Much snipping.
Material in quotes "x" was spoken by a character.
Notes in brackets (), {}, are mine.
snippet #2 is at
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6982
HTM
Question: Is Zindel really fifty (50) or
sixty (60) years younger than his parents?
runsforcelery wrote:
{snip - htm}
here is the first "official" snippet.
{snip - htm}
Hope you guys enjoy it.
A Naughty Moose wonders:
{any bets on that?
}
NM
_____________________________________________________
Chapter One ]
Tajvana (city; our Istanbul)
Zindel chan Calirath,
Duke of Ternathia, Grand Duke of Farnalia,
Warlord of the West, Protector of the Peace,
Wing-Crowned, and, by the gods’ grace,
Zindel XXIV, Emperor of Ternathia
and Zindel I, Emperor Designate of Sharona.
* * * * *
Calirath Palace
maids
bodyguards
Model 7 shotguns, bayonets fixed,
Halanch and Welnahr revolvers.
chairs — beautifully made,
comfortably padded and richly upholstered.
middle-aged woman: Lady Merissa Vankhal (Protocol
Instructor, Chief Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Andrin)
{Zindel} his wife (Empress) Varena (Calirath)
* * * * *
Andrin Calirath, Imperial Crown Princess
of Ternathia and Sharona,
the Ylani Straits {Bosphorus}
the Conclave {meeting of all Sharonan Heads of State}
Chava Busar
{Princess Andrin'a) marriage to a Uromathian prince
a united Sharona
The Emperor of Uromathia had only five unmarried sons.
Among them was the crown prince,
{NOTE: this corrects Book 2, HHNF,
which says that Chava has only three (3) sons, total.)
Darcel Kinlafia and Alazon (Yanamar)
Howan Fai Goutin was the crown prince of Eniath,
Eniath’s people were Uromathians.
Culturally. Religiously. Racially.
{The} Triad {of Deities}
the pre-coronation ball
"a young man {Howan} with enough courage to ask a girl
a foot and a half taller than he is to dance with him."
Janaki’s death,
what Janaki Glimpsed,
{Janaki = Andrin’s dead brother}
(Andrin) was barely seventeen years old.
how close an ally {Eniath} King Junni’s become
Marnilay bless him!
There was no point pretending Chava wouldn’t have
sources within Calirath Palace’s staff,
*******
(Zindel's) Privy Council
extra armsmen
in the green and gold of the House of Calirath
outside the council chamber’s door,
The assembled councilors
the crown prince’s death
the mysterious Arcanans — the Arcanans who,
it seemed, truly did use what could only be described
as magic — had conquered no less than
four entire universes in barely two weeks.
“Shamir (Taje)!” the First Councilor
"every unmarried Uromathian prince from Eniath,
from Hinorea, from every damned royal family of
Uromathian culture this ball of rock ever produced.
Even the ones who’ve emigrated to the colonies."
by Vothan!
Zindel ... knew Security ran periodic probes,
from time to time, just to be sure.
The families of the personal armsmen who
guarded the Ternathian Imperial Family had,
for generations, bred some of the oddest,
most useful, and occasionally downright terrifying
Talents on Sharona. Talents they very carefully
never discussed with anyone but themselves and
a reigning emperor or empress . . . and which
they would be using once again very shortly.
* * * * * * *
Kinlafia: “The Voice who relayed
Shaylar Nargra-Kolmayr’s final transmission.
The man who warned all of us that we were at war
with another universe . . . and the man whose pain
and grief and anger spilled over onto everyone with
enough Talent to See that transmission. It’s hard
to imagine anyone more intensely identified with
this entire crisis by the public — unless it was
Shaylar herself!
Janaki pointed out, it would be far wiser to
attach Kinlafia to our interests than
to find ourselves in a position in which someone
tried to use him against us.”
The hallmark Talent, mightiest weapon,
and greatest curse of the House of Calirath,
were the Glimpses which came to its members.
Visions of the future, fragmentary bits and pieces
of things to come. Those Glimpses had allowed
Calirath emperors and empresses to change the course
of history more than once throughout the centuries
of the Empire of Ternathia . . . and more than
one of those emperors and empresses had paid the
price Janaki chan Calirath had paid when he went
knowingly to his death in the defense of Fort Salby.
They were seldom kind and gentle, the Calirath Glimpses.
“Short of a Death Glimpse — which I haven’t had yet, thank the gods! — no one knows that about himself.
Zindel chan Calirath was only in his forties,
and his was a long-lived family. Both of his parents
had lived past ninety, and Caliraths seldom died — of
natural causes, at least — much younger than that.
{QUERY: Why would Zindel be that much younger than
his parents? Especially his mother? - HTM}
* * * * * * *
Taje ... was also his closest, most intimate friend,
the House of Talents in the new Parliament
Brithum Dulan, the Ternathian Empire’s
Councilor for Internal Affairs, was responsible
for the empire’s counterintelligence services,
{All of the People, Places, and Things mentioned above
were in Books 1 & 2 - htm}
{except for the chairs - no one bothered with them!}
* * * * * * *
{First New Character:}
Company-Captain Kelahm chan Helikos.
[/size]
Chapter Two