Prologue

By Nick Blackburn

As the man grasped the heavy wooden cellar door, it creaked open allowing a dim beam of light to illuminate the darkness below. The man's name was Amnus, a respected member of the Guards, a group of professionally trained warriors entrusted with the protection of the city of Argathan. Amnus had been required to take many vows upon his initiation into the Guards, the main one to loyally serve the Lord of Argathan. His being here tonight broke that vow along with perhaps a dozen others.

Amnus started to sweat nervously as he descended down the stairs leading into the cellar. Thoughts raced through his head as he continued to descend the stairs, many of these focused on the fact that he broke his vow to the Lord and was committing treason to his city. He paused as he came upon a locked door with a mirror on it, walking up to it he studied his features more closely to make sure he was at least presentable for the betrayal he was about to commence. Wiping the mirror clear with a sleeve of his black and silver uniform of the Guards, he started at the reflection that stared back at him. His eyes had big black circles under them from lack of sleep, his hair, once dark brown, was streaked with gray, his cheeks were sunken and his face was pale. He had once been quite handsome until he had met a group of conspirators. Instead of turning them in right away as was decreed he decided to listen to them and try to discourage them all together. This proved to be his undoing for instead of talking them out of conspiring for the rule of the city he found himself joining it. Shaking his head in dismay he reached forward for the door handle, opened it with a hopeless light in his eyes, and walked into the darkness.

There were three other people in the room as Amnus strode in. They were sitting around a black obelisk table with a chair on each side. On the right side of the table sat a man with brown hair and green eyes, dressed in black and brown leather armor with the symbol of a coin purse over his heart. His name was Kaolin and he was the head of the Thieves Guild, a group of notorious thieves who stole from the rich. Across from Kaolin sat a man that was supposedly a myth. His name was Manus, head of the Assassins Guild, a group of notorious killers who disposed of their targets with deadly accuracy. Manus along with other assassins wore the clothes usually associated with that of the Guards, black and silver although they preferred killing Argathians instead of protecting them. Manus had grey eyes with ebony black hair and an aura that struck fear into the hearts of mortals. Perhaps the most alluring and yet forbidding person at the table was a woman by the name of Katherine. She had emerald green eyes, her blonde hair, which was streaked with silver from accessing arcane magic, reached down to her waist, she was dressed in a black robe embroidered with a silver dragon on both sleeves with an ancient diamond star necklace as tradition decreed that she wore. For she held a position that granted power and prestige to whoever claimed the title that she had fought for, She was the Mistress of Magic, head of the Sorcerers Collective, and advisor to the Lord of Argathan.

The conspirators did not bother looking at Amnus as he entered the room; they all despised him for what he had once stood for, both Kaolin and Manus had both lost valuable guild members to the Guards over the years. Katherine however was a different matter; her eyes shone silver as she accessed arcane magic and started weaving a spell around the cellar room. Finishing with a start she glanced at Amnus and spoke to him, a cold smile on her face.

"The room is secure, take a seat and we shall commence with the meeting."

Nodding his head at each conspirator in turn he took his seat at the end of the table.

"I trust you have the information that we require?" Manus asked him.

Taking a folded package out of the inner pocket of his uniform he slid it across the table to Manus.

"Take a look for yourself, you murderous bastard."

Manus grinned coldly at him and spoke with a haughty expression. "What I have done is nowhere near as treacherous as what you are doing right now."

"Now, now you two, can't you save your arguments until after we've finished plotting Argathan's ruler's death? Our esteemed Lord Aldus." Kaolin said with a chuckle.

Manus and Amnus stared at each other coldly before Amnus spoke up. "Every entrance and room is marked on that map, along with the guard schedule."

Katherine her eyes shining silver once again gestured towards the package causing it to fly into her hand. Opening it with a guarded expression, she emptied its contents onto the table. Two items fell out of the package; one was the map, the other the guard schedule.

"You have done very well indeed." She said with cool tone.

"When will the assassination occur?" Amnus asked her. The assassination could only proceed with her approval.

With a chilling smile on her face she spoke. "The assassination shall occur an hour before the parade on the spring equinox. No one shall realize that he is dead until his participation of the parade commences. The assassins will have amble time to get away."

With that the three plotters tuned him out of the conversation, silently dismissing him from the meeting, scowling he addressed Katherine in his most commanding tone that he could muster. "Once he is dead and a new leader elected I trust that you shall give me my amble reward?"

"But of course, we may be killers but we honor those who plot with us." She said disdainfully. "However if anyone ever comes to suspect that you were involved with the murder we shall dispose of you. I will not risk you turning the rest of us in."

"I am a respected Guard of Argathan it would go against my honor if I did that" He said with defiance.

"Which is why you just gave us the means to kill the Lord of your beloved city" Kaolin said with amusement on his face. Amnus could never figure out Kaolin's reasoning for being involved with the conspirators, he seemed too… aloof to be a conspirator.

"How do you even benefit from this treason Kaolin?" Amnus finally asked him.

"Think of it this way" he said. "We're going to be stealing Argathan's ruler. Its one of the biggest contracts we've ever gotten." He said laughing.

Amnus got up in disgust and started walking towards the door. Behind him Katherine's eyes shone silver as she gestured with her hand as if she was to grab his heart, pain like a thousand needles struck his heart, falling to the floor he started withering on the ground in pain. He could hear Katherine's speak to him as he started to scream in pain. "Remember this, for this is but a portion of the pain you will have should you give us away or even hint at a plot against Lord Aldus to anyone, and trust me we will be watching you." She said with a glance at both Kaolin and Manus who nodded their heads in agreement. Finally her eyes returning to their natural hue she gestured towards the door. "You are dismissed."

Getting wearily back on his feet, Amnus shuffled towards the door still affected by the lingering remains of magic. I hope they burn in hell he thought hatefully; he could deal with the fact that Lord Aldus wasn't a competent ruler, but the Lord's betrayal to the allegiance with Alauda was unforgivable. It went against the oldest laws of Ravenholm to wage war on an allied country linked by marriage. Yet from the information that Katherine had told him he realized that even though he was betraying his Lord he was protecting his city. For Lord Aldus was funding a private army of mercenaries to secretly invade the country of Alauda and raze its capital city of Harzhurg, all of this was confirmed from intercepted letters that bore Lord Aldus's seal. Sighing Amnus opened the cellar door and ascended the stairs, knowing that he would never truly recover from the treason he had committed.