The question troubling Ingrid troubled many others in Breeze City too.
They shed tears over Jack and Rose's touching Love amid the disaster, yet struggled to accept that Jack had died when he clearly could have survived.
No one considered that it might be "pure fiction." The Mage Tower really had fallen three hundred years ago, and The Mage Tower's Fall had genuinely received the Mage Tower's approval. How could it be made up?
So one view gradually took hold: danger revealed people's true nature. Just as a mother protected her child, Jack had protected Rose. He had sacrificed himself to save the woman he Loved—a Love that was truly great.
In any case, once Annan realized his Subjects really couldn't get enough of The Mage Tower's Fall, he let them watch it. He only corrected them when they called him "Lord Jack."
Nearly half the Territory had been cleared, and the saplings deliberately spared had been planted in gaps among the trees. No Druids had appeared. Perhaps the felling of these woods wasn't enough to draw their attention.
Annan finally summoned the Greater Fire Elemental. On his seventh morning at Star-Moon Bay, burning tree stumps served as torches, driving away the morning chill.
The Guard Captain, still patrolling outside Star-Moon Bay, saw the thick smoke and hurried back. He then decided the Gnolls might come to investigate and expanded the patrol area.
With Deepwinter drawing near, Annan gave up on building a perfect coastal Town straightaway. Instead, he used the felled timber to put up shelters first. They could expand and improve the Territory bit by bit through the long winter.
On the warm, blackened earth, people began building houses. The worsening cold left them no time to make their homes attractive. Log cabins were sturdy and warm, if