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wizard, a Giant to wield the hammer and know where it is located. I don’t believe we’re missing anything.”
    You’ve got to be kidding me. Not missing anything? How about common sense? How about knowing what in the world we are doing in the first place? Dorl wanted to tip his head back and shout at the top of his lungs in the hope of bringing the mountain down on his head to relieve the frustration. Too many questions and doubts kept him down and he had no one to ask that fatal question to: why?
    “Rekka, what made you come to Delranan in the first place? There has to be more than your elders decided it must be you.”
    She stiffened slightly, caught off guard. “One does not question the gods. They commune with the spirits of the gods and of the earth. Knowledge comes from them alone. We must all obey or the cause is lost.”
    “Cause?” he asked, deciding to press further.
    “Good and evil must coexist in order for the world to spin with symmetry. One cannot vanquish the other or all we know will be plunged into total chaos. Yet there cannot be too much of one. Balance must be maintained. We are the keepers of the balance. My people have long defended the temple masters but we are very few. We serve righteousness and justice. The Dae’shan and their masters threaten to undo us. Therefore our cause is in great peril. You were all chosen for reasons that go beyond my comprehension.”
    Rekka fell silent, having said more than enough. She’d been given specific instructions not to get involved with the brutal and barbaric northerners. Not to tell more of her life than necessary in order to accomplish her mission. She had questions of her own. How would she know the right ones to approach? Would they be pure enough? The elders brushed off her concerns and sent her on her way with the knowledge that she was setting out to help save Malweir from eternal darkness. Fortunately, many of those questions were answered easily when she stumbled across Anienam Keiss. Now that they’d been together for a few months, Rekka came to doubt finding him was an accident.
    The wizard guided her through those dark patches she couldn’t navigate, helped her understand the much larger picture her elders had either forgotten or never knew. He always knew precisely what to say and when. Every time she felt the tug of doubt he was there to wipe her concerns away. No, finding him was no accident. Anienam Keiss had been searching for her from the beginning. He too must have guessed the time of confluence was fast approaching. A time when the dark gods would make their next attempt at returning to claim their vacant thrones.
    And he should. The ancient order of Mages once held those dark forces at bay. Born from the trials of a handful of Gaimosians, the order slowly became the dominant body on all Malweir. They were sought for their great wisdom and abilities to heal and more. Everyone celebrated their society at Ipn Shal until they made the crystal of Tol Shere. The dark gods infiltrated the Mages and used the crystal to wreak unspeakable horrors on the world. In the end, only a handful of Mages lived. One of them was Anienam’s father.
    Centuries of hit-and-run battles and weak attempts at regaining power filled the space between the fall of Ipn Shal and now. Centuries of unprecedented grief and despair. Anienam’s father gave his life to the cause, stopping his arch nemesis, Sidian the Silver Mage, in what he thought had been the final battle. History proved him wrong. The dark gods lingered on, ever hungering for their return. Now only Anienam remained: the last of his kind. Magic was dying and there was little room left in Malweir for it. People didn’t want to be reminded of what magic did to them. How badly it had altered their style of life.
    When Dorl spoke again it was slow and thoughtful. “I don’t believe I will ever understand you, Rekka Jel, but you have my devotion. Never doubt my intent to remain at your side, no