Fireblood (Whispers from Mirrowen) (56 page)

Shaliah: a class of Silvandom known for the
keramat
of healing. This ability is innate and comes from their closeness to nature and the ability to share their life force with others.

Sylph: a spirit creature of Mirrowen that is tiny and can travel great distances and provide warnings of danger and healing.

Talisman: a Druidecht charm, fixed to a necklace, which is presented to them by the spirits of Mirrowen upon achieving a sufficient level of respect usually achieved by the age of adulthood. The emblem is a woven-knot pattern, intricately done, and it purportedly allows a Druidecht to commune with unseen spirits.

Tay al-Ard: spirit beings of great power that possess the gift of moving people and objects great distances in mere moments. It is considered a
keramat
to be able to induce such spirits to perform this feat.

Uddhava: a Bhikhu philosophy and way of life. It centers around the observation and discernment of the motives of others, and then acting in a way that validates or rejects the observation. Life is a series of intricate moves and countermoves between people, and a Bhikhu who can make the observations and reactions faster than an opponent will win a confrontation.

Vaettir: a race from Silvandom that values life above all. They are generally tall and slender, dark-skinned, with black hair. They do not eat meat and seek to preserve life in all its various forms. Their magic is innate and the wise use and practice of it is known as
keramat.
When they inhale deeply, their bodies become buoyant and can float. When they exhale deeply, their bodies become more dense and solid and they sink.

T
here are many sources of inspiration that writers draw on. For this story, it goes back to my college years at San Jose State. Being a medieval history major, I remember studying about the Black Death, the terrible plague that ravaged Europe repeatedly. I still have my college book by David Herlihy (
The Black Death and the Transformation of the West
 ) and have read it several times. I was also inspired by some of my ancient history classes, especially reading Julius Caesar’s
The Gallic Wars.
There were many interesting descriptions in that book of the various “races” of Europe and also details about the Druids of Gaul, which I used to create the Druidecht.

For the development of the magic system in the book, I turned more to modern times. In fact, it was my experience working in a semiconductor factory at Intel that inspired it. The high-tech industry spends billions of dollars constructing factories that organize and exploit the atomic properties of certain elements. I grew up in Silicon Valley, and it has always amazed me how brilliant engineers can turn something simple—sand—into microprocessors that power enormous data centers. I worked for
a while as a night-shift supervisor in the Ion Implant area of the factory (or “fab,” as we call it in my industry) and was amazed at the machines invented to control basic atomic elements. The processes are so complex that experts exist in specific functional areas with strange-sounding names: litho, etch, diffusion, implant, thin films, planar. These folks are the modern-day Paracelsus. Learning about the technology and the small scale it operates on bends your mind. Granted, I’m not sure individual phosphorous or boron atoms are sentient and mind being trapped in silicon wafers, but that is how the idea came to me.

Only in a writer’s imagination can ancient Roman history mix with mass epidemics and modern technology to create a new fantasy series.

I’m off to breakfast with Possidius at Mel’s.

M
any thanks to David Pomerico of 47North for discovering me. I gratefully dedicate this book to him for making my dream come true. Also thanks to my early readers for their priceless feedback and encouragement: Gina, Tony and Emily, Jeremy, and Karen. I also would like to thank Chris Cerasi, whose input and direction really improved the story and brought more life to the plot and characters. To my good friends Brendon and Rochelle, who for years told their kids many tales of the adventures of Paedrin and Hettie. And finally, to all the readers of Deep Magic who shared the world of Kenatos with me.

Photograph © Kim Bills

Jeff Wheeler is a writer from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesday nights. The rest of the time, he works for Intel Corporation, is a husband and the father of five kids, and a leader in his local church. He lives in Rocklin, California. When he isn’t listening to books during his commute, he is dreaming up new stories to write. His website is:
www.jeff-wheeler.com