The theft of the upper seals was the crime that turned the surface world into a frozen charnel house.
From the Chancellery Altar, a new light-projected projection climbed into the starlight canopy, displaying a fine, detailed sky map of the twelve stellar beacons that once controlled the orbit and climate of the human realm.
Empress Yan Huaisu pointed her scepter toward the twelve glowing points of light that encircled the world-size sphere like a crown of golden suns.
“The Ark Nadir was never meant to remain forever in the deep pit,” the Empress explained, her cello voice rich with sorrow. “It was designed as an emergency survival vessel, to wait out the Great Rot until the stellar cores could be cleansed and re-ignited. To guide the ship when it surfaced into the new spring, twelve Celestial Navigation Seals were cast. Each seal was a master resonator that communicated directly with one of the twelve sky-high beacons.”
Yan Zhiqiu looked at the scepter in her hands, her eyes tracing the hardened shale tablet now fused into its crown.
“The Broken Slate,” Yan Zhiqiu murmured. “It is the Seal of the Nadir. The central key.”
“It is the central key,” the Empress confirmed. “The eleventh seal. But the other eleven seals—the Seal of the Azure Dragon, the Seal of the White Tiger, the Seal of the Vermilion Bird. The eight seals of the vassal stars—were kept in the high command pavilions of the upper hull. When the Seven Grand Sects breached the…
