The Black Chapel
III
The walk back to the city of Bridgeville
is a pleasant one, I am told, when taken in the twilight – especially if
Luna has hidden herself from Gaia for the night. Only the small specks
of stars glint in the pitch-black of the sky, the great Nuin-covl as the
elves call it. Shadows are deep and pure and the wind whispers its
lost secrets to you.
One comes to the top of
a hill after only a few hours’ walk, and below, with two large rivers sweeping
from the north to merge within the city, stands Bridgeville. When
I was very young it was such a glorious sight that it left me spellbound.
The city is bright and alive, even at night, and its bustling and cacophonous
sounds carry upon the wind as I stand here even now, looking at the decrepit
town that I have seen evolve for the past four hundred years. It
is wild and prosperous, but generally good – little trouble to be found
in even the darkest alley.
I despise this newfound
peace; I work against it every day. But the actions of one are little
against the tide of thousands. I have heard philosophers say, though,
that time and humanity swings on a pendulum. In my youth, distant
as it is, this city was far smaller and far more evil that it is now.
I found refuge in it, its crooked alleys and filthy streets. I was
a boy thief, embittered and too old already, waging a war against everything
and everyone that had wronged me. Winning that war had its own price:
I now wage war against all the universe. And the universe is winning.
For now.
The trip back to the West
Gate is a long one for me, but not long enough. Here, so many years
ago, another man reached the gate just as I have so many times. His
skin was dark, and his hair black, his frame stout, but so muscular that
he nearly matched my unholy strength. His past was obscure even to
his best of friends.
The luyj are a strange and
alien race. No one knows where they come from or where they go –
only that their appearances seem to be dark harbingers. I did not
know this man’s name until long after he had let this city for other adventures,
but while he was here, the chaos led him to Nicholas.
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III IV
V VI
VII VIII
IX X
XI
