necessary to create a no-vaulting zone a mile across is already an immense undertaking. How big is the no-vaulting zone around the Citadel?”
“Five miles in radius,” said Titus. “And it was a controversial undertaking, for how much time and treasury outlay it consumed.”
“This no-vaulting zone wasn’t achieved in one year, one generation, or even one century,” said Mrs. Hancock. “Let’s not forget how long the Bane has been around.
“Once Icarus’s oracular abilities divulged the Bane’s true age, I began piecing together his story. A great deal of the time, the founder of a new dynasty or regime presents a sanitized and glorified version of himself or herself, but the background of the mage who became known as our Lord High Commander seemed to need no cleaning up or embellishing.
“His family was highly respected—beloved even. They hailed from the west coast, on the far side of the massifs that harbor the Commander’s Palace, a poorer, harsher part of what was already a poor, harsh realm. Unlike many landowning families who exploited their peons, members of the Zephyrus clan were celebrated for their humility and generosity.
“Young Delius Zephyrus wasn’t exactly a child prodigy. Until he was fifteen, he was almost completely undistinguished, except for his youthful good looks. But then his beloved great-grandfather died, and it was commonly believed that his death propelled young Delius to make something of himself.
“From that point on, his ascent was remarkable. This was more than fifty years ago. Atlantis at the time was ruled by a collection of warlords, each controlling a parcel of the realm, each trying to expand his or her own territory at the expense of another warlord’s. There was constant unrest. The harvests were terrible due to the displacement of the peasants, and the fisheries were close to being depleted again, because mages were struggling to feed themselves. Everyone feared we would tip over into another widespread famine, and that was when young Delius took up his wand and organized his own people, who were probably better fed and better treated than any other group of peasants in the country, and persuaded them to follow him into battle, as no tribe could ever enjoy good fortune alone: if they, better-off mages who were surrounded by misery, did nothing except wallow in their own superior luck, sooner or later misery would penetrate whatever barriers they thought they had erected against it.
“‘I wish to help because I cannot bear not helping,’ he’d said, in a speech before many eyewitnesses. ‘If that is how you feel, join me. If that is not how you feel, you should still join me. Because our destinies are not divided from our fellow Atlanteans, and in helping them, you help no one so much as yourself. And you would go to the end of your days knowing that you have been brave and wise, that you did not cower in your own little safe haven as chaos marched in, but fought for order, for justice, for a cause that is bigger than yourself.’
“I know it well, this speech. The first time I read it, I wept. I was so moved by his courage and so enormously proud to be an Atlantean under his stewardship. At school we reenacted the scene every year, and for years it used to touch me anew.
A wistful light came into Mrs. Hancock’s eyes. All at once Titus could see her as a young girl, bursting with pride and joy at her homeland’s remarkable rebirth.
“And so this young man who had nothing but pluck and the favor of the Angels marched against the warlords with his ragtag band of supporters. And they won victory after victory, the oppressed everywhere swelling their ranks, because they saw hope for the very first time. And they were so hungry for a better life, for a society characterized by peace, prosperity, and fellowship, that they did not mind giving their lives to that noble goal.
“Soon he became unstoppable. When his forces took Lucidias, and he declared the realm rid of the warlords and the brutal old ways that kept the ordinary mage downtrodden, such jubilation there was, such euphoria.”
Mrs. Hancock sighed. “The thing about this story is that it’s overwhelmingly true, at least the facts on the surface. For years, I worked under the librarian in charge of the historical archive at the grand library. And in that capacity, I visited many private collectors to arrange for the purchase or donation of primary sources to the archive. And while