In mere minutes the fire consumed everything.

Not just the wooden wagons and the goods in them, but also all of Christopher's hopes and dreams.

"How did it come to this? What did he do wrong? Why would this happen to him? Why?" He was crying out in his mind, unable to scream, since the fire also consumed almost all air around him.

As he was falling deeper and deeper into the claws of death and despair, burning with the caravan and everything he knew, he noticed something, just barely into the woods, at a safe distance from the scene.

A beautiful, almost magical deep blue gleam shined for a second, completely unfitting the fiery image around him.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He then watched as a fireball formed slowly above the mesmerising light, and as it took flight across the sky with a slight arc, hitting what was left of a nearby wagon.

"A Mage!" He realised quickly. While he was rather average at magic considering his age of 15, being the son of the owner of one of the biggest trading caravans in the world, his knowledge about magic was anything but lackluster.

But right now, he didn't care for all those books and all those scholars in pointy hats. All that he could think about was that shimmer, no, that person who just destroyed his entire life.

All of his rage, despair and pain found a target to attach itself to.

He swore to every god he knew and to everything dear to him that was now nothing but a memory, that he survives this, he will kill whoever this beautiful yet abhorrent light belongs to, be it a peasant or the Emperor himself.