CHAPTER I
Blades that choose badly
Before the stars had names, the Order kept the peace across nine worlds: sand and woodland, ocean and ice, swamp and city, fire, and the deep dark between. Its knights carried blades of living light, and every blade chose its own bearer.
The blades chose badly. Or perhaps very wisely. For every hero with a jaw carved like a moon, there was a knight whose glasses fogged in battle, who kept a calculator in his robes and an inhaler on his belt.
The heroes called themselves the Chadi. They called the others the Chudi. For a thousand years the two halves of the Order fought side by side, and argued about everything.
Then the Ten woke up.
