Assessment (Firestar, #5)

Alchemy, the Art of Change, was the premier power of the Silent Realm and the center of her ingenuity. It was the model by which society was structured and the standard by which everything was measured. It was the process through which everything was made and the fulcrum on which the nation and its people oscillated. It was the beginning and end of all things in the land, and like any discipline worth pursuing, alchemy required sacrifice.

The Clockwork Cosmos, perpetual and unyielding, was established by the Eternal and maintained by His particles. It was a masterwork of construction, a triumph of intelligence and foresight wrought together by the Synthetic Alchemist Himself, and it was more than an abode for its inhabitants. It was an example to be studied, and it too echoed the immutable truth of alchemy. Progress required sacrifice.

Taurus, the sovereign and supreme nation of the Silent Realm, indisputable in its brilliance and unrivaled in its advancements, it sat as the most advanced and technologically superior land in all the world. The people lived free protected by the automatons and the benefits of their enhanced and educated communities. As citizens and members of their respective castes, they too understood the nobility of knowing their place. Responsibility required sacrifice.

But the Great Destroyer looked upon these notions with contempt. Taurus was a thinly veiled anathema, a corrupter of humanity, and an abomination of nature. The Silent Realm may have arrayed herself in the splendor and knowledge of the heavens, but she was still mortal and thus subject to the Reaper.