Prologue

It burned. She was burning in it all, a raging fire stronger than the gods of flames! The fire took everything.

***

A man knelt in a room, his face towards a thin wooden door which was twenty feet away from him.

His eyes closed, hands in lap and a sword placed in front of him on the ground.

A candle burned on the floor, arm's length away to his left. By his right was a small table, and on it was a dark strip of cloth.

He heard the door smash in, but he did not open his eyes.

Footsteps followed.

Still the man did not open his eyes. He picked up the dark strip of cloth. He began blindfolding himself with it. Men began filing into the room, and formed a half circle. He couldn't see them, yet feel their life force, and hear their hearts beat.

"I once called you all brothers, now I will kill you." He finished blindfolding himself, and put on his dark hood. He heard the rapid heartbeat of the man in the front of the door.

"Stop this madness and come back with us," their leader said, standing in the middle of his men. He'd been a friend once. Not anymore. "The First Brother insisted that we bring you back alive, Ravien."

"And, what about you, Felix? I presume you don't want me harmed too, just like before?" Ravien sneered. "Is that why you came yourself this time, armed men with you? To ensure that I am not harmed?" Two men started moving towards him. Hands on the hilts of their swords.

Ravien grabbed his sword and leapt.

They were slow to draw their swords in time. Ravien sliced the leg of the man on his right, he went down screaming.

Ravien heard the rasp of a blade leaving it's scabbard, then weapon cut through the air. Their swords met. Ravien deflected. He slid his blade, and thrust the point into the neck of the warrior.

Before he could hit the floor, Ravien stabbed the other man on the floor in his chest. He could see their life force seeping. He desired it; he felt it calling to him. The power burned through every fiber of his body.

Two down, three to go.

A boot scraped, and another one of his former brothers lunged at him, axe raised.

Ravien lurched aside and brought down his sword on the axe-bearers back. The warrior fell onto all fours, his axe wedged in the floor wood, and he was struggling to get it loose. Ravien's blade glanced off the back protected by the some kind of armour. He brought his sword up to finish the axe-bearer and flung it down to be rewarded with a clean slice through the throat.

He trickled a drop of his own life force, his muscles burned with the energy. For a moment he forgot the men trying to kill him, but the bliss was short-lived as a kick connected with his side, sending him reeling into a wall.

His grip on the sword slacked, and it fell onto the ground. Pain blossomed in his side. He fell to the floor, avoiding the sword that sliced the air where his head had been a moment before. He pulled a knife from his hip, spent a second seeking out the man's hot throat, and lobbed it towards him. It struck the man in the neck.

Pain in his ribs flared, he had underestimated the kick.

"Oh poor, poor, Ravien. You're like a chicken running around without a head," Felix said, still standing by the door, sword unsheathed.

"You snake!" Ravien snarled, his hand slowly falling down to his hip. "You stabbed me in the back! Why? That sorry excuse for a First brother betrayed me too, didn't he?"

After a moment Felix burst into laughter. An ugly, mirthless thing. "It doesn't matter if you knew or not, you were always a useless pawn," he said.

"And now? When I am the most powerful being in the known lands?"

"You're important. Is that what you want to hear? To me, you're still useless. There's no fucking magic or some mystical power. You were a peasant and you are a peasant... but there are certain parties who have taken, well, an interest in you."

Ravien tore the blindfold now, and saw the hardwood planks perfectly in the dark. Warm blood pooled around the last man he killed. Every few seconds the body would spasm or was the poor fool alive? It didn't matter anyway, he was going to finish this tonight.

Ravien unsheathed another knife and lobbed it at Felix's head.

It bought him enough time to give himself a burst of energy from his own reserve.

Felix avoided the missile, and strode forward, viciously swinging his sword left and right.

Show off, Ravien thought.

Parry, thrust, parry, cut. They did the dance but Felix was always a better sword fighter. A cut on the thigh, a punch at the side of the face. All taunts. Felix just taunted him.

The edge of his vision started to darken, his cuts and slashes made him sluggish. He needed another source of life force. Ravien did not realise his mistake until the steel edge was on his neck. For the first time in years, he felt fear.

A fear of not having vengeance, but mostly fear of death, he had to admit to himself.

Felix tsked in his ear, and said, "lousy with a sword then, lousy with a sword now." There was an odd stink on his breath. "What did you expect? That you would fight one of the best fighters this land has to offer, with your stupid fucking swordplay?" He snorted derisively. Ravien recognized the smell on Felix's breath. It was everywhere in this city's streets.

Morekh.

"I may have been a renegade, a peasant, but at least I kept my dignity and didn't become a treacherous addict," Ravien said, satisfied to make him growl.

There were three mistakes made by Felix that night: one, bringing so few men with him. Second, underestimating Ravien.

Ravien was a dirty fighter-he grabbed the sword hand, and all he had to do was suck in tendrils of Felix's life force with all but just a touch. The sword dropped on the wood, clattering. The arm which held the sword went slack.

"No! It... it can't be true!" His third mistake had been ignorance.

"Oh but it is, brother!" Ravien punched him in the chest, sending him flying through the doorway and into another room.

"How did you find me?" Ravien asked, his knife on Felix's throat.

A wheeze. The punch of energy had damaged his lungs, probably cracked a few ribs. Ravien knelt down and started searching about his body. There, a letter in the inner pocket of the cloak. He opened it, and started reading:

Ravien was spotted in a house near the south gate market. Your task is to induct him into the Order.

Do not kill him.

I beg you, my love, don't give into your jealousy and pettiness.

Love,

The Fox.

Ravien finished reading the letter.

"I never asked for this, Felix." He crumpled the letter and pocketed it.

Who was this fox? His thoughts were cut in short as Felix sat up and propped himself back against the wall. Blood ran down his nose. Tendrils of faint blue tempted Ravien to suck away all his life force, ending him once and for all. And he almost did, but killing him was not what he wanted now.

He untied the blindfold. Felix gasped; Ravien's eyes glowed a pale blue. Magic still coursing through him.

"Kill me now, or I will never stop hunting you!" Felix pleaded with him.

"No," Ravien said, his voice cold. "Killing you would be mercy, while I will suffer alone in this world. But there are other ways... Much painful ways," he said quietly.

Suddenly, Ravien had a knife in his hands. Without a single thought, he pushed the barest tip into Felix's right eye.

His former brother screamed in pain.

Ravien put a hand on his chest before Felix could retaliate and sapped away his strength.

Ravien walked towards the door, shards of wood crunching under his feet.

"I will hunt you like a dog you are! I will tell the whole world what you are! And they will hunt you!" Felix screamed at him.

Ravien cleaned the sweat from his face, it had been a while after the fight with the fortress men. Ravien looked at his work again and smiled to himself. All the men he had killed were piled up in middle of the room, Felix was tied up and gagged outside the house and propped up against the wall of a brick building.

Ravien threw the lantern in the house. It broke, the house lit up in flames.

"I am leaving this city, so leave me alone or the next time, I will not let you live. I'll burn down the Fortress if I have to, if you or the First Brother sends men after me again," he said.

Felix absently nodded as he looked from the house to him.

He walked away from Felix, heading towards the city's south gate.

End of Chapter One