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The Adar trembled with his very doubts. Perhaps a lens kithman could help him to see a clearer path, the sharpest illumination from the Lightsource. He wanted to do anything in his power to help make the Ildirans strong.

He had read portions of the Saga relating to military greatness, but Ildirans had faced no true enemies since their battles with the Shana Rei, creatures of darkness that had preyed upon the Empire many thousands of years ago. Thanks to the thism that bound the Ildiran race, the Empire had been stable, strong, at peace…until the arrival of the hydrogues.

Kori’nh bowed, focusing on what he could do. “I will contact my tals to assist me in these choices, Liege, and we will see that this is done properly.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest, feeling the true steel of resolve. The light was clear in his mind. “The Empire has lasted for millennia. I swear to you that our civilization will not crumble under my watch.”

Kori’nh knew the planet Comptor because of a tragic story of a raging forest fire there, as recorded in the Saga. Many Ildiran settlers had managed to escape the blaze by clutching driftwood rafts and floating out onto deep forest lakes. But the Comptor Designate had been trapped with his family in a hilltop dacha surrounded by flammable trees. Connected through the thism, the Designate had remained in contact with his father until the flames swept uphill and engulfed him…

Now Adar Kori’nh stood in the dusty town square surrounded by a flurry of dropships, personnel transports, and large cargo haulers. Tall turquoise trees surrounded the old settlement, spreading broad, fleshy leaves. No visible scars hinted at the epic fire that had engulfed the Comptor settlement so long ago. Kori’nh saw no sign that the tragic tale was anything more than an imaginary story designed to wring emotion from an audience.

But no one ever doubted the veracity of the Saga of Seven Suns. Every line was memorized and carefully retained. Each rememberer had a holy duty to maintain absolute accuracy, and each Ildiran lived with the hope of making a significant enough mark that his name would be recorded in the growing epic.

Now Kori’nh watched his soldiers methodically pack up the colonists whose families had lived on Comptor for generations. This splinter colony was considered too likely a hydrogue target. Families and children from a wide range of kiths prepared to leave their homes for a strange place, where new homes were already being found for them. The evacuees gathered, some frightened, some angry, others resigned to leaving their beloved home…

On Ildira, Kori’nh had met with the seven legion subcommanders as well as his protégé, Tal Zan’nh. They had studied the starmap of the Spiral Arm, noting the locations of the sporadic, incomprehensible hydrogue attacks as well as other warglobe sightings. The committee had determined which of the Ildiran worlds were most easily sacrificed. After days of heated discussion, the Adar had finally sent out his orders to begin the methodical shrinking of the Ildiran Empire.

The consolidation of outlying splinter colonies and the defense against the hydrogues would eventually become a grand part of the Saga. Kori’nh could feel it. But he was uneasy about how rememberers would tell his personal story centuries hence…

Tal Zan’nh issued commands while burly worker kithmen disassembled equipment and carried heavy crates into the large haulers. Modular buildings were dismantled and stored for later reassembly, if the Ildirans ever returned here.

Kori’nh remembered a similar operation on plague-ravaged Crenna. He had removed all the survivors there and brought them back to Mijistra and the welcoming crowds of fellow Ildirans. Before the Solar Navy had even departed from Crenna, human colony ships had swept down like carrion birds to settle the available world. But the Mage-Imperator had negotiated that outcome, and so Adar Kori’nh did not express his resentment. He accepted it, as he accepted so many