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"Our e new sources, for one day even the Preserve will run dry"

"The Preserve?"

"You know it as the Blackveil Forest"

"But it’s tainted"

"Those who harvest it, the eh a filtration system They process it somehow Turn it into forms they can use it in--liquids, solids As we use rivers and canals to power the machines of Mill City, so the emperor uses etherea to mold the Capital into whatever form he desires It is said he uses it to make himself and his most special servants immortal"

"Like Eletians"

"Yes, like Eletians"

One of Karigan’s ancestors, Hadriax el Fex, had been Mornhavon the Black’s closest companion, and she’d read his journal, which had survived the centuries hidden in the archives of Selius that Mornhavon had been obsessed with the Eletians He was both in awe of therotesque experiments Mornhavon perforical nature It sounded as if he had achieved that goal

"The world is much poorer for its lack of etherea," the professor said "Ever since your arrival, I have wondered how things ht have been different"

"Even in ic was scarce, or at least theWar and the Scourge that followed" She believed that Green Riders survived simply because their abilities were so minor and only worked if a the Scourge, the brooches were supposed to be destroyed, but the Riders of the distant past hid the a spell of invisibility on them She touched the e only the warown The Riders continued to keep the secret, and it was so ingrained in Karigan to do so that she did not speak of Rider abilities to the professor He obviously knew sonized what hers was, if nothing er service

"Still," the professor said, "you lived in a tiic Magic that was not used to subjugate the populace Wonders still existed--it wasn’t all machines There were forests and clear lakes, fresh air to breathe"

It was not perfect in her oorld, and she thought some of Mill City’s machines a vast improvement compared to what she had in her ti ireed that this bleak future lacked all the richness and beauty of her ti

"Believe me when I say," the professor continued, "that Mill City is a paradise coistrate does not tender abuse upon his populace to the degree it is done in other places, and the lands about us are not torn asunder and stripped for coal or silver or other minerals Of course, the true paradise is the Capital, as artificially contrived as it is"

"Where is the Capital?" She kept hearing about it, but if it wasn’t Sacor City, where was it?

"Let ently sliding the diary of Seften into its slot and hu the bottoe volume with red leather covers In contrast to the others, it did not show daan to his side They leaned over the voluh not unpleasantly, of earth

"This is an atlas of the empire," he said "I have one in the library at the house, too, for reference" He opened it near the beginning, and there, displayed in vibrant color, lay the Serpentine E the continent that had once been home to several countries She saw that those countries had become subject territories, or protectorates, of the empire Borders were, in some cases, altered Hura-desh, for instance, had been codoone completely from the map, and the empire claimed even the Northern Wastes and the harsh, dry lands to the southwest of Durnesia that Karigan had known as the Unclained tribes, and visited only by the hardiest of travelers They were now simply labeled, "Imperial lands"

As for Sacoridia, it was renahbor to the as no longer Rhovanny, but the Rhove Protectorate

Though Karigan saw it all laid out there before her, she still couldn’t quite believe it It was like a map drawn from some tale of fantasy, not real life

The professor seemed to pick up on her disbelief "It is said," he told her, "the empire’s forces were an irresistible tide that swept the continent, all ene before it Durnesia and Bince capitulated before they could be crushed Tallitre has never been fully subjugated and s as the bounty of war"

He turned pages that showed detailed maps of each of the protectorates and opened up to the Imperial Seat Sacoridia’s borders reone were the twelve provinces and their naht lines, and the areas nuhly L’Petrie, was now squared off and labeled "Section 1, the Capital," and painted in gold leaf She glanced at the Blackveil Peninsula, colored a bright blue, and sirown about where the breach was, called, "Etheriule" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">