Because Zurara VI was an exceptionally ingenious man, at least by the meager standards prevailing in Almyria, he was inclined to be suspicious of this tale on several accounts. First of all, he knew that the so-called mountains of Karnatan are modest in height by comparison with the World’s Spine or the Mountains of Mourning, and thought that even their remotest regions were unlikely refuges for a “secret tribe”. Secondly, ten thousand years is a very long time for temptation to be resisted, and it seemed exceedingly unlikely to him that, even if the tribe really were unknown to all outsiders save one, none of its own people would have taken advantage of such a treasure. Thirdly, if no one in all that time had ever drunk the copper cauldron to its dregs, how could anyone be sure what the e
