The Faces in the Ash Halo
During a siege, divine armour formed around a champion in a Jamnai furnace court. Faces appeared in the white fire between its iron scales. Afterward, several shrines where the dead had given familiar answers fell silent, and something new answered beneath the court.
A death witness had brought an answer roll before the armour was made. It recorded signs by which households recognized the dead, along with the places where those signs appeared. The households able to recognize its entries waited below with the witness. The branch registrar kept the roll sealed in a case throughout the working.
Preparing the armour
The forge crew spent three shifts preparing the court. They placed iron scales on marked racks beside copper wire, ceramic splints, resin, charcoal, quench water, and raised weights. A live heat trunk supplied the furnaces. Healers watched the champion, who was fasting.
Two outer shrines had surrendered their ordinary grants to supply the armament.
When the working began, ash and filings rose around the champion. Racks tipped, weights fell, and wire pulled tight. Hot scales closed over the champion’s body faster than the forge crew could follow the fitting. White fire stood between the pieces.
Faces appeared in that fire one at a time. A scarred hand counted twice. A mouth took shape around the warning used at a furnace-family shrine. A figure dressed as an old champion turned toward the sealed case. Each appearance lasted an instant, then broke apart as the light drew inward.
Once the armour had closed, the champion crossed the heat gate and held it until relief arrived.
The opened roll
After the siege, the registrar released the case. The death witness took the roll to the sites it recorded and checked for the familiar answers.
At the furnace-family shrine, the pressure warning no longer answered. A tributary household laid out its burial meal, but none of the familiar signs recorded beside the scarred hand appeared. The followers of a defeated champion found his shrine silent.
Beneath the furnace court, at the slag cistern, something new answered. Its force drove the cleanup crew away from the quench drain.
The witness copied each gesture beside its earlier entry. But the roll did not identify what had answered: when it went back into the case, the line for identity was still blank. The recorded appearances and silences left that question unresolved.
What was kept afterward
The forge’s report listed the stores consumed, lifting gear damaged, workers burned, and drain blocked. The outer shrines were still waiting for their ordinary grants to resume. Before the branch reclaimed its case, households copied the entries recording the silence at their shrines.
High-branch rites continue to commemorate the armour and the gate the champion held. Some Soiru’i sects bring an answer roll to every great working they can reach. Others are kept outside, still carrying the names they brought.
The old furnace court has now been opened again.
Return to Gods and the Dead, Magic and Miracles, or Kalsa.