The Road North
- Despite there being no Emperor, the news hasn't been broadcast widely around yet (15.1). People are worried about loose magic floating around, but they don't know much—yet. A bunch of fancy travelers run up and down the road, which means something big's going down (15.2). People end up only hearing rumors about what happened with the Watchers and the Emperor (15.3). As it is, the day-to-day doesn't change much for the common folks (15.6). When they greet a group on the road, the strangers are shocked that Tilja and Co. can travel incognito with magic—it's like the old story, the one about Dirna and Reyel traveling easily back home after finding Faheel because Asarta made it so that no one noticed them (15.12).
- Good and bad things have resulted from the Empire's collapse. Food servers at way stations get paid, and people no longer have to pay tolls to cross bridges (15.15). But there are rumblings of bad things, too—when a guard steals something, no one brings him to justice. At the next way station, Til goes to buy munchies for Calico (15.16), when a man tries to grab her money—Alnor beats the guy up (15.25). Meena suggests that Alnor and Tahl bond by having the grandpa teach his grandkid how to kick-fight (14.36).
- Things get worse and worse as they go on—half of the way stations are abandoned, and those that are working demand really high fees (15.39); thieves are everywhere, bad magicians stink the place up, and scaly monsters are killing people. The group senses a bit of bad stuff, despite Tilja's powers (15.41). One upside—Tahl and Alnor are getting along better since the grandpa started teaching his grandson kick-fighting (15.43). Meena and Tilja have girl talk about the boys, in which Grandma admits to having a crush on Alnor (15.45-47).
- A few nights later, a really happy warden pops up in a way station (15.50). Tilja wakes up, feeling like she did when Silena and her beast came last time (15.51). She sees a shape hovering over Meena—it's the warden (15.52). Tilja jumps up and sees the warden with a beast face, fangs, and a mouth dripping blood (15.53). Til reaches out to quell the monster's magic, but it doesn't do much; she's now woken up the whole camp though, and together they catch five more beasties (15.56). The consequences of having these weirdos around was terrible—five kids died (15.57).
- So going forward, the convoy Til and Co. are part of has to hire a very expensive female magician (15.58). When a guy asks for proof of her powers, she suspends him in mid-air (15.59). One night, the magician reaches out to Tilja and she appears momentarily as an ageless, statue-like being, similar to other magicians Til has seen (15.60). She's pals with Zara, Lord Kzuva's magician, and she's heard about Til (15.61). It turns out the magician was in Talagh when Tilja defeated the Emperor; the lady comments on the strong power of Faheel (15.65).
- The magician spins a yarn to Til about the history of magic—before any Emperor existed, magic was balanced throughout the world, and some used it and others didn't (15.75). As the Emperors became powerful, they were mean and stole all the magic for their people, so less flowed outward, rather than back in (upsetting the balance). The magicians passed their powers on to successors, hoarding power—and the magician references Asarta passing on power to Faheel (15.76). Huh. Maybe Faheel and Asarta really pretty influential.
- The magician also reveals that Faheel was the one who set up the Watchers to control the magic (15.80). She worries about the political struggle for the imperial throne, but there are still Watchers on the loose; some smart folks, like the Lord Kzuva and his magician, Zara, went home (15.82). Plus there's some rogue magician running around, destroying the last Watchers.
- Tilja decides she's got to put a name to her unnamed enemy (15.84). She decides to call him Moonfist for the time his pale fist started grabbing magic near Talagh. After Tilja denies that she's Faheel's successor, the magician offers to help if she can in any way (15.86-89). Tahl overhears this last part and wants to get in on the secrets, but no luck (15.92).
- Til wakes in the middle of the night and is nervous that they won't get home in time to find the Ropemaker before Moonfist destroys him (15.94-95). She tries to get everyone to hurry up—but, of course, she can't confess her reason for wanting to sprint all the way home… so everyone gets ticked off at her for being annoying (15.98-103). Our heroine is sad until Tahl realizes she has a good reason for whining about getting home, but she can't tell them what it is (15.105-106).
- One night, the boys go into a nearby river and listen to it chatter away (15.116). They come out and tell everyone that the glacier protecting the Valley is melting—the pass is open to the Emperor's soldiers, and there have been bodies in the water (15.120). The war is on.