When I was little my mother held me close whispered to me in my sleep, "you'll do amazing things one day, and when your shaking the emperor's hand or giving a lecture to your ignorant students at the arcane university, always remember your weak mother who couldn't protect you, my baby boy…"

When I woke up the next morning, she was gone; I would never see her again.

"CRIMINALS ARE MADE, NOT BORN,"

Andrew Kehoe- American mass murderer

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I lived out my early life in the Imperial City; I stole most of what I needed to live, bread and such. I rarely stole money; my mother always told me stealing what you don't need is wrong.

I would wake up each morning everyday on the waterfront, I would sleep behind houses, in bushes and once even face up in the water, floating gently on the still water; mother always told me I was a good swimmer.

My life was pretty quiet for the first sixteen years, but shortly after my sixteenth birthday, my life changed forever. I had fallen asleep in one of the bushes in the waterfront near where that strange dark skinned man would stand for hours in the dark waiting for various shady looking people, speaking briefly with them and then shooing them away, talking about some "Gray Fox". The light of his torch would always lull me to sleep.

That night I woke up to the sound of whispered urgency and soft crying

"Gray Fox… please sir get up… you'll be fine, the wound isn't that deep, really!"

Then another voice, older and wiser sounding, "Corvus…you are so young…. And just recently married, correct?"

"Yes sir… to the count of Anvil's daughter, I love her so".

"As you should… but that makes this so much harder…Corvus, I am promoting you".

"To Shadowfoot?"

"No my egger Cat burglar, to Gray Fox, I am passing on my Cowl to you, it comes with its own curse though, go now Gray Fox, sir, the watch will be coming soon and as you can see they won't hesitate to use those longswords".

There was a sob and rush of footsteps as the new Gray Fox fled.

I crawled out of the bushes to find a white haired man in a long gray cloak bleeding from a wound in his hip.

"You can loot my body when I'm dead young one, but please let me die first"

I was startled (and slightly offended), "Mother said to respect old people" I murmured in my juvenile tone.

The old man laughed, which was accompanied by a winch of pain, "old people, ha…ha, your mother sounds kind"

"She was" I said sadly.

"I see…your father?"

"Mother never said much about him…"

"No idea huh?"

"No" I said ashamed

The man winched again, gritting in pain, "please help" he gasped, his face pale. He held out his hand and I grasped it.

I almost yelled out when I found out what he slipped into my hand, a silver dagger.

I instantly knew what he meant by "help".

"But I can't… Mother said, please I can't…"

The man gave me a grim smile, "Place it at my neck, at the pulsing vein and slide it across".

I placed the dagger by his neck as I was told and held it there, tear welling in my eyes. I couldn't do it.

The man put his hand on mine; we looked each other in the eyes. He helped me through the morbid action with a jerk on his hand.

I was laying in the bushes, crying as the imperial guard found the corpse, "Damn Gray Fox! He steals royal jewelry and then kills a defenseless old man!"

The man yelled to the heavens, "Hear this gods, I, Hieronymus Lex will not stop untill I find the Gray Fox and bring him to justice!"

I heared the soilder lift the old man off the grounds, "Im so sorry that I couldn't stop your demise my old friend, you must have tried to stop the thief and you payed for it with your life, what a brave man".

Little does he know I thought and cryed myself to sleep and the soilder walked away, I dreamed of my mother that night again.

"You'll do amazing things one day, and when you're shaking the emperor's hand or giving a lecture to your ignorant students at the arcane university, always remember your weak mother who couldn't protect you, my baby boy…Lucien".