[Legato]

- Introduction -

The room still smelt like rotting flesh even after Nyer had taken out what had remained of the bodies in the old farmhouse. It was just two weeks ago that Nyer found the farmhouse; thinking he could escape the guards from the city by staying at this house seemed to have been a great idea at the time. Convincing the family to let him stay was another matter, but after he handed over a few silver coins, they had said they would let him stay for a short while. It was just this morning though, when he heard the screams coming from inside the building. He had been out walking around with the horses when he heard the screams, and had hidden behind one of the few remaining trees outside, until he realized the guards would not have been hurting an old farmer and his wife. It was just a few seconds later though, that he saw two men walk out of the farmhouse both wearing black and red tabards and finely cut woolen cloaks. The first to come out of the house was a short, slightly balding man, who looked to be all muscle wielding a large cudgel in one hand, and a dark brown sack in the other. The second man, who came out shortly after the first, looked like a perfectly ordinary man. He was an average height with short brown hair, and he carried a small dagger thrust behind his belt. No one would have noticed him anywhere unless he stood up and shouted that he was there. He could probably kill someone without them even noticing him, until they saw the dagger sticking out of their body for that matter.

Shortly after leaving the house, the man who carried the dark brown sack reached into it and pulled out what looked to be an oval stone. He then gave it to the man with the short brown hair, who held it up to the sky. Then without warning, a bright horizontal flash of light appeared before both of them, which started stretching out into what looked to be a door, that led to a stone corridor lit by several torches. The short man then walked through the door into the stone corridor, shortly followed by the man with the short brown hair. As soon as both men were on the other side of the door, it turned back into a horizontal beam of light and vanished, leaving only a hazy purple residue across Nyer's vision.

Once Nyer got to the house, the shock of what he saw made him turn around and sick up. The white flowered walls were now painted with blood and the wooden floor had gouges where someones weapon had apparently missed its target. In the middle of the room stood an iron bound chest, covered in blood, that had been dragged out of it's spot at the foot of the bed. There were a few blood smeared keys lying next to the chest, but they were tossed aside as if they were not the ones that could unlock it. Everything in the house that was not nailed down had been turned inside out for anything that might have been valuable. The bed had seemingly exploded, leaving only pieces of itself scattered throughout the room. Body parts were strewn about the floor as if the bodies themselves had somehow managed to explode, too.

"Maybe the guards will go easy on me if I turn myself in. Stealing isn't that bad of a crime." Nyer cried as he wiped away the tears streaming down his face.