Epilogue

The Court of the Spectrum adjourned for the day. The Court convened on a quarterly basis. The court contained seven representatives or better known as the key stone holders. The Court's purpose was to make sure that the history was not repeated, namely the Veil incident.

Tal Graile-Rerem was obviously the head of the Court since he was now Emperor. A fact that he had proven many times over by instituting a new prosperous regime to the Castle. The people adored him for changing the old ways but they mostly liked him because he opened eyes to the truth. Too long, have the people of the Castle been blind.

Tal's new reign included a chance of advancement for Underfolk, which was a shock to most people especially to his less than desirable aunts, Lallek and Korrek. They were a fraction more respectful to Tal now, which was no surprise. They may have been two-faced wicked Borzog's but they knew how to stay on the good side of powerful people.

Another part of Tal's new rule was that every family must work for their living. A shock felt more to the Underfolk rather than the Chosen. The Chosen always took their style of living for granted. They knew nothing of a hard days work. They were soft, complacent, and arrogant about it. Tal wanted to stop this. He knew that as a race, the Chosen were smart but after centuries of complacency, he saw that they were also, for lack of a better word, bored.

Tal's main strategy for changing the castle did not lay in the old political ways, where the wealthier families decided how the castle was run. His first decision he made when he was Emperor was the idea and the practical application of equality. Only when one person could truly appreciate another person was there true equality. So far, Tal's efforts had reaped many satisfying rewards.

Aside from his usual routine of inspecting the Towers, he also explored them. The Towers had been concealed for long enough. On his travels, he often made maps of the places he visited. There were places he visited often and places he did not want to revisit. He also made it a part of his routine to train in hand-to-hand combat with his royal guard. A joyous time where the guards trained and instructed their young Emperor in the combative arts. To their surprise, Tal was a very quick learner and had learnt the 400 combative moves in only a year.

Besides training in the martial arts, Tal also took time to train with his father. His father was a keystone holder and a very accomplished Light Mage. Tal learnt much about the nature of sunstones and the importance of the keystones. Tal also learnt what their weaknesses were. Since Tal was Emperor, he was also a keystone holder, which meant that he also had a duty to protect it. Tal's sunstone was special. It was the most powerful sunstone there was. Essecnes of the previous Emperors were contained in it. Tal thought about what his father had meant and to this day he still had no idea what it meant.

Overall, the castle was a prosperous place ever since Tal took the throne.

Milla was also doing well with her new life on the Ice. Having finally settled and accepted the fact that she could not go back to her old life and clan, the Far Raiders, she went about her new duties as acting Shield Mother. Having accidentally killed the last Shield Mother, Milla had felt responsible and requested the Crones permission to take up the mantle temporarily until another could replace her.

Milla's new life as the Shield Mother was one of excitement and grief. Ever since Milla had learnt how to hold a sword properly, she had dreamed of being the Shield Mother someday. She had achieved her dream, albeit not in the way she imagined. The sad part was that she felt the guilt of her actions everyday she wore the mantle of Shield Mother.

Her position as War Chief had been removed since it was no longer necessary to bear. The Crones had deemed it a position only given to those who were the best candidates, a fact that Milla knew all along. The Crones gave the title of War Chief to those who are convenient at the time. Having been released as War Chief, Milla gave thanks to her freedom from the Crones shackles on her mind.

The changes to the Ice were substantial and arranging new hunting grounds was easy enough as Milla dispatched Hands to enforce them. An unnecessary measure but one that Milla felt was needed to show her involvement on the Ice. Part of her new duties as Shield Mother was law enforcement but the Crones were very good at keeping Milla from that duty. The Crones had and always will be the one true law enforcement force on the Ice. This was common knowledge. However, if the need should arise, Shield Maidens would control the situation with force but only with the Crones permission.

Having time to spare since crime was not a major issue on the Ice, she turned her attention to her other duty, training cadets. That was the main role of the Shield Mother anyway. The cadets she had to train were eager to prove they were Shield Maiden material, so they were highly impressionable. Having once been an eager cadet herself, Milla knew that it was like. It was a tense life of grand ambitions coupled with endless motivation to out perform peers thus rising individual expectations.

Such attitudes had to be curved, a duty that Milla was very vigilant in undertaking. Left unchecked, an over eager cadets could turn into an over ambitious warriors who would throw themselves recklessly in harms way just to become legends. Milla knew what it was to be a legend and since she was the only Living Legend, she was sure to clip any wings that were not ready to be used.

Despite her busy life, Milla thought of the future in her spare time. The Ice would always remain the Ice long after she died. Was it not the ultimate duty of everyone, Chosen and Icecarl, to better the future? As Milla slept and dreamed of plans for her races future, she wondered where her life would take her next. Obviously, there would always be battles to be fought but what would she do when the wars were over?

Such a troubling thought kept her awake most nights and remained a constant annoyance in the back of her mind when she was awake. Milla ignored the thought as much as possible but when she did, it became stronger. Milla, fed up, decided to seek counsel from a Crone. Upon her free time, she wandered the Ruin Ship to seek out a Crone. It was not to be though. Just as she happened upon a wandering Crone, a messenger found her. The messenger reported that she was to go up the Mountain of Light and enter the Castle to meet the Emperor for official alliance treaty discussions.

Milla wondered why she had to go when it was the Crone's duty to handle such things. It felt suspicious and Milla wondered what it could really mean. Telling the messenger to gather supplies and to find a list of people, Milla sent the girl off quickly only to turn and find the Crone still standing there.

"I know what you will ask child. I can only tell you to go on your current mission and seek your answers within the Castle. Seek out the past to reveal the future," said the Crone before shuffling away.

Milla, now even more puzzled, decided it was best to do as told.