Phoenix Rising

<p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>I wish more of the nudges that shaped history were the gentle kind-the signing of a treaty the commitment to protect the weak the spreading of a story that would enlighten minds.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>Alas humans are more prone to stagnate than to change willingly and so most nudges are given with force and terror and blood.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>Most nudges come at the slicing of a blade or the searing of a flame.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>The final chapters of Sable's beginning certainly did.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>More blades than I hope to see again and the fire...</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>Who could ever forget the fire?</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(24 24 24 1)>-Excerpt from Chapter 2 of Interesting Beginnings by Flibbet the Peddler</em></p><p><br></p>