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The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 117
The crusaders' merciless assault left no Torchbearer settlement standing. Sheltering behind Mara's quickly crumbling barrier, the few surviving villagers could only watch helplessly as their protectors were cut down. With the last line of defense about to fail, the elder magician Cyrus gripped Mara's shoulder and met her eyes. "Take the children and flee," he urged. "We will delay them."Mara hesitated, but Cyrus squeezed her shoulder more insistently. "Their hatred will not stop until all we built lies in ruins. But seeds of hope remain...plant them anew."Blinking back tears, Mara gathered a small group of apprentices and children and led them in escape through collapsing battlelines. A rear guard of mages shrouded their retreat as the crusaders crushed all resistance.For days Mara's band fled through the wilderness, surviving on foraged roots and rainwater. Meanwhile, smoke from burning villages blotted out the horizon behind them.Finally they crested a rise overlooking a tranqu
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 118
Years passed as Talia traveled across the kingdom, covertly spreading the Torchbearers’ values and lore to those disillusioned with evil’s reign. Her network of allies slowly grew, though they remained scattered and hidden. Sheltering from a winter storm in a remote mountain hamlet, Talia met a young apothecary named Damien. He offered her cryptic but enticing rumors of an organized resistance movement called the Silver Sparks rising in the western forests. Talia set out to investigate these claims immediately. But the distance was great, and required passing through marshlands now occupied by parasitic wraiths that drained travelers’ life force. Many had attempted the crossing, but none returned. Undeterred, Talia relied on her Torchbearer training to weave protective wards around herself and her horse. She set forth into the ghostly swamps, trusting in the magic to shield them. But as the days stretched on, an insidious chill seeped through Talia’s barriers, sapping her strengt
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 119
Talia pushed on through the misty marshlands, mulling over her concerns about Leonard. She knew that beneath his aged, contemplative exterior still lurked the impassioned warrior who had battled relentlessly against the crusaders so long ago. Though wisdom had tempered his zeal over the harsh years, the old fires yet simmered in his heart. If she was not careful, Talia feared her talk of renewing the Torchbearers and inspiring a new generation could reawaken that crusading fervor in Leonard. While noble in purpose, such unchecked righteousness could prove as destructive as the fanaticism they opposed. As the murk parted before her, Talia spied a young girl kneeling by the gnarled roots of a cypress tree. Her plain robes marked her as one of the Beaconites, a reclusive order devoted to spiritual enlightenment. What was she doing out here alone?Approaching, Talia saw the girl was tending to an injured wolf, gentle hands bandaging its foreleg. The savage beast made no move to harm her
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 120
The mist clung close about Talia as she ventured deeper into the trackless marshlands. In the distance, wavering wisps of light marked the village she had departed, where the townsfolk yet celebrated being freed from an ancient curse. But the lingering grief over the murdered Beaconite girl tempered any satisfaction Talia felt in lifting their spirit plague. She knew the villagers would not mourn the innocent child, whose open empathy for perceived darkness had made her suspect in their eyes. Talia sighed, the chill air burning her throat. However naively, the girl had walked her own path right until its tragic end. Talia resolved to do the same, wherever her road led next. If she could help even one more understand that light and dark were woven together, not opposed, the child's death would not be entirely in vain.Near nightfall, Talia reached a narrow boat landing she knew to mark the marsh's northernmost edge. She settled down weary but restless, awaiting the ferry at dawn to c
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 121
Talia hurried on through the remote foothills, hoping distance would obscure her trail from the queen's riders. But despite the immediate danger receding, she felt lingering unease over her rift with Leonard.In their brief reconciliation, she had glimpsed the possibility of temperance overcoming his ingrained militancy. But the riders' sudden assault had ripped open old wounds, and Leonard had retreated back into hatred and vengeance. Talia feared the bloodshed he might cause if his crusader instincts were unleashed once more.Yet she could not deny the essential truth in his view that the queen would keep hounding them to the end. Talia's magics could conceal her for a time, but she was only one fugitive. How long could even a scattered order survive if deemed a threat to the crown?The sinking sun stretched Talia's shadow behind her as she trekked onward, a dark echo of her own conflicted principles. Perhaps she had been selfish, risking Leonard's life again in pursuit of her ideal
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 122
Morning sunlight dappled Talia's path as she made her way through the forest, renewed conviction lifting her steps. The self-doubt that had paralyzed her after the trapper's misfortune had passed with the night. She knew now her inner light could yet guide her true, if she had faith to follow its radiance.But uncertainties still lingered beneath her regained confidence. She remained a hunted fugitive with bleak prospects. And worse, her decision to walk alone had abandoned Leonard to the destructive path of vengeance. Might it already be too late to sway him from confrontation's brink? Talia quickened her pace as she reached the valley's edge, peering out over the patchwork lands she had traversed these long weeks. Somewhere in those sun-dappled hollows, her old mentor even now might be planning the very violence they had sworn to avoid. She had to find and dissuade him before the simmering embers of his crusader hate were fanned into renewed inferno.Closing her eyes, Talia calmed
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 123
Over the next few weeks, Talia set to work restoring the abandoned waystation cave into a refuge once more. She cleared rubble and overgrowth, repaired damaged walls, and scrubbed grime from the etched runic symbols until they gleamed in the firelight. Supplies she discreetly acquired from rural villages and remote woodland homesteads, appealing to the inhabitants’ memories of the Torchbearers’ kind deeds generations past. Some grumbled about aiding a suspected fugitive, but many willingly gave goods or tools to support Talia’s cause.Slowly but surely, the cave was transformed into a humble haven, ready to shelter any seeking its protection. But as Talia finally lit the great brazier to serve as a beacon, she felt a twinge of sorrow that none had yet braved the marshes to join her nascent sanctuary. Perhaps magic and myth were only nostalgic relics to these people now, not the seeds of hope Talia imagined. Even if travelers came, would they truly wish to pursue reconciliation in da
The Urban Legend Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chapter 124
The months ahead were filled with rigorous training and preparation as Talia strove to ready her young charges for the dangers that likely awaited them. Though still tentative, they were swiftly mastering spells of concealment, illusion, and elemental manipulation under her and Leonard's tutelage.But Talia knew mystical arts alone would not equip the refugee children to confront the queen's forces and their brutal enforcers. They also needed resilience, cunning and restraint to wield their newfound powers wisely once beyond these sheltering marshes. So she ensured their days were balanced with scholarly lessons on history and philosophy, imparting the Torchbearers' ideals of knowledge paired with compassion. And in the evenings, they would gather around the brazier fire for communal songs, poetry, and celebration of life's small joys, despite all hardship.Talia was filled with pride watching the former refugees blossom over the seasons into capable young adepts, radiating both magi
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