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she had done it.
    â€œIf the war taught me anything, it’s that people need magic. They need our help, just as they did when the Warlock threatened our homeland. One day, a new threat will rise up, and the scale of it could rival the war if it is not opposed. When that day comes I intend the Red Tower to be ready to answer the call.”
    â€œYou’ve changed,” said Balfruss. “You were never so fierce.”
    Eloise shrugged. She wouldn’t apologise for what she’d done. “I had no choice. But what about you? After the war, where did you go?”
    Balfruss sat back and stared off into the distance with a sad smile. “For a time I stayed with the First People, just as Ecko predicted. After that I travelled across the Dead Sea to live among his ancestors with the tribes in the emerald jungle.”
    â€œWhat did you see?”
    A child - like smile touched his face, one that spoke of awe and amazement. “Wonders. Wonders and terrors like you cannot begin to imagine,” said Balfruss, his eyes drifting away. “I watched a drammu give birth to a calf the size of ten horses. I heard music so beautiful it stilled the wind and made the stones weep. I journeyed for years and travelled thousands of miles, but when I woke up, only one day had passed. My mind was opened to the Source in ways like never before. I fell in love, I had a wife, and for a time I was happy.” A shadow passed across Balfruss’s face and for a moment there was terrible pain in his eyes, but then it was gone.
    â€œAnd now?”
    â€œNow, my path lies elsewhere,” he said. There was much he wasn’t saying but the pain in his bearing spoke of terrible loss. Eloise didn’t push. They both carried a lot of secrets and he didn’t owe her an explanation. “You sought me out for a reason. Why?”
    â€œThe Warlock.”
    â€œThe Warlock is dead,” he said with confidence. “I know this because I killed him.”
    â€œDid you know before the war he spent some time in Shael?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid you also know that two years ago a madman called a Flesh Mage tried to open a rift here in Perizzi?”
    â€œI’ve been hearing stories.”
    â€œHe also spent time in Shael.”
    Balfruss frowned. “Just before the end, the Warlock tore open a rift. I don’t know what he was going to do but I didn’t give him a chance.”
    â€œIn the past other Flesh Mages came here to Perizzi. All of them displayed dangerous Talents beyond anything we’ve seen before. And all of them came from Shael.”
    â€œWhere?” asked Balfruss.
    â€œA source told me they passed through a remote city called Voechenka. Whoever is behind this has remained hidden for almost a dozen years, training pupils and sending them out into the world, armed with dangerous and destructive magic.”
    Eloise saw the muscles in Balfruss’s jaw tighten. It was a glimmer of the same fury she’d also felt at the discovery. This shadowy puppeteer was a dark reflection of the teachings of the Red Tower. As pupils she and Balfruss had been taught to use their magic to help others and promote peace. Their ability to touch the Source made them more powerful than a hundred warriors, but they were never to use their strength to force others to their will.
    Discoveries deemed too dangerous by the Red Tower were buried so that others with fewer scruples didn’t use them for selfish ends. Whoever had taught the Warlock, the Flesh Mages and probably others they’d not yet discovered, was partially responsible for countless deaths. Until recently Eloise had heaped all of the blame for the war on the Warlock. Now she knew that, in his own way, he’d been nothing more than someone else’s puppet.
    â€œThere’s more,” she said, breaking the heavy silence. “The Red Tower has been commissioned to investigate another matter in the city. One that