Far to the north, a young man wielding Urthaenriel smashed what he thought was a Cornerstone. But since he had been deceived, what he destroyed instead was an ancient mechanism. A device whose sole purpose had been to feed a single stream of light to a site thousands of miles away, to the center of Kharas Gulgoth. And so, a stream of light that should have lasted at least a few more decades flickered, dimmed, and finally died. Eight chains became seven. The number could not hold. As a distant earthquake rumbled through the land, waking morgage from their beds, the system broke down. A single
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