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.

Dettagli