Theurgy: The Journey's Dawn (Book One)

Epilogue

      Celia led her sons into the Fortress inner halls. Many of the nobles and staff were tending to the many preparations for the funeral of King James Colton. Lyse had already seen his body burned; usually, they burn bodies as soon as there are sufficient witnesses for it. So they prepared a high altar, where his body was set on top of and lit on fire, on the peak of Mount Silondras, so that the winds may wash away his ashes like all those who preceded him. The funeral itself would be a formal celebration, where all nobility and royalty from across the empire would attend to honor his death, every king, every queen, and their royal line, as well as any other noble family who was able. But for now, sorrow shall be the symphony of mind for the empire. And the Opal family shared in this song. But for Lyse, now was not the time for grieving over his king. Now was the time for action.

    Lyse wished that he had met his sister on much better terms. While it was great to see her, hugging her tightly and even talking much into the day on arrival, the occurrence of the siege and James's death has left a lot on their plates. All knights were sent to help in repair and reconstruction for as much as possible, made easy with their ability. By the third day, Lyse, Edlund, Elena, and Gray were sore from head to toe from how much debris they had to clear and how much aura they exhausted. But at least the initial panic was over. Pyres were set up for the unfortunate soul, and homes rebuilt. There are even plans for monuments and memorials to be built for this day. But the tension of the city still simmered because they still had no enemy to direct this hatred, and they won't be getting answers from the Royal faction or the noble faction any time soon. But perhaps things will be changing.

     Celia led them to Jame's old quarters. The room was stripped of his personal belongings, repossessed to be set within the royal treasury. The bed, while still grand and larger than anything either Lyse and Edlund saw. The filigree the windows, a mirror. Even a small desk with a few candles and impersonal books was a luxury in a plains town like Broken Arrow.

      "This may be Lyse's room soon enough," Celia told them.

       "Seriously?" Lyse asked her, sitting on the bed. They had just been staying in the knight's quarters ever since they made it back. Admittedly, the room wasn't all that bigger than the noble bedrooms, but still, it was an honor to be sleeping in the same bed that the king stayed in during his reign. He casually flipped through a few books, mostly memoirs or tales detailing past wars from first-hand accounts.

   "Well, at least I don't have to share a room with you," Edlund says. "But I will have to come back and fight you if yours is bigger than mine."

      Massia looked to her mother. "Doesn't that mean you accept . . . being queen and all."

     "I doubt I have a choice, honestly," she sighed. "Every time I even speak with nobility here, it's about the will and its validity. The council is still looking over it thoroughly, but they have yet to call me for any hearing. Only time will tell, I suppose."

      "Whether that comes to past or not, we must not waste time in this business with Theurgy, mother," Lye said, sitting on the bed. "I can still . . . feel them. Where they are. We could start right now if we wanted to."

      "But first, there are a few things that must be done," she said, then walked to the back of the room, near eh wardrobe now empty, waiting for any of Lyse's belongings to fill it. She stopped and knelt near its base and began pulling at a floorboard slightly out of place. It came out rather easily, Celia setting it aside to reveal a small hidden compartment with a small chest laid within. With care, she pulled it out and settled it on the bed. Then, without a moment's rest, she turned to the wardrobe and did the same to its floor. But instead of a box, she pulled forth a sword wrapped in clothe ad rope, bound. She, too, laid this on the bed as they all gathered around her anxiously.