THE COPPER CAULDRONIf anyone living within the Ultimate Empire’s bounds should ever doubt the wisdom and necessity of political union they need only travel abroad to some benighted region of the world where a central organizing force is lacking. In the archipelago of Ambriocyatha, which stains the New Tethys Sea like a rash, every island is a petty kingdom perpetually at odds with its neighbors and ever-liable to spoliation by the cankers of its own internal disputes. The ruling houses of such estates are like pimples that never quite heal, always flaring up again no matter how many times their internal infections might cause them to burst asunder. The insidious forces of corruption may lie dormant for a while within such an isolated community, but, where there is neither a higher law nor
