Despite his best efforts, Raef could find no more books with maps. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds of books that he had yet to crack open, but all of the books that were of a larger size or appeared that they would contain the type of pages to include a map were either on other subjects or were damaged.

The number of damaged books broke Raef's heart. Over time, it became clear that someone or some group had made a concerted effort to eradicate the entire history of Ness before the move from the Old Quarter to the current make-up of the city.

Even some of the books that covered the migration were damaged, and that led Raef to focus on that important moment in Ness history. He narrowed down his immediate studies to three books, two were heavily damaged, while the third was the book that was the longer history of Ness with the parts about the Magic Guild ripped out.

Raef's hope was that the book would contain valuable insight due to the censors assuming it had already been excised of content they didn't like when they opened the book and saw pages missing. With each page, he realized his hope had borne fruit.

The book, while far from going into great detail, laid out the causes of what it called the Great Migration. The initial cause was simple to understand: The city had simply over-farmed the Golden Fields and turned them into the current Ash Fields. But the following chapters astonished Raef.

The initial idea of relocating only the Harvest Guild across the river was dismissed. The guilds felt that the city needed to sever itself from its trading past, and that meant abandoning the trade route, the Magic Guild tower, and killing the current Harvest House. It was to be a clean break.

Raef went to the other two books and, as he expected, the only remaining pages in them discussed over-farming and the death of the Golden Fields. Turning back to the only book he had found with details of the city's history before it's current settling north of the river, Raef read closely.

Rubbing his eyes, Raef looked out a window and was shocked to see that it was deep into the night. He had learned a lot about the move across the river, but the most important lesson was that the move was marked by a multi-year civil war between the various guilds. Harvest House was presumably made out of a living tree, and it was killed as a lesson to the Harvest Guild. The Knight Tower was burned to the ground, rebuilt in stone, and then partially destroyed again. The Gateway—which was presumably a large gate south of the river that no longer existed—was permanently closed. A smaller bridge across the Great River that was used by the Harvest Guild to start what was now the Silo District was also destroyed.

The whole wave of violence was shockingly familiar: The Magic Guild was eradicated, and that led to the Merchant Guild and the Craft Guild joining forces to run Ness. The Knight Guild stood aside, and the Harvest Guild was overrun.

That is exactly what is happening today, Raef thought. He stood up and went off in search of the Deputy Guildmaster.

Alard was pacing in his office, which was little more than a room with a bare desk and uncomfortable chairs. "Raef, this is very important. How did this civil war end?"

"There is not much. The Harvest Guild finally agreed to the wisdom of the move to the north of the river, and everyone ended up happy." Raef tried to think if he had missed anything, but he was sure he had not.

"History is written by the victors," Alard muttered.

"What is that?" Raef asked.

"Nothing. It is a saying of the Outlanders." Alard sat down at his desk, where he looked completely out-of-place. "It is likely that the Harvest Guild stopped fighting in return for some guarantee of their standing. Otherwise, today Ness would be run by the Merchant and Craft guilds."

"That's true," Raef scratched his head. "They built a new Harvest House. That was probably a requirement, as well."

"Yes. That makes sense. The Harvest Guild is powerful, Raef. Do not forget that. They control the food for the entire city, and they are the largest guild in terms of numbers."

Raef thought of the recent Founders Day Guildmaster meeting. "Maybe the requirement that if there are two votes against something it would not pass was the guarantee that the Harvest Guild was looking for."

Alard's eyes went wide. "Of course! That's the key to everything. Two votes were what saved the Harvest Guild centuries ago, and that is what saved them today." Alard ran his hand over his bald head. "That means that the Thieves Guild was created solely to establish the peace for all these years. But why Thieves? It is an odd choice for a symbolic guild to keep the peace." Alard looked at Raef. "Was there any mention of our guild?"

Raef shook his head. "None. There were mentions of the destruction of the Magic Guild, but nothing about the Thieves."

"There is a missing piece." Alard stood up. "You need to find it, Raef. I don't know what it will tell us, but it is important."

Alard dismissed Raef, and Raef returned to the library. He had considered going to bed as he was weary from hours of study, but Alard's comments gave Raef pause. Raef had been so interested in the history of Ness and finding maps and learning about everything that he didn't know that he had not spent any time looking for resources about his own guild. He didn't remember seeing any, so despite his weariness, he started browsing the stacks.

Hours later and almost delirious with exhaustion, Raef could not believe the results of his search. He had combed every shelf and spine of every book.

There was not a single volume about the Thieves Guild in the entire library.