Fragments from "The Adabal-a"

The Pelinal:

“And in the blood-floored throne room of White-Gold, the severed head of Pelinal spoke to the winged-bull, Morihaus, demigod lover of Al-Esh, saying, ‘Our enemies have undone me, and spread my body into hiding. In mockery of divine purpose, the ayleids cut me into eighths, for they are obsessed with this number.’

“And Morihaus, confused, snorted through his ring, saying, ‘Your crusades went beyond her counsel, Whitestrake, but I am a bull, and therefore reckless in my wit. I think I would go and gore our prisoners if you had left any alive. You are blood-made-glorious, uncle, and will come again, as fox animal or light. Cyrod is still ours.’”

The Bull-Lover of Alessia:

“In your histories you have many names for her: Al-Esh, given to her in awe, that when translated sounds like a redundancy, “the high high”, from which come the more familiar corruptions: Aleshut, Esha, Alessia. You knew her as Paravant, given to her when crowned, “first of its kind”, by which the gods meant a mortal worthy of the majesty that is killing-questing-healing, which is also Paraval, Pevesh, Perrethu, and, in my case, for it is what I called her when we were lovers: Paravania.

“Though she is gone to me, she remains bathed in stars, first Empress, Lady of Heaven, Queen-ut-Cyrod.”