The Temple of the Exploding Head

LORD KABYL OF BLANCHEFORT or “Kay” as he’s known, is the main character in the Temple of the Exploding Head trilogy. He’s the eldest son of Captain Davage and of Sygillis of Blanchefort (formerly of Metatron). He was named after Lord Kabyl of old, a feared Haitathe-slayer from a time gone by.

Slight as a child, green-eyed like his mother and sporting an odd head of purple hair, Kay was considered a flawed non-Vith by the lords and ladies who came to examine him. His younger sister, Lady Kilos, blue-eyed, blue-haired, was considered a perfect Vith, and Kay often felt humiliated by the scorn he received.

As Kay grew, he found he had difficulties with many things. His father, Captain Davage, was a legendary pilot, and it was hoped Kay would have inherited those skills as well. Unfortunately, such was not the case, Kay proved to have little piloting talents (his younger sister, Hathaline, from an early age, showed great promise as a pilot). Kay also had trouble with space in general, becoming violently ill every time his parents tried to “take him up”. Kay also was not nearly as large or as strong as his father, as illustrated by his inability to lift his father’s seventy-seven pound King CARG.

And, the most unkind blow of all–Kay didn’t seem to have the Gift of Sight. The Sight was a Blanchefort tradition going back thousands of years going back to a time when the old Blanchefort lords used it to sack villages and slay enemies, and Kay saw nothing beyond the mundane. The Stertors, a branch of the Sisterhood of Light, came to the House to proclaim his Gifts and pronounced him having two: the Gift of Waft and the Gift of Cloak.

No Sight. Thousands of years tradition lost.

When he turned thirteen, Kay couldn’t take it anymore–all the disappointed faces, all the failure. He decided the House would be better off without him. He had a baby brother, Maser, who would inherit the House, and his sister Kilos could stand as regent until Maser came of age. He found a good balcony high atop Pendar Tower on the western face of Castle Blanchefort with a four thousand foot drop to the crags below. All he had to do was step off and his body would be washed away with the tide. No blood, no fuss, like he’d never existed at all.

That’s when he heard the Voice speak to him for the first time.

copyright 2011, Ren Garcia