Traitor Savant (Second Seal of the Duelists) (38 page)
Read Traitor Savant (Second Seal of the Duelists) Online
Authors: Jasmine Giacomo
Sint Koos
: a sint who abides in a forest near the Academy campus
Sint Rolf’s Day
: an early autumn holiday on the Waarden calendar
Sint Staas
: one of the sints who abide near the Academy campus. Headmaster Langlaren consults him regarding the arrangement of hexes
Sivutma Ila
: an opportunistic Nunaa girl saved from her father’s murderous wrath and sent to the Duelist Academy to develop her elemental magic
Skill duel
: a duel meant to display ability rather than determine whether a client is in the right or not. Often, duelists will modify the standard dueling rules to limit danger or to highlight a certain set of spells when they agree to a skill duel
Skycaller
: A Balanganese spellcaster who lives isolated on a mountain and uses magic to tame dangerous weather or other natural phenomena
Solitary
: a small gazebo-like structure built on a natural promontory, away from the Academy campus, where a disobedient or troubled student may be sent to meditate without distraction upon the Void. Over a dozen dot the rocky outcrops around the Academy
Song Magic
: the ability to manipulate the world through complex, arcane patterns of sound. Song magic uses six different musical scales. Each affects a different aspect of reality. Spells cast with a single human voice are solo spells, and students learning melodies for the individual are called Solo students. In addition to the human voice, long slender crystals are used as substitutes for singing partners during song spells. Certain notes of complex songs are sung directly at the crystal, which resonates with that note in harmony with the next portion of the song. Duet magic is so called because it involves one singer’s voice and one crystal. Trio magic employs the voice and two crystals. The singer population has always been small compared to that of the duelists, and learning to sing with crystals instead of partners allows the singers a much wider variety of personal spells. The only songs sung with other singers are choir songs. They require too many harmonies to be practical for a single singer. Choir songs require a choralist’s directing skills.
Songwork
: the casting of song magic
Sopranoi
: Temple singers with the highest voice range
Spineforest
: a mountain range characterized by spiky towers. Home to the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies
Steel
: a forbidden metal within the borders of the Waarden Empire
Steelwielders
: Akrestan separatists who began the War of Steel, bringing a terrible new metal to bear against the empire’s duelists
Strider
: a mythical rock-man of northern Balanganam, and Bayan’s first Earth avatar
Taban Solahan
: a snarky, arrogant Dunfarroghan and a member of Braam’s hex
Tagisaa
: Sivutma’s home village in Nunaa
Takozen
: the Academy’s Flame Instructor, he holds the rank of Avatar Duelist
Tala
: a half-Waarden, half-Balanganese singer at the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies. Though she possesses perfect pitch and a skill for remembering songs, she suffers crippling performance anxiety in the form of hiccups. She fears her inability to sing any magic will force her to become a chanter instead
Talent Tournament
: a three-day event allowing freshly ranked Elemental Duelists to exhibit their skills during duels. The students leave campus and duel each other in a duel den picked by the Duelism Office at the Kheerzaal. Talent Tournaments make for great entertainment, drawing crowds from nearby towns and villages, many of which have their own duel den, thus increasing a duelist’s likelihood of receiving a bid for assignment if he or she performs well. Many Elemental Duelists never advance to the next rank, so this showing of talent is their only opportunity to influence citizens to bid for the duelists’ placement. Duelists who reach the rank of Avatar Duelist get to attend another Talent Tournament, after which the bidding on duelists is significantly more cutthroat due to their larger skill set
Tallacht
: capital of the Western Empire, sacked in 1539 IC, now historical ruins
Tammay
: a field worker back on Bayan’s family farm
Tarin Hajellis
: a passionate girl, part Akrestoi, part Dunfarroghan, with rare red hair, who joins Bayan’s hex
Tegen
: term for the recipient of magical attacks during training workouts. Duelists are each other’s tegen
Telling
: a Balanganese feastday tradition, involving a seerpool and seerwine. The seer fasts for a day, then consumes a large quantity of seerwine. He or she enters an altered state and observes reflected ripples from the surface of a seerpool and uses them to predict the future. Tellings are considered parlor tricks among the Balanganese, but the more superstitious among the Waarden believe them to be accurate foretellings
Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies
: the enclave of the reclusive Singers, in the mountains of Pallithea. Located in the mountains near the Godsmaw, it is comprised of towers and underground structures set in and around a perfect hemisphere of stone, which amplifies the singers’ song magic to epic proportions
Teos
: a duelist at the Muggenhem duel den
Teresseren Unification Day
: an Waarden holiday in early summer, marking the day in 1710 IC that Pinamuyoc came under imperial rule for the first time, creating the sea power that was the Teresseren Empire
Tetbese
: a bustling market town near Wisnuk Bay
Theo Willemsen
: Head Chanter at the Academy Chantery. Called Doc Theo by his patients and friends, he’s traveled the length and breadth of the empire during his long service as a chanter, spending time in Bayan’s homeland of Balanganam as well as serving at the front during the Raqtaaq Wars
Third
: the third class of eunuchs, comprised of volunteers seeking safety and guaranteed employment in imperial service in exchange for any future children. Often, Thirds come from poor or large families or escape dire straits
Tilaa
: the language of the Raqtaaq people. Tilaa is also the name for the Aklaa concept of speaking things into existence, for willing the world to change, or forcing fate. The rulers of Aklaa bore the title of Voice of Tilaa
Timbool
: Bayan’s farm hound. Later, Bayan’s second Earth Avatar, formed to resemble his dog in large scale
Tjaard Staasen
: the Academy’s Water Instructor, he holds the rank of Avatar Duelist
Trade Duelist
: a duelist of Avatar rank or higher who has served in duel dens for twenty years. They transition from using their magic in duels to using it in a trade of their choice, usually selected according to the duelist’s strongest element. Trade Duelists perform normally impossible tasks using their avatars, such as constructing a bridge across the previously uncrossable Mambajao River in Balanganam.
Trainees
: unranked students at the Duelist Academy. They wear heavy iron bracelets and practice the six sacred motions, spell forms, and meditation daily for two seasons or so, before they’re ever allowed to cast magic
Treinfhir
: the Tuathi anima caster who fought Bayan and his hexmates at the Battle of the Kheerzaal. Full of secrets, the Tuathi becomes an element for division within Bayan’s hex.
Tuathi
: nomadic clans of horsemen who live in the hills west of the Maam Ardcath. Historically, they have clashed with the Waarden and their allies on numerous occasions, and once sacked Akkeraad, forcing the emperor to flee. The Dunfarroghan are their “domesticated” descendants. The Tuathi are known for their warlike ways, their disdain for the soft, settled lives of imperial farmers and merchants, and for the use of the unnatural and forbidden anima magic
Tuq
: god of the Raqtaaq. His worship is forbidden now that the Waarden Empire has made the Raqtaaq lands into mere provinces. The sacred soil in which devout followers of Tuq kneel and pray is severely restricted, but certain powerful individuals can still smuggle some from its location on the old Aklaa palace grounds
Tuur Langlaren
: Headmaster of the Duelist Academy and a Hexmagic Duelist
Twervel Sea
: a southern sea between Shawnash’kote and Raqtaaq provinces
Uunaq
: an indentured handmaid who was in service to, and colluding with, the mad princess Qivinga
Vagary
: a roadside bandit, from the old empire term “vagaries of travel”
Victory in Pallithea Day
: a summer holiday that celebrates the end of the War of Steel
Villagers
: specifically, the inhabitants of Peace Village. Also a general term used by duelists to refer to anyone who doesn’t possess magic
Void, the
: a state of emotionless detachment. Duelist trainees are taught to embrace the Void long before they’re allowed to cast spells, since emotional outbursts make elemental magic go wild
Waarden
: the ruling people of the Waarden Empire. Their blood type is dominant over all others. Sometimes nicknamed “wisp”
War of Secrets
: Tuathi term for what the Waarden call the First Tuathi War
War of Steel
: the shortest war in imperial history, between Karkhedon and the Teresseren Empire, due to the empire’s determination to wipe the forbidden metal from their lands, as well as all those who wielded it
Warmaster
: the rank held by selected powerful duelists, and the Academy Headmaster, in times of war. The headmaster is responsible for marshaling the students and teachers into battle hexes, though such desperate circumstances haven’t occurred since the Second Tuathi War
Waskukone’yen
: a citrus-scented flower export from Kemada
Wateyo tes’Eshkin
: one of the emperor’s Lord Ministers, and a wealthy, powerful nobleman in his own right, he controls the Ministry of Ways and employs Philo Sallas as his best surveyor. Married to Iyanu K’mokamo, father of Kiwani t’Eshkin
Wekshi
: the Academy’s Wind Instructor, she holds the rank of Avatar Duelist
Wisnuk Bay
: a bay in Kemada, surrounded by fertile land that is populated by wealthy families with long noble ancestries, like the Eshkin family.
Yewakma
: a Kemada town where Odjin runs his potioneer business
Jasmine Giacomo writes from Washington State, where she lives with her husband and two children. She graduated last millennium with a degree in English Literature from a college built atop a volcano.
Though she's been writing since the age of four, she also enjoys geocaching, history, science and games, and holds a black belt in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. She particularly enjoys reading and writing fight scenes.
Her current writing
project is book three in the Seals of the Duelists series. Find her on
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