Chapter 1

4.0650.0410

(4th Age, 650th Year, 4th Month, 10th Day)

our survival leads to my death,” Lord Bredgin said as he cautiously approached Ericc. “I am here to reverse this dilemma and pen a new future in your stead.”

Colors faded to gray shadows as the young lord muted the spectrum of light to his liking of shades of black. Light and darkness carried great power, which affected all living things. Light provided life as well as heat when focused intensely. Dark provided coolness, and if used properly it wielded death.

Ericc shuffled his feet backward, staying just outside of the grayness which loomed around Lord Bredgin. “Who are you?” Ericc demanded as his foot felt the icy cold of the impending shadow. Refusing to turn and run, the teenage boy defied the stranger’s threats while keeping a safe distance.

“I am the one foretold to fall from the strike of your blade.” A shadowy sphere extended from Bredgin’s body, as his presence muted light and colors several yards in every directing. Flowers wilted and clay pots cracked as he followed Ericc down the street in the center of town, in the middle of the day. People, who failed to heed the ominous warning, screamed from the pain given once they fell within his vicinity.

Southwind locals ran from the cloud of darkness, after witnessing the life-sucking forces on those who had accidentally strayed into its path.

Ericc refused to turn his back to the young bald man, for it was best to keep him within his sights. “I have no quarrel with you. Why would I strike you down, aside from defending myself from your hostile actions?”

“It’s not a matter of why. It’s a matter of when, which haunts my days. Ever since I was a child, my father has been training me to prevent you from ending my life. For years I have searched for you in an effort to end this curse against me. Today is the day I have long awaited to change the future.”

Ericc turned down an alley to protect the residents from the man’s wrath, as the young lord left the main street to follow.

The red brick walls turned black and the mortar cracked and crumbled as Bredgin smoothly entered the back alley. Screams from the far side of the walls could be heard as the darkness penetrated the interior of the buildings.

“Why are you doing this?” Ericc asked as he listened to the painful cries for help. “How can you possibly convict me of a crime I have yet to even consider performing?”

“Don’t play this game with me,” Bredgin shouted. “You have the powers of the E’rudite. You are the son of the eldest twin, of the brothers of war.” He followed Ericc out of the alley and into a stable. “You are the one talked about by the oracles. Two paths lay before you, one reveals your murder of me, and the other involves your sacrifice at Surod. I have chosen the latter one.”

Darkness rushed from Lord Bredgin toward Ericc in an attack to incapacitate him.

Ericc jumped out of the way, rolling into one of the animal stalls for safety.

The animals howled in pain as their bodies took the full load of the absence of light. More than just darkness, it drained the living flesh and dried up their bones while consuming all warmth from their body.

Ericc watched as the tan hay on the floor took on a sour gray. Pushing his back up against the far corner, he watched the darkness increase with each loud step of his attacker. Wooden floorboards seem to age decades before his eyes, and ropes lost their strength, dropping tools and a lantern onto the floor. The sound was even distant as the darkness subdued all aspects in its evasive assault.

Lord Bredgin reached the stall and prepared his final attack on his trapped victim, only to find the stall empty with no options for Ericc’s escape. And yet he had done just that.

Furious, Lord Bredgin yelled with rage, extending his grayness over two city blocks, without care of whom or what he decimated.