Malazan Wiki
House of Chains
Dramatis Personae Prologue
Faces in the Rock
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Cold Iron
Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9 Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Something Breathes
Chapter 12 Chapter 13
Chapter 14 Chapter 15
Chapter 16 Chapter 17
House of Chains
Chapter 18 Chapter 19
Chapter 20 Chapter 21
Chapter 22 Chapter 23
Chapter 24 Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue Pagination

Verge of the Nascent, the 943rd Day of the Search
1159 Burn's Sleep

The Nascent[]

Trull Sengar[]

Countless putrefying, grey, bloated bodies line the shoreline of the Nascent in the warren of Shadow. They are the former inhabitants of the drowned city lying offshore, flooded by a great river that had temporarily crossed a rent between worlds. Now only a huge wall thirty paces across and stretching into the distance barely holds back the water and its lifeless flotsam from the rest of Shadow.

The Tiste Edur, Trull Sengar, is dragged along the top of the wall by his brothers and his bruised and battered body is chained by his wrists and ankles to a set of iron rings on the wall. Then his mouth is muzzled and the Shorning begins. A symbol is carved into his forehead and then rubbed in ash. His long single braid is hacked off and an unguent is smeared into his scalp to kill his remaining hair. He is an outcast. To his family and his people he has never existed. For a crime he has not committed.

Afterwards, his brothers stand over him. One brother speaks. They agree that Trull has betrayed him. That he claimed this brother betrayed his own people and served a hidden master. Does he not understand that their enemies have fallen before them, this brother asks. Does he not understand the sacrifices that have been made? Worse, did he not call their enemies the Pure Kin and forbid their deaths? Trull has betrayed them all. Thus, Trull is no more.

The brothers leave and Trull is alone with the lapping water and the feeding crabs. He thinks that soon the water will rise over the wall and he will drown. But so will his brothers and his people, in a sense. Like the rent driven water, they have shattered Nature's balance. And Nature does not abide an imbalance.

Trivia[]

There is most likely an error in the date of the Shorning in this prologue, which should have occurred in 1162 instead of 1159 (See also Talk:Timeline for discussion on timeline inconsistencies).

Here is a quick recap of the Timeline :