Endgame

The battle is over and normal life has resumed. For ‎Tren, that means a return to the apprentice barracks ‎and basic training, where final exams are creeping ever ‎closer. Tif returns to his work in weapon development. ‎

Meanwhile, their father, Prand, has been into ‎Barana and heard the new prophecy firsthand. He has ‎returned with the news that a pair of twins were born ‎to kill the High Priest of Baranitus and thus ensure the ‎end of this war and another hundred years of peace, ‎should they succeed.‎

He believes that Tren and Tif are those twins. He ‎advises them to start training and studying now so ‎they will be ready when the time comes. ‎

Suddenly, the knowledge that they will almost ‎certainly have to go on a difficult and dangerous ‎mission into the heart of Barana itself is on both the ‎twins’ shoulders. ‎

Meanwhile, the search is on for other sets of twins ‎who fit the criteria, and Prand’s political enemies are ‎determined to find some, and to frustrate his attempts ‎to investigate further.‎

Prand is certain that they will eventually have to ‎admit that Tif and Tren are the correct twins, but ‎while they wait for the High Command to make up its ‎mind, people are dying in ongoing Baraniti attacks. ‎And when an entire city is wiped out in a dragon ‎attack, they find themselves left with a stark choice. ‎

Do they continue to wait for the political ‎wrangling to sort itself out while people outside the ‎strongholds continue to die in their thousands? Or do ‎they take matters into their own hands and do what ‎needs to be done in defiance of the High Command in ‎the hope of stopping the slaughter? ‎

To do so would be to put their careers and maybe ‎even their lives on the line even if they make it back. ‎To continue to wait means watching hundreds, ‎perhaps thousands of their people die, all the time ‎knowing that they could be doing something about it. ‎

Are they willing to give up everything to do ‎what’s right? Can they live with themselves if they ‎don’t? Those are not easy questions, but Tif, Tren and ‎Prand will have to find an answer that they can live ‎with.‎