But the fifth dragon did not fight Yendil. The essence of love was hers, and so she thought only of Meldin. And while her siblings battled Yendil, she tore at the cage of starsteel to free her brother. And though Mendil’s flames had not been hot enough to melt the starsteel, the fifth dragon was able to tear them asunder with her claws. And she tore at the weave of Yendil’s Fate, which had been combined with Meldin’s, and separated them, so that their survival was no longer linked. And this was a mighty deed, for no Dragon before her had yet been able to separate strands of Fate once they were woven together.
But the essence of love was hers and that is a cousin to strength.
Thus the five dragons were united again, and together their strength was greater than Yendil’s. And she was defeated, and was torn asunder and devoured. And now Meldin was free, and the five of them gave a great cry of exultation, and such was their joy that it reached every corner of Creation, and every Dragon heard it, and they joined their voices to the chorus.
And then the fifth dragon looked at her siblings, and she said to them, “I have never had a name, for Meldin was gone from us. But now that we are united once more, I shall take my name at last, and it shall be Rowan.”
And together the five dragons made the long journey home.
THE CALENDAR OF UNDERREALM
There are 363.5 days in an Underrealm year. In their calendar, these are divided into 12 months of 30 days each. To reconcile the extra days, at the end of each year there is a three-day holiday called, appropriately enough, Yearsend. It takes place in the middle of winter when the world is coldest, after which the world “comes to life” again. Yearsend is often a time of celebration, when people of all the nine kingdoms take to feasting and revelry, bidding farewell to the year that has ended and readying themselves to greet the year that approaches.
Even-numbered years have leap days, placed in the middle of Yearsend, so that it is four days long in those years.
For the sake of ease, the twelve months of the Underrealm calendar have been given their Latin names from the Gregorian calendar. However, they are arranged in the original order of the Gregorian calendar, with Martis being the first month of the year, as follows:
Martis — WINTER
Arilis — SPRING
Maius — SPRING
Yunis — SPRING
Yulis — SUMMER
Augis — SUMMER
Septis — SUMMER
Octis — AUTUMN
Novis — AUTUMN
Dektis — AUTUMN
Yanis — WINTER
Febris — WINTER
Yearsend* — WINTER
Martis comes just after Yearsend. As with any calendar, the “assignment” of seasons is arbitrary, and the people of Underrealm saw no reason to make them fit the calendar symmetrically. Therefore winter stretches from Yanis to Martis. Spring is Arilis to Yunis. Summer lasts from Yulis to Septis, and autumn is from Octis to Dektis.
In the strictest sense, then, the seasons do not fall where they are delineated on the Underrealm calendar. However, this assignment was seen as a neater solution than having the seasons begin and end in the middle of months, which would of course be chaotic and confusing to everyone involved.
* Yearsend is included for the purpose of showing its order in the calendar, though of course it is a three- or four-day period and not a month on its own.
THE COUNT OF YEARS
“The Year of Underrealm 1” is the year in which Roth, the first High King of Underrealm, ruling from the city of Rothton on the island capital of Dulmun, declared the nine lands to be under his dominion. Though some scholars enjoy debating the exact count, it is generally accepted to have occurred 1,311 years before the Shades attacked Northwood.
(This is, however, an inaccurate counting, since Roth laid claim to Underrealm some eighty years before his granddaughter, Silvin, the third High King of Underrealm, would mark the start of the Underrealm calendar. But this truth has long been lost to history, another victim of the chaos of Underrealm’s early civil wars.)
Years are notated as, e.g., The Year of Underrealm 1312.
WEEKS
Each of the twelve months of Underrealm is further divided into three weeks of ten days.
As we have done, the days were named for planets that the denizens of Underrealm could observe. But this presented a problem: only six planets were visible in the sky. These were named Taya, Yuna, Kina, Marama, Dal, and Kasay in the time before time, and gave Underrealm the day-names of Tasday, Yunsday, Kinsday, Marsday, Dalsday, and Kasday. Two more days were named for Underrealm’s twin moons of Enalyn and Merida, giving them Lynday and Meriday. The Sun led to Sunday, as it did for us, and that was also the Underrealm day of rest.
It is said that before humans came to Underrealm, the tenth day (which always preceded Sunday) had various names among different peoples. And so, when the first High King of Underrealm, Roth, founded the nine lands, he named the tenth day after himself, calling it Rothsday.
Thus the days are, in order:
LYNDAY
MERIDAY
TASDAY
YUNSDAY
KINSDAY
MARSDAY
DALSDAY
KASDAY
ROTHSDAY
SUNDAY
THE YEAR OF UNDERREALM 1312
OCTIS
7 Octis: The Shades begin their ritual in Lan Shui. Vampires are drawn to the town.
9 Octis: A peddler named Halfpace leaves Lan Shui heading north, carrying a weekly report from Constable Yue of the family Baolan. Yue’s report contains mention of several folk outside the walls of the town who seem to have vanished. Vampires kill Halfpace in the night and leave his corpse by the side of the road.
10 Octis: Halfpace’s corpse is discovered. Yue investigates and deduces that he was killed by a vampire.
11 Octis: Yue sends a messenger named Chen to Bertram to warn them of the vampire. That night he is killed on the road.
13 Octis: Chen’s body is discovered by Yang of the family Ton, and Yue is notified.
14 Octis: Yue sends another messenger, Fen, this time to
