Dream of Legends Read Online Free Page A

deeper regions of the forests, no longer emboldened to assail the dwellings of humankind.
    The tremendous upheaval had been suppressed, and incidents of the plague disappeared swiftly from among the people. Shaken, but intact, the Kingdom of Ehrengard had survived. It was as if the Unifier’s will alone eroded the presence of the disease, and to the people, the Unifier seemed to be the direct answer to the innumerable prayers voiced to the All-Father within the churches, cathedrals, and homes all across Ehrengard. As if to accent that perception, the next harvest was extraordinarily successful, abounding more richly than it had ever done before.
    A new Emperor and King, Conrad IV, had risen to acceptance in the midst of the stability. Under the Unifier’s mentoring and counsel, the young emperor had set about mending the prior divisions of the kingdom. Ehrengard, one of the seven heads of the Unifier’s foundation of strength, had suffered a seemingly mortal wound, and had been healed.
    The tale of the second Great Sign was more recent, and almost every person in the room had heard it told from the mouths of actual eyewitnesses in Gallea to the spectacular event.
    The astounding episode had happened in front of the outer gates of the Count’s castle in the walled Gallean city of Troia, located in the eastern county of Chamerais. King Charles III, who was the father of the current Gallean king, Philip the Fireblade, had been investing a new bishop, Payen of Avalos, with ring and staff.
    Payen enjoyed great favor within Avanor, and there were some whispers about the nature of the sudden demise of the previous Bishop, a man named Rigord. Rigord’s death had been sudden, with no sign of disease or violence, despite the fact that he was far from elderly, and in the fullness of health.
    Other whispers told of great influence wielded by the Unifier in regards to the Royal Bishopric and the choice of Payen. None were brave enough to voice any of the swirling suspicions in the face of the Unifier, Who had been in Troia attending the investiture ceremony.
    Save for one individual.
    A young and radical White Monk, Martin of Clarvas, had demonstrated enough temerity, and tenacity, to publicly confront the ascendant Avanoran ruler. The young monk had vigorously protested the nature of the Unifier’s authority. He had made fantastical accusations regarding the demise of Rigord, and had even further claimed that the Unifier was actually an outright enemy of the All-Father.
    The onlookers had been stunned at the fulmination of the monk, as the Unifier appeared to all to be an Archon of the light, a figure of peace and reason unprecedented in humanity’s long-suffering history. More shocking, the monk was not simply some unknown renegade, or irascible malcontent that was always at odds with the people.
    Martin hailed from the fabled monastery at Clarvas, where the White Monks had truly found their voice and gone on to flourish as one of the most renowned orders in Ave. Being a monk of the reform-oriented order conferred an outright status on him from the moment of his initiation, but Martin had distinguished himself prominently. Over the years, he had gained a great reputation, with many already comparing him to St. Fulbert, the fiery monk that had catalyzed the monastery at Clarvas, preached the Second Holy War, and supported by his argumentation the formation of the Knights of the High Altar. Great things had been expected in the young monk’s future by many, from the ranks of commoners to the heights of the Western Church.
    The stunning, abrupt confrontation in public had brought a tense, ominous pall over the vast crowd that witnessed it, such that every person’s attention was fixed upon the two figures to the exclusion of everything else. The Unifier had shown no outward displeasure at the monk’s heated denunciation. Wholly surprising to all of the onlookers, He actually had held a serene expression on His face, as He quietly