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’I convey greetings frohut said, ’to you, Kallor’ -- he paused to survey the tent’s interior -- ’and your vast empire’

’You tempt me,’ Kallor rasped, ’to add to your … facial distress, Gethol My eone, but I shall not yield this throne You, of all people, should recognize that I am not yet done in my arunted a laugh ’Ah, dear Kallor You are to me the exception to the rule that patience is a virtue’

’I can destroy you, Jaghut, no matter who you call master these days I can coan Do you doubt me?’

’Most certainly not,’ Gethol replied easily ’I’ve seen you wield that two-handed sword of yours’

’Then withdraw your verbal knives and tell ies for disrupting your … concentration I shall now explain I am Herald to the Crippled God -- aye, a new House has coons The House of Chains The first renditions have been fashioned And soon every Reader of the Deck will be seeking their likenesses’

Kallor snorted ’And you expect this gambit to work? That House shall be assailed Obliterated’

’Oh, the battle is well under way, old man You cannot be blind to that, nor to the fact that we are winning’

Kallor’s eyes thinned to slits ’The poisoning of the warrens? The Crippled God is a fool What point in destroying the power he requires to assert his clai’

’The appellation "poison" is erroneous, Kallor Rather, consider the infection one of enforcing a certain … alteration … to the warrens Aye, those who resist it view it as a deadly manifestation, a "poison" indeed But only because its primary effect is to make the warrens impassable to them Servants of the Crippled God, however, will find themselves able to travel freely in the paths’

’I arowled

’The position of High King is vacant within the Crippled God’s House of Chains’

Kallor shrugged ’None the less requiring that I stain my knees before the Chained One’

’No such gestures are de The House of Chains exists beyond the Crippled God’s influence -- is that not obvious? He is chained, after all Trapped in a lifeless frag Goddess -- aye, that has proved his singular means of efficacy, but it is limited Understand, Kallor, that the Crippled God now casts the House of Chains into the world, indeed, abandons it to its fate Survival depends on those who come to the titles it contains Soh never directly -- whilst others, such as that of King of High House Chains, must be freely assumed’

’If so,’ Kallor ru?’