Prologue

Thomas Rose awoke to the usual encumbering sense that there was

way too much work to be done in too little amount of time. He barely had

enough time for a quick breakfast of fresh eggs and warm milk before he

had to hurry off to the courtyard for his daily combat lessons. That lasted

until around noon, at which he left for the stables to tend to his horse,

Silver, before being accompanied to the chambers of his father’s chief

advisor, Randolph Furth, by the royal honor guard.

Thomas was the sole heir to the throne of Kildaria. Now nineteen,

he had been seeing Furth for five years, ever since the sudden

disappearance of the King’s previous advisor, Karn Demallo, when Thomas

was fourteen. Thomas loathed going to the lessons he had with Furth.

Unlike Demallo, who was always cheerful and comforting, Furth was cold,

and his lessons always seemed to contain hidden ulterior motives. His

lessons where always dark and the advice he gave was always jaded, at

best. The worst part was when he had to meet Furth’s gaze. His foggy

blue eyes were filled with contempt and deceit.

Yawning, Thomas finally rose from his bed and adorned his everyday

green cloth work clothes. He strapped his dulled apprentice’s sword to his

side, making sure the heavy iron blade safely secured. After one final

check, he left his quarters, and once again he began his daily routine.

One

Thomas’s Last Lesson, Randolph Talks About The Stars

and he has more important tasks which required his attention. He had big

plans for tonight, and he wished to spend as much time as possible

making sure that nothing would go wrong. After tonight, if everything

goes on as planned, life in Kildaria will be turned completely upside down.

Unbeknownst to Thomas, this was going to be the last lesson that

Randolph planned to ever teach him. He would be on his own, with no one

source of guidance. Thomas would soon be unwillingly be heading on a

long journey, and it is from his journey that he will draw forth knowledge.

Even then Randolph planned to continue influencing Thomas, whether

Thomas knew it or not.

Three slow knocks came from the chamber door.

“Enter if ye must, be off if ye don’t” Randolph called to the door.

The door creaked as Thomas entered the cold and almost

completely vacant room. Randolph pointed at a lone chair in the center of

the barren room.

“Sit ye little bum down and listen up,” Randolph began, “We will

continue from where we left off last time. Now, tell me, what are the four

great star signs under the Harvesting Moon?”

“In the eastern sky there is Medav, the Hunter, and Vargas, the

Sailor. In the western sky lies Arthur, the King. Directly above, on a clear

night, is the Eye of Jain, which watches over us all” Thomas replied with

confidence. The meanings of intricate star signs were common knowledge

to all the people of Kildaria.

“And during the Mourning Moon?” Randolph asked.

“Well, as always, the Eye of Jain is overhead,” Thomas started. His

Under the Harvesting Moon, as well as the two moons that followed it, the

star signs represented the Great Ageless Ones so often worshiped by the

people. However, during the Mourning Moon, the siguls of the Fallen

Ones, Ageless Ones who were said to have lost their way and went mad

with power, illuminated the skies. Unlike other moons, it was not

uncommon for a man to have not looked up at the night sky even once

during the Mourning Moon.

Pausing briefly, Thomas continued, “To Jain’s far left lies Marten, the

Burning Sage, and behind and slightly to the right of the Eye of Jain lies

Walter, the Dark Man and claimer to all darkened souls.”

“Marten lies far, far, away from Jain’s Eye. Why then is Jain’s

greatest adversary, Walter, so close to Jain’s Eye?”

“So that during the moon when the Fallen Ones thrive, Jain may still

be able to look down upon us, his chosen people, and protect us from the

malevolence of the Fallen Ones,” replied Thomas nervously. He had

asked this question to many people around the castle, and, until now, this

been the response he had been given each time, and each time, those

responses somehow made Thomas more uncomfortable.

“But is Walter not so far back behind the Eye of Jain that he may not

be within Jain’s line of sight?” Randolph retorted.

“I...I guess I had never thought of that before,” Thomas began to

stammer, but he was quickly interrupted by Randolph.

“Walter lies behind the Eye of Jain. We may say that Jain sees all,

however, that only applies to man. No one has eyes in the back of their

head, and Jain is no exception, neither is Walter. No one can see

Randolph paused. There was an eerie silence as Thomas

contemplated this. As the thought thinking, a bell sounded in the distance.

Without a sound, Thomas stood up and quickly started for the door.

“Remember all I taught you today and in the past. I look forward to

seeing you

again,” Randolph called after him.

Thomas shivered, then left the room, the door slamming behind him.

Randolph quickly returned to his work. There was still so much to be done

within so little time.

Two

Randolph’s Dirty Deeds

What was just said by Randolph regarding the Fallen ones,

specifically about Walter, would be considered heresy if it had been

spoken by any other man. If it had been said by any other man, that man

would have been immediately tried and hanged by the following morning.

Randolph was not any ordinary man, however. He was powerful.

Although it is never spoken of by the people of Kildaria, it is well known

that Randolph was much more than the King’s Advisor. He was a man of

magic, a wizard, if you will, and a practitioner of long forgotten and

forbidden arts. He was the King’s magician.

The Kildarian people dare not voice their opinion that Randolph
abused his power. Nobody spoke of it, but everybody shared this belief

that he did abuse his power on a consistent basis. One such case

happened not many years ago.

Times were tough for the people of Kildaria. The King had just

passed a massive tax on farmed goods, because the local fishermen

complained that people did not buy enough of their own goods. So the

tax was place to encourage the sale of seafood.

The farmers were upset, of course. At first, there was the usual

amount of opposition. However, one man, John Blackstone, an intelligent

and outspoken member of the farming community, rose up from the crowd

of angry farmers and raised the intensity of the opposition. He became a

figurehead of sorts. Soon he was arranging marches, protests, and

speeches. As this increased in intensity, so did tension between the

farmers, fishermen, and the crown.

Not wanting civil war to break out amongst his people, King Rose

was prepared to have his loathed tax repealed. However, Randolph, his

most trusted advisor, calmly told the King to wait a day or two before

repealing the tax, just to see if the resistance fell apart on its own.

The next day, John Blackstone was giving a passionate oration

against the infamous farm tax. It was the first and last of Blackstone’s

speeches that Randolph attended. Nobody was surprised when, halfway

through the speech, John Blackstone was turned to solid rock. The frozen

statue stood for a moment, then slid off the podium, shattering into

hundreds of pieces as it hit the ground. The one thing that surprised the

people was that it did not happen any sooner.

The farm tax incident was neither the first nor last case where foul

play by Randolph was suspected. Many other curious occurrences have

arisen throughout the years.

David Thornwood was the first to have ever openly accused

Randolph of abusing his powers. He mounted viscous attacks against the

magician and the magician’s supporters. One morning, his wife awoke to

find his usual spot next to her in bed vacant. He had left no note or other

explanation for his leave. Three days later, he was found floating down a

nearby stream. The peculiar thing was that it had appeared that he

lacked bones of any kind; what they dragged out of the water was a

bloblike mass._ According to an autopsy report done due to the

peculiarity of the incident, his bones had “just disappeared without

reason, as if by magic.”

Jane Aire publicly slapped the magic man and threatened to make

their affair known to the public. They had been sleeping together for

several months, despite the fact that the King’s advisors were to remain

chaste so that no woman could affect their judgment.

As Jane stormed away from Randolph, shoving through a gathering

made it halfway through the gathering crowd, she fell to her knees and let

out a terrifying scream. Seconds later, she burst into flame. Seven

bystanders were severely burned, luckily, none were killed. All that

remained of Jane were her ashes, which scattered during a gust of wind,

never to be found or given a proper post-cremation burial.

A young servant tripped and fell while serving the King his supper

during the Grand Redemption Moon banquet. His serving plate went

flying, covering Randolph, who occupied the seat closest to the King, with

food and ale. A collective gasp sounded throughout the crowded banquet

hall, followed by a few soft and short chuckles. Randolph rose to

backhand the boy, but the King grabbed Randolph’s arm and immediately

sent the boy to his chambers for the night.

The next morning, the head servant came running from the servants

quarter, screaming. Lying in the young servants bed was a dead pig,

dressed in the same clothes as the servant boy. It was covered with ale

and food.

All the farmers in the kingdom were survey, and not one of them

had any missing pigs.

Randolph Furth was accustomed to get what he wanted, when he

that sustained itself on entropy. He had been King Rose’s advisor for five

years. However, he had experience as advisor to many leaders

throughout the past several centuries. He excelled at his job- biding his

time until the moment came where he could bring upon a nation complete

chaos, usually resulting in the complete destruction of the kingdom.

Tonight was the beginning of one of his most grandiose plans to

date. It had been a while since the last time he single-handedly brought

upon the fall of a civilization; it seemed like forever since he last tasted

the succulent emotions of fear, hatred, and revenge.

Oh, tonight was going to be GRAND.