The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

Such has been the case with memory magic, which has become frowned upon—and many of its cruder spells declared illegal—for its intrusiveness and the potential damage it inflicts.

These days memory magic is usually deployed by criminals who do not want their victims to remember by whom they have been robbed, and occasionally by licensed medical professionals to erase recollection of unspeakable trauma, but only after the sufferer of the trauma has gone through a substantial approval process.

—From The Art and Science of Magic: A Primer



10. THE QUASI-VAULTER had not been invented to circumvent no-vaulting zones, but to make mages who could not vault appear as if they possessed the ability. The four small lumps, called vertices, became activated when they were set on the ground in such a way as to mark the corners of a quadrilateral. A mage stepping inside this quadrilateral would be instantly whisked away to a preset target, and the vertices would disintegrate, leaving no traces behind.

When mages realized that quasi-vaulters could break through no-vaulting zones, they demanded that the inventor give up proprietary information so that new anti-vaulting spells could be formulated to disallow quasi-vaulters. The inventor, an eccentric old woman, pulled her products from the market rather than divulge her trade secrets, which she took with her to her pyre.

Needless to say, quasi-vaulters immediately became sought after on the black market—and only more so when Atlantis began building its Inquisitories in mage capitals around the world.

—From A Chronological Survey of the Last Great Rebellion



11. TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT that Princess Ariadne has named her firstborn Titus has caused a stir among palace watchers.

After the reign of Titus VI, one of the most reviled sovereigns in the history of the House of Elberon, the name Titus has dropped nearly entirely out of use among the population of the Domain. The House of Elberon has been hesitant to reclaim the name that had once been associated with several of its most illustrious members: the infant prince is the first boy born to the house to be called Titus in more than two hundred years.

—From “Reaction to Infant Prince’s Name Mixed at Best,” The Delamer Observer, 28 September, Year of the Domain 1014



12. IT SADDENS me greatly that Titus VI, one of the most principled and courageous mages who ever breathed, is casually referred to by the staff writers of The Delamer Observer as “reviled” in the article “Reaction to Infant Prince’s Name Mixed at Best.” It saddens me even more that The Delamer Observer’s general readership accepts that claim without any question.

Yes, we have all learned in school that Titus VI had to abdicate the throne in favor of his younger sister, after he used deadly force against his own subjects. But does no one outside the Sihar community remember the context of Titus VI’s decisions?

Those had been some of the darkest days for the Sihar of the Domain: Sihar establishments in all the larger cities razed, Sihar children beaten in broad daylight, and perfectly law-abiding Sihar forced to flee their homes. Unruly mobs were converging on Lower Marin March, proudly proclaiming that they would not stop until they had pushed all the Sihar into the sea.

Titus VI ordered the mobs dispersed by any means necessary. There were 104 fatalities before the mobs finally disbanded, but the number of Sihar who would have perished, had Titus VI stood aside and done nothing, would have been in the untold tens of thousands.

And let it not be said that the name Titus has dropped out of use among the population of the Domain. We the Sihar make up 9 percent of the population of the Domain and we name many, many of our sons Titus, in remembrance and eternal gratitude.

—From “Letters to the Editor,” The Delamer Observer, 30 September, Year of the Domain 1014



13. THE LARGEST Sihar population in the world lives in the Domain, concentrated mainly in Lower Marin March, although smaller communities are to be found in most sizable cities and towns.

The Sihar had historically been outcasts from the larger mage community for their practice of blood magic. Persecutions, especially in the realms on the Continent, reached a fever pitch during the reign of Hesperia the Magnificent. The oft-recounted story of their arrival in the Domain usually begins with the dramatic plea from the Grand Matriarch of the Sihar to Hesperia, that the latter, then a new mother, would sympathize with the matriarch’s desperation and grant the Sihar a place of refuge.

Hesperia acceded to the matriarch’s plea. The Sihar were offered special status as the princess’s guests and given land in Lower Marin March for their use, the borders of the march secured by the princess’s own guards for their protection.