He leads her to a room with a hop-board and Master Quillon of the Congery. And something else, too:The absence of cobwebs and accumulated dust implied that these stone tunnels were used with some frequency.
Master Quillon explains that he is there to teach her of Mordant, at the requst of Havelock, who still has his lucid moments. He tells her of the histories of Mordant and of the art of ImageryAnd the walls were lined with doors like the one through which Havelock had just entered the room. They were all bound with iron and heavily bolted. Orison, she realized, must be honeycombed with secrets.
Mordant was once many petty principalities which existed as a buffer between much more powerful states, Alend and Cadwal. These tiny states were called the Cares. These cares were conquered again and again and again over time, always playing Alend and Cadwal against each other.Both histories, however, are histories of fragmentation.
But such things are only bloodshed and tyranny. Mordant's plight was made much worse by Imagery.
He goes on to explain how King Joyse became the first true king of Mordant."I wonder, my lady," he said slowly, "if you possess the knowledge or experience to imagine the havoc dozens of Imagers can wreak, fighting each other and armies as well as innocent men and women who happen to get in the way. Consider it, if you will. here stands an Imager whose glass shows a sea of lava. At his word, molten stone floods outward, devouring its own carnage as it moves. There stands an Imager whose glass shows a winged leviathan which can consume cattle whole. At his word, the beast is translated here to rage and ravage until he calls it back - or until some other Imager concieves a means to kill it. And they are only two men. Consider fifty of them, or a hundred, great Imagers and small, all dedicating what mirrors they have to battle and bloodshed.
And in this way, he founded the Congery.I can tell you quite simply what he did. First he conquored all the princedoms of Mordant, some by force, some by persuasion. And when he had made Mordant into a separate, sovereign realm, he began waging an odd war against both Alend and Cadwal. In battle after battle, raid after raid, for the better part of two decades, he took no territory, conscripted no soldiers, slaughtered no peasants. in fact, he did nothing to upset the ordinary structures of power in either country. All he did...was to take prisoner every Imager he could find and bring his prisoners here, to Orison.
He also tells of how Havelock went mad while fighting the cabal of Imagers founded by the High King of Cadwal.
He tells of the current threat being faced by Mordant, that of a powerful rogue Imager who is translated horrible monsters and creatures into Mordant and set them loose to terrorize the land.
After Master Quillon finishes Terisa's lesson, Havelock takes her back to her rooms. In her rooms they find the two guards fighting for their very lives against an intruder. Adept havelock helps by flashing his bright mirror into the intruder's face, and both the Adept and the intruder flee.
.. it is dangerous that others possess it .. but not so dangerous that Joyse can capture those who have knowledge of it and use them to form his own 'Congery' .. wmd/imagery programme .. 
Now that's a prequel I'd b interested in reading!
