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Article Excerpt
There was only one ruler in the world who had more power than the Queen Bei Chu, and that was the Emperor of the East. He was incredibly powerful, but in the West only a few old statesmen ever realized his existence; he lived at such a distance and court life was so self-centered under the Queen Bei Chu. The combined domains of these two rulers constituted the whole voyageable world. Beyond them, to the East lay a great stretch of curling water, barely poising itself on the shelf of creation; to the North, wastes of blue-shadowing snow, thinly inhabited by moss-eating animals; to the West and South, the mountains that could be seen from the Queen's windows and that no one ever crossed, for they were infested with intelligent storms that emerged from unmapped pockets to attack the adventurer.
Queen Bei Chu had ascended the throne upon the death of her father, in her thirteenth year. Her father's chief advisor, an old priest, had been appointed Regent, and his duties included the education of the Queen. Reading and writing one never ceases to learn, but education proper lasts six months and is very fatiguing. It includes declamation and ceremonial, and it was through ceremonial that the Queen first came to hear of the two experiences that awaited her next, Marriage and Love, or...
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