PUBLISHED UNDER THE EYE OF THE CROWN · KORMOR KIRAK

The Eternal Courant

VOL. I · No. I The 17th of April, 1793 PRICE · ONE GROAT

Comet rising above the Eastern Tower at the second bell. Coal-smoke off the river. Wards failing on the eastern doors.

The Crown raises a tower against the coming comet, closes the Northern Causeway, and asks the city for patience and silence. The Courant offers one of the two.

THE EASTERN TOWER CLAIMS THE SKYLINE

Filed by Our Correspondent at the Castle

By order of the Crown, the new works upon the eastern shoulder of Torony Piros are now risen high enough to be seen from the Kereskedo terraces, from the river quays, and (so the carters swear) from the high passes a day's ride out. Her Majesty Queen Kiraline has been pleased to name the structure a monument to the Eternal Reign, raised against the coming of the Crimson Comet, that the city might share in the splendour of that hour.

This sheet is glad to report the diligence of the works. We are less able to report the names of those who labour upon them. Inquiry at the Northern Causeway is no longer permitted, the road being closed to all but the Red Guard and those bearing the Crown's seal. The foremen Nero and Zaffir, lately of the Theater of Everlasting Peace, are said to direct the night-shifts; neither would give this correspondent a word, and one crossed himself, which is a thing a foreman does not do over an honest scaffold.

The Crown asks only patience and gratitude. The Courant offers both, and notes for the record that the tower casts a long shadow over the Hallaset Fields, and that the shadow falls upon ground already crowded.

RED GUARD PROCLAMATION, THE SEVENTEENTH OF APRIL

By order of General Markos

BE IT KNOWN to all residents of Kormor Kirak. The Northern Causeway is closed to common traffic until further notice, by reason of the Crown's construction. Loitering within sight of the works is forbidden. Any person furnishing information leading to the apprehension of a saboteur shall receive a reward of fifty korma. Any person obstructing the works, or spreading false report of them, shall be subject to imprisonment of not less than three years. The Crown thanks its loyal subjects for their vigilance and their silence.

BREAD REACHES THREE GROATS IN THE GRAND SQUARE

From the Kereskedo Market

The loaf that fetched two groats at Candlemas now fetches three, and the bakers blame the conscription squads, which have taken sons from the mills and the millers from the wheels. Yuri Szek, Master of the Market, advises calm and the early hour. Bella, of the sausage cart, advises a fuller purse. Both have been heard to advise, more quietly, that a household lay in what flour it can, for the Convergence Festival is rumoured before midsummer, and a festival in this city has a way of emptying a larder before it fills a belly.

COMET WATCH

The Astronomer's Office declines to be named

The star that the heralds call the Crimson Comet now stands plainly above the Eastern Tower at the second bell of night, and brightens. Learned persons who once measured its course for the pleasure of the count now measure it for the pleasure of the Crown, and say less than they did. The Princess Szeret, it is told, kept the finest glass in the city in her tower; the tower is dark of late. Look up while looking up is permitted.

THE TREATY BALL DRAWS THE TWO EMPIRES

The Society Page

The Grand Ballroom shall open its doors within the fortnight to the delegations of Albion and Terrassia, that the hundred-year war might pause long enough to dance. The Albion ambassador, Lord Barron Whitehallow, is expected, though his health is much remarked; he was seen taking the air upon the Cliff Road, leaning hard upon a younger man's arm. Lady Mireva keeps her usual station near the musicians' gallery, from which, it is said, the whole court may be both watched and informed upon in a single evening. The accountant Miss Olivia Faren, of the Albion party, has been asking after the city's ledgers with a persistence the city finds either charming or unwise.

OVERHEARD, WHERE IT IS SAFE TO OVERHEAR

The Courant hears, and tells what it dares

That the seamstress Magrit Soller, late of the Kereskedo lanes, has not been seen since she was set to certain work for the Red Guard, and that her landlady Constance Veyer wears out the watch-house steps asking after her to no answer. That Brother Aldric of the river monastery, who kept a list of the missing, is himself now upon no list but the Crown's, having been taken in the night. That a man may count too well in this city, as a certain accountant of the Counting House discovered, and be counted in his turn. The Courant names no names it has not already named, and prints nothing the Gatekeepers have not already heard.

THE BILL OF MORTALITY, THIS SE'ENNIGHT

A clerk of the Counting House, of wounds; the watch records a robbery.
Three labourers of the eastern works, of a fall; the foremen record nothing.
An old woman of the Marrow District, of age, after seven-and-twenty years a guest of the castle.
A petitioner of the high passes, name unknown, taken at the Blood Gate.
Eleven souls given to the Hallaset Fields unwashed, against all custom, by the Crown's leave.

THE MARKET REGISTER, IN GROATS AND KRONE

Bread, the loaf: 3 groats, up from 2
Tallow candles, the dozen: 5 groats, scarce
Lamp oil, the measure: 1 krone, rising
Red ochre, for the door-wards: sold out at every stall
Sorrow-glass, a cracked one: name your price, no questions
An audience with the Crown: six hundred imperials, and your courage

ALL ISSUES ▸ ‹ RETURN TO THE COURT

THE ETERNAL COURANT // No. 01 // PRINTED IN KORMOR KIRAK IN THE YEAR OF THE CRIMSON COMET
SISTER SHEET: THE BLOODLETTER · ALL THE NEWS THE CROWN PERMITS, AND A LITTLE IT DOES NOT.