After releasing himself from his apprenticeship by killing his Master, he studied and practiced and became one of the four Primes among the sorcerors of the World. Around this time he came upon the Talisman BinYAHtii; this sparked his ambitions for his homeplace. He returned to Cheonea, kicked the corrupt and feeble king off his throne and took the reins of power into his own hands. It was a long struggle, but he broke the power of the Parastes (the local lords), put the land into the hands of the folk who worked it, outlawed slavery, hung some slavedealers, burned the ships of some slavetraders and began setting up a new sort of government where the peasants and the so-called lower orders would have some say in the circumstances of their lives. To do this he had to keep BihYAHtii fed (the life of a child a month was the price for access to the Talisman’s power) and alternately cajole and compel the god Amortis to act against his enemies. Being warned (as part of the Chained God’s scheming) that Brann Drinker of Souls would be drawn into the fight against him, he struck first and sent Tigermen demons to kill her. The Changers arrived just in time to save her and the battle was on-a battle Settsimaksimin lost after a haid struggle that cost him much, including his hold on Cheonea.

At the end of ten years on Jal Vim he was growing restless, tired of living without ambition or effort.

4. Korimenei Piyolss, affinity: Frunzacoache

Originally her name was simply Kori (which could mean either Maiden or Heart), but when Settsimaksimin put her in school and compelled her to remain there for ten years, she took the name Korimenei (which meant Heart-in-Waiting).

The Finger Vales of Cheonea had served the Chained God since the time when the Wounded Moon was whole, which meant essentially forever, but when Kori was thirteengoing-on-fourteen, the soldier-priests of Amortis came to Owlyn Vale, tied the Chained God’s priest to a stake and lit a fire under him.