Epilogue

Lorlen:

Lorlen walked briskly across the gardens whilst simultaneously reading a letter from the High Lord in the dawn light. He sighed. Balkan was so demanding! Frowning, Lorlen wondered how he would ever be able to accomplish the High Lord's goals.

Reading the arduous handwritten text, Lorlen let his mind drift to the Guild's amusing gossip that he had picked up from the Night Room.

Sonea and Dorrien had returned soon after only a few months in Elyne and had married a few weeks after their return to Imardin. The reason for this had been unclear at first, until the Guild had found out about the baby.

Rothen had had no objections, but both his and Yilara's family had both disapproved. Yet whilst the matter lay behind the Guild walls there was nothing that they could do about it.

Life seemed to settle. Yet for some inexplicable reason, Lorlen felt depressed. Not only because of his strenuous workload, but for some rather different reason that lay at the corners of his mind like a half remembered dream. He sighed. Not only was the High Lord demanding that he send invitations to every alumni and magician's family in the Allied lands (inviting them to the end of year party) by the end of next week; but he was depressed by something that he couldn't even remember. Wonderful.

Setting his feet to a regular, consistent pace, he left his mind to wonder about how in all of Kyralia he would be able to send out all of the invitations, and how they would possibly fit everyone inside the Guild without making them all feel like sardines.

Looks like my little family's back to normal, thought Lorlen, rolling his eyes. Then he paused, and corrected himself. Our little family.

…

Akkarin:

Akkarin watched the Guild from the safety of the trees. He wasn't entirely sure why he was here; the last thing he remembered was being consumed by raw magic. However, here he was, although he didn't plan on staying for long. The sunlight hit his transparent body, and he lifted his fingers in amazement. Well, I certainly didn't imagine that this was what would happen next, he mused silently.

Then he heard footsteps. Someone was coming.

Shrinking back into the thick undergrowth, he saw Lorlen walking past him. Lorlen? Lorlen! was all that his confused mind was able to assess from the situation. Blue robes? Administrator? Then he smiled when he realised that his friend was poring over a letter. Ha! Studying as usual.

The smile vanished as he realised that this was the last time that he would see him. Well, all good things must come to an end, then.

"Goodbye, my friend," he said, and Lorlen heard it as the twittering of early birds and the rustle of a waking wind. Then Akkarin stepped out and walked into the rising sun, and Lorlen shut his eyes, and let a breeze rush over him, feeling his heart lighten a little.

Okay, Akkarin's ghost visiting Lorlen was definitely very cheesy, but I wanted them to have a chance to say goodbye (even thought Lorlen was blissfully unaware of the whole event!). Umm. I know that this was quite short, but it was just a little thing that I was working on. If I ever write anything else, it will probably be a bit longer. (I was quite tired when I wrote this chapter, so there are probably millions of mistakes scattered throughout :P)

Anyways, thanks for sticking around to read this, and 'Review! You know you want to… Press the button! It's not hard!' (I am getting very tired of putting that at the end of every chapter, but I may as well stick with tradition at this point.)

–Halfcarrot