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The vir swept Dorian’s courtiers’ pillows into a pile three paces frolory fade and turned to the girl He sth, Dorian prayed, and found he had it God forgive hi for an instant

Afterward, Dorian stood, his body glea, oblivious, obscene For the first ti at Wanhope with the fear a Godking deserved The Godking said, "I’ll be expecting you co If your warhost numbers seven thousand, I will put you over the Quarl, Churaq, Hraagl, and Iktana clans On spring’s first new irls stay withher The ere still dark, and the only light in the rooazed blearily at thethe same tent-like dress she’d worn the day before

"What are you doing?" Vi asked

"I found it I can help you"

"Help me hat?" Vi asked

"Get up, I’ll tell you on the way"

Vi dressed and followed Sister Ariel Sister Ariel said nothing until they were on one of the punts that would convey them to the Chantry Even then, she spoke quietly, leery of how voices traveled over the water, even in the pre-dawn fog that wreathed the lake

"Long ago, there was an Alitaeran emperor named Jorald Hurdazin By all accounts, he was a skilled and wise leader In his younger years, he solidified Alitaeran control from what is now Ymmur in the east to the west coast of Midcyru What is now Waeddryn and Modai were his last conquests, and with his e to Layinisa Guralt, the Seeress of Gyle--essentially its princess--the lands that are now Ceura came under his control as well, and there he stopped, mostly because of her influence He spent the next twenty years consolidating his e justice and prosperity to the lands he had conquered He was, however,was caught early, but the i could only delay its effects They treated him every day, but soon determined that Emperor Hurdazin would die within two years Obviously, this was a closely held secret, and obviously, they called as ae as they could Toto bring Gyle into the E had insisted that Jorald and Layinisa besuch rings was no probleical, all the histories I’ve read agree that Jorald and Layinisa deeply loved each other The greento heal Jorald, and they soon found that Layinisa was infertile Woreat Talents soic, and infertility is coic, or too i as he dared trust to work on both ht hold his empire after his death, but if she were infertile, that would only delay the collapse, and he didn’t want to be yet another emperor whose empire died with him In the end, it was Layinisa herself who discovered a way around the rings’ bond"

"She did?" Vi asked

"Don’t get excited Noe’re here, say nothing until we reach the library"

They walked silently through the dark halls of the Chantry Vi wondered for ato feel like hoical torches that illumined the walls and followed the in their strength rather thanIn a few minutes, they were deep in the Chantry’s storerooms, far below the waterline, a place Vi had never been allowed to go It was neither dark nor dirty, but it did have an air of abandon The one s the box, however, Sister Ariel closed it and put it back on a nurabbed a different box tn Vi understood that she had left out the wrong box in case so At first Vi wondered why the boxes were oaken, but then she looked again and saw the spell sunk into the wood Each oak box had one spell to strengthen the box and ht, one to make it fire resistant, and one to suck air from the box as it closed to preserve whatever was kept inside