1A PATTERN, IF ONE CAN BUT READ IT
IN THE SUMMER Of Year Fourteen of the Magnolia Emperor, I, Luviara, theurgist and investigator, completed my assigned inventory of all Heart Temples in the empire, including any that may have been left out of the census. The study covered the entirety of the empire and took sixteen years to complete.
In conclusion, I suggest that many of the Heart Temples predate the empire by hundreds of years. It is impossible to calculate exact ages because of the difficultovy of dating reign lengths in the thousand-year Seven Golden Kingdoms era, and because of the paucity of evidence before the establishment of said era, when it seems there were widespread disruptions to the social order, a period which the poets indulgently refer to as “the Great Wars of the Sorcerer-Kings.”
At the request of the palace archivists, I have included in my original report an Official’s Handbook relating the customs, legalities, and historical anecdotes of the empire, appropriate to share with officials outside the temple who will benefit from its insights.
This addendum is meant only for the eyes of the Inner Chamber, who set me on this path.
As you know, my travels over the years have taken me to the Wandersea in the west, the Blasted Coast and the Storm Waters in the north, the Tranquil Sea and the impenetrable Stalking Forest to the south, as far along the eastern frontier as the Long Claws and the Dagger Spine, as well as a complete circumference of the borderlands surrounding the impassable Desolation. In all these places, I have explored major and minor heartland and provincial Heart Temples, as well as abandoned ruins, some of which are destroyed fortresses or collapsed dwellings, and some compounds which contain the remains of towers grouped in threes and occasionally referred to as “Spires.”
Especially in the provinces and on the frontiers, I discovered Heart Temples that are mentioned in passing in the temple census as if they are of little interest but which are of unusual character and unknown age and provenance. Not a few are exceedingly difficult to reach and thus half forgotten. Some have preserved ancient scrolls seen nowhere else, and not yet chewed up into the palace’s hungry maw. It is not clear when these most isolated Heart Temples were built, but they were certainly established long before the founding of the Tranquil Empire, as I have previously noted.
All this I dutifully recorded and sent to the Inner Chamber. After four months of waiting, and despite a respectful query, I have not yet received even the courtesy of an answer that acknowledges receipt of my extensive notes and findings after my many years of arduous journeying.
Thus, I repeat my preliminary conclusions here, in my winter report of Year Fourteen of the Magnolia Emperor.
That the Heart Temples and their worship predate the Tranquil Empire can no longer be disputed, that is, if the contrary was ever truly believed by anyone outside the palace. Certainly the local people of the intendancies understand the Heart Temples to be unimaginably ancient, the work of “old ones,” or “guardians,” or some other mysterious builders. Therefore, the claims that the empire built all the temples must be understood to be efforts by early palace archivists and historians wishing to embellish the accomplishments of the Lotus General and his heir, the Chrysanthemum Emperor. Whether they were ordered to make this claim, or managed to come up with it on their own, cannot, at this remove, be known one way or the other.
Yet the question of the Heart Temples’ origins raises another related question, that of the curious mystery of the so-called witch roads, which protect against the Pall. To be clear, all “witch roads” are considered part of the network of imperial roads, but not all of the imperial roads repel the Pall. The official history of the empire states that the first emperors built all of the imperial roads, some of which have the protective quality mentioned above and others of which were built to facilitate the swift movement of armies and supplies.
But is that true? Why would witch roads be built before the rising of the Pall, an event that no one predicted? In addition, those of the imperial roads confirmed by work orders and manifests to have been constructed during the early years of the empire show no correlation to the oldest Heart Temples, even if new temples were built in association with these new roads.
Yet every Halt encloses a Heart Temple. This correlation suggests that the Halts and the Heart Temples were built at the same time and meant to be sited together. Some will object that certain Heart Temples lie far from the witch roads. The oldest and most remote of these, without exception, contain a pure-water spring, although not every Heart Temple has a pure-water spring. I have, as yet, found no explanation for why some temples have pure-water springs while others do not.
The only places known to always have a pure-water spring are the aforementioned Spires, whose three-tower construction and purpose remain a mystery. Their origins are shrouded by age and lack of evidence beyond the unusual statues arrayed at their entrances like guards. Most but not all of these statues depict animal-headed people with human- or aivur-shaped bodies. Pre-imperial poets fancifully called these statues “the Shorn” and claim they are noble warriors standing guard for eternity to make sure the evil sorcerer-kings of yore never return.
Witch roads often pass within a half day or less march to Spires, but never pass right up beside them, nor do the roads ever enclose Spires as Halts enclose Heart Temples.
I believe there is a pattern, if one can but read it.
I have requested of the Inner Chamber that I be allowed funding, travel permits, and full access to surveyor maps in order to continue my investigation into any possible relationship between Spires, Heart Temples, and witch roads, and what they may reveal about pre-imperial times and if their existence has any relationship to the dreaded Pall which now afflicts the empire.
Having been denied twice, I ask for a third time. It is foolish to believe we know all we need to know.
From the journal of Theurgist Luviara, working under the sworn seal of the Inner Chamber of the Heart Temple
2DEADLY CURRENTS AND WINDS
Far Boundary Vigil stood on the southern shore of Far Boundary Pall, marking the northern limit of the Tranquil Empire and, people said, the end of the inhabitable world. At the top of the Vigil Tower, Elen and her nephew stood in a circular lookout chamber on the floor below the beacon that shone night and day.
Side by side, they stared north through one of the viewing windows. Like a vast sheet of low-lying fog, the Pall stretched north as far as the eye could see, and to the east and the west likewise, in the manner of a sea or a strait. That is, if that sea were a deadly mist that would kill on contact.
Kem sighed as he glanced back at the open door onto a stairwell. They were alone, for now. “I’d better go. I’m supposed to be caring for the horses.”
“What?” Elen said with a smile. “You didn’t get permission from Captain Simo to come up?”
He waggled his eyebrows, reminding her of all the escapades he and his great good friend Joef had gotten into as children. “I’m not supposed to be here but I had to sneak up and check on you. After everything you told me last night, I was worried about you. As for the prince…” He trailed off.
The haunt was gone. Her chest ached, missing him. Knowing his departure into the Pall was the only choice he could have made. And yet, in so short a time together, she had come to rely on seeing him every day, the easy grace of his presence near her.
Watching her, Kem frowned and was about to speak when a distant tangle of tense voices caught their attention and broke into Elem’s pensive thoughts.
“Yes, the prince,” she agreed drily. “It’s better if he doesn’t know you and I have spoken. Not yet, anyway. As unpleasant as he is, he’s no fool. He’ll guess I’ve told you everything. Go now, so His Exalted Highness doesn’t find you here.”
“Yes, that and the horses. Well, and figuring out what happened here at the Vigil. Why it’s abandoned. Where the garrison has gone!” With this pronouncement, Kem took a step away, a lanky youth of seventeen discovering his place in the world with increasing confidence.
Abruptly he turned back and hugged her fiercely. “I was so scared for you.”
“I love you, too, Kem,” she said with a laugh even as his words set her heart at ease. After Ao’s death two years ago and the haunt’s departure just last night, she had been so afraid of losing him, too, feared him turning his back on her forever. Yet here he stood.
He snorted as he released her. “I guess we’re stuck together for a while yet,” he said with the wry grin that gave him a mischievous gleam. After a last glance at the silent Pall, he went to the door. He paused there to give her another frowningly concerned look, then hurried out of sight down the stairs.
She considered following him, but where could she go? She was in deep trouble, that much was certain. She and Kem were trapped by the circumstances that had landed them here at Far Boundary Vigil, at the edge of the empire. But Elen had survived bad situations before. Her instincts told her not to run, not yet. Ride this out a little longer. She had to protect Kem from the prince’s wrath, that more than anything. But in addition, the mystery of the missing garrison and the unknown reason behind the prince’s reckless dash from the heartland to this distant outpost was a puzzle she wanted to solve. As soon as it proved possible, it would still be better to walk away from any business that entangled her with the palace. She was no one, a mere provincial deputy courier, a minor official in the massive bureaucracy ruled over by the Magnolia Emperor. Chaff to be ground into dust and discarded by the machinery of the Tranquil Empire.
Yet, after all, chaff was not all she was.
Unfortunately, the prince knew it.
She crossed the chamber and looked down onto the courtyard in time to see Kem slip out of the lower doorway, race down the ramp and over the pavement, and disappear into the stables, apparently unseen by any of the others.
The murmur of voices from below ceased. Hastily she went back to the chair placed in the middle of the chamber. She sat exactly where the prince had left her when Captain Simo had come up to tell him Luviara wished to speak to him on a matter of great urgency.
.png)