Power is a thing that drives the mind, but don't let it take control.-The book of The Masons, Chapter 1 Page 1.
Trey Gardner walked down the street he always walked down, his mind turned to a faraway friend. He was a carefree young man, and the cool spring air was delightful. He was somewhat tall, not extremely tall, but far from what anyone could call short. He had gone to get some groceries, and was a few blocks from his home before he found himself on a street he didn't recognize. "How can there be a street this close to home that I have never walked before?" Trey thought as he continued to walk, grey mist swirling around him, closing off paths and leaving only one option to walk: the door of a creaky old shop that Trey would never have walked into if he had any other options, but since the grey smoke looked extremely unsettling, Trey hurried into the store, the door slamming behind him ominously. The shop was full of shelves, lanterns lighting their contents. Each shelf contained something either extremely expensive looking, something from an animal, something so old it had to be an antique, or something just downright creepy. These shelves ended at a long polished obsidian counter, the edges wickedly sharp and stained with something black. On this counter, there were five small pedestals, four holding an object, and one empty. There was no sign of technology, not even a old cash register, but only those pedestals, one a dead grey, the others each a different color. Behind this dominating counter, there was a large shelf of crystal orbs, each one showing a place, some bright and cheerful, and others gloomy and doom filled. Trey could tell that something lay beyond this shelf, as a curtain was draped over an alcove that Led behind said shelf.
"I see you have arrived." A creaky voice said as a ridiculously old man appeared from behind the curtain and stepped up to the counter. He was all wrinkles, his bald head covered with liver spots, and his veins showing like trace lines on an eerie sketch. "Come closer, young man." Trey was just about to bolt for the door, this was all just a little bit too much like those predator scenarios he had been told as a child, you know the ones about a stranger offering you some candy, but as he turned, the grey mist surged through the closed door and devoured the entire shop behind him, extinguishing the lantern light and plunging the shop into pitch black darkness. A light appeared, as the old gremlin of a man lit and lantern and hung it above his head, illuminating the counter and casting shadows over the wastes of the old man's face. "Come. You are here to buy something." The old man said, his voice as unbending as iron, his old eyes glowing yellow. Trey set down the groceries and walked to the counter, every nerve in his body screaming at him to run.p, but even if he had listened, there was nowhere to run. The ancient man gestures to the pedestals and said, "Pick and it shall be yours."
"What about the price?" Trey asked, since he hadn't brought his wallet.
"the price doesn't matter, just choose." The old man said, leaning on one frail arm, studying a orb on the shelf behind him. Trey looked at the four items on the pedestals: the first one on the left was empty and grey with no item on it. The next one was a piece of crocodile skin on a green pedestal. Continuing to the right was a link of broken chain on a light purple pedestal, and after that was a extremely sharp tooth and a powerful wing on a ice white pedestal. The rightmost item was a ruby, almost sinking into the melting pedestal. "I choose the ruby." Trey said.
"grab it and walk out the door." The old man said. Trey complied and turned, a door appearing in the fog. He walked through the door and that was the time everything changed.