“They are calling us heroes,” Hermon replied.
“Are we not?” Eldana asked. “We just risked everything to make the whole of Toas better.”
“We are even lucky we are getting a heroes’ welcome,” Siem said. “More often than not, good deeds go unappreciated.”
“Aye.” D’rmas agreed. “But I think I know why this one is this appreciated.”
“Why?” Mikko asked.
“It is not just because you delivered the world from the maws of chaos, Eldana. I mean they are happy about that, sure... But it is not just that. That there,” he pointed towards a man in the crowd, “is why most of them are happy.”
Eldana, Siem, Hermon, and Mikko all looked in the direction D’rmas was pointing. And they saw him. There was no way you could miss a display of fire, even in a crowd like this. The man was holding a club, which he frequently set on fire, and after a few seconds proceeded to quench the fire.
“Meko was right,” Hermon whispered.
The man caught their eyes and began to wave happily at them.
“Yeah, she was,” Siem affirmed. “People are less obedient. There feel free again.”
“How?” Eldana asked. “I do not understand.”
“You did it, Eldana,” Hermon said.
“Me?” she asked.
“Yes, you,” he said. “You not only saved Toas from being torn apart, but you also did more than that...”
“That is a good thing, right?” Eldana asked.
“That,” D’rmas said, “only time will tell. For now, let us bask in this heroic welcome. We have deserved every bit of it.”
“Well said, my friend,” Mikko said. “Well said.”
Eldana tried to step off the caravan, but Siem gripped her by the arm.
“What do you think you are doing?” Siem asked, giving Eldana a quizzical look.
“What does it look like I am doing? Joining the crowd of course,” Eldana replied.
“Bad idea,” Hermon chipped in.
“Look at the crowd, Eldana,” Siem instructed. “Take a look at their level of excitement. I can very well tell you right now that this caravan is the only thing keeping us from being torn apart, and you want to leave its safety and deliver yourself into their hands?”
“But I thought they are celebrating us and our accomplishments?” Eldana asked.
“Of course they are, but the moment you get down there, everyone will want to touch you, the being of Balance and Chaos, the savior of the entirety of Toas, the liberator of the people, the one who made everyone free. Do you think you can handle it when all these hands are trying to touch you, to feel you, and cannot get enough?”
“Oh,” Eldana said, her eyes widening in comprehension, “I see what you are saying.”
“Please even staying at the edges are dangerous. Thankfully, none of them is wild enough to try to jump at us,” Siem said.
Eldana laughed.
“There’s also the fact where you do not want to miss out on the feast Techle has probably prepared for us,” Hermon said.
“That’s true,” Eldana exclaimed. “There’s no way he does not know we are in the Middle Kingdom already. It is just a day ride from here with Mikkos help.”
“And if Techle is still the Techle we knew,” Mikko said, “then you can only imagine what he has got brewing.”
They all laughed.
“Let’s just come out from this tour in one piece,” Eldana said. “You know, just to make sure that everything is okay. And after all, now we have all the time in the world to enjoy the pleasures that Techle’s tavern has to offer.”
They all laughed and nodded their heads in unison, and turned to show their acknowledgment of the crowd’s songs and chants, by waving, nodding, and smiling.
Henok sat in his chair, looking heavily morose. He had been this way since he had gotten a report that Lord Taboon and Sinto were nowhere to be found after their attack on the being of Balance and Chaos. Their bodies had not been found, so he still harbored the hope that they would return soon. With their absence, a new royal adviser could now present himself, hoping that now, the King could finally give him his ear.
Henok had gone from one of the most revered kings in Toas to one of the weakest within a very short time. He had not dealt with the stigma that dogged him from his loss to Tonar, a kingdom filled with humans, and now this. His most powerful magicians had been defeated by a band of friends, and elves. But this was not the most disconcerting news. The roar he could hear outside his palace. Oh, how his subjects hated him now...
Just a few minutes ago, a guard had come in to tell him that Eldana and her friends were in the kingdom. Henok had stared at the guard until the royal adviser had to dismiss him from the king’s presence.
His people were giving Eldana and her friends, who remained nothing but a band of fugitives to Henok, a hero’s welcome! Not only because she had single-handedly restored peace to the kingdom, but because in doing that she had given everyone the idea that they can live a life in full freedom. Now, what power he still held as the king stood, by every indication, to be threatened. If it was not already.
The royal adviser, an elderly short man with a full, but neatly trimmed gray beard and a bald head, had been able to discern from the king’s reactions what the problem was, and he had just the solution for it. His major problem was getting Henok to give him his listening ear. The royal adviser had always known since Henok’s childhood that he was going to be occupying his position only as a figurehead for a very long time. In fact, till his death. He had been relegated to be background, unmentioned in the history books, unknown by the kingdom’s poets. But this here was fate smiling down at him! He had never expected that a day would come when the magicians the king had taken to getting advice from would no longer be available! That
