Saff’s uncle Merin often went on flamebrandy-fueled rants about how the Crown should abandon the outdated notion of “making a living”—a concept born before the amplication spells were perfected—and embrace the idea that in a world where nothing had value, in the traditional sense, everyone would be free. People would still work and make and buy and sell, because humans did not like to be bored. Mal and Merin would still make cloaks, because they loved the art of it. But King Quintan was old-fashioned, and the economy gave him something to control. And, as Merin would drunkenly yell, House
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