Chapter Summaries (Dregs of Empire)
Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution
- Lorian Aristedes
- Tollak (prison guard)
- Prem (prison guard>
Locations
Unknown > Belusha > Unknown > Unknown > Hightower
Characters
Plot Summary
Four guards beat Lorian Aristedes in a white-walled room of the hightower above Belusha, which broke at least one of Lorian's ribs. Reeling from the pain, Lorian recalled his sentencing on the part of William Caesar for high treason for helping Hadrian Marlowe escape from the brig aboard the Tempest with the help of Bassander Lin and the Prince of Jadd Kaim du Otranto.
"“How do you answer these charges?” Caesar himself had asked the question, seated on the camp stool they had set out for his makeshift throne.
Lorian had answered with his customary lip. “Unrepentantly, Honorable Caesar.”
That had sealed his fate.
On a floating chair passing from medica to his cell, Lorian looked out on the planet Belusha more than a mile below. The frigid surface of the planet was dotted by oil rig towers in a frozen plain with ice-crowened mountains in the middle distance. In the sky, a lattice work of mirrors reflected the light from a sun onto the surface of Belusha, where he could barley make out the prison camp of Downwell, his final destination.
Chapter 2: The DukeLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Meidua > Airfield outside of Devil's RestPlot Summary
A boot belonging to a dark-faced man named Duke prodded at Lorian's broken ribs jolted him awake the next morning. Duke helps Lorian get up and confirms that Lorian has broken two ribs on his left side. Lorian shared his history as Hadrian's commander, but was met with a shake of the head and no recognition of the name.
“Call me Lorian,” he said. “I was a commander in the Imperial Red Company, under Hadrian Marlowe himself.”Attempting to get a sense of time, Lorian asks what year it is only to learn that nobody is told the year, although Duke did confirm that William Caesar XXIII of the House of Avent was still emperor. Duke then leads Lorian down some white-walled halls to a locker room with thermal suits of prisoner scarlet, which he helps Lorian don. He teaches Lorian how to use the rebreather system as he tells him his prison assignment in the motor pool.
Duke only blinked at him.
“The Hero of Aptucca?”
The other man shook his head. “We don’t get word from outside.”
“The Halfmortal?”
Nothing.
The two exit the locker room onto the surface of the planet, into the average low temperatures of -16 centigrade, where Lorian remarks again on the mirrors redirecting sunlight to the surface, the so-called Emperor's Eyes. His gaze was then turned on the hightower, an orbital lift tower stretching from the surface into the upper atmosphere. Lorian dreams of climbing its nanocarbon cables hand-over-hand to escape the prison planet, a feat he knows is impossible. Chapter 3: A Man's World
Locations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Airspace en route to ArtemiaPlot Summary
Chapter 4: The ParaCoitaLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Airspace en route to ArtemiaPlot Summary
Chapter 5: The Way of ThingsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Shuttle Crash Site in the Valley of the Redtine MountainsPlot Summary
Chapter 6: The TraitorsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperPlot Summary
Chapter 7: FarsideLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain ChurchSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Rectory
Plot Summary
Chapter 8: Outborn and MisbornLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectoryPlot Summary
Chapter 9: A FriendLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectorySpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Plot Summary
Chapter 10: Of VulturesLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The RectorySpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Yard
Plot Summary
Chapter 11: The ColdLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church YardSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Catacombs
Plot Summary
Chapter 12: Princess of ThievesLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain Church
Plot Summary
Chapter 13: The SubterraneLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Mountain ChurchSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper
Plot Summary
Chapter 14: Strategy and TacticsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperSpur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > The Church Yard
Plot Summary
Chapter 15: The Dregs of EmpireLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin StarshipPlot Summary
Chapter 16: Knocking on Heaven's DoorLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > House Orin StarshipPlot Summary
Chapter 17: Tower of the GodsLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village Proper Chapter 18: To Crack the SkyLocations
Spur of Orion > Delos > Meidua Prefecture > Saint Maximus > In the Village ProperDramatis Personae:
Lexicon: A Note on Translation