Of Shadow and Sea (The Elder Empire - Shadow Book 1) by Wight Will

Author:Wight, Will
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hidden Gnome Publishing
Published: 2014-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

twelve years ago

Lucan staggered back from the obsidian statue. Memories swirled in his mind—the stoneworker chips away at the obsidian, terrified that he might fail; the soldier poses for a sculpture, eager to get back to the battlefront; the thief hides behind a statue, begging for shelter in its shadows. In the rush, his own memories were all but lost.

“I can’t,” he choked out. “There’s too much.”

The Emperor stood over him, dressed today in all the colors of a glacier. “A Reader does not need the strength of a warrior, but the understanding of a poet.”

This coming from the most powerful Reader ever born. “Then please, help me understand. There’s too much identity here. Too many identities. How am I supposed to⁠—”

“You hide behind questions like a coward. Try again.”

With anyone else, Lucan would have debated, explained himself, thrown up more questions like smoke to regain the upper hand. But this was the Emperor.

The gleaming black statue showed a soldier in ancient Imperial armor, his sword forgotten on the ground in front of him, clutching both hands together as if in prayer. Lucan put one hand on each of the statue’s shoulders, staring into its stone eyes, and plunged back into the tide of remembrance.

As he did, he chanted silently to the obsidian soldier: Move, move, move, move, move! Light and life, please move!

The Emperor sighed and gestured for Lucan to take his hands from the statue. He did so, almost collapsing, grateful for the chance to catch his breath.

The man who had united the world and founded the Empire stood over Lucan, arms folded in his voluminous sleeves, looking as majestic and unchanging as a statue himself. He looked down on Lucan with the regal gaze of the only true king humanity had ever known.

“When we first discovered Reading as a discipline, the ability to sense and manipulate human Intent, we didn’t know what to call ourselves. Everyone had ideas, most of them grandiose: Soulweavers, Oracles, Enchanters, Fate’s Chosen…”

In a train of blue and white robes, the Emperor paced around the obsidian statue. “Do you know why we settled on ‘Readers’ instead of ‘Writers’?”

Lucan was still trying to wrap his mind around the story. Here, in front of him, was someone who had physically witnessed the birth of Reading itself.

“Because without understanding, without truly reading the depths of memory in an object, we cannot affect its power. Once we do understand, we can begin to make changes.”

Gently, the Emperor placed one hand on the soldier’s black stone head.

The room filled with a sharp, constant sound, like the crunch of snow or the crack of ice amplified and stretched to echo for minutes. The statue shivered…

And then abruptly shattered like black glass. Pieces of obsidian rained down, and Lucan took an instinctive step back.

“That’s impossible!”

The Emperor didn’t look back, merely brushed black dust from his hands. “And who taught you that?”

The older Architects had. The ones who could Read, anyway. They’d taught him from ancient books taken from Imperial Academies, written by some of the greatest Readers in humanity’s history.

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