Sabíana didn’t know Llun personally, but she nevertheless felt she knew him like a brother. They had encountered each other once, about fifteen years ago. It was during the early days of the Gumiren ascendancy, just as Aspidían and the Consistory were coming into their power. Llun had been the last of a uniquely Vasyllian phenomenon—the first-reacher, low-caste artisan who followed an ancient discipline of mind and body to create objects of intense, unrepeatable beauty.
The Raven had singled him out to create an object of power, a container for Living Water that would never go dry. At that moment in time, no one understood the Raven’s endgame, and it seemed simply like a power move by an already ascendant Raven to ensure his continued dominance over Vasyllia, and eventually the rest of th
