The Sun and the Void （The Warring Gods #1）
Gabriela Romero Lacruz
Para Lisbeth y Pedro
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Map by Gabriela Romero Lacruz
Timeline
THE KING’S DISCOVERY （KD）
1 KD: Segol’s voyagers first arrive in the lands that later become the Viceroyalty of Venazia, colony of Segol 326 KD: Rahmagut’s Claw becomes visible to the naked eye 344 KD: Samón’s and Feleva’s declaration of independence 344 KD: Establishment of the sovereign countries of Venazia and Fedria 348 KD: Fall of the Viceroyalty of Venazia and Segol’s defeat 368 KD: Rahmagut’s Claw becomes visible to the naked eye
Major Families
Silva
Seat: Puerto Carcosa, the coast of the Cow Sea Banner: an onyx crocodile on scarlet fabric, for the red blood of felled armadas over a crocodile coast Notable Members:
? Don Rodrigo Agustín Silva Zamorano, king of Venazia, appointed by La Junta de Puerto Carcosa ? Do?a Orsalide Belén Zamorano de Silva, queen mother ? Marcelino Carlos Silva Pérez
?guila
Seat: outskirts of Sadul Fuerte, the Páramo Banner: a soaring golden eagle on ivory fabric, for the riches amassed beneath the Páramo peaks Notable Members:
? Do?a Feleva Lucero ?guila Cárdenas, full-blooded valco, deceased caudilla of Sadul Fuerte ? Don Enrique Gavriel ?guila de Herrón, half human, half valco, born in the year 328 KD, caudillo of Sadul Fuerte ? Do?a Laurel Divina Herrón de ?guila, born in the year 328 KD
? Celeste Valentina ?guila Herrón, three-quarters human, one-quarter valco, born in the year 346 KD
? Javier Armando ?guila, half human, half valco, born in the year 344 KD
Serrano
Seat: Galeno, the Llanos
Banner: three stripes—brown, blue, and yellow—for the rich soil of Galeno, the plentiful rivers, and the nourishing sun Notable Members:
? Don Mateo Luis Serrano de Monteverde, governor of Galeno ? Do?a Antonia Josefa Monteverde de Serrano
? Do?a Dulce Concepción Serrano de Jáuregui, born in the year 326 KD
? Do?a Pura Maria Jáuregui de Valderrama
? Décima Lucía Serrano Montilla
? Eva Kesaré de Galeno, three-quarters human, one-quarter valco, born in the year 348 KD
Duvianos
Seat: Sadul Fuerte, the Páramo
Banner: an orange flower with a red sun rising over mauve fabric, for the fields of flowers under Páramo dawns Notable Members:
? Do?a Ursulina Salma Duvianos Palacios, born in the year 305 KD
? Don Juan Vicente Duvianos, born in the year 328 KD
? Reina Alejandra Duvianos Torondoy, half human, half nozariel, born in the year 347 KD
Contador
Seat: Galeno, the Llanos
Banner: a diagonal partition of black and white, crossed by a golden key, for the establishment of order in the colonies Notable Members:
? Don Jerónimo Rangel Contador Miarmal
? Do?a Rosa de El Carmín
Villarreal
Seat: Galeno, the Llanos
Notable Members:
? Don Alberto Ferrán Villarreal Pescador
Casta?eda
Seat: Los Morichales, the Llanos
Bravo
Seat: Tierra’e Sol, the coast of the Cow Sea Banner: two mirrored laurels on a diagonal partition of navy and yellow, for the abundance of Fedria and its sea Notable Members:
? Don Samón Antonio Bravo Días, half human, half valco, born in the year 326 KD, former chancellor of Fedria, the Liberator ? Ludivina Gracia Bravo Céspedes, three-quarters human, one-quarter valco
A note on names—
Persons are given a first name, a middle name, and a single family name by each parent. Upon marriage, persons can attach their partner’s family name to their own and drop one of their last names. A single parent only bestows a single family name to their offspring. When neither parent is able to bestow a family name upon birth, persons are given the name of the city or settlement where they were born. Full names are seldom mentioned in everyday speech. Don and Do?a are honorifics to express respect. Married persons, heirs, landowners, and elders are addressed by their honorific. When neglected, it is a sign of disrespect.
1
Food for Tinieblas
There were many warnings about the Páramo Mountains, tales of ghosts and shadows now bound to the land after their tragic demise. Yet no one had warned Reina about the cold. How the air filtered through the inadequate layers of her vest and jacket. How every breath she took was a sliver of sustenance, so thin that each gulp left her starving. They’d never told her crossing the Páramo would feel like a journey without end.
The mountains rose ahead of her with their sugar-powdered peaks showered in the violet hues of the arriving dusk. And they opened up behind her like boundless rolling hills blanketed by cold-burned shrubberies and the jutting frailejón trees, which stood alone on a territory perhaps too cold or elevated to be hospitable to anything else.
An icy wind buffeted her forward. Reina fell to her knees like a scared child, her scabs splitting and streaking red on the jagged rock beneath her, but her prehensile tail looped around the rock, reassuring her with balance. When she gathered the courage to continue her climb, she glimpsed the gray fogginess of smoke far ahead, and it filled her with hope. A fire meant a hearth, which meant civilization wasn’t too far off.
The way forward was treacherous, but so was the way back. One more day on foot, and Reina was sure she would reach the lower valleys. Images of an inn’s warm bed kept her company. She entertained herself with dreams of reaching the farmsteads bordering Sadul Fuerte, when she finally arrived in the city and could share the reason for her journey with the first stranger who asked. She imagined pulling out the invitation marked by the mauve wax seal of the Duvianos family, the elegant loops of Do?a Ursulina Duvianos’s cursive beckoning Reina to come meet a grandmother estranged by Reina’s father’s broken heart. From her breast pocket she would produce a golden badge proving the missive’s legitimacy, which had been delivered along with the letter.
The engraved medallion was a metal translation of the Duvianos banner: an orange flower crowned by a red sun rising over a mauve sky. Reina recognized the crest, for she had seen it on jackets and correspondence her father owned from his time as a revolutionary, before he had renounced his old life. Juan Vicente Duvianos had never spoken much of his mother, and when he had, it had been with the rancor and disappointment of a schism. Even after he’d died, Reina had discarded the possibility of a relationship with her grandmother. But after reading the words inviting her to the faraway ?guila Manor, where Do?a Ursulina was employed, Reina couldn’t be sure who had disowned whom.
When the cold ached her bones and the mountain rebelled against her, Reina clutched her objective and reminded herself why she was fleeing to Sadul Fuerte to begin with. Behind her, in Segolita, she was nothing more than a jobless nozariel living on the charity of humans. The laws enslaving nozariels to humans had changed, but not the attitudes. The streets of Segolita had been her home—all crooked townhomes of peeling baroque fa?ades and roads muddied from shit and the latest rainfall—and her hell. Reina was of age, too old for the family for whom she had worked as a criada and accidentally caught the eye of the oldest son, and too undesirable to be welcomed by any other human family or employer. The invitation gave her an opportunity, and hope.