Ruby Crown X
The Friends sit at a table in Lugar del Aberton, an old stone district festooned with shrubs and grass and clusters of trees. Talari is deciphering a scroll. Balthazar, Siriel and Clement are beside him. Clement looks up. Across the road, beyond the bustling square, stands a man dressed in white cloth. He seems apart from the crowd. His robe is blowing like in a gentle wind. His face is obscured, silhouetted by a bright light emanating from some unseen point behind him. The sound of the city, it’s rustling leaves and stamping feet, slowly fade from clements ears. His vision changes, obfuscating yet clear, as if in a dream. He rises from his chair effortlessly, his old joints no longer fighting against him. As if magnetised, the steps towards the figure, the crowd having vanished the from the streets. With each small step he grows younger, his muscles returning to youthful strength, his posture uprighting itself. By the time he has reached the figure he is as he was at the height of his...