I felt anxiety. But also resolve.


    Violet had given me much to think about. She had also given me direction when I felt lost, and renewed motivation to face the challenges that seemed hopeless.


    There was more behind the rumors about the Ice Queen. Despite her power and position, she had always spent most of her time raising new talents at the Academy.


    I was walking down the streets of Valarest. The commoners, who had been wary since the Bodystealer attack, were now starting to ease back into common routine. Kids playing. Merchants yelling. Smiling faces.


    The Demon Lord was dead! What would happen to the current war? Would the Demons continue fighting or would they regroup to plan their revenge?


    My parents had been preparing me to face this harsh world. The war had come earlier than expected and it had come to our footsteps before I was ready.


    One challenge at a time, I told myself. I had now arrived in front of Pizza Heaven, Corgas’ restaurant. It was before opening, so I knocked.


    They needed to know what happened to Allen.


    Corgas opened the door and furrowed his brows.


    “Lady Ellin!” He exclaimed. “Have you just returned?”


    “Corgas, I- uhm. I have som-” I began saying, but he grabbed my shoulders and spoke suddenly.


    “Listen! I have… dire news for you and the others. Allen… he has been lost in demon territory!” Corgas said, surprising me. “He might… he might be dead.” He said grief stricken.


    He loosened his grip, remembering I was a noble lady. Behind him, Elaida appeared from behind a door, carrying what looked like a dough-filled basket.


    “Ellin!” She exclaimed, then she took a look at Corgas, whose expression revealed much. “Did he tell you?”


    They knew already, my hesitation had been pointless.


    “I knew…” I revealed. “But how… how did you know?”


    “The noble guy…” Elaida said, putting down the basket, then cast a glance toward Corgas, who continued.


    “Lord Klenn,” He said with a pause. “He came to us along with another man and a dwarf, they had been here before… We had been wondering where Allen was… It was just so weird… I thought it was just a bad joke.” He sat down on a empty chair and continued.


    The other man had seemingly taken the initiative to speak, but Klenn interrupted him and came forward asking to talk privately. Corgas had felt his stomach churning at Allen’s name being mentioned and the downcast look the three military enchanters were carrying.


    These were Allen’s work colleagues.


    And that was how Corgas learned that Allen had taken part to the Obsidian citadel raid. He had to sit down then, because he felt a little dizzy. Even at that point, he still thought it could be a practical joke. But then the dwarf delivered Allen’s armor, his coat, and the magic pouch—the gift we had given him for the Turning—he knew it was all real.


    “It’s all my fault…” The nobleman said. Because of his cowardice, Allen had taken over his role. Because of his enmities, one of the other enchanters had sabotaged the equipment—whose exact nature he could not disclose—all in order to embarrass or cause harm to Lord Klenn.


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    But it hadn’t been Klenn who had been commanding the weapon. And the self-destruct mechanism had been upgraded to a much greater level of destructiveness, to not leave nothing behind in case it fell to Demon hands. Klenn himself had agreed to this modification.


    Lord Klenn did not see Allen return among the survivors. And neither had he seen Blackfist, the man who had organized the incursion.


    A deliberate act of irresponsibility, at the worst possible time.


    The only information he managed to glean from the second-in-command of the operation, was that the weapon self-destructed, and that it had been sabotaged. Then the man passed out and was taken to the healers. Klenn had been left with more questions than answers.


    Everything that could have gone wrong, had gone wrong.


    When he came back, he recalled Allen was a business partner of Corgas. And thus the reason of his visit. To deliver back Allen’s personal possessions to his friends, and apologize.


    He had been trying to get in contact with someone with the authority to rectify the situation. The perpetrator wouldn’t go unpunished. He owed Allen that much.


    It turned out Lord Klenn wasn’t as arrogant as Allen had pictured him to be.


    “And he did,” Elaida added. “Tell her, Corgas.”


    “Yes, the day after he came back, alone…” And he continued the telling.


    With the help of an Archmage, they found out and interrogated the culprit. One of Lord Klenn’s competitors, a noble whose project funding had been cut in favor for Klenn’s own.


    The wannabe saboteur paled as he was made aware of the full extent of his failings. His personal feud had put at risk one of the most crucial and daring operations to ever been carried out by the Kingdom.


    An incursion to the Obsidian Citadel. An one in a lifetime chance to find the Demon Lord palace as unguarded as it would ever be, and strike the Demons at their very heart.


    The news of the Demon Lord demise had just become public. Many had lost their lives in the operation. How many more could have come back had there not be any petty act of vengeance? The crime had acquired a much serious connotation.


    At that the traitor pleaded and begged. He thought being a noble would’ve shielded him from all consequences. That he could’ve just bought his way out with money and influence.


    He had been wrong.


    There had been no process, no judge, nor jury. He had been executed on the spot for the crime of high treason. During a demon war rules were stricter and swifter.


    Justice had indeed been swift. Allen had been avenged.


    Lord Klenn apologized one last time and left.


    “And that’s all.” Corgas said grimly.


    “I still haven’t told Lena,” Elaida said, looking down. “How can I tell her that Allen is dead?” She shook her head. “He’s like an uncle to her.”


    They didn’t know that Allen could still be alive!


    “It’s still not certain!” I hastily said.


    Corgas and Elaida cast me confused looks. Their doubt was understandable.


    “Allen did not die,” I revealed. “He was captured! And I know for certain that as to yesterday he was still alive.”


    They looked at me, speechless for a breath.


    “What do you mean? How can you be sure?” Corgas demanded, a sliver of hope brimming on his eyes. Elaida too looked at me in askance.


    “I can’t explain the details, and you must keep this for yourselves,” I warned. “But we… Archmage Violet and I, contacted Allen, delivering the means to escape… We just don’t know if it worked. Yet.”


    Should have I waited to give them hope, when I myself didn’t know if Allen had succeeded or had fallen trying?


    “Escape?” Elaida muttered.


    I nodded.


    “I’m sorry I can’t say anything more…” I lowered my head. Betraying Violet’s confidence would serve no one here. “Allen needs all of our prayers. We can only imagine what ordeals he’s facing right now.”


    Elaida took my hand in hers. “Oh, Ellin. Thank you letting us know.”


    “But where are Namrick, Grastel, and Yusdrolir?” Corgas inquired, looking at the door, half expecting it to open any time soon.


    “Ah, about that…”


    I told them how I was snatched from my quest and flown back to Valarest. My heart ached imagining the confusion our party must have felt, having had to part ways with me so suddenly without proper explanations.


    By the time they got back, I vowed myself to have better news at the ready.


    Tonight I would lucid dream and attempt to get in contact with Allen.


    I couldn’t help but imagine Allen, on the run, cold and hungry, pursued by all kinds of horrors.