Keeper of the Heart (Book 3 of The Fallen Gods Trilogy)

CHAPTER THREE

"I want you to have the full measure of your adversary," Coric said as if beginning another tale. However, unlike any that had come before, this felt crafted just for Jill's benefit.

"I know you've seen glimpses of it for yourself and have heard plenty of rumor and conjecture but that isn't the entire truth. Allow me tell you about the Tamas I know, the one few others have seen. I've put time and effort into unraveling him—more than anyone. No one thought it worth the study but I believe my time was not wasted. What you've heard about his personal history is true. He comes from a world very much like ours where magic has similar properties and is wielded by a segment of society. He was a minor son of the emperor and an even more minor lord. But as tends to be the case with overlooked sons with some talent and skill, he longed for a position of greater power and influence.

"His relationships with Rayna and Nikolos were convoluted ones. There was some level of emotional attachment between them, though each thought to use the other to achieve their own ambition. Together the three of them existed as a sort of amoral triumvirate using magic, sex, and violence to gain the power they wanted. They were responsible for a sorcerers' war that very nearly destroyed their world. Every world has its own version of it. This world's is La Tricolita. Your world has it too, I think, though yours was fought without magic. That doesn't make it any less deadly, however. Ultimately, when they slew Tamas's father—their god emperor—they were branded as criminals.

"With the war's end, they were put on trial for their crimes. They were found guilty, and sentenced to death. However, no one counted on the indwelling. Their god—or one of them as they had many—truly dwelled within the emperor. Upon the emperor's death, that essence of the divine was to pass to the heir. It didn't. Tamas intervened and the essence passed to him. For the mortal and the divine to coexist peacefully in one form, there must be a degree of compatibility between them. Without it, one nature will try to subvert the other and both will go insane. That harmony existed between the emperor and his god, as it exists between you and Arianie, because both parties were willing.

"It doesn't exist in Tamas and his god.

"So before they could be executed, Tamas stole the god's essence and he, Rayna, and Nikolos called a portal and escaped. My understanding is that portals were theoretical magic in their world. No one had ever done such a thing before. The fact that they were somehow able to reach between worlds speaks of a greater power behind our troubles—the same power that imprisoned Kydel and allows this world's magic to fade.

"If they had escaped to any other world—say yours for example—the danger might have been minimal. Your world is generally without magic. Their power would have been neutralized. Instead, they traveled to the very heart of the magic."

"When I was imprisoned in the Inbastra, Tamas told me all the worlds glittered like diamonds on a necklace," Jull murmured at a break in Coric's words. "He said this one shined the brightest so that's why he chose it," Jill murmured.

Coric nodded. "Our world is the first of all worlds. Every other, even yours, is an imperfect copy. The first world lies at the center and it is from there that all portals originate."

Jill sat up in horror, realization dawning. "That means—"

"There's more," Coric said simply, holding up a finger and silencing her. "The magic of the first world ripples out through all creation. The farther away a world is, the less magic it has. Consider the repercussions of the following: Tamas's inherent magical ability, his stolen divinity rotting within him that's causing the magic to decay and rendering it unusable, the dramatic increasing of his power by coming to the first world, and the fact that Kydel has been removed from power. You can see why Tamas is able to seize control of the magic and why he pollutes it."