolutionary force. Luk created the Markhounds and the shadow mounts used by Kven knights.
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Mage trap. Four interconnected Wards that form a box with no ley power inside the boundary. Can only be activated by someone with Holy Marks. During the war, it was one of the few effective defenses against the nihilim.
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Malach. A nightmage from Bal Kirith. Nephew of Beleth and grandson of Balaur. Malach struck a Cold Truce with Cardinal Falke to spare Bal Kirith from destruction, but his failure to deliver on the promise of a child leaves them mortal enemies.
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Markhounds. Creatures of the ley, bred to detect specific Marks. Invaluable during the war to hunt nihilim in the ruins. Now the hounds are mainly used by the Interfectorem because they sense it when someone’s Marks invert and start to howl.
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Maria Karolo. A bishop at the Arx in Novostopol and head of the Order of Saint Maricus, which enforces the Meliora.
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Marks. Intricate pictures on the skin bestowed by someone with mage blood. Civil Marks suppress anger, greed and aggression and enhance creative talents. They primarily use surface ley. Holy Marks are only given to the clergy. They can use the deeper liminal ley and twist chance to manifest a narrow range of outcomes. People with Marks must wear gloves to prevent accidental use of the ley, which is drawn through the palms of the hands. Each Mark is as unique as a fingerprint. The first one is generally given before the age of eleven.
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Meliora. The foundational text of the Via Sancta. Written by the Praefators, it has forty-four sutras dealing with the human condition. Its title means "for the pursuit of the better.” The Meliora argues that form of government is irrelevant and the root of all evil is violence against Nature and ourselves. Technology is a false panacea that creates social disharmony. According to the Meliora, the Church itself will eventually become obsolete when society reaches a state of utopia.
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Mikhail Semyon Bryce. Alexei’s older brother. A former captain of the Beatus Laqueo and a patient at the Batavia Institute. Marked by Malach.
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Morho Sarpanitum. The primeval jungle at the heart of the continent.
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Morvana Ziegler. A Kven bishop who takes on Alexei’s Marks. Formerly Luk’s ambassador in Novostopol.
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Nantwich. The capital of the Western Curia, it sits on the shore of the Mare Borealis. Emblem is Crossed Keys.
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Natalya Anderle. A free-spirited artist and unrepentant rake. Kasia’s best friend and flatmate.
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Nightmage. Also called Nihilim. A somewhat derogatory term to describe light-bringers after their fall from grace. They wear blood-red robes and maintain a church in exile called the Via Libertas that espouses a version of extreme free will. In Bal Kirith, they have human servants who’ve been promised wealth and status when the mages regain power. Motto is Mox nox: Soon, nightfall.
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Nightmark. A Mark bestowed by a mage, distinguished from the Civil and Holy Marks given by the Curia in both form and function. First practiced by Beleth and Balaur, it allows the Marked to tap abyssal ley and to twist chance in their favor more directly and violently. In return, they are beholden to the mage. Nightmarks morally corrupt over time and the images are much darker in tone than regular Marks.
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Nikola Thorn. An Unmarked char at the Arx in Novostopol who becomes Malach’s lover. Her dream is to leave the Via Sancta and live among the witches of Dur-Athaara.
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Novostopol. Capital of the Eastern Curia. Humid, warm and rainy. A port city, it sits amid two branches of the Montmoray where the river empties into the Southern Ocean. Despite the dreary climate, Novostopol is a lively place, with bustling cafes and nightlife. Thanks to the system of Civil Marks, crime is virtually nonexistent.
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Office of the General Directorate. The most powerful organ of the Curia, headed in Novostopol by Archbishop Kireyev. Ostensibly, it oversees the other offices and reports directly to the Pontifex. Has a vast intelligence network and used to run covert operations in the mage cities. Emblem is the Golden Bough.
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Oprichniki. A regular force of civilian gendarmes in Novostopol. Uniform is a yellow rain jacket and stylish cap. They carry only batons.
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Order of Saint Marcius. Tasked with enforcing adherence to the philosophy laid out in the Meliora, in particular, the tight restrictions on technology. Emblem is a sheaf of wheat.
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Oto Valek. An orderly at the Batavia Institute. On the payroll of Archbishop Kireyev and the OGD, Oto is a shady mercenary—and a bad penny who just keeps turning up.
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Patryk Spassov. Alexei’s partner at the Interfectorem. Also served as a knight during the war. A functional alcoholic and all-around bruiser with a heart of gold.
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Perditum (pl., perditae). Feral humans who live in the Void. Once residents of Bal Agnar and Bal Kirith, they were warped by the psychic degradation of the ley before Lezarius created the grid. Some are more intelligent than others, but all succumb to bloodlust when the ley floods. Smart enough to fear and avoid Nightmages (whom they recognize by scent), but anyone else is fair game. Also called leeches.
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Praefators. Founders of the Via Sancta, they were visionaries who discovered how to use the ley through Marks. The name means wizard in the old tongue. Most now comprise the canon of Saints, but due to the tumultuous upheavals of the Second Dark Age, little is known about the first Praefators beyond their names. It is assumed they were all light-bringers.
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Praesidia ex Divina Sanguis. Protectors of the Divine Blood, in the old tongue. Founded by Cardinal Falke, this secret Order strives to ensure the continuation of lucifer bloodlines in service to the Via Sancta. Motto is Hoc ego defendam. This I will protect.
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Probatio. The office of the Curia that administers morality tests. Emblem is a trident, indicating all three layers of mind.
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Saviors’ Eve. The night before Den Spasitelya (Saviors’ Day), a holiday commemorating the building of the Arxes, it has a grimmer theme, with young people donning masks and costumes evoking the evils of the Second Dark Age.
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Sweven. A memory, vision or fantasy shared directly with another person through the ley, as if they’re experiencing it firsthand.
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Stelae. Also called wardstones. Pillars engraved with Wards to repel nihilim. Found in the Void at the junctures of the ley lines. Most stelae are emblazoned with an emblem of the Curia (Raven, Crossed Keys, Flame, or Wolf, depending on the location) and a pithy maxim such as Ad altiora tendo (I strive toward higher things), Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus
(Let justice be done though the world shall perish) and Vincit qui se vincit (He conquers who conquers himself).
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Sublimin. A psychotropic drug used to bestow or transfer Marks, it temporarily dissolves the barrier between the conscious and unconscious.
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Sydonie. A young Nightmage at Bal Kirith, sister to Tristhus.
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Tabularium. A vast archive, it’s one of the few buildings in the Arx to have electricity. The Tabularium holds files on every citizen of Novostopol, as well as a separate register for members of the clergy. An even larger Tabularium exists in Nantwich, with records dating back to the Second Dark Age.
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Tashtemir Kelavan. A veterinarian who serves as the only doctor at Bal Kirith.
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Tessaria Foy. A retired Vestal and godmother of Kasia Novak. Close to Cardinal Falke and Archbishop Kireyev. In her mid-seventies, Tess is an elegant and enigmatic figure. Comes from a moneyed family in Arbot Hills, not far from the Bryce family mansion.
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Tristhus. A young Nightmage, brother to Sydonie, whose lead he follows without question.
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Unmarked. Individuals who fail the morality tests administered by the Probatio and are denied Marks. The lowest caste of society, they live by the charity of the Curia since few will employ them. All the chars at the Arx are Unmarked, as proclaimed by their gray uniforms. Unmarked comprise about one percent of the population. In Novostopol, they’re relegated to a slum district called Ash Court.
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Via Sancta. The Blessed Way. A social, scientific and spiritual experiment to improve humanity. Teaches non-violence and beauty in all things.
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The Void. Also called the Black Zone. The region where the ley has been banished. Encompasses the cities of Bal Agnar and Bal Kirith and most of the Morho Sarpanitum.
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Wards. Symbols imbued with emotional power that concentrate the ley for a specific purpose. Some repel nihilim, others force the ley from a particular area (see mage trap). A surge can cause them to short for minutes to days, but they self-repair. Most use surface ley and thus glow bright blue. Activated by touch.
Acknowledgments
The concept of the ley owes a huge debt to Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist who coined the term shadow side. It represents the hidden aspects of the personality—the parts of ourselves that we find intolerable and can’t acknowledge. Jung also explored the collective unconscious and the significance of archetypes in the human psyche. When Malach tells Alexei, “Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead,” that’s a direct quote from Jung’s Red Book. It still gives me chills! A fascinating source I came across in my research was Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sallie Nichols for anyone interested in going deeper down that particular rabbit hole. Other books I (and Malach) eagerly devoured were Robert Greene’s The 33 Strategies of War and The Art of Seduction.
Heartfelt thanks to first readers Laura Pilli and Leonie Henderson, whose feedback always makes my stories a hundred times better.
Last but never least, to Mom and Nick, my darlings.
About the Author
Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She's the author of the Lingua Magika trilogy, the Fourth Element and Fourth Talisman fantasy series, the Gaslamp Gothic mysteries, and the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios.
www.katrossbooks.com
[email protected]
Also by Kat Ross
The Fourth Element Trilogy
The Midnight Sea
Blood of the Prophet
Queen of Chaos
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The Fourth Talisman Series
Nocturne
Solis
Monstrum
Nemesis
Inferno
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The Lingua Magika Trilogy
A Feast of Phantoms
All Down But Nine
Devil of the North (forthcoming)
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Gaslamp Gothic
The Daemoniac
The Thirteenth Gate
A Bad Breed
The Necromancer’s Bride
Dead Ringer
Balthazar’s Bane
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Standalone
Some Fine Day
