Arcadia: The Golden Era Novels & Stories

“Yes.” “And Briarcrest let us.” “Yes.” She glanced down the long corridor stretching toward the atrium. The academy feels different now. Bigger. More dangerous. Nyx shoved her hands into her pockets. “Tell me something,” she said. “What?” “If they trust us with cities…” Her voice softened slightly. “what happens when they trust us with war?” Alaric didn’t answer immediately. Finally he said quietly, “That’s when Briarcrest finds out what it created.”

“Hidden from the world for a reason. Arcadians can come to outsiders—but outsiders can’t come to Arcadia. Not unless they're brought in.” He tightened the reins, and his voice softened. “You’re the first outsider to come this close to Arcardia after 7000 years". Her heart stuttered. “Seven thousand years?” “Yes. The last time humans came here, they burned our cities and slaughtered our people.” His voice was calm, but something cold stirred beneath the surface. “We don’t forget that kind of betrayal.” Seraphina felt a chill deeper than the wind. Seraphina stared at him, speechless. The prince didn’t talk much, so hearing this from him caught her off guard.

The golden era in Novus Aetheria was not a volatile phenomenon, but a manifesto our collective work. We had created a place where the unmistakable, metallic cold of the Old World through the warm, pulsating heart of a new Ecosystem has been replaced. But perfection in architecture, even in such a way natural as ours, always carries the germ of the unpredictable. The Jungle, who once surrounded our settlement like a protective wall, had himself changed. He was no longer just the glaring green that we through our interventions in

"Your grandfather's vision was about cooperation. Theirs is about control. They've been working to corrupt his design from the beginning, trying to turn the Sterling family from a bridge into a tool." Jack thought about the Arbiter. About the Council of Coils. About the game that had been playing out around him since before he was born. "What about Arcadia? The account Grandfather set up?" His parents went very still. "Arcadia," Martha said slowly, "was your grandfather's insurance policy. Not for the family. For the world." "Explain."