Part 14 - Klane Kalonia

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The smoke was visible long before the ruins of the enclave came into view. And at last Asanka could no longer deny the evidence before him and he knew with an inner certainty that his mother was really dead and his home destroyed. Only Suak remained to greet him, the alegoyle flying down with a cry of recognition as Asanka reached the end of the mirror bridge. The horsemen were gone. The ground was churned and littered with dung as evidence of their passing but the burning station was quiet, save for the distant crackle and roar of the flames. For a moment, Asanka contemplated the crossing and then he remembered Crinomu's words. The station was the past now and he must look to the future. Without even venturing onto the bridge he turned Lyr and drew the klane.

He felt a moment of epiphany as his horse reared up into the night air. "They have destroyed my home and my family then let them also take my name. Asanka was the name of my friends but it is my name no more. I have no friends left alive who would call me by it. So I vow at this moment to take a new name; a name for my enemies to know instead. From henceforth they shall call me 'The Klane of Kalonia'. And I vow that they shall learn to fear that name for I shall hunt them down even unto the ends of the earth and beyond!" 

Time and distance are not kind to little words like 'the' and 'of'. So it is as 'Klane Kalonia' that we now know the man who was once called Asanka. This then, is the end of the beginning and the true start of the many Legends of Klane Kalonia, of his endless struggles to right wrongs, to battle evil, to defend the weak and rebuke the strong. And of his final mythic destiny to change the world forever. But of these matters we will say no more at present, for they properly belong to other tales and the telling of those tales must wait for another day...

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