by S L Farrell
531: The Treaty of Passe a’Fiume is signed, ending open hostilities between Nessantico and Firenzcia. As part of the negotiations, Allesandra (now twenty-one years old and having lived nearly as long in Nessantico as in Firenzcia) is finally ransomed and returns to Firenzcia.
532: Allesandra marries Pauli ca’Xielt of West Magyaria, son of the Gyula (local ruler) of West Magyaria. West Magyaria secedes from the Holdings and joins the Firenzcian Coalition.
533: A male child is born to Allesandra and Pauli: Jan. This will be their only child. Their marriage is rumored to be “troubled.” In Nessantico, Marie dies bearing the fourth child of Justi, another son. Though sickly, Audric will survive.
535: Nessantican forces push farther westward in the Hellins (and also on the Isle of Paeti, which they will come to control).
537: Southern Fever rises again in the cities. Marguerite ca’Dakwi, vacationing in Namarro, is infected and dies. Audric becomes the A’Kralj in her place.
540: The Commandant of the Holdings forces in the Hellins, Petrus ca’Helfier, is killed by a Westlander after ca’Helfier either “rapes” a Westlander’s daughter or the two of them fall in love (the truth here will probably never be known). The new Commandant, Donatien ca’Sibelli, takes the murderer forcibly and executes him without trial; the Westlanders protest. Retaliations escalate, and there is suddenly open war—and Commandant ca’Sibelli finds that there are new forces with the Westlanders: soldiers with faces marked by tattoos and spellcasters with skills that match those of the téni. In the Coalition, A’Hïrzg Fynn, now eighteen, leads the Firenzcian army successfully against Tennshah, taking land in the east for the Holdings of Firenzcia.
542: There are attacks by Westlanders inside the Hellins frontier—the magic used by the Westlanders proves formidable. Westlanders win a large-scale battle with Holdings forces in the Hellins. The towns around Lake Malik and Lake Udar are lost, as is control of the western frontier. The Hellins Holdings are reduced to thin strips of land around the cities of Tobarro and Munereo.
543: Hïrzg Jan suffers a heart attack. His health begins a slow, steady decline.
544: Justi, realizing he is dying, names Sergei ca’Rudka as his choice for Regent until Audric reaches his majority at sixteen. Kraljiki Justi dies, and Audric becomes Kraljiki at age eleven.
548: A Magic of Nightfall begins.