Part ONE v 3.6

8/8/2019 Part ONE v 3.6

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Prologue

Chapter I: Blunt endings andsharp beginnings.

Darkness, silence and emptiness.That is what he could feel. Likethere was no beginning and noend of this. Minutes felt likehours, and hours felt like eternity.

He seemed light as a feather, itwas a numb feeling though, hislimbs denied action, and he wasunable even to move his head up.He stayed there for a moment, inthe darkness; he could hearsomething scream, some sort of dark creature, in front of him, andthen this beautiful voice, chanting,which then addressed him; “Thisis the gift I offer to you, it is achance repair your past, now rise,Al….” Suddenly he could feel the

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ground underneath his fingers,the soft grass, waved by thegentle wind. His Limbs were ableto move a little and he could hearhis heart beat again.He could open his eyes.The morning sky, filled with fieryorange. Tall trees, colour of

emerald green, and the freshbreeze of the air, He was enjoyingit, like he has not felt it forthousand years. But then he feltanother sharp feeling, a hotburning pain on his head, and the

warm blood running down hischeek. With a quick adrenalinerush he sat up and yet anotherwave, this time coming from theside.He realized that his side wasn’tbleeding at all, the blood seemedto dry out and the wound on hishead wasn’t critical too, it was

just a scratch.“Where am I?”He looked around; he was on aclearing, surrounded by an army

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of trees.“And…Who am I?”Beside him there was a backpack,dagger and an amazing lookingsword made out from some sort of black metal, its handle was carvedwith mystical runes, glowing dark purple, and the hilt was decorated

with a big, shiny gemstone. Hepicked the sword up; he could feela surge of power creeping all theway up from the handle to hishand. The wound on his head andside disappeared.

‘Whoa’ he breathed..Then another burst of energy, thistime the sword trembled. Astrange feeling, shot through him,searing and empty. Suddenly thesword turned into dust. The dustthen gathered into the air andformed a shiny, grey crystal. Hegrabbed and examined it for amoment, then placed it into hispocket. Second later he realisedhe was wearing an amulet, with ablood-red ruby on the centre, he

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ran his finger on the surface, andleft it there, deciding that theamulet didn’t seem to have anyspecial abilities.He turned his sight towards thebackpack, and explored, to seewhat it contained. The bag wasfull with basic travelling stuff, a

map, sleeping bag, rations andtwo bottles of green liquid. Hepicked one up, uncorked it andhad a sniff, to examine what itcould be. The smell was soterrible, he had spilled it on a tree

root, and he was amazed how fastit burned through the hard rootsof the tree. After a quick consideration, he decided not totest his luck and left the otherbottle alone, in the bag.As he went through the backpack,he saw a little scroll of paper,probably a letter of some sort. Thescroll was written in very stylishhandwriting, but very hard toread, it was something about‘clearing someone out’ and

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‘uncomfortable witness’, but as hetried to read down, the letteraddressed him, it said ‘yourreward shall higher, but if you fail,your punishment shall be evengreater, Alan Bla…’.The letter ended, with thesurname, ripped out. The letter

had a stamp on it, a symbol of dagger covered in thick smoke.

Now he knew his name, but whyhe can’t remember anything else,and why his surname was ripped

out. So many questions and only afew answers. Alan looked aroundagain, took his only dagger andcut some branches of nearbytrees. He then placed them on theground and surrounded them witha circle of stones.For the evening meal he prepared,a soup made out of the jerky fromhis bag, some berries and an herbhe found on the way, somehowrecognizing the herb as edible.The soup actually turned out to be

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more delicious, than he predicted.After making his stomach full andcozy, he gathered some morewood and took a bath in thenearby river, after that hecollected his stuff, and suddenlysaw a weird reflection in the river,

just behind him, but when he

turned around nothing was there.After a consideration, he decidedto sleep on the tree, he foundhimself next to. He left the campfire, to ward off any predators.The night was very silent, and the

moon was full, somehow it madeAlan calm, his body needed sleep,and he decided to give in to thatdemand.

*****

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Chapter II: Hide and seek

As the sun rose, Alan decided tomove on; he collected his stuff

and went off, using his map tonavigate. He examined the map,and realized that it had notes onit; he followed the marks andstopped suddenly as he saw amine, its main entrance guarded

by people in black, they wore thesame symbol that he had found onhis letter previously. Maybe hecould find the answers he seeks somuch. Alan decided not to test hisluck and searched for a differententrance. He looked on his mapagain, and he found some morenotes on the back of the map,according to them, it had a sideexit, a trapdoor, hidden in thebushes, south from the mainentrance. He grabbed the handle

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and twisted, but it didn’t move aninch, he used all his strength, andnothing. He thought for a minute,and came to an idea to use theliquid he previously found in hisbag.And again Alan was just amazedas how quickly the liquid burned

through the thick steel; he got ridof the empty bottle, tossing it onthe ground.Now the entrance to the minestood open, he tip toed, andpassed through some of the

guards, he headed down thetunnel, to face fancy, shiny doors.Alan peeked through the key hole;it was probably Head manager’sroom…at least that’s what hethought, luckily for him, the roomwas empty, and the doors wereopen. He entered and lookedaround looking for any kind of documents, he went through thebookshelf, and there were simplebooks, stories and cookingrecipes. One was called

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‘Wilderness grilling’ so Alan took it considering it useful, just as hewas about to leave he realized,that there were some papers lyingon the desk. They were nearly allbills and orders from theemployees. One caught his eye, abook underneath the papers. With

the exact same symbol as on hisletter. Alan decided to take it, andthen he found a script, underneaththe book. The letter was about aprisoner in the west wing. Maybethe prisoner will know something

about this organization.Alan realized it actually went fartoo easy, someone has set this forhim, but why, he thought.But he didn’t have time for this, assomeone was approaching, Alanhid in the big closet made out of an exotic sort of wood.

“So, what should we do with her?”The head officer entered theoffice, with a sturdy lookingfellow. His one eye was scarred

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and the other completely grey. Onhis belt hanged a grim lookingmace with a skull instead of ahead.“How about we give her out to theminers, they will know what todo…” A vicious smile shot his uglyface, the head manager blinked in

disbelief.“No, we are not animals, weexecute her, humanely.” Hegrowled, the brute eyed him, butthe head officer didn’t look scaredor shocked.

They left the room and closed thedoor, locking it.Alan opened the closet door and

jumped out, heading for the door,he was trapped. He sat down onthe floor and thought for a minute,he had wasted the acid to gethere, and there was nothing left.He peeked through the keyholeagain, and started to pick on it inDisparity, using the dagger.Suddenly he felt somethingfamiliar, like a flashback. He

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moved the dagger up and heard aclick.The door opened.Alan ran, though he stayed silentas a shadow. The halls wereempty, probably because it waslunch, it was a great advantage.He reached the western halls and

rushed through the doors to theprison block, he could seeskeletons in all cells, all but one.On the cell floor he could see afemale elf lying down; he pick locked the door using his dagger,

picked the girl up and rushed allthe way to the exit, she was verylight, maybe because she didn’thave anything to eat in her cell.As he ran through the halls, thegirl opened her eyes, she saw hiseyes, green like a pair of emeralds, and he was wearing abrown-black leather suit of armour, she nearly jumped whenshe saw the earth moving fastbelow her“Who are you?” She questioned

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him, her voice was very thin, shemust have been very weak; Alanrealized that she was awake, butdidn’t say a word. Instead he feltanother flashback, placed a fingeron her forehead, and chantedsome words.The girl fell asleep again.

Later when they got out of thetunnels onto the fresh air, he ranto the north, following his map, tothe nearest town.The night became to rise, and Alanfelt tired, they were miles away

from the mine, it was safe to makean encampment.Alan prepared the campfire,caught some fish and gatheredsome berries. He didn’t reallyneed the sleeping bag; instead heplaced the girl on it. Alan used hisdagger and cut some leaves of nearby trees and made himself acosy, soft bed, and used his capeas a duvet. He sat down andcooked the fish; he found somespices in his bag and used the

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book he found. As he prepared thefish, the girl opened her eyes, satup and looked around and nearly

jumped as she saw him again.“Who are you?” She said, hervoice was very weak.“Eat…” Alan pointed at the fishthat was left for her and the berry

juice. She took the fish andstarted to eat. She smiled andstarted to eat faster, she took asip of the berry juice. They didn’tspeak at all, and when their eyesmet, she just smiled.

He started to eat his fish and took a big sip of his drink.

Chapter III: New friends and oldenemies.

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After the feast, the girl coveredherself with her duvet, and staredat the dancing flames of thecampfire.“Why did you do that…?” Shestarted.

He lifted his head up, her eyesseemed to sparkle, with thousand

fires, and it was like seeing thesky, set afire.“You know, rescuing me…” Shesmiled, while he stayed cold, anice glacier.“You got some information that I

need…that is all” He stared back at the fires.

“So just that? What you want toknow?” She smiled again.Alan eyed her closely; her skinwas finely tanned and she hadbeautiful brown hair, almost red,which seemed to be of autumnleaves.“What is this organisation…?” hepointed to the west, towards theencampment, the girl seemed

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confused at first.“Shadow guild; but I don’t knowmuch about them.” She lookeddown at the fire pit.“What is your name?” The girlasked… Alan wasn’t sure if heshould trust her, and get rid of herinstead.

“Alan” He said slowly.“Alan…?” She continued, but thenhe went silent again.“Does not matter.” Alan shot her acold glare, but she just laughed.She was so full of life, so innocent.

“Shayanah” she said, pronouncingevery syllable in a mocking likeway.“What brings you here?” sheadded, and again he thought of murderer, he quickly overcamethe feeling.“What is the nearest town?” Hechanged the subject, he did notknow that either.“My village, 5 miles away fromhere” Shayanah pointed to theeast.

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“We shall start our march, in themorning. Now sleep” She closedher eyes and fell asleep. Alanexamined her carefully and thenclosed his eyes, sleep came veryquickly.

The next morning, they gathered

their equipment, and went off.

****

Many minutes have passed, andthey kept walking not saying aword. Whenever she wanted tospeak to him, Alan just turnedaround and gave her a grave coldlook.And those eyes! They were grey asthe sky, in autumn and yet shecould see a sparkle, of free,

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unbound life.Suddenly Alan felt something, astinging signal in his head, like hecould feel someone approaching,not friendly.“Into the bushes now!” hegrowled getting his only dagger,the girl obeyed without even

arguing, she was truly amazed atthis man, when she saw hercaptors approaching their way,how he could ever predict that?“Where is the damn girl?!” Thehuge man Alan seen before in the

office shouted at the tremblingsoldier.“I…I don’t know sir…the…thefootprints led-d-d… here!” Hemumbled and pointed at the road.“But they are not here you fool!”The tremendous man hurled at thesoldier knocking him out. Alansmirked at the look of it, the girldidn’t miss it.He found pleasure from people’spain.The gigantic man looked around

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and started to examine thefootprints.“A man accompanied the girl,probably someone from thevillage. I can’t let anybody know.”Shayanah realized it; he was goingto sweep out everyone in thevillage.

“No…” A tear run down her silk soft cheek, Alan didn’t miss thateither.Alan was desperate, he neededanswers and the village grantedthem, he couldn’t allow this.

There was also a different reason.And only one solution.The huge man walked couple of steps, still examining thefootsteps, and the unconscioussoldier was behind him, with hissword lying on the ground. Alanlooked at his only dagger, that’snot enough to fight this thing. Hepointed at the sword, and told thegirl to stay.He left the bushes and croucheddown, trying to sneak behind the

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titanic guy, Alan realized that hewas at least six maybe seven feet,that made him look even moredangerous.The grabbed the sword, and as hedid that, he accidentally pushed astone. The stone hit the soldier’shelmet, making a bell like noise

and leaving a blunt mark. A thick,thunderous voice sounded fromthe tremendous human.“If you are trying to sneak behindme, it’s not going to work!” Hesaid and swooshed his five foot

long and heavy mace.Alan just dodged it making a rollto the right and drawing his lefthanded dagger.The gigantic man stopped andlooked both shocked and confusedat his opponent.“This cannot be…What are youdoing here!?” The man growled.“None of Your business! Now letme finish mine!!” Alan plunged hisdagger and put his sword in abovehis head, to parry any possible

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attacks.He did.He parried the massive mace andstroked the tremendous titans'with his lighter blade, the hit wasdodged and another strike cameswirling across the side from thegiant. The skulked mace hit

nothing more than a cloud of thick smoke. He turned around to seethe attacker but no one was there,except two, different sized bladescoming his way. He blocked thelong sword with a haul, opening a

gap in his defence for the muchslicker dagger. The blade dugdeep into the chest of the titan,through the chain mail, andleather, and flesh. The manshouted in a berserk frenzy,ripping out the dagger andthrough it on the side. Throughcraze he saw a black figurerunning his way; he swung againand missed as Alan jumped to theside.“You have no more weapons!” The

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man huffed with heavy breath.“No need of them…” Alan said andran onto the mace, swirled andkicked the man in the face, whichmade him loose the grip of hisweapon and sent him to fall on theground. Seconds went and nothinghappened, the titan looked up and

to his surprise no one was there.Still bleeding from the hit, hestood up and started to look around.“Where are you, Coward!?”“…Right behind you…” The blade

dug deep into his back, breakingthe spine this time.Alan was, terribly good at what hewas doing, and he gained grimsatisfaction out of it.The giant cried and dropped to hisknees, Alan walked in front of himand watched the blood escapingthe veins, slowly.The last sparkles of life leaving hiseyes.He recovered the dagger andstood up.

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“...clear…” Alan turned around tomeet a terrified stare of ShayanahHis face was covered in blood andhe was holding tight onto hisdagger.Shayanah got out of the bushesand walked to him.“What about him?” She pointed at

the soldier.Alan too glanced at the soldierand looked away.“We can’t just leave him here, andput everything on him!”Alan felt an inside fight, his mind

whispered into his ear to leave thefool and walk away.

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Chapter IV: Chasing of the fox.

Long hours passed, to meet dawn

and then the night; sky was full of stars that blinked and shone inthe eyes of Alan.It probably was the mostwonderful sky he has ever seen.Alan made a camp, and set a fire

just by the unconscious soldier, hewas shivering. Shayanah crouchednext to him, she held his back upand gave him some water.His eyes opened, and when hismet hers the soldier nearly

jumped out of his skin, he startedto look about desperately.His commander was dead.His feelings were mixed.“No… don’t worry we are notgoing to hurt you…I promise.”The soldier raised his head up on

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Alan, which made him smirk.“He won’t either, relax” Thesoldier was trembling but heeventually put his head down.“Who ar-r-re… y-y-you?” he saidwith voice full of both confusionand terror.“That does not matter” he implied

with grave cold tone.“It ain’t really matter…” Thesoldier agreed.“You don’t seem to be surprised.”Alan said catching the little smileon the guy’s face when he glanced

at the corpse.“Aye…” The soldier said showing amassive scar on his face.“Now tell me, what is going tohappen now? The cold bloodedfighter continued.“They will try to look for thecommander…but…we are taughtthat whoever can’t survive ontheir own is not worth of living atall.”A flashback caught Alan, he wastaught this at the academy.

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He grabbed both legs of the giant.“Help me!” Together they pulledthe massive corpse out of the way.Alan glanced at the soldier, anddrew his dagger.The soldier jumped and started toscream, but Alan’s hand silencedhim.

He slashed through the hardleather, chipped off a clip thatheld the chain mail, took one of his boots and threw it away.Alan picked some mud from theroad and put it on you face. The

soldier did looked confused at thetoo.“Now run and forget you everseen us…don’t worry the body willbe eaten by wolves before theywill ever find out.” He said, lettingthe scruffy soldier go. The soldierleft his sword, wherever he left itin gratitude or just simplyforgotten it.

*****A servant wearing silver plated,

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white shirt and a pair of pantaloons pushed the massivehallway door to discover a hugeroom. A chandelier, probablymade out of crystal, if not purediamonds was hanging down,enlightening the whole room.There were pews placed in rows

facing a great throne made out of true silver, in some plated withsilver and socketed withdiamonds, which underlined themajesty of the hall. All around theroom, silver and gold coins were

found in big piles, glimmering withevery step. The servantapproached the Throne, to meetthe eyes of the mistress, she waswearing a long white gown, madeout of some sort of silk likematerial and her hair was lightblonde, nearly reaching herelbows. With a white tiaramatching her dress. "An activityagainst the Shadow Guild wasfound in the Ashdown forest…should we take action?"

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"No, just observe them...wealready interfered enough..." Themistress sighed and waved herhand, to dismiss the servant. Soonthe giant doors of the hall closed.The white lady stood up andwalked to the little water basin. Itwas made of silver like everything

in the room, decorated withcarved white dragons, their headspointed up. The mistress wavedher hand over the calm water of the basin, the water swirled in amix of light blue and white

colours. "Now lets see, how is my'agent' doing..." She saw alandscape of green and twopeople walking between the rowsof trees...

*****"Can I examine your dagger?" Sheran in front of Alan and pointed atthe dagger. They were already aquarter away from the village andthey both could use a little bit of entertainment.

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"Let me think, hmmmm...no..." Hesaid with a smirk on his face. Shebegged him stopping in front of him everytime."No...Later" He sends her awaywith a wave of a hand.Alan could hear and see differentanimals in the bushes, from deer

to boar, while in the air he couldthe birds gliding through theafternoon breeze."How about now." She said...Alan

just smirked."...no..."

"please?" She kept on going.Suddenly Alan felt yet anotherflashback, caught Shayanah byher shirt and put the tip of thedagger next to her neck, coldsweat shimmered down her spine.It all happened in matter of quarter of a second, she didn’teven realize. Alan dropped thedagger, looking with both shock and confusion at the blade. Itglimmered for a second, then hisview went to Shayana, she was

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staring at him. Why he wanted tokill someone he just saved andwhy he stopped? What ishappening to him? There were somany questions that botheredAlan, and only few answers.„I...I am sorry...I shouldn’t...” Alanstopped her by placing a finger on

his lips and helped her get up. Hespun on his heel and walked off without a word, she followed.After walking for couple of hoursthey already were 3/4s of the waytowards the village when the night

caught them, and Alan decided notto chance of getting ambushed inthe road...in the middle of thedark. Alan cut a few branches of the trees surrounded them withstones and lit, making a cosy firethat banished the dark aroundthem and warmed them.While Shayanah started to makethe tents, Alan had a go throughhis backpack again. He found thestuff he already put in, a strangeball made out of glass which

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glowed fiery orange but when heput it back, it stopped glowing. Hechecked a little pocket in the back of the bag and found a little dirk,it was made out of silver or someother light metal, its handle was ina shape of a snake and it had agreen gem in the middle of its hilt,

probably an emerald. He alsofound a little book; it had a black leather cover and a skull in themiddle of it, surrounded bystrange looking glyphs. They werefamiliar yet unreadable. He tried

to open the book, yet he failedand every time he did the glyphsflashed, when he tried to use forcethe glyphs shot out at him. Alandecided to leave it for later andstood up.„The tents will be ready in aminute...”„I am sorry...” Alan said aloud,Shayanah turned around on herheel and looked at him with a bitof confusion.„Sure...no problem.” Alan looked

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laughed.“So you are an assassin of somesort, right?” Alan stopped for alittle while, the ability to picklock,his fighting moves and a daggeras his left garde it all seemed tofit together. He was an Assassin.“What are you, then” Alan asked

the girl blushed a bit and drewlittle circles in the sand.“Well, I am a wizard, but I gotkicked out of the Mage Schoolbecause I could only control oneelement based repertoire. To

finish the school I should be ableto control about 4 more.”“And why were you captured?”Alan looked from above surface of his bowl, Shayanah just shrugged.“You might just as well go bathe,there’s a lake over there.”Shayanah blushed again, Alanglanced at her.“Don’t worry, the lake is behindthose trees…” he shook his head.She nodded and headed for thelake, it was a small pond in fact

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but she could hardly see anything.She put her hand up andsummoned a little fire ball whichthen followed her. She took herclothes off and dipped her foot inthe pond, the water was cold asshe expected, but it was veryrefreshing.

Meanwhile Alan started to cleanup and put some more wood intothe fire, and as he was preparingto go to bed, he sat down on theground again. Alan realized thathe still didn’t work out what the

amulet do, he examined theshinning piece of onyx on theamulet it gleamed with inner, dark fire. He took it off and feltdifferently, and something in himtold that he shouldn’t do that.Suddenly he heard a rustle andrushing of feet behind him.Shayanah ran out the woods.“Get your weapon ready! We gotcompany…Oooh…? Shayanasuddenly stopped when she sawAlan, he was the source of the

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magical energy that she sensed.“You wield a magic aura?” Sheasked after a long while of deadsilence.“Do I?” Alan felt as muchsurprised as her.“You can wield magic and youdon’t know?!” She pressed; it did

not make any sense to her.His mind suddenly linked thesituation with the amulet; it was amagic dampening amulet, hequickly put back on.“Oh…it’s gone…”

“You can sense magic users?”Alan asked back.“Wait, I asked the question first,not you!” She raised her voice.“Don’t shout at me…” Alan gaveher a cold stare. The emptiness of his eyes promising death, in not sofar future.Shayanah turned on her heel andheaded for her tent.

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Part ONE v 3.6