The Book of Deacon

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people. Too often, though, it is a single event that brings about the most direct change that receives the attention. The blow that ends the battle, the last br

l read comes from the mouths of the people who lived it. It is my hope, in recording the path taken by these heroes, that those in the years to come will not be blind to the dangers that

wed you to forget this dark era, consider yourself fortunate. To be ignorant of these events is

southern part of the continent and was home to more than half of the people of the world. They opposed a union of the three remaining kingdoms--Kenvard, Ulvard, and Vulcrest--that had come to be known to its people as the Northern Alliance, and by its enemies as the Nameless Empire. Thi

us it falls to me, lest the tale go untold. I shall endeavor to recount the events in as straightforward and impersonal a manner as possible. Do not imagine thi

orth, one could seldom expect anything else. It was not the cold that bothered her, though. She'd dealt with t

rizon. It would likely be another full day of walking before she saw anything but the

loud to herself. "He seemed a shad

periodic noisy complaints from her stomach. That much concerned her. She could afford to buy no supplies in the last town, and no tavern or inn had been willing to serve her thanks to a simple yet

d back a rather sizable advance. After three long, bloody days of battle, the Alliance troops had managed to take back the very same piece of land that they had started on. The cost of this maintenance of status quo was the lives of th

e. "My boy promised to kill three of those swine just for me, " one would say. Another would respond triumphantly tha

. . wasted, " she h

After countless generations, it had ceased to be a simple struggle between two lands and had become a way of life. Those who opposed this sacred tradition of noble battle were unwelcome. That one word--wasted--may as well have s

its grip on the icy field with each passing moment. In perhaps an hour, the last glow of the sun would leave the sky, taking with it the meager warmth it had cast upon the world. The cold of the day was unbearable, but the night was unlivable. Worse, there was a darkn

an icy, barren stretch of land with not a plant to burn for warmth save some sparse grass and tough lichens. Neither would be good for producing anything more than smoke a

ected their crimson radiance back from the east. After squinting, rubbing her eyes, and blinking only to f

ection she'd come, then in the direction she'd been heading. "Whi

ke her mind off of the rather dire position she found herself in

dred jewels. And gold, too. A king's ransom left behind by some daring thief where no one would ever find it, in no man

was nearly flawless--a fortunate fact, as it was all she had left to lead her to the mysterious object. The sunset-painted clouds gave little in the way of light, but night brought utter darkness. Neither mo

med to be a large mound of rocks surrounded by a liquid that was sticky, despite the cold that would have frozen mos

found. Two more steps, though, brought a squeaky crunch that made her heart skip a beat. It was the sound of

as bone dry and better than kindling. A single spark and she would have a fire in no time. The overjoyed young lady pulled her flint from one of her tattered pockets and reached blindly for one of the metal plates she'd heard clang free when she

polished enough to have caused the reflection that had led her here. On the curved interior of the metal plate, she found a few

mor, " she decided, turni

she'd wandered into. She found the bundle she'd stepped on and could now clearly see that it was i

he wondered aloud. The answer came quickly and brought a chill to