Amytri: After the Storm

Heiassa -   I’m angry and there are few people in this world I feel I can share this anger with that will understand. More than twenty people died needlessly yesterday. The academies of elemental magic and alchemy are in ruins, and few buildings on University Hill survived without some level of damage. More than twenty people died and many are badly enough hurt that they may not survive until the storm ends but among them….   We thought we had bested this storm - we thought that our magic and science would see us through and that our duty in this crisis was to shine a light on the rest of the world. The hubris tastes like ashes.   I don’t yet understand what happened to the magical barrier we constructed. My best guess is that magic and energy we thought was deflected away from us instead collected and intensified. Yesterday, the barrier shattered and we were bombarded with chunks of ice the size of small cottages.   Everyone did everything that they could… a few of our best died sheltering the dormitories and aiding in the evacuation. For the students who didn’t make it and the teachers who tried to save them, I can weep and grieve, and in the days ahead, I’m sure we all will.   But this anger… I don’t know what to do with it. Anger at myself for my failures, while bitter, is familiar after these long years. Several of our instructors however, gathered apprentices and students to attempt to save the knowledge contained in those buildings… not people, but books. Where did I go so wrong that they felt a book was a treasure more precious than their own lives?   I was a king once. I lost my crown and I’ve been running from it’s spectre ever since. In this crisis, the people here looked to me and for once, I accepted. I’ll do everything I can to lead them and to help them. This time, I don’t want to be the one who runs away.   If I could reach her now, I’m sure our teacher would scold me and then she’d ask me the questions I don’t want to answer. My magic hasn’t reached her in a long time though so I wanted to ask you. Do you have any advice for a young fool who’s thought himself a wise old man?