Epilogue

The blighted blizzard following the dreadful night stopped us from fixing the town. The battle had left half of the folks homeless, their houses either devastated by the demons if they were closer to the mountains, or flattened and burned by Mum's final cast. It was as if the claw of a gigantic demon had raked through the town, ruining houses and orphaning families.

I had heard an abridged version of how my parents defeated the Daemon. The details of it still eluded me, and I was sure there were over a dozen high-class folk in town now, whose concerns went beyond the livelihood of my parents. A few of them accosted me whenever I was out of the house to learn about the Daemon. It was only after a couple of earfuls that the Knights and centurions kept to their places.

Supposedly, the siege of Karmel was not a singular event, as many towns and even big cities had faced demonic invasions of their own. Regrettably, not all of them had the secret advantage of a pair of fabled classes awakened to face the danger.

Even with my parents, the number of deaths in Karmel alone climbed over three hundred, whereas some villages were completely erased from the map. A disaster of this length and terror had not occurred in nearly three decades, and the empire's unpreparedness only ascent to the destruction. The simple thought of it kept me awake at night.

The snowstorm lasted three days, blanketing the devastation that had raked through the valley like a natural disaster. On the bright side, the disaster had postponed the provincial tournament until a new date would be announced. I reckoned it would not be anytime soon, with all the trouble this whole province was facing. From what I was hearing, they had not just found one or two unresolved rifts, but a number of them stretched across the land, and some of them were stranger than most. One such rift seemed to be in the mountains from where the Daemon came.

The legions had sealed entry the moment they found it, and their numbers seemed to be only growing since then.

"If you're done with the shafts, pass them to me?" Eran called from the skeletal roof of the inn that we had built over the last couple of days.

Half of my essence threads flung out of my palm and held the thick stack of refined wood aloft. With a whoosh of air, it flew over and settled beside my friend. I, too, flew over to join him.

"You're becoming good at this," Eran said, holding a solid shaft. "Well, faster would be the correct word."

"Having access to a lot of essence sure makes it easier." I held the shaft, crossing the beams as Eran hammered the nails.

"That it does," mumbled my friend.

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"Will you be coming to evening practice?"

Eran remained silent for a moment, focused on his work.

"Eran?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "After you and Priam advanced to Noble Class, I don't feel like my sparring with you would do you any good."

I frowned at his admission. Some of it was unfortunately true, given that most often I sparred with Priam or Aleya, whilst Delric was busy with some other business. "Well, doesn't that mean I'll be of more help to you?"

Eran craned his neck towards me. "Does it?" he asked. "Sparring with you these days only seems to make me feel inadequate, like I've made no progress."

My frown deepened, unsure what to say to that. "Does it only feel like it, or is it the case?"

I certainly did not think so, but my friend shrugged, and silence surrounded us, punctuated only by another voice from below.

"Arilyn," Diana called, holding a couple of jars of pickles in her hands. Thankfully, they were not cucumbers. "Before you leave, make sure you take these. Mama has made them fresh."

"Where's mine?" Eran piped up.

"You're getting wages for your work, are you not?" the blonde girl grinned up at him.

Eran grumbled.

"Your ma helped make them, you dolt," Diana snorted. "You should have known that."

"I suppose," Eran scratched his unkempt hair.

We finished one side of the roof by the time the sun was at its zenith, and even made some progress on my skill. At least the Spell seemed to think so.

[Way of Carpentry I (100/100) is complete.] [+2 Unallocated Points.]

After helping him some more and reminding him again to join us for practice, I came down, prompted by a rising rumble in my stomach. The pickle jars only made my mouth water, but I held onto them before shooting towards home.

In some areas, even the thick layer of snow could not hide the devastation that had wrecked the town. The pit born from Mum unleashing the blinding explosion of fire seemed to have become a landmark for the town, and we had not gotten any team of earth shapers to fill the hole yet.

The sacrarium was no more withered than it used to be. And to many people's delight, the Knight of Emberleaf passed a chit that allowed a hefty sum of Leafs to rebuild it.

There was a lot of rebuilding and remodelling to be done in the town of Karmel, some of which we did not have the proper hands to do. But we had come out safe from a blighted Daemon—what were some woodwork compared to that?

Slowing my speed to the first acceleration, I landed in our yard with the two jars of pickles at my sides. There were a few people occupying our house after they had lost their homes in the demonic siege. Unsurprisingly, our house remained standing with little to no damage from the devastation. Very few homes had such fortune, although our house had faced more of the tribulation than most, after Mum had sheltered a bunch of rescued people on that blighted night.

Giving the withering oak tree one last look, I turned to get into the house, when the door slammed open and out came a flying Mum. She did not even cast me a look and dashed to the side to vomit.

Father came right after. He did not say anything as I shot him an inquisitive gaze.

"You came early," Mum said, finished being sick and wiping her mouth. She was holding her stomach, still making a face I could not quite place.

Then I noticed the slight bump on her stomach, as light flickered in the back of my mind. I turned to face Father, who had a worried look in his eyes as he stared at her.

From then on, it was not difficult to add two and two.

I merely hoped the wager they had going on had nothing to do with the secret sibling they were making.

- - -

End of Book One Of Mythshaper: Sunbreak

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