Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
I tell myself to keep going, but I cannot and we both fall to the sandy ground.
Much as my will wishes otherwise, this is where we are. At least for right now.
In my peripheral vision, I watch the new version of the Fulcrum spin … and worry about what’s happening inside of it. But then I think of all the souls that lent their energy to its magic.
Anybody can be a hero. And people working together can change the course of an epic war, before it even gets started.
Unfortunately, I fear this was just the greeting, as the Sooth said, and if this was just the handshake? I can’t imagine what comes next—
Merc and I stiffen at the same time, and then in spite of our pain and exhaustion, we twist around … and watch an army gather up on the rim of the crater we’re in.
There must be … a thousand soldiers, the armed men all on horseback with their swords drawn.
Before I can think, before I can react, a lone figure starts down the sandy descent. It’s a golden knight upon a white stallion. Julion. And as he arrives, he brings his horse to a prancing stop and dismounts. It’s as I lift my eyes up to his breastplate and go no further that I realize …
The point of this all is mine.
Suddenly, I have the energy to stand, but before I do, I shrug the pack off my shoulders, and take the ancient wooden box out. The top opens all on its own, and the circlet of black crystal seems to float out of its contoured tether and into my hands.
Rising from the sand, planting my feet solidly upon the land of Anathos, I hold the crown of war and shadow up above my own head.
I am the warrior queen who sees no one.
And this is my life.
“I shall unite the Kingdoms of the North, South, East, and West,” I proclaim, “and together we will defeat the Dark King.”
The moment the weight of the black metal base sits upon my head, a shimmering goes out over the landscape, colors dancing within the darkness of the night, just as I have goodness threading through my black, dead soul.
It’s as the mystical illumination fades that Julion removes the plumed golden helmet from his own head. Holding it to his chest, he drops down on one knee and bows to me.
All around the rim, the soldiers who are his take off their helmets and bow over the hearty necks of their warhorses.
Mine to command.
The sacred moment stretches into history, the kind of thing that will be told and retold around hearths and fires, and scribed into books, and taught to younger generations, for the rest of time … assuming there is any more of that to come for Anathos.
A legend born, a prophecy fulfilled.
My eyes go to Merc’s and I know one last, abiding truth. The love within him is my compass, my direction that will never be lost, my guide that will always return the ghost of my soul to me, if ever I am lost to my dark side.
Always forward, never back we shall go.
Into whatever fate sends our way.