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After he left, Karigan stared at the door for a long tierous, to speak of the past--her own present What had been Sacoridia was now part of an empire, and she could only conclude that Mornhavon the Black had defeated her people She needed to learn details about how this occurred so she could take word of it hoained in advance warning

And just hoould she get hoht her forward, but she hadn’t even the shards that had stuck in her flesh

Her thoughts returned to the professor If knowledge of the past was forbidden, or at least certain parts of it, then how had he acquired it, even as an archeologist? And hoas it that archeology was permitted under such conditions in the first place? She did not understand the contradiction In any case, she guessed that one reason for holding her here was to prevent her revealing his knowledge of this secret history to others, thus endangering him And then there was the issue of her name He had not wanted her to use it--her name was known in the forbidden history

Why would the empire repress the true history, and what stories did it prolorified Mornhavon and s of Sacoridia’s past appear terrible tyrants Anything to ensure the populace saw their circumstances as better than what had come before

She shook her head Tooher a headache

Then she barked a laugh "Goodgrave!" Of all the possible names How very appropriate

RUINS

Lhean Lifeson, child of leaf and wind, born beneath the verdant eaves of the Vane-ealdar, the forest of Eletia, now found himself curled in a crevice of tuh the narrow opening overhead It occurred to hiraves of the h infinitely darker than this

How did thetheir lives were so short, spanning but a mere breath of an Eletian’s eternal life? That this here it would end for theled to fill that brief life with all the passions huled as the salness He did not understand why they did not just collapse in despair, but perhaps he could better appreciate why they clung to ods and an afterlife--these beliefs of theirs, false or not, gave them hope, allowed them to continue on

Lhean shook his head One day, perhaps, he would discuss the peculiarities of ioth He never used to care, but now that he had traveled a and with humans, he’d become curious and taken an interest But that was for another time; at the moment, it appeared he had a proble mask had thrust him--and likely his other co in the dying reenthyne, and the next he’d found himself in this crevice somewhere else He uncurled himself to cli down if he ht When he reached the ri only ht and stunted scrub trees growing froranite blocks The air smelled poorly and unclean, of acrid smoke that burned the back of his throat

He pulled hi that this upheaved terrain was not just a rending of the land, but the obliteration of soes of the rubble had not been forreat conflagration, for soot adhered to the botto

He turned and found a face of stone staring back at him, its sculpted planes cracked and stained, its beard crumbled away, the remnants of a crown about its temple The rest was lost beneath the rubble Despite the ruins and the ill air of the place, it confirer in Blackveil He knew this place, and he did not The etherea was nearly gone, sick, dying A being infused with etherea, as all Eletians were, he could sense inside hiht It was not just that it was tainted, but that it was alone from the land, from existence

And so it ith his home No matter where an Eletian h the Alluviuh root and leaf, the spirit of his people Even in the depths of Blackveil he had felt Eletia as a strong presence within

He placed a tre but failing to feel a stronger awareness of his people So alone, so bereft, the despair al

Instead he turned his attention to the devastation around hi, sooty tih hill, and more stretched all the way to its base where a city, a hu rectangular buildings set in precise rows, their huge chi them, too perfect to be made by nature Huht as swords, andsize and shape but still precisely placed There was little green an, no curves, no turnings, which n to Lhean’s Eletian eyes, so difficult to reconcile in his mind It was an injury to the land, and the injury extended even beyond his long sight, for the city had beat back the forest that once stood there and le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">