Arguing with the wights was an arduous task. Each one took turns voicing pieces of the Emperor's demands.
Once Anaisa had understood that the Emperor wanted her to surrender all powers on behalf of the human race, she hesitated.
She would willingly surrender her own. Happily so; she had not wanted magic in the first place.
Ben had even been willing to surrender any human claims on the tree, after some discussion, but to give up all existing magic in the human world?
The time without magic, after the tree was damaged, was difficult. The kingdom got through it, but there were setbacks.
In crops, in healing, in all sorts of realms where people had become reliant on magic.
For Anaisa, it was also personal. She had spent the equivalent of many lifetimes in Trace's dream world with him… and the Emperor was demanding that she give that up, forever.
