p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He was furious./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He threw off his cowl as he paced around the room irately. The faint screams of the damned could be heard in the background however slightly if one strained his ears. Never had he ever been tricked. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He would have to watch his anger though. The last time he raged, Vesuvius erupted./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He had let slip from his mind the silly deal he had made on a lark with three mortals he met during his annual jaunt through Earth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;".../p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The passing of the eldest was swift. So swift, in fact, that he was taken by surprise having just returned from the mortal plane... only to have to head back once more. The grimace evident on the ethereal soul rising from the still-warm body elicited a chuckle from him. Barely a week, and here he was... not a bad bargain altogether./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It wasn't that he particularly enjoyed the deaths of mortals. A job was a job, or perhaps in his case, more of a vocation. Regardless, it was necessary that death occurred. Circle of life et cetera. No, what he truly enjoyed... was the lengths to which mortals tried escaping death. The harder they tried, the greater he enjoyed the reaping. So when the three brothers talked their way out of an early drowning, he acquiesced, curious to see what could come from this experiment and his creations./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The passing of the middle one followed soon after. Having someone make your job easier by surrendering themselves to the void voluntarily, especially after bargaining for an adjournment was like having your meat and eating it too. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Just as he did with the branch of elder, he left the river rock for other mortals to find it. Waste not, want not - after all, he did expend some power in the creation of the three artifacts. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Time passed and he put the deal at the back of his mind until one particular fine morning. He heard a saying from a silly mortal who unheeding his mentor's advice, gave himself up to the void. emCuriosity killed the Pharaoh's cat. /emHe was curious and having no particular urgent business, tried to search for the youngest brother. To his surprise, he failed. And failed thrice more. He would have tried again, but Atlantis took precedence right now./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"When he finally remembered, a century had passed. He immediately extended out his consciousness, searching for the one that was the youngest... and to his consternation, he felt nothing. Each attempted ended in failure. Like a wound, his failures festered and he slowly worked himself into a state of abject fury. Never had he been unable to locate a single person, dead or alive. He continued his search, subject to his duties allowing the time to do so. As a matter of habit, he made sure to return to the point of origin on the day the mortals term All Hallows Eve, just so he could sit and ponder over the problem./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And then, right when he was almost ready to give up on the search, he saw a vaguely familiar old man hobbling towards him. "I'm ready", was all that he said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It was the smile that got him. That knowing, smug mortal had somehow managed to come out the better in their deal./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;".../p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"While he was indeed glad to have this soul, he was slightly concerned about the properties of his gift. Unlike the branch or the rock, the shorn off piece of his cloak seemed to resist any of his summons. If he had thought longer, he might have realized that the tree branch and river rock were ordinary items made extraordinary, but the piece of his cloak - that was extraordinary made even more so. It harbored and received his essence after an eternity of use. Somehow, this tiny piece of cloak, freely given, developed a conscientious sentience of sort – which unlike that of the branch or rock, was not attuned to the careless self-destruction of its holders./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The cloak also rejected all his attempts at retrieval. Always managing to find its way back into the cradle of the grandchild of the youngest brother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What was so special about this child?" He mused to himself. The child of the youngest sibling's sonwas devoid of the emGift/em./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emOr so he thought./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He threw off his cowl as he paced around the room irately. The faint screams of the damned could be heard in the background however slightly if one strained his ears. Never had he ever been tricked. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He would have to watch his anger though. The last time he raged, Vesuvius erupted./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He had let slip from his mind the silly deal he had made on a lark with three mortals he met during his annual jaunt through Earth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;".../p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The passing of the eldest was swift. So swift, in fact, that he was taken by surprise having just returned from the mortal plane... only to have to head back once more. The grimace evident on the ethereal soul rising from the still-warm body elicited a chuckle from him. Barely a week, and here he was... not a bad bargain altogether./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It wasn't that he particularly enjoyed the deaths of mortals. A job was a job, or perhaps in his case, more of a vocation. Regardless, it was necessary that death occurred. Circle of life et cetera. No, what he truly enjoyed... was the lengths to which mortals tried escaping death. The harder they tried, the greater he enjoyed the reaping. So when the three brothers talked their way out of an early drowning, he acquiesced, curious to see what could come from this experiment and his creations./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The passing of the middle one followed soon after. Having someone make your job easier by surrendering themselves to the void voluntarily, especially after bargaining for an adjournment was like having your meat and eating it too. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Just as he did with the branch of elder, he left the river rock for other mortals to find it. Waste not, want not - after all, he did expend some power in the creation of the three artifacts. /p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Time passed and he put the deal at the back of his mind until one particular fine morning. He heard a saying from a silly mortal who unheeding his mentor's advice, gave himself up to the void. emCuriosity killed the Pharaoh's cat. /emHe was curious and having no particular urgent business, tried to search for the youngest brother. To his surprise, he failed. And failed thrice more. He would have tried again, but Atlantis took precedence right now./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"When he finally remembered, a century had passed. He immediately extended out his consciousness, searching for the one that was the youngest... and to his consternation, he felt nothing. Each attempted ended in failure. Like a wound, his failures festered and he slowly worked himself into a state of abject fury. Never had he been unable to locate a single person, dead or alive. He continued his search, subject to his duties allowing the time to do so. As a matter of habit, he made sure to return to the point of origin on the day the mortals term All Hallows Eve, just so he could sit and ponder over the problem./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And then, right when he was almost ready to give up on the search, he saw a vaguely familiar old man hobbling towards him. "I'm ready", was all that he said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"It was the smile that got him. That knowing, smug mortal had somehow managed to come out the better in their deal./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;".../p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"While he was indeed glad to have this soul, he was slightly concerned about the properties of his gift. Unlike the branch or the rock, the shorn off piece of his cloak seemed to resist any of his summons. If he had thought longer, he might have realized that the tree branch and river rock were ordinary items made extraordinary, but the piece of his cloak - that was extraordinary made even more so. It harbored and received his essence after an eternity of use. Somehow, this tiny piece of cloak, freely given, developed a conscientious sentience of sort – which unlike that of the branch or rock, was not attuned to the careless self-destruction of its holders./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The cloak also rejected all his attempts at retrieval. Always managing to find its way back into the cradle of the grandchild of the youngest brother./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What was so special about this child?" He mused to himself. The child of the youngest sibling's sonwas devoid of the emGift/em./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emOr so he thought./em/p