Chapter 284 Karanos (1/2)
”You want to hear about the outside world?” Arran hesitated in answering the question Karanos had spared him for now, but once the white-eyed ht still decide to take his long-awaited revenge
”So I do,” the gaunt lanced at Arran, then added, ”I do not mean to kill you after you answer my questions You are what, two centuries old, if that? I am not so unreasonable as to blame you for events that happened centuries before you were even born”
”I'ht” He wasn't quite sure which of the two it was, but either way, infor to do
”Twenty-seven?” Karanos gave Arran a long stare with his piercing white eyes ”You fight well, for one barely out of infancy But followthe way”
Arran realized there was no point in refusing Unsettling though the gaunt ht be, it did not seem like thehe had given Arran, at least And more importantly, Arran had little doubt that the man could easily force him to talk, if he so wished
As they s at the center of the cavern, he detailed the current state of A what Kimon had told hi town once e's voice ”Thousands of years of turins” He sighed softly ”Perhaps it's for the best Glory only brought A town can escape notice, and have a chance at peace”
Arran only listened with half an ear Not because he wasn't interested in what Karanos had to say — and certainly not because he wished to offend the man — but because they had reached the center of the cavern And now, they were passing between the s' designs filled Arran onder They were all shaped from smooth stone, with h the buildings' straight angles and thick features were far froant, they were far from clumsy Rather, they seemed to follow an aesthetic that valued function over for to Karanos ”Did you build it?”
”Did I build this?” The question drew a laugh froe, and he shook his head ”This city was built long ago, and abandoned many thousands of years before I was ever born Ithe first to find it”
”Then who built it?” Arran asked, his eyes wandering around the buildings that surrounded theh I do knohy they built it And I will tell you, if you wish — but not before you finish answeringa few hundred paces ahead, then continued, ”But first, let me welcome you to my palace It doesn't offer much in the way of comfort, but it does not lack for space”
Arran followed Karanos inside, where he soon saw that the gauntwas as austere as it was spacious, ide halls and bare stone furniture
They passed through several halls, with Karanos finally leading thee stone chairs, a stone desk, and stone bookcases — all of them empty
As Karanos sat down in one of the chairs, he asked, ”How goes the war? From your appearance here, I assume the Shadowflame Society has not been defeated just yet?”
”The war has ended,” Arran replied ”At least for now About fifty years ago, the Hunters and the Ninth Valley reached a truce, and the borderlands have been peaceful ever since”
”A truce?” Karanos frowned, then shook his head ”Merely a brief pause The war beton't truly end until one side is thoroughly defeated Each is too much of a threat to the other I only fully understood it when Aes would not accept neutral powers in their lands It is a war not for power, but for survival”
Arran narrowed his eyes as he looked at Karanos While the pale round city for half a millennium, he had already been there when the Hunters first arrived And that ins than anyone Arran had met so far
”Why did the Hunters attack?” he asked, curious to hear what the white-eyed man knew
”Those you call Hunters are part of an empire,” Karanos replied ”An empire that was once as powerful as the one that lies behind the mountains But for countless thousands of years, it has been in retreat, fleeing an unstoppable enemy”