Chrysalis

Beyn didn’t know what to think, or what to say. The Great One had risen high, taken the fight against the Phoenix of Light, although for reasons Beyn couldn’t understand.

When the Great One had launched his mighty spell and swallowed the light, Beyn had felt as if his eyes were about to leap from his head. Was this truly the declaration of war, committing the New Path against the old?! Was the famed defender of Atreum about to fall, allowing for the rise of a new power?

Visions had flashed before his eyes, images of triumph, of despair, of misery and joy. His heart had soared as he imagined the glory of the crusade to come, even as he wept for the pain and suffering that would surely spread, the darkness that would smother the land before the dawn would come.

Yet, it wasn’t to be. The Phoenix had been reborn in a blinding cascade of light, the Great One had been enveloped in flames. The rest was, as they say, history.

How could he describe the emotions that had overwhelmed him as he watched the Great One fall? That was the physical manifestation of his faith, a living deity, a creature who had been touched by divine providence. He had rocked an entire mountain to its foundations to defend his people, performed miracle after miracle, but now, he had been defeated? Was it possible for the New Path to fail?

As the hours dragged by, he sat on the deck, a respectful distance away from the slowly recovering ant, watching. After a time, Jern and Alis came to sit alongside him.

With the conclusion of the voyage, there should have been a glad and celebratory air around the fleet. Instead, it felt like a funeral. There was little conversation, the ants did not move much, the brathians kept to themselves.

Sailors and mages saw to their duties with only scattered, hushed words exchanged. Winds were summoned and directed into the sails, waters were driven along the sides of the ships. The fleet moved at incredible speed, every ship raising a plume of white spray in their wake.

“I don’t… I don’t understand what happened,” Beyn confessed finally. His one remaining hand was clutched to his chest, as if trying to hold in the fear which had blossomed there. “That the Great One… could lose… I’m not sure what it means.”

After some consideration, it was Jern who

he

Beyn was confused.

“Who is?”

taken without authorization. Report

toward where Anthony, still horrifically injured, remained motionless,

a vague sense, a faint impression, of what he’s feeling.

to speak, but she frowned

enough,” she said quietly, looking at the motionless ant

even more shocking revelation to Beyn. Grieving? Grieving what? The loss? Jern seemed to anticipate his next question. The huge man rolled his shoulders

sure either at first, so I went and asked

didn’t tell me that,” Alis

in the city. Nobody seems sure just how it happened, or who exactly was taken, but the Colony is of the

said, but when the young man had finished speaking, he still didn’t seem capable of processing what

And why? Such sacrilege! A desecration! An unspeakable insult thrown directly in the face

They had thrown themselves unflinchingly into the mouth of danger, dared to rise against the entire Atreum empire for the sake of a single member of the blessed family. Such selflessness! Such devotion! And now they suffered grief as deep