The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

The knot of heartache lodged in my throat like it always
did when I thought of Vikter. “He was killed by the
Descenters in the Rite attack. A lot of people died that night
—innocent people.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Empathy flowed from him. “And
to know that those who support Atlantia were the cause.”
“Thank you,” I murmured.
He stared at me for a long moment and then said, “The
Unseen were an ancient brotherhood that originated at least
a thousand years ago or so, after several generations of
Atlantians were born, and other bloodlines took root.
Roughly around the time the…” He drew in a deep breath.
“Around the time the deities began to interact more with the
mortals who lived in lands far from Atlantia’s original
borders. The ancients began fearing that the Atlantians and
the other bloodlines were not entirely supportive of their
decisions regarding mortals.”
“And what kind of decisions were they making?” I asked,
half-afraid of the answer based on what I’d already been
told.
“The deities wanted to bring all the lands, the seas, and
the islands together under one kingdom,” King Valyn said.
That didn’t sound all that bad—for a brief moment. “It didn’t
matter that some of those lands already had rulers. They
believed they could improve the lives of others as they did
with the lands just beyond the Skotos Mountains that had
already been occupied by mortals. Many Atlantians and
other bloodlines didn’t agree with them, believing it was
best to keep focus and energy on Atlantian lives. The deities
feared there would be an uprising, so they created the
Unseen to serve as a…network of spies and soldiers,
designed to crush any type of rebellion before it started.
That was done by keeping the Unseen members’ identities
hidden. That way, they could move undetected among the
people of Atlantia like spies. And when it came time for