Map of Lines

This excerpt was removed from The Kallanon Scales:

The Mysor Map of Lines remained an enigma.

Tennet existed, and was in the Forbidden Zone, but what did the lines mean? Lines connecting planets with the appearance of real purpose, thought to show pattern or path, yet proven spurious parallels. A more obscure reason, such as confusion, or a threat of some sort, proved too tenuous. Creed never solved it and perhaps it was as simple as challenge or intrigue … conceived to catch the eye. Perhaps it was meant to draw challengers to root false claimants out. A terrible thought, for many died in seeing it.

The Mysor map was not an invention, however. The positioning of the planets and their names were true reflections. Tennet did hold nine planets in its thrall; five outer and four inner, and the bright, youthful star had varied effect on each.

Plural, Kish and Lucan were outermost, generally known as the Triplets, swinging in similar orbit, visible to each other. All were moonless, but their proximity gifted atmosphere and gravity.

Atrudis was next in line, and possessed varied climate. Hot summers, cold, frigid winters, and an equatorial region that rarely surprised. Not a large world, but not as small as the Triplets, one satellite.

Pharos, the final outer planet, had an elliptical orbit that took centuries to complete. It was true wasteland. Not even the tiniest microbe lived there. It was moonless and usually missing from the night skies of the other worlds.

Of the four inner planets, Mitrayl was furthest out, a huge world with two satellites, Trap and Link, each of those as big again as the Triplets. A strange world. Fresh water and great plains, bubbling, petrified swamps, dead salt oceans, fertile mountains rivalling the most spectacular in the universe, and literally hundreds of active volcanoes. It was as if the forces of good and evil competed daily.

Third lay tiny Cypriot and swinging around it an even tinier moon. Not much was known about Cypriot.

Second from Tennet was Karakan- an enormous world, far larger than Mitrayl. It was a paradise despite its close relationship with the sun, where no one need go hungry. A planet-sized moon, Muriel, orbited benignly, causing regulated tides and steady gravity.

The innermost world was Urac, a desert planet. It had a small moon, sterile and ugly. The next solar flare was bound to see Urac shrivel.