152: Epilogue Book 3

Simon had only been on the road for a couple of weeks now, but it had felt like a lifetime. Currently sitting in an inn at a small village just south of Elarith Vale, he listened to the rumours from merchants as they travelled through.

What he heard just got worse as every new rumour came through town, and boy were there a lot of rumours. Fate’s Chosen, the dragon whisperer—that’s what they called him now. A boy travelling with a shadow cat, and making friends with dragons.

As Simon sat in the inn, hugging his ale, he overheard the latest rumour—one that rocked him to his core.

“Did you hear? The King has been arresting corrupt nobles?” the first voice said.

“Yeah, I heard the lord in Dunhearth was arrested,” another responded.

“No joke? What for?” the first man said.

“Tax evasion and enslavement, they say,” the response came.

Simon’s hands shook. This couldn’t be happening.

How could everything have gone wrong so fast?

If this boy was Fate’s Chosen as the rumours portrayed, was there really any reason to keep running? Could he leave the continent? Perhaps try his luck in the Far East—he knew humans were not overly welcome there, but it didn’t mean they didn’t exist. It was just harder to survive, but what sort of existence is it to just be running all the time?

But maybe he was overthinking it. He was just a subordinate, just following orders. They wouldn’t be looking for him, would they?

Since retiring from adventuring and choosing to step out of the spotlight and let future heroes step forth, Morlin had taken to documenting history, and trying to witness and take accurate accounts of all the substantial events unfolding in the world.

His attention had been drawn to the west, in the Kingdom of Ashivar, when the first rumour came to him—murmurs of a boy who was travelling with a shadow cat. The claims only became more outlandish after that.

He was too late to catch the event unfold in Boltron, where Nemorax broke out of his self-imposed prison in Mount Divinus after he had his ties with the Storm God severed.

This turn of events didn’t surprise Morlin. Of all the gods, Zevar was by far one of the more emotional, and when he heard that Nemorax had struck his temple, there was only one way that was going to go down.

But for Nemorax to follow that up by destroying the temple altogether, before seeking out the guardians of the dark forest for a perceived insult and their involvement in these events, it got very interesting.

The current kingdom didn’t even have records of Sylverith, so for her to come out of hiding, defeat Nemorax, and then consort with a child was a monumental event.

How could he not try to meet this child? But how…

The next event was from his stay in Dunhearth. Morlin had been there observing at the time, hoping to catch Trevor at the inn for a casual conversation. However, this was not to be, as Alira came from the north to visit—another monumental event for the kingdom.

This was topped by something that Morlin suspected went overlooked by everyone, including Trevor: getting the attention of Oris herself, and receiving a blessing that Morlin suspected Trevor didn’t even know about or understand yet.

Plans were made as Morlin set up his bookshop to appear on the path of the adventure team. The shop was a magical construct that would only be noticed by Trevor and his team if they were with him. It was a collection of his personal books, but losing a couple for this interaction would be a worthy trade.

And despite being passed the first time, he was successful. Trevor entered the store with two of his party and his very unique elemental, seeking some interesting books, and he had to wonder what Trevor was trying to learn. The kingdom book and sauces made sense—he was heading to the capital and was clearly unprepared, and he was a cooking class.

But books on mythical beasts? Was he hoping to speak to more? How curious.

As Morlin closed his shop, he watched as Trevor walked away with his new books.

This was one of the more interesting developments in the last century, and one that he’d be keeping a close eye on: a chef, with very powerful friends.

It was curious, though. He felt the shadow cat watching the entire time he was in the store. They were not bonded companions, but there was a link there—a lingering connection that Morlin couldn’t put his finger on.

How strange. This would be something worth looking into more.

They had been in Dunhearth when the phoenix arrived, as Lukas’s leader made them all rush to the source, saying we might need to fight. He didn’t want to fight. There had been too many close calls already, and he was still recovering from the last battle, which had left a giant cut on his leg.

He’d been given a salve to heal it, but it worked slowly, and the free services at the medical pavilion were nice, but everything took time.

As he stood in the crowd watching the inn that the phoenix had apparently gone inside of, it struck him—this was the inn that started all the problems. He hoped it would burn down. It wouldn’t solve the problems, sure, but it would make him feel better.

But as he stood there in the crowd, he saw a face—one that haunted him—come out of the inn, and it was speaking to the royal guard captain.

Trevor?

Then the beast that came up behind him, even from this distance, made him collapse onto his bad leg.

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It all happened suddenly, but Trevor walked back inside the inn, along with the captain, as the royal guards rushed forward to make a perimeter as instructed. Lukas, getting back to his feet, just stood there staring at the inn door.

What had happened? He could have sworn that was Trevor he just saw, but that creature, and the phoenix?

None of this made any sense.

They continued to stand there and watch as more and more adventurers arrived, when finally the door opened and out walked a lady?

The words… everyone heard them clear as day. “Goodbye, young Trevor—see you soon.”

It was Trevor.

How?

The world exploded into light as the lady erupted into the flames, launching high into the air before the form of a giant phoenix flew away, leaving the crowd stunned.

Had he made a mistake that day by shunning Trevor?

It wasn’t long before the crowd was dispersed by the royal guard, told to head back to their residences. Lukas was lost in his own thoughts as he followed the group.

The next morning he needed to confirm things, so he left the inn they were staying at, telling his leader he was going to get some healing, but instead he went and observed the inn from last night.

He couldn’t get too close as it still had guards around its perimeter keeping people back, but he watched as Trevor left the inn with several others.

Then his gut really dropped when he saw George and Darren exit the inn with the barmaid. Why was George here with Trevor? And Darren—he’d never been a part of their group growing up—why was he here as well? Had Trevor collected everyone from their orphanage except for him?

Lukas couldn’t watch anymore and decided to leave. Had he messed up that badly? Or was Trevor just out to get him?