The surviving students and acolytes of the Sanctuary of Tetrarchy assembled at the main square and each of them gulping hard apprehensively, craning their necks.

At the center of the square was the more-than-a-hundred-kilogram skewered carcass of a gigantic peacock on a spit over a huge bonfire.

The flames sizzled and flared up excitedly with incessant cracklings at every golden drop of fat dripping down. Slowly, the roasted meat slowly took on a gold-copper burnish ...