Cleansing Fire
Chapter 25: Fire

They stood around the funeral bier, watching as the wood slowly caught. Marius had insisted on a proper funeral – despite the way things had ended. Nobody had seen fit to argue with him.

They all watched Lori, Magnus and Lura as he raised his hands and brought the flames to a towering inferno. The seemed to wash away his life. Everything was different now.

They couldn’t stay here long – they would have to replace the Travellers soon if they were to stop Balden’s mad plan. Lura had explained it all to them – though he hadn’t heard most of it.

Tomorrow they could leave. Tomorrow. For now he wanted to sit and think and remember simpler times. The hand in his pocket restlessly touched a dark Mahogony box, endlessly turning it around and around.

As was the way with these things, the stories that spread were perhaps not as accurate as they could be. Many agreed that the Academy had been destroyed but they argued over who it was that had done the destroying. Some said it was the Jakori – that they had stormed the fortress, killed the steward and assumed power. Others said that a dark and fearful power had risen, wiping out all resistance and filling the city with evil.

Still others claimed that the Barrier had been broken beyond repair and the nightmarish creatures who had been trapped were now roaming the land and that it was they that had destroyed the Academy. Nobody much believed that the Barrier was gone – how could it be? The work of thousands of years would surely be impossible to destroy.

Only a few knew the impossible truth - that all these things had happened. The land was entering a dark and dangerous time, and the Travellers were being sought after once again.