Prologue: The Darkest Night

The sun set upon the city. If any had been watching they would have noticed a young man striding through the alleys carrying a cloth bundle. If they had chanced to see him, would they have wondered what he was carrying or who he was? Probably not, for there are many young men in the city, why should this one with his cloth bundle and his sneaky manner be any different? No they would have just continued gathering their wares as they prepared to go home.

The young man continued on his way, darting out of the path of the soldiers as they went about their rounds. Finally he reached his hideout. Once inside, he opened his sack. There, laid upon the cloth was a stone. It wasn’t a crystal, nor was it a gem. But the eagerness with which he reached for it showed that it was obviously important.

As soon as his flesh brushed the cool, earth colored, common stone, an entire troop of soldiers rushed in, seizing him and dragging him off to be sentenced. The final man to leave, after scooping up the cloth, noticed the stone and a strange desire arose within him. He snatched it up and tucked it into his belt.

“What was that?” one of his fellows asked him.

“Just a rock. My daughter has a strange fancy to stones like these so I thought I’d give it to her.”

“You have a daughter?” muttered the other soldier as the first passed him.

The soldier who had taken the stone dashed off to his home as soon as he was released for the night. He skirted around corners almost crashing into the common folk who stumbled home after having a few drinks at the local tavern. There were numerous shouts of: “Hey watch where you’re going!” and mutterings of not so pleasant remarks as he dashed for his humble abode. He had lied to his fellow soldier, he had no daughter. In fact he had no living family that he knew of. 

When he reached his home he immediately withdrew a large ring of keys from his belt and began to unlock his door. He soon accomplished this and stepped inside. He rushed through his house, hastening to his bedroom. Once in the room, he again removed his keys from his belt and hurried over to a secret panel in which he hid all that he owned that was of any worth. He quickly drew out the stone, and as he was about to place it inside the panel he heard a whisper of sound behind him. He reacted immediately, drawing his sword to fend off the attacker stander directly behind him. He was too absorbed in the fighting to notice that he had dropped the stone. Another attacker came up behind him and stabbed him through the back. They went away after they grabbed the stone and left him to die. 

As he lay there dying, he lamented his ill fate, on the darkest of all nights.

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