The summer festival held that day at the refugees’ border camp was lively like no other before it. The people felt freed of a cursed past, and with the hope of new days ahead, their expressions were bright. It was a celebration of blessings and prayers, and it lasted well into the night.
Marius the grocer had a stall open at the refugee camp festival, and it was at this festival that he miraculously reconnected with a childhood friend—one he had assumed he would never see again. Unable to find words for the depths of their emotion, the two embraced while those around shed tears of joy and cried out happily.
The place Marius called home had seen many lives lost over the last ten years, and its survivors had made their way across the border thanks to the rebel forces and the allied military’s informants.
Following the summer solstice festival, Marius helped his friend and many other families to find work and put down roots in Tris. Some eventually returned to their villages once they became part of Storydian territory, while others left for the colony being built at the border, where they found a new place to call home.
Frol and Julia, who had fought in the battle with the ice dragon, also became residents of the colony founded not far from the Dima Frozen Lake. There, they led the other villagers in cultivating the new lands and recovering the magical ice stones that had sunk to the bottom of the frozen lake centuries ago.
Upon the burial of the ice dragon, Frol and Julia worked as the grave’s caretakers and sources of knowledge regarding the Empire’s past. In later years, the margrave would even appoint Frol the chief of the colony, where he led his people with his wife, Julia, ever at his side.
The Adventurers’ Guild’s weapons display was such a success that stories of it were passed down for generations. The fierce power of the two dragon slayers was such that all who witnessed it were pulled into its vortex.
On the one hand was Zack, who deftly wielded a greatsword as big as a fully grown man, and on the other was Alec, who moved and fought with an agility far beyond that of most men his height and build. A reporter from the Tris Times would later say the performance was like “bearing witness to the dance of the War God and the Dragon God.”
The performance by the Eastern swordsman Shonosuke, too, was received with great excitement, even though his addition had been rather sudden. The samurai was dressed head to toe in black cloth, his blade flashing through the air like the sharp light of the crescent moon over the evening twilight.
Observers said it was akin to watching a light illuminate the dark roads ahead. For many of the refugees, who were still uncertain of what the future held in store for them, the Easterner struck them as the incarnation of the God of Guidance.
“That’s a bit much, isn’t it?” the samurai had commented, his face red with embarrassment.
“You’ve given them the hope they so desired,” said his master, Yae. “Just accept it, would you?”
The samurai thus made his peace with the high praise heaped upon him.
Shiori’s “narrated pictures,” cast by way of her illusion magic, were another popular topic of discussion. As one would have expected of the holy woman who’d brought peace to the heart of a tormented dragon as it left this world, her illusion magic filled hearts with tenderness and hope. The images of the beauty of the wide world—complete with soaring musical accompaniment—soothed the souls of all who watched, many of whom had endured much hardship.
And when the new hero finished his weapons display only to kneel before the holy woman and pledge to her his love eternal, it brought on a round of cheers and applause.
Many hundreds of people worshipped the hero and the holy woman, but in truth they, too, were simply human. The Tris Times reporter acknowledged this, but closed their article by stating that it was on nights like these that legends were made and passed on through the ages.
The early summer sky was a startling blue, and it looked down upon the people earnestly singing and dancing, and praying for peace in the days ahead.