Blood Runner: Book Three of the Empress Saga

THIRD INTERLUDE

Upon the seventh day of Our Most Revered Defender's foray into the deep sands, Your Executor has lain eyes upon what has until now been unseeable. The passage was arduous, and it often proved difficult to follow the Opalescent Road as it lay buried throughout most of the journey. As was written in previous correspondence, unanticipated discoveries have followed our every step. The evidently recent burning of the Sentinel City of Marwin remains the most disturbing, however there has been no shortage of other such irregularities. Though the passage was long, the destination has been reached.

The Imperial City of Shan Alee conveys a sense of the grandeur their empire once embodied. The scale upon which the city was constructed is staggering to Your Executor. It is the belief of Our Most Revered Defenders that the Imperial City was residence to no less than three million. These figures dwarf the population estimates for the far east who have long been known to be sparse in numbers, save for the Spired City of Althandor. Even the Cities of Jade within our own empire are not comparable. Ancient structures lay half-buried in the dunes, yet the storied craftsmanship of that era remains evident. Your Executor mourns and begs forgiveness for the deficiency of visual artistic skill that prevents an adequate representation to be conveyed to Our Glorious Emperor.

Ji Min paused and lowered her ink brush. She rarely did this, but she believed the occasion warranted an indulgence. It took a moment of rummaging through her writing case to find her pencil. She returned to her journal and wrote an annotation beneath the primary script. This additional commentary would not be recorded by the imperial scribes, and few outside of the emperor's immediate family and most trusted servitors were likely to ever see it.

Father, the city is remarkable. A lifeless ruin, but remarkable nonetheless. It is beautiful without equal. I must be circumspect within the text, but here I may say without reservation that the Cities of Jade are collections of hovels in comparison. I have not yet seen so much as a tool shed that is not spellwrought.

There was more Ji Min wished to add, but the sound of footsteps approaching her secluded spot within one of the Imperial City's structures drew her attention. The steps were lightly placed. Ji Min didn't need to look up to recognize them as belonging to Lita, hallah'ha of the Harkh'alash.

Lita entered the ancient building through the open entryway. Her wide-brimmed hat, long duster coat, and scarf covered nearly the entirety of her. A khopesh hung at her hip, none other than Emerald's Wrath. It was another masterwork of the sword sages and the ancestral weapon of the Harkh'alash.

Ji Min became abruptly anxious. She took deep breaths so as not to reveal how nervous Lita's presence made her. Calm yourself, she thought. Simply remain collected, and all will be as it will be.

Only Lita's brown eyes were exposed to the sun. As Ji Min interacted with more Espallans from more varied tribes, she'd begun to realize that the Amak'talan's tendency towards light eye-coloring was a rarity. Most of their race possessed brown, black, or hazel eyes. The green and silver Ji Min was used to must have come from the Amak'talan's foreign lineages.

Ji Min nodded to Lita and made her journal ready to be put away. Her inkwell and brush were placed back within the writing case, and she took out the lacquer to preserve what she had written so far. The rest could be completed by day's end.

Lita's eyes traced about the interior of the building. The ground was covered in a thick layer of sand, and the elaborate mosaics upon the sandstone walls were cracked and faded from centuries of neglect. Two walls were open to the air outside, supported by delicate columns whose spellwrought nature was the only reason they hadn't collapsed. A staircase behind Ji Min rose to the second story, and scattered remnants of wood were the only evidence of the furniture this room once contained. It was believed due to the large kitchen and storages in the next rooms that this had once been a sort of public eating establishment.