So the first mayor of Ember was given the box, told to guard it carefully, and solemnly sworn to secrecy.

As they came to a halt in the middle of the street or stood stock-still in their houses, afraid to move in the utter blackness, they were reminded of something they preferred not to think about: that someday the lights of the city might go out and never come back on.

Pipeworks laborers worked below the storerooms in the deep labyrinth of tunnels that contained Ember's water and sewer pipes.

People were lost occasionally in the tunnels, too, if they strayed too far.

None of them got such a wretched job as hers.

“But Ember is not prospering!” he cried.

“The lights go out all the time now! And the shortages, there’s shortages of everything! If no one does anything about it, something terrible is going to happen!”

Somewhere inside her, a black worm of dread stirred. She thought about Doon’s outburst in class. Could things really be as bad as he said?

She wished she could bring all of them the good news they so desperately wanted to hear.

“You have caused a commotion.”

Such a horrendous noise met him that he staggered backward a few steps.

Clary was always kind to her, and working with the plants took Lina’s mind off her grief.

Everyone who had tried to penetrate the Unknown Regions had come back within a few hours, their enterprise a failure.