Canticle

Come back to the Named Lands.

Nine months ago, the power and wealth of the now-dissolved Androfrancine Order passed into the hands of Rudolfo, General of the Wandering Army and Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses. Nine months ago, his consort, Jin Li Tam, told him that she was finally with child and he would have an heir. Nine months ago, Rudolfo and Isaak began the arduous task of transcribing the books and records from the devastated city of Windwir that were stored in the memories of the mechoservitors, and collecting whatever books remained in the Named Lands into a new Great Library.

Today, many noble allies have come to the Ninefold Forest for a feast in honor of General Rudolfo's first-born child. Jin Li Tam lies in childbed, laboring to give birth...

Suddenly, as the feast begins, the doors of the hall fly open and magicked, invisible assassins attack. The Gypsy Scouts are unable to fight them off, and all of Rudolfo's noble guests are slain, including Hanric, the Marsh Queen's Shadow. And yet Rudolfo himself is not touched.

And at the same time, on the Keeper's Gate, which guards the Named Lands from the Churning Wastes, a strange figure has appeared with a message for Petronus, the Hidden Pope.

Thus begins the second movement of The Psalms of Isaak, Canticle.