Plagues were always falling out of heaven, carried by some poor unfortunate from some far-off world. They ravaged the plebeians mostly, for they had weaker immune systems than those of more exalted blood, and at any rate had no exposure to the animalcules of other worlds. Such a monster had claimed poor Cat when I was just a boy. This was something far worse, a demon hatched in glass cradles by arts black as hell.
