EPILOGUE
A golden sun peeked over the horizon, smiling on a world that rose to face a new day. A single ray of light rushed over green fields under the clear, summer sky. Past the trees of Ander’s Woods, where a small party of deer hunters shared breakfast over the remnants of their campfire.
Onward, the light went, swooping over the grasslands, past trees that sprouted here and there. It passed over a small village where farmers shuffled out of their small homes to inspect their fields. A group of washwomen was already carrying wicker baskets to a nearby stream. They turned their eyes westward, watching the light as it passed.
They had heard the legends about a new city in what had once been a sun-scorched desert. They had even met some of the strangers who came through town several ti
