Naked Empire pg. 59-100

Richard and his companions continued their journey out of the desert. Shortly after their confrontion with the races, more races came to follow, but this time staying out of range to be shot. The confrontion gave insight into what kind of threat they may represent. As they began to work their way out of the desert Richard finds something unusual. The growth of plants is not staggered or uneven but a straight line of growth where all of the plants seem to have just started growing a few years ago. These clues lead Richard to believe that a boundary use to be their, and he looks to the book "Pillars of Creation" for the answer, but the translation is taking him longer than he had hoped.

As they made it out of the desert into more of a forest brush setting, they encountered someone who was searching for them. His name was Owen, and he was from a village in the Old World. Their village needed help against the Imperial Order that had taken over their town. Richard did not have time to help with all of the problems he is currently facing with his headaches getting worst with a possible magical cause, needing to get back to Vector and Nicci in Altur'Rang, and the unknown object, but Owen referred to all of them as unenlightened particularly with talking about their ability to fight which makes be believe that his village is all pacifists.

The chapters are beginning to lead into the story now with less and less old information being received. These chapters gave new insights and added Owen and his people into the picture. I think although Richard sent him away they are going to become more important later. I am interested in seeing what this unknown object even looks like and how another boundary plays into all of this. I think they will jump to Zed's perspective in the New World sometime and let Richard continue his journey without us for a little bit to avoid all of this travel time with less old story to recap, and I am looking forward to his perspective since we did not get to seem him almost all of last book. I think the pacifist village is going to teach us one of the themes like having to stand up for yourself, but we will see.