Otherwise it was quiet—that eerie, not-quite-comforting quiet one finds in small towns before dawn. — N. K. Jemisin

When people questioned this, the priests simply said, The world has changed. We must change with it.

You can imagine how well that went over.

Very quickly I fell in with others like me—newcomers, dreamers, young people drawn to the city in spite of its dangers because sometimes, for some of us, tedium and familiarity feel worse than risking your life.

What happened when people who’d once possessed absolute power suddenly lost it?