Heart of the Kella
| Type | Necklace |
|---|---|
| Owner | Noran Daharshi |
| Origin | Cut from the red jewels beneath The Kella Desert |
| Current location | The Avonbourn |
| First appearance | A Sacred Tale Collection |
The Heart of the Kella is a necklace of red and burnt-orange stones, and the name given to the seam of blood-red jewels beneath the Kella Desert that they were cut from. Aero Ellisvat gave the necklace to Noran Daharshi when they were children, spent most of a night killing his way back through Rewakan territory to recover it after the gang took it from her, and fastened it around her neck again on the night she died.[1]
The necklace
The necklace is handcrafted from the finest jewels in Eslura. Its glossy red and burnt-orange beads throw their colour onto whatever lies under them, and any one of them cost more than Aero's house. At the centre hangs the largest stone, the Heart itself: a ruby whose light pulses, and which convinced the people who dug it out that they had found the heart of the desert.[1]
It came from a booth in the market square at Varaar where Aero's family peddled necklaces. He was still a boy when Noran, out on errands with her father, stopped at the stall and asked about them, and he gave her the most expensive item in the shop. His own father beat him through the night for it.[1]
The stones
A cavern under the drovig tunnels of the Kella Desert holds thousands of the same blood-red jewels, from pebbles the size of a little finger to boulders the size of a body, covering every surface. Its ceiling arches high overhead and is threaded with veins of a glowing mineral that pulse faintly in the dark.[2]
Drovigs cannot stomach the stones. Erwin ringed the mouth of his cave with them to keep the worms away, having once watched one eat a stone and sicken.[2] Reagan Hideaway, Tab and Aero used that against a mother drovig: Aero tore a handful of stones from the cavern wall and threw them into her open mouth, and she emptied her stomach on the sand in a steaming heap.[2]
History
The Rewakan gang wiped out nearly the whole Daharshi family and took the necklace, leaving Noran alive with every bone in her body broken and her eyes gone. Aero later accused Jensaad of having done it for jewels; Jensaad answered that the family had been a threat, and that the rule was to leave no witnesses. The necklace passed to him, and he wore it in bed.[1]
When Noran wrote to Aero that she was ready to end her suffering, he went back into Rewakan territory for it rather than wait for the anniversary he had planned around. He killed the gorilla Kai Demari outside the compound wall, climbed to Jensaad's balcony, took a knife in the shoulder, cut Jensaad's throat, unclasped the necklace from the dead man and sealed it in the centre pocket of his satchel.[1]
He carried it up to the last room on the second floor of The Avonbourn, where Noran had been living for five moons, and fastened it behind her neck with the Heart at the centre of her chest. She asked how he had found it, since it had been stolen moons ago, and he did not tell her. She drank the pytocane Reslyn Keiser had prepared and died holding his hand, wearing it.[1] Nothing further is recorded of the necklace.
Aero has not spoken of it since. Standing in the cavern of red stones he went white and still, walked to the nearest rock as though on a track, put a shaking hand against it and said the name aloud. He told Reagan and Tab only that the stones had been the favourite of someone he had cared for who died long ago.[2]