History lay on a paisley sofa, her thick ankles crossed and her jaws snapping as she chewed on her substitute smokes. Her apartment was crowded with ledgers and books the size of footstools, some of them actually being used as such.

“Well, if you're here for a story, you're in the right spot.” She stuck a pair of fingers between her lips, stretched out a long string of pale gum, and dropped it, slowly chewing it back up into her mouth. “I've got so many books I don't know what to do with them. You people only ever use two or three pages out of maybe a half dozen.” She shook her head, gave her gum another snap, and pushed her pudding-bowl body up off the couch.

“Here's a good section of it,” she mused as she selected a wafer of a volume off one of the shelves. “Queen Harnel, she was one of those military dictators your politicians are always raving about. Here, take a seat and take a listen.”

History leans uncomfortably close to your ear as she begins the story. “A long, long time ago, two races lived together in an unfortunate land called Ishtar. This desert country was sandwiched between arid mountains on the west and a desolate, storm-swept plateau on the east where ancient clans of horsemen had used to live. A muddy river threaded through the different tribes, fit to be drunk only by the camels of the nomadic elves and humans that wandered around the country.

“Yeah, you heard me right, elves and humans.” History nods close to your ear. “At least until the Harnel I mentioned came along. She was born in the north, an elf. By twenty she had become the leader of her tribe, and by twenty-four she had started invading the next clan over.

“Now why would anyone want to do that, you might ask, and rightly so.” History winks and snaps her gum again. “Why be queen of a poor, empty desert? They couldn't build cities, cities couldn't move, and anything that wanted to survive when the annual sandstorms swept through needed to be able to scamper something fierce. But see, Harnel had a plan.” Another nod. “She was an elf and a sorceress, and a powerful one at that. Whenever she took over a tribe, she cast a spell that kept the sandstorms at bay over the land. In the new peace, cities were built, mining began underneath the sand dunes, and Harnel's kingdom exploded. The elves were suddenly bathed in wealth and luxury and safety they had never even bothered to dream of before, and all they had to do was swear allegiance to a queen.

“Of course, not everyone was happy with the new rule. The humans, for one, were all kicked out into the mountains. Criminals and bandits were all but eradicated by the spear points of her army, and Harnel personally dealt with any political leader who attempted to usurp her rule.”

History shook her head. “I think it's women like Harnel that made your human men so determined to squash the fairer gender. They called her the Steel Queen. Nothing could touch her, she was husbandless, childless, and invincible. Until she disappeared, that is.”

History's eyebrows nodded. “That's the weirdest thing about the whole affair, you see. Queens don't often evaporate in their thrones. One day she was queen, and the next she and her spells are gone like the wind.” History nodded knowingly. “Without their Steel Queen, the entire elvish empire crumpled like a house of cards. Harnel's army splintered and began fighting within itself, sandstorms buried the occupants of the once-glorious cities, and anarchy reigned in the desert.”

History finally leaned back from your ear and shut her eyes. “If there's one thing I've learned about you people, it's that you need a leader.” History gave her head a shake and once again scooted close to you. You could feel the rush of her 'S's and 'P's against your cheek as she resumed her tale. “The empire collapsed, and the humans started to filter back in from the mountains. Lots of humans, humans with a hatred of elves that ran back to the beginning of the Steel Queen's thousand-year rule.

“But you want to see for yourself, I can tell.” She pinched your cheek. “I like that. Well, here it is.” She picked up the little book she'd been holding onto all this time and laid it open on her lap.

The pages were windows, and the windows looked into a dark, dusty street lined with half wood, half tent buildings. A few brown, scrubby trees dotted the sides of the road before it opened into desert, the white sand tinted blue with moonlight and shadows. In the distance, a lion roared, and the donkeys in the stables shuddered. One or two people can seen out and about in the shadows, clothed in thick robes and layers of tarnished silks, hooded, dusty footed.

The air smelled poor, the people were poor, both elf and human slept with a sword at their bedside. Though reality barely a year ago, Harnel and her kingdom felt like little but a cracked, earthenware dish of a memory. At least then the people had known peace.

“I'd tell you what happens next, but I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.”