Chapter 35

It was with great relief when the day came when he could fly away, soaring into the clouds, vanishing from the sight of his fervent worshipers. Much later, and thousands of miles from where he’d begun, he reached his destination, where he landed unseen and transformed once again into his human form.

It was what he had been doing more than fifty years ago when Alistair had happened on the scene—during a rare but necessary occasion he had had to become the Phoenix before his allotted time. Alistair had been an avid mountaineer in his youth, using it as a way to escape the stresses of his everyday life. On this trip, he had found something entirely unexpected.

Rather than run in fear, he had watched as the Phoenix finished his transformation, becoming the man Alistair would know as Conley. He had accepted what he’d seen with no reservations.