Introducing our latest innovation: BOOK OF THE DAY, a delightful way to bring literature to the masses. BOOK OF THE DAY is the Library of Forgotten Pleasures new way of providing reading material to the public from a selection of Authors who have donated their works to the Library. Find your way to the GOLDEN WILLOW, GATEHEAD CLINIC, or peruse the FLORAL COURT district notice board to uncover this week's chosen book. Grab a pamphlet and dive into a world of forgotten pleasures! [ooc notice: many parts of the lore in this book may be changed or outdated. This has been kept purposefully this way] 10,011th of the ‘Tales of Denial’ Written by: Unkown Ed 1 One among the collection of stories from people Lady Ammalla has learned or observed, collected over the course of all of her lifetimes. "The Pearl Cities of Farah'deen appear in many of her tales, for they have passed from the Sariyd, to the Songaskians, to even the Regalians, and each time ran red with blood," Only five years ago, now, Qasa awoke in her home in Shaaq- Turnaal, a Pearl City along the Coast. She was a noblewoman, and had a very important day a head of her. She was bid to oversee the project to update the murals along the walls of the communal gardens, where many of the Nobles and rich and powerful mingled in their free time to avoid the heat. She had sponsored a painter since they were very young, and was sure of their ability to, together, create something beautiful for all to see, that would have name on it. Qasa went about her day- she prepared for the audience. And, when it came time? The audience was cancelled. One of the light-house watchmen had barely been able to report in time the the imminent arrival of a number of Regalian Warships. The kinds bigger than anything they had, and filled with a thousand more gunpowder cannons than they could have dreamed of having. Their ships did not warn them, because they were sunk before they could even arrive, and when the imminent arrival of a number of Regalian Warships. The kinds bigger than anything they had, and filled with a thousand more gunpowder cannons than they could have dreamed of having. Their ships did not warn them, because they were sunk before they could even arrive, and when occupy it, expect them to pay tribute, and they must abide by that. But from where they watched, from the towers of the Pearl City, what they heard? There was far, far too much screaming. The Regalians had, on orders directly from their Divine Emperor-- not the missing one, but the one who now fashions himself as the Dragon Regulus. Or perhaps it may be more apt to say at the time he was fashioning himself as the man Cedromar. Who am I to say? He ordered them to kill every man, woman, person, and child within that city. All of them. And they did. It was no longer an occupation. It was a slaughter. Qasa ran home to try and collect her family, her servants, her friends, barely avoiding soldiers and slipping on the blood on the marble-- until she couldn't anymore. And they caught her. They lined her up, with the rest of the Nobles. But the Emperor stopped them from executing her. Her, instead, they placed upon a horse, and brought to the edge of the city. And they sent her off, with the demand to tell the other Pearl Cities, what had been done there that day. Fourty Thousand, Qasa watched, and Fourty Thousand dead, Qasa left behind. Until she arrived, dehydrated and starving at the nearest City. When she had told them the story, they looked at her with pity, and suspicion, and disgust, for why it was her and not anyone else, perhaps their friends or loved ones who could have made it out. She was left alone much, after that, and bid this story to me, before choosing to pass on. Thinking of her mural, that was never made, that would have been of a bright, shining sun, and countless joyous faces beneath it.
