Enough is Enough

It is still hard to believe that so much had changed within the span of five years.

For five years I had been encased in a block of ice conjured up by Warlic and Xan's sweetheart Jaania, alongside the Blue Mage and his enemy, paralyzed and unable to do anything.

Except watch, make out vague shadows of those who visited me and listen as time marched on while I was forced to remain in my icy prison.

On occasion during my forced entrapment, I could hear my friends as well as people who know of me by my title dropping by my prison. I couldn't really see them; I could only make them out by their blurry figures. I was able to easily tell apart those I knew through the sounds of their voices. Unfortunately, I couldn't make out what they were really saying at the time. The words that I did hear often though were often 'magic', 'Lore', and 'Rose'.

It didn't make sense to me then.

And it wasn't until Warlic finally broke me out of that ice that I started piercing the pieces together.

The people who had visited me weren't talking about a flower. The Rose that they were referring to was a cult that was led by -surprise, surprise- the very Jaania who not only froze me, but her former friends as well.

She had taken advantage of my absence and fed to the masses lies that magic was the source of all the conflicts that had afflicted Lore.

Already scared and frightened by the events that had occurred the people were easily swayed by her words.

I was forced to admit that what she said held a grain of truth: Sepulchure's ambitions of gathering the elemental orbs and fusing it into one form, the Fire War, the Elemental dissonance when Warlic was split...

Taking those into account, magic had caused a lot of grief and strife. And Jaania had used that point to gather support among the masses and formed the cult that was now not only abusing its power, but was -pardon my use of words- fighting fire with fire. They were going after magic with anti-magic weapons and magic.

I had laughed at the sheer hypocrisy of what they were aiming to do and the means they were using to achieve their ultimate goal.

Magic could be used for both good and evil. It depended on the person who was using magic in the first place.

Good people use their magic for the benefits of not only themselves but others as well.

Evil used their magic for their own selfish ambitions with no regard for the suffering of others.

Guess which category the Rose fell in?

It wasn't just the essence of magic and those who were using magic that they were going after. Their anti-magic rules extended to the elimination of magical creatures as well as other species whose way of living revolved around this essential art.

Not even one hour after I was defrosted from my frozen prison and running after Rolith -who had apparently quit the knights- that I saw a few Mana Hunters punting around Twilly just because he happened to be a creature associated with magic.

I had made sure they paid for that.

Ever since the Rose came to power -with our so-called good King Alteon's support- every other species that was not human and who usually had their lifestyles ingrained with magic found themselves being displaced from their homes, marked down as 'dangerous'. Falconreach was much more crowded than it had been in the past with magic users and those whose livelihoods revolved around magic taking refuge from the Rose in the only huge town that would ensure their safety and freely welcomed them for who they were.

The fact that my dragon and partner, Lux, made it through this ordeal unscathed was a miracle. I had feared for him when I heard about how that damned cult was going about things.

And that was not the worst of it.

On occasion I have witnessed Rose members abusing their power from extorting money from unsuspecting travelers, to shutting down the homes of people they suspecting of keeping magic contraband, encountering monsters who the Rose have enslaved through their technology...

The more I witnessed what the Rose have been doing the past five years, the more disgusted I became.


I saw the ruins of Popsrocket, the city that my gnome friends had once lived in. Even now, I do not know where my friend Yix is. I can only pray that he is out there somewhere, waiting for someone to find and rescue him.

Many people in the past have remarked on my compassion. On my ability to forgive those who have wronged me, even if they thought that they did not deserve my forgiveness. And I have been told more than once that it was both my strong point and my weak.

But now...

The Rose has gone too far.

I cannot find it within myself to extend any compassion or understanding towards Jaania and the organization she founded. The amount of pain and suffering they have caused my friends during these past five years, they have caused for ALL of Lore's inhabitants while I was incapacitated...

I cannot forgive them.

Not this time.

Enough is Enough.

As Hero of Lore, I, Clare Pendragon, will do everything within my power to make the Rose burn.