The Therahan Isles

The Therahan Isles are where Britannian officers go on leave. White beaches, cheap rum, hotels with a view of the reef and a view of the mine tailings if you turn around. Etherium runs under half the islands and Britannia has held the mining rights for eighty years.

The islanders smile at the miners and the tourists because smiling is how you keep a job on an island with one employer. After dark the same families run boats between the reefs that no Britannian pilot can chart. There are hundreds of islands. No two maps agree on how many, and the islanders like it that way.

A Britannian mining inspector disappears every few years. The reports say drowned. The islanders say nothing.

The Isles are the empire's holiday and the empire's blind spot, and lately Almanian ships have been anchoring in the western reaches for longer than a supply stop needs.