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"I’ve the diary of one naate itnessed the final battle His words are better thanthat she should hold her questions, and dashed over to his shelves, scanning his collection of daers across creased and tortured spines, finally pulling out a san saw, half-charred, the reeand so darker

"The diary of Seften," the professor said "Sadly, little of it survived" He thues, then paused for so across the lines "Here’s what I want Seften writes:after soled a final charge onto the field, splendidly arrayed as always in his aralia of Sacoridia We cheered as he led his elite Weapons and the reserve forces behind him The enemy quailed andand" The professor muttered and squinted "Much of this is muddled, I fear Oh, I see He says, and the troops on the field rallied, forcing the ene on retreat" The professor flipped through so her nails into her chair’s leather armrests

"I lose it until this," the professor said "Then the enereat weapons, and it was like all five hells bared as one and all its htiest demons came unleashed We hadn’t a chanceSo terrible they could not be of this Earth" He paused, scanning the page for ible parts, then cleared his throat "When the clouds and rage and fire settled, I espied the king as he fell to the bloodied field, his Weapons slain in a black circle around hian squeezed her eyes shut "No," she murmured But what had she expected? She’d seen the ruin of Sacor City, sa an e, she kneould have laid his life down for his realm He would not let the enemy overcome it while he still lived He would not have hidden in the castle I should have been there Her presence wouldn’t have changed the tide of battle, but she ought to have been there with her people, even if itwith them

When she opened her eyes, she found the professor kneeling before her, the diary in one hand and a handkerchief extended in the other "I see you quite a bit of distress today"

Only then did Karigan feel the hot stream of tears on her cheeks She accepted the handkerchief

"It’s clear you believe King Zachary was a good leader," the professor said

"He is a good leader," Karigan said And more than that Much more

The professor lifted his chin as if she’d only confirhts on the matter He patted her knee, his expression co in rand to hear one of his own servants corroborate it Now, there is just a little left in Seften’s diary that is legible Can you bear it?"

She nodded

The professor solemnly returned her nod and rean that he skipped paragraphs Perhaps he was trying to spare her froination to guess what an enemy would do to a fallen uards left to defend it

"Here it is," the professor said "Seften writes: The king’s death stole the courage of our soldiers We were lost after that The de the city walls and all within as if they were nothing, destroying, destroyingNo one was safe There was nowhere to go We were lost, Sacoridia was lost"

After a long pause, Karigan asked, "That’s all?"

"I’ the diary "The rest is illegible or destroyed Elsewhere, we find tantalizing mentions of the weapon or weapons that destroyed the city, often referred to as demons or hell beasts In some accounts it is said that Second Empire raised the beasts from its one hell In others, it is said that the Sacoridians drew the beasts out of their five, but the beasts turned on thean shook her head "What of Rhovanny? The Eletians?" she de of Sacoridia’s allies of old "Did no one come to our aid?"

"Rhovanny sent help, but they were also under attack Of Eletia?" He shrugged "It appears the Eletians did not co out Eletia, however, and capturing it along with every other country on this continent But Eletia, it see everything she had done, everything the king and her fellow Riders had tried to do, orthless If this was the outco they tried, what had been the point of their effort? She clenched her hands as despair darkened her thoughts

"Any Eletians that were taken captive were hauled off to the Capital," the professor replied "You see, o, in their own land, the Arcosians learned to draw etherea out of the air, the earth, the water, andout of those with inherent ic, all for the pleasure and use of the emperor of Arcosia and those he favored It is why the Arcosians first came here--they depleted their own sources of etherea By all accounts, Eletia and its inhabitants have been sucked dry"

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