Prologue

Brilliant orange poured out of the morning sun and across the horizon of the great white expanse. The Salvic sky was blood red and the furrowed clouds were every shade from palest pink to deep crimson. All of this colour carved into the recesses of the snow dunes that Telos Soltair traversed clumsily.

Shinsou’s father watched the daybreak from the crest of a powdery mound, following the motions of a small flock of birds that danced upon the morning light. Every now and then they would climb steeply to meet the rising dome of the sun, before banking sharply and diving back towards the distant settlement. He wondered, as he watched the birds in motion, whether everything would be alright, whether he had made the right decision to protect both Shinsou and Telgradia itself. Would wiping Shinsou’s mind a second time work? If it did, would his son be able to lead a new life away from Telgradia? What of his superiors, would they be convinced that Shinsou’s threat had truly ended?

The thoughts troubled his tired mind as he finished watching the birds and decided to continue with his journey. Despite Telos’s strength, Shinsou’s limp, bloodied body felt heavier than iron in his arms. The muscles in his shoulders ached with a searing pain and each crunching step in the deep Salvic snow only worsened the fatigue. The captain of the Council of Five intended to carry his son to the fringes of the northern wastes; to that distant settlement. The skin on his hands and cheeks glowed red, a sign that battle with his son had taken its toll.

Perhaps that was something to be proud of. Perhaps not.

When he finally arrived at his destination, the Telgradian fell back, panting, next to the icy flat of what was to be Shinsou’s resting place. A billowing cloud of snow rose up and covered nearly every inch of his bare flesh, but Telos made no effort to move.

He was too tired.

Though Telos’s work was finally done, there was no comfort in the task. His son deserved so much better than to be unceremoniously dumped in the frozen wastes, a couple of miles from the nearest town. So crude were Shinsou’s injuries that they left very little to ceremony. Telos wanted to scream, and cry, and slam his first into the tundra beneath him at the infuriating and desperate unfairness of it all, but nothing came. It had to be done, for Shinsou’s sake and the sake of everyone who wanted his son out of Telgradia forever. He had to leave him here, alone, to find a new life or to perish along the way.

This is it; the price we both pay. One of recompense for the millions of innocent Telgradian lives that you extinguished, under duress or not.

Dues had to be paid, and lest the reaper claim his harvest, Telos could think of no other way.

Telos eventually feebly slid himself down to the floor, parting his legs out across the freshly disturbed snow. Sighing, he let his head fall back and he took a moment to reflect on what was going to happen now, but the Telgradian couldn’t focus on any more details. With the cold snow now starting to flake down heavily above him, the captain of the Council of Five ground his teeth and clenched his fists so tight that his bloodstained fingernails left purple crescents in the skin.

In his eyes, it wasn’t just Shinsou who had caused all this. They were all equally culpable, all of them that took part in the Telgradian Civil War. Now, the last of what he held dear lay prostrate in front of him, no longer the man he was save for his name, his magic and his sword. Those three things he could not bear to erase. In his heart, even if Shinsou’s wandering spirit forgave him for this, the Telgradian would never sleep easily again.

As the snowstorm hit its most violent phase, and at the crescendo of Telos's guilt, he took off his own navy green drakescale coat and whipped it over his son’s body with a violent jerk, almost tearing it in half. He didn’t know Shinsou could easily survive the cold, but even if he had, he wanted his son to have one last thing that belonged to him before he disappeared forever.